Math 1B was just more calculus, so it wasn't extremely hard, but of perhaps more importance, it wasn't extremely interesting either. After calculus there is differential calculus and matrix equations and statistics and number theory and other math classes that just are not that interesting unless you love numbers. Not to say that the knowledge is not useful. A lot of people say things like "I never used Calculus or anything past Algebra in real life." But that's more laziness and lack of interest or aptitude. Knowing and being willing to use the higher maths does help, maybe only 1% or 5%, but it's the kind of thing that separates the best people from the rest of the population.

Math 50A, which I took in the Spring Semester, was particularly boring. I'd go to class every morning and sit near the front and start writing notes. Inevitably though I'd drowse off and wake up a few minutes later. I could see that my notes had trailed off as I fell asleep, the last few scribbles being rather incomprehensible. Then it was a race to at least copy what was on the board before it was erased. I'm saying here that I'm not one of the best people in our country, because I wasn't interested in putting in the effort to really learn the higher maths.

And this hurt me in Physics, starting with Physics 7A. The Physics and Math Departments synchronize their classes -- what you learn in Math is applied in Physics in a rather incestuous way (ok, not really, by I like the phrase). I think the Math classes were prerequisites for the Physics classes. You could get a waiver and take a Physics class without the Math, but you were going to be in for a rough ride. The Physics professor would explain just enough of the Math to do the basic problems, but you don't get understanding with that so other Physics problems became a chore because you didn't know how to adapt the Math to the problem.

Physics 7A was held in a room in the venerable LeConte Hall, I'm sure named after some Berkeley researcher who discovered something important. When I went to school, Berkeley had one of the best (by reputation) Physics and Chemistry Departments in the country. We're talking about in the 40's and 50's people who discovered all these elements and got all these Nobel Prizes and such. But that was a long time ago, not that Berkeley does not still have a top-notch Physics Department. But it's not head and heels better than the other research institutions.

Still, LeConte Hall (or is it Leconte Hall? Damn that Macintosh/Java mixed- case spelling) is steeped in history (or maybe it's just really old). The small benches in the classrooms are decades old, the lower levels filled with laboratories and warning signs ("Danger! High Voltage! Lasers, Wear Goggles! Radiation Badges Required!" [I made up the last one]) and offices. Physics was something I was thinking of getting a Minor in, but the Physics 7 series of classes cured me of that. Not being good in Math made it really hard to do Physics and my grades reflected that. Physics is really cool and fascinating, but you do need to be able to calculate things to the last decimal and you need the Math to model and calculate results before actually experimenting.

Both Jim and Darren also took Physics 7A with me, and the other two Physics classes. We'd stay up late at night doing our homework the night before it was due, Jim being better at it and Darren and I trying to understand it as he explained it to us. Actually, Darren understood it ok, I was really awful. I remember one Physics 7C midterm we stayed up all night studying. There was this one example problem that I just couldn't get and Jim and Darren tried to explain it to me for the longest time. What do you know, the exact question shows up on the midterm and I *still* blow it. That's when I finally admitted that Physics was not for me.

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