PHYS 3210

Peter Arnold is a good professor. Exams are not so easy, but are curved generously. Start your homework early.

Textbook is Taylor's Classical Mechanics, and the class covered Chapters 1-11. Probably the most important concept would be Lagrangian mechanics (Chapters 6-7) - if there is one thing you get out of this course, it is the Lagrangian formulation. Chapter 9 (noninertial frames) is non-intuitive and may be difficult. Chapters 10 and 11 require concepts from linear algebra, but Peter reviews that during lectures. Since there is only one classical mechanics course at UVA, I recommend going through Chapter 12 (nonlinear mechanics, chaos) and especially Chapter 13 (Hamiltonian mechanics), as these are very important topics that were not covered in the interest of time.

Arnold is an incredible teacher, but this is one of the hardest courses in the physics program. The class is 100% lecture, with little time for discussion or in class activities. Arnold exclusively does chalkboard lectures. Consider it a first look at real physics.

Homework: readings are important, but for above average students, not critical. The problem sets are assigned by Arnold once a week, due the next week. They're typically around 7 problems, and each will take over an hour on average. They're time consuming and very difficult, but do a very good job of teaching the material. The "Arnold problems" (problems created by professor Arnold) are usually quite interesting and focus more on problem solving then on learning the actual physics. A word of advice - utilize office hours. Arnold will always be able to help understand how to do the homework.

Exams: These are the hardest exams I have ever taken, and this is typical for classical mechanics. The average was around 40% on the midterm, and only slightly higher on the final. Arnold doesn't curve the scores, but curves grades at the end of the year. A warning: the first exam is given after the withdraw deadline. There is no getting away from a poor score. My year, someone got a 1.5/40 on the first exam.

Professor Arnold seems like a good person and is a pretty good lecturer. However, like most professors in the Physics department he is not an effective teacher. There was only one midterm and it was given AFTER the withdraw deadline for the course. The class average was a 50% and solutions were NOT posted online or given out in class per the professor's "policy." This policy also applied to him not posting lecture notes. Quizzes were given towards the end of the semester to gauge the level of understanding on certain topics. These were helpful but too few in number, too late in the semester, and (of course) no solutions were posted. This idea that it is acceptable for a class to collectively fail exams because you will curve everyone's grades is an insidious cancer in academia (especially in the sciences). Taking this class is unavoidable if you are a Physics/Engineering major and most likely Professor Arnold will be teaching it. Good luck.