Blog 14: Independent Component 1

I, Hannah Seymour, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

My professor for the Physics 132 course was Dr. Jamshid Armand. He can be contacted via email at jarmand@csupomona.edu. I am very grateful to Professor Armand for letting me take this course, especially since I did not have the prerequisites for it. I also completed Physics 299A, which was a group activity class associated with the 132 lecture. I completed this with Linda Shareghi (lcshareghi@csupomona.edu) to whom I am also very grateful. She introduced me to some excellent people at the physics department.

Physics 132 is the second level of General Physics (there is 131 before it and 133 after it.) It is calculus-based and covers gravity, fluid dynamics, simple harmonic motion, waves, and thermodynamics, among others. The class consisted of two midterms and a final, weekly homework, weekly quizzes, and challenging problems (these I did very well on-if I can find them I will post them.) We learned mostly about the mathematical concepts in this class. In the activity class, we worked in groups to solve concept-based worksheets and mathematical problems.

I will email the unofficial transcript to Mr. Purther, as I do not want to post that for all the world to see (I am paranoid about the interwebs.) I did not miss a single hour and fifty minute lecture the whole quarter (they were twice a week)-that alone represents 30 hours of work. The homework (the most challenging part of the class) typically took me 2-3 hours a week to complete. I tried to study the material for at least 30 minutes-1 hour every week to prepare for the big tests. The activity class was every Friday and was 2 hours and fifty minutes. I usually didn't have homework for this class since my group would always finish the assigned problems. This is a difficult class, and many people are unable to pass it. I believe the average grade in the class was a D, when all was said and done.

These courses helped me understand more basic-intermediate physics concepts that I would not be familiar with otherwise. For instance, the explanation Professor Armand gave about constructive and destructive interference helped me understand particle wave cancellation and thus, supersymmetry. It also helped me understand what I'm good at and what I need a little more work on. It also helped me become more familiar with basic calculus (I am better at math in an applied setting like this.) Also, without this class I would not have gotten such a good score on the Physics SAT Subject Test. Now that I have been exposed to college-level physics, I feel more confident entering that world. I used to have so little intellectual confidence I refused to try anything I didn't think I would be perfect at right away. So I am very proud of the risk I took and the work I put in for these classes.