HMC Course Catalog • Physics Program • Study Abroad

Physics in the HMC Core

All students at Harvey Mudd take the following physics courses in the Core:

• Physics 22, Physics Laboratory, a weekly two-hour laboratory course taken in either the fall or spring semester of the first year
• Physics 23, Special Relativity, a half course taken in the first semester
• Physics 24, Mechanics and Wave Motion, an introduction to Newtonian mechanics taken in the spring semester of the first year
• Physics 51, Electromagnetic Theory & Optics, taken in the third semester
• Choice Lab 57, What Makes Things Tick?, an optional laboratory course focusing on the physics of oscillating systems, offered in the fall semester for sophomores

Ways of satisfying Core physics requirements

Fall

Spring

Completing the HMC Physics Core

Some students seek to satisfy their Core Physics requirements either by challenging courses by examination or by making up a Harvey Mudd College course that has been dropped or failed by taking a suitable course at another institution. To assist in advising these students, our policies are spelled out here in detail.

1. A well-prepared student who wishes to place out of a core physics course may pass the course by examination. The student then earns full credit for the course and a grade of EX appears on the transcript.
2. A student who drops a core physics course must enroll in the same course at the next available offering of the course.
3. A student who fails a core physics course may take a department-approved course at another institution. To satisfy the HMC course requirement, the student must earn a grade of B- or better in that course. The student’s transcript will then show the transfer credit from the other institution, but the grade does not count towards the student’s HMC grade point average.
4. A student who drops or fails Physics 24 may not enroll in Physics 51 the following semester unless he or she takes an approved calculus-based mechanics course over the summer and passes with a grade of B or better.
5. A student must earn a passing letter grade (not P) in at least one of Physics 24 and Physics 51.