PHYS 1720

Baessler is aggressively German. He's not a particularly effective lecturer, but he does care. Office hours are better than lecture. Only take this if you plan on being a physics major.

Okay gonna be straight about this. I like physics a lot and was going to become a physics major, but this course made me miserable.
Homework: the Mastering Physics were fine, but the written homework sucked. They were fine at the beginning of the semester but as time went on they got awful. the only reason I (or anyone else) was able to complete them was because of TA office hours, and our TA Zach was super helpful
Lectures: oh my god these made me want to die not gonna lie. it's not even the 8:45 start, or the fact that we had it on friday. the lectures were just literally so boring, and physics is not a boring subject. Baessler managed to talk about things that were physics, and were applications of things that we were doing, but weren't actually relevant to what we needed to know like 60% of the time, and wasted a huge amount of time. Because of this, he tried to shove 6 chapters worth of material into the last few weeks of class, which sucked. also, his way of solving problems in class made very little sense, and the methods he used were very unintuitive.
Not sure why the dude before me gave this class such a high rating. And this is not just me--everyone I have talked to agrees that this class isn't great. The upshot is that the test's aren't terrible. Definitely don't take this unless ur a physics major and it's required. Also, even if you think you want to be a physics major, it definitely might make you realize that you don't want to be. I know a LOT of people who won't be continuing with the major after this class. Mostly I'm just writing this because I need to vent lmaooo. It sucks but you'll make it. Just don't expect to enjoy it.

I came in expecting to struggle with Physics 2 because 1710 was surprisingly difficult, but was surprised at how straightforward and enjoyable Professor Baessler made the class. Much more of a concept-based class than computational, so relearn the calculus you will need for the class in the first few weeks and from there on out it's mostly concepts. The lectures are essentially him doing demos or deriving equations, but the optional dicussions were very helpful with the homework sets. Homework was not terrible. The Mastering Physics did not take long and was very similar to the examples in the textbook. The written homework took significantly longer but was enjoyable and doable. Professor Baessler does what he can to make the class as straightforward as it can be, and he does not make it any harder than it has to be. He will often allow ample time for tests (which are similar to written homeworks but a little easier). It sucks to have 8:45 on Fridays, but attendance is based on getting one clicker question rights so it's not the end of the world. Thought it was much more lenient than Physics 1 was in the fall and less stressful. Highly recommend Baessler for this class