This physics course is a first year continuation of physics 1B03, and is referred to as the math/physics/chemistry version of physics 1BB3. This course uses the same book as 1B03 and covers the following topics (same as physics 1BB3): Circular motion, Rigid body motion, Angular Momentum, Electric fields, Electric Potential, Photoelectric effect, photons, matter waves, Bohr atom, Magnetic fields, Quantum Mechanics, Atomic Physics, Nuclear physics, and a few other special topics.
Many are trying to decide between the popular physics 1BB3 and the unpopular physics 1BA3. The only reason why physics 1BB3 is more popular is because the course description has the word "medical" in it - which is a word many first year science students like to see. Comparing the two courses, physics 1BA3 has a considerably smaller class size and a very good instructor. Instead of giving you the formulas to use on the test, the instructor actually derives all the formulas with students in class, so the basis behind each formula is better understood. My instructor was Dr. Alan Chen - probably one of the best professors I've ever come across. He is very helpful, extremely welcoming, and gives interesting lectures with good notes.
The text book is the one by Knight "Physics for scientists and engineers". I found the text book a lot more useful in this course than in 1B03. There are some optional solution manuals in Titles that I would recommend you get. These will help you solve recommended textbook questions that are usually similar to the ones on CAPA (problem set).
As before, to explain the course, I'll go through each component of the marking scheme (please note that the course mark breakdown is approximate, refer to the newest course outline for exact mark distribution):
Assignments (~10%)
What is it? These are the same ol' CAPA-style questions that everyone has seen in physics 1B03. Approximately 8-14 numerical problems appear on WebCT with randomly-generated numbers. It is your task to solve the problem and type in the answer. The computer checks the answer against an internal formula and gives you the result. You have 10 attempts at each questions, and students are normally encouraged to assist each other.
Is it hard? I found them a bit more challenging and less numerous than those in physics 1B03. Nontheless, they are in the same format as in 1B03, but require a bit more time to do. If you give yourself enough time to do them, not afraid to ask for help, then there is no reason you shouldn't get perfect on this part of the course.
Two Tests (~15% each)
What is it? Usually you have 1 hour and 5 numerical capa-type questions with multiple choice answers. Despite the fact that these questions are multiple choice, part marks are given if you show your work (unlike physics 1BB3 where you get a 0 regardless of how close you were).
Is it hard? When I took the course, 3-4 questions were very simple, and 1-2 are usually pretty challenging. The professor is usually ensures the average for the course is reasonable.
Laboratory (15% each)
What is it? You come in every other week for 3 hours to perform an experiment with a partner. These experiments are usually proving some constant, such as using a pendulum to prove the gravity acceleration constant is 9.8m/s/s. For the most part, the labs take the full 3 hours, and a writeup is due after one week.
Is it hard? Unlike physics 1B03, the writeups were very involved. I remember I had to spend quite some time drawing out all the graphs with error bars and doing all the calculations with uncertanties while showing all my work. The TAs were regrettably useless. Nontheless, the labs showed me how math is done and how mathematical correlations are determined in the scientific world. This is useful in almost any science stream. In my opinion, the instructors should play a larger role in the laboratories because they have no idea how much work the labs actually are.
Exam (45%)
The exam was just as everyone expected it to be. The key to doing well on it is to work through and understand the practice problems (CAPAs), and the notes. As with the tests, there were some easy questions and some that required heavy quantum mechanics derivations based on examples in the notes.
Final Note:
Overall the course was very interesting. It covers a variety of very cool topics such as electron energy tunneling and the mechanism behind solar atomic fusion. The amount of detail the class understood is unmatched by that in physics 1BB3. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who did fairly well in physics 1B03 and enjoys seeing math at work. Despite that some parts of the course involved derivations using partial derivatives and differential equations, Math 1AA3 is surprisingly not a co-requisite (taking at the same time). I would suggest taking Math 1AA3 along with this course if you like math, but it's not necessary as the physics profs explain the simple basis behind concepts not learned in Math 1A03. In other words if you are deciding between math 1AA3 and Physics 1BA3, take the latter.
Course Website for more information:
http://www.physics.mcmaster. ca/phys1ba3/
All the best,
Paul