If you glance at my answers to problem sets 4, 5, and 8 then you'll get the general idea of what the course involves. The problem sets are really fun because you're forced to play with the numbers and really understand the material. It might not be as hard as a traditional physics course, but it's every bit as rigorous in the real sense of the word. It's brilliance is that it really stresses the fundamentals, probably more so than any other physics material in existence. This is important because, as one professional Go player said after observing a Japanese baseball game,
"In every confrontation with a real American professional team it seems that what we need to learn from them, besides their technique of course, is how uniformly faithful their players are to the fundamentals. Faithfulness to the fundamentals seems to be a common thread linking professionalism in all areas." (T. Kageyama)
Sounds like a great course. How exactly did that course fit into the Cornell curriculum? Was it an elective for most people or could it substitute for algebra/calc based physics?
Cornell has two sets of requirements. The requirements for your college within the university, and the requirements for your major. This course fulfilled the distribution requirements for the college I was in. However, it wouldn't necessarily count as one of the required science classes for your major. So, for example, if you were a physics student then it wouldn't count toward your major, so therefor it would make more sense to take another class that you could count toward both your major and your college distribution requirement. Sorry if this is unclear, it's kind of complicated.
