Calculus of variations. Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics. Central force problems and collision theory. Non-inertial reference frames. Coupled oscillations and waves.
4
UnitsOptional
Grading1
PasstimeNone
Level LimitLetters and science
CollegeThere were things on the final that were never covered in lecture, only specific parts of the book. You will be doing a lot of self teaching and TA's cannot always answer questions. His office hours were not very helpful either, basically would just give you more problems to try without explaining.
While he tends to be very 'mathy' in his explanations, reading the textbook helps a lot and his office hours were good too. Note that many of these reviews are skewed because he teaches 21 which tends to be a weeder course. He is a nice guy who wants you to succeed, you just need to do your half of the deal
Professor Sherwin is clear with expectation, and cares very much about his students' success. That being said, he is rather disorganized with lectures, is not very good at answering questions during lecture, and mostly reads out of the textbook with few alternative explanations. Midterm and final were fair and nothing too crazy.
He had clear expectations, and, yes, he requires homework drafts, but it's to show that you tried before potentially looking up answers. (allowed) He had us read the textbook sections before lecture, which helped. We did learn the momentum flux unit on our own, which was not ideal. Although the final was definitely difficult, each problem was fair.
Sherwin clutched up for me big time; he let me to switch into the class late even though it was full and it saved my life because it isn't offered in the spring. He cares about his students and wants them to succeed, even though he is a little disorganized and doesn't answer questions very well. Tests have very easy and very difficult questions.
Had a high A until the final that had a 67% class average tanked everything which was upsetting. I think there are some downsides to phys 21 that are out of Sherwin's control so I can't really blame him but I studied really hard and still got a low B. tbh the concepts of this class are not that hard but the way its taught is which is annoying.