Physics Courses Offered
at Shasta College
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| What follows is a more informal (yet maybe more informative) look at who takes our courses and what exciting physics they see when they do. Use the links below to see course info. |
Physics 2A Physics 2B Physics 4A Physics 4B Physics 4C
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Physics
2A (General College Physics)
Units : 4 Offered : Fall semester, maybe summer
This is the first of a two semester sequence (the second half is called Physics 2B). The course meets for three hours of lecture/discussion and three hours of lab each week during the regular fall semester.
What you need to succeed : Before taking this course, you must have completed the equivalent of the second year of high school algebra. (The equivalent course at Shasta College is Math 102.) To be honest, you should look at this prerequisite as a bare minimum. You can succeed with this amount of math preparation, but students who have had some background in college-level algebra and trigonometry are at an advantage.
Who takes this course : Physics 2A primarily serves students majoring in life sciences and students planning a career in health or medical sciences (such as medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, physical therapy, and chiropractic). Some engineering students take Physics 2A as a warm-up for Physics 4A, and it seems to help. (Be aware, if you do this, that you may not be able to get transfer credit for all eight units of 2A and 4A.) Also, be advised that students planning to transfer to U.C. campuses at Berkeley, Irvine or Riverside need to take Physics 4A.
What this course covers : Physics 2A deals mostly with mechanics - that is, force and motion as described by Newton's laws, energy and momentum. This includes treatment of circular motion and vibrational motion, statics of extended objects, and fluids.
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Physics
2B (General College Physics)
Units : 4 Offered : Spring semester
This is the second of a two semester sequence (the first half is called Physics 2A). The course meets for three hours of lecture/discussion and three hours of lab each week during the regular spring semester.
What you need to succeed : For the math prerequisite, see Physics 2A. It is strongly recommended that you take Physics 2A before 2B (that's why they're labeled A and B!) but some people have done them in the reverse order and survived. I would only try this if you've had some introduction to mechanics (say, in high school physics) already.
Who takes this course : Physics 2B primarily serves students majoring in life sciences and students planning a career in health or medical sciences (such as medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, physical therapy, and chiropractic). Some engineering students take Physics 2B as a warm-up for Physics 4B, and it seems to help. (Be aware, if you do this, that you may not be able to get transfer credit for all eight units of 2B and 4B.) Also, be advised that students planning to transfer to U.C. campuses at Berkeley, Irvine or Riverside need to take Physics 4B.
What this course covers : Physics 2B deals with two main topic areas. One is waves, primarily sound and light. The other is electricity and magnetism. In some semesters, selected topics from quantum physics are treated.
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Physics 4A (Physics for Scientists and Engineers)
Units : 4 Offered : Spring semester
This is the first of a three semester, calculus-based sequence (the other parts are called Physics 4B and 4C). The course meets for three hours of lecture/discussion and three hours of lab each week during the regular semester.
What you need to succeed : The math prerequisite is Math 3A (the first semester of calculus) and you should be enrolled in Math 3B (if you haven't already taken it) when you take Physics 4A. Don't try to skate by without at least this much preparation in math. There is no official physics course required before taking Physics 4A, so in theory this could be the first physics you've ever seen. Be careful. Students who have recently had a good high school physics course will be at an advantage. One common approach is to take Physics 2A as a warm-up in the fall semester, before starting Physics 4A in the spring. This seems to have helped many students. If you do this, be aware that when you transfer to a university you may not receive full credit for both 2A and 4A, since they do overlap to some extent.
Who takes this course: The Physics 4A-B-C sequence is designed for students whose major is in engineering, physics, chemistry or other physical sciences. Also, some U.C. campuses (at the moment, Berkeley, Riverside and Irvine) require even majors in the life sciences to take a calculus-based physics sequence. Some engineering majors may not need to take all three semesters in the Physics 4 sequence - check with the department into which you intend to transfer. No matter what, Physics 4A will be required for any would be engineer.
What this course covers: This is a mechanics course, dealing with Newton's Laws, the conservation principles of energy, momentum and angular momentum, and the mechanics of systems of particles and of rigid bodies.
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Physics
4B (Physics for Scientists and Engineers)
Units : 4 Offered : Fall semester
This is the second of a three semester, calculus-based sequence (the other parts are called Physics 4A and 4C). The course meets for three hours of lecture/discussion and three hours of lab each week during the regular semester.
What you need to succeed: You must have successfully completed Physics 4A, of course. Your math preparation should now include Math 3A and Math 3B (differential and integral calculus) and if you haven't already taken it, you should be enrolled in Math 4A (multivariable and vector calculus).
Who takes this course: Pretty much the same clientele as Physics 4A. This is bread and butter stuff for any engineer, physicist or chemist.
What this course covers: This is all about electricity and magnetism. You go through Maxwell's equations (in integral form) for the electromagnetic field. Specifically, you study Coulomb's Law, electric field and potential, Gauss' Law, DC circuits, the magnetic field and Lorentz force, Biot-Savart Law, Ampere's Law, Faraday's Law, and the behavior of RLC circuits.
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Physics
4C (Physics for Scientists and Engineers) 
Units : 4 Offered : Spring semester
This is the third of a three semester, calculus-based sequence (the other parts are called Physics 4A and 4B). The course meets for three hours of lecture/discussion and three hours of lab each week during the regular semester.
What you need to succeed: Naturally, you ought to have completed Physics 4A and Physics 4B. You should have finished Math 3A (differential calculus), Math 3B (integral calculus), Math 4A (multivariable and vector calculus) and if you haven't finished it, be enrolled in Math 4B (differential equations).
Who takes this course: As with the two preceding courses in the sequence, you be surrounded by wannabe engineers, physicists and chemists. Some engineering majors may not need Physics 4C (e.g. Civil, Environmental, Industrial Engineers). Be sure to check the requirements for your specific degree at the university to which you plan to transfer!!
What this course covers: Basic content is waves, light and "modern" physics. More specifically, we look at traveling and standing waves in one dimension, then we see how light waves are a consequence of Maxwell's equations (which you'll know from Physics 4B). We examine some topics from optics - reflection, refraction, polarization, interference and diffraction. Finally, you get to some twentieth century physics - the special theory of relativity, and quantum mechanics, in which we solve the Schrodinger equation for some simple one dimensional systems.
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