faraday

Stanford physics courses

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Hello,

It seems that stanford has 2 intro course series for engineers in physics: one is the 40's series, which is the basic calculus based physics, and the 60's series, which is the more advanced intro series.

If I plan to major in engineering but minor in physics, which one is advisable to do? I'm currently enrolled in Physics C, although our class is really easy, and Calc BC. I'm also studying on multivariate calc at home.

1. Which books are used by the 60's series?
2. Is the 60's series equivalent in difficulty to the 8.012/8.022 (advanced mechanics/electricity for freshman) at MIT? The advanced intro courses at MIT uses the Kleppner and Kolenkow Introduction to mechanics and Griffith Electrodynamics.
3. Which class has the better curve? What will my peers be like in the 60's series? (mostly physics majors with some engineering, mostly engineering majors, mostly olympiad people...)
4. If I plan to take a course in Quantum and Classical (maybe even statistical) mechanics, is the 60's series a more appropriate intro?

Thanks for your help.

Faraday.

StanEE

>>If I plan to major in engineering but minor in physics, which one is advisable to do? I'm >>currently enrolled in Physics C, although our class is really easy, and Calc BC. I'm also >>studying on multivariate calc at home.

Either works. Take the class that interests you and that you are prepared for.

>>1. Which books are used by the 60's series?

They used Advanced Mechanics by Taylor and Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffith. I heard that they also used Purcell.

2. Is the 60's series equivalent in difficulty to the 8.012/8.022 (advanced mechanics/electricity for freshman) at MIT? The advanced intro courses at MIT uses the Kleppner and Kolenkow Introduction to mechanics and Griffith Electrodynamics.
These classes are probably similar.

3. Which class has the better curve? What will my peers be like in the 60's series? (mostly physics majors with some engineering, mostly engineering majors, mostly olympiad people...)
There will be a lot of olympiad people with some engineers. The grading can be very generous in the 60 series to compensate for the stiff competition.

4. If I plan to take a course in Quantum and Classical (maybe even statistical) mechanics, is the 60's series a more appropriate intro?

Either the 40 series or the 60 series will do.