PHYS 364Mathematical Physics 1
- Units
- 0.50
- Faculty
- Science
- Subject
- Physics
When it runs
- F24
- W25
- S25
- F25
- W26
- S26
- F26
- W27
- S27
Ran in 5 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: not on the schedule. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.
Sturm-Liouville theory. Legendre, Bessel, and other special functions. Fourier series and introduction to Fourier transforms. Separation of variables.
Prerequisites
- Complete all of the following
- Must have completed the following:
- MATH227 - Calculus 3 for Honours Physics (0.50)
- Must have completed at least 1 of the following:
- Complete 1 of the following
- Must have completed at least 1 of the following:
- Must have completed the following:
- Complete 1 of the following
- Enrolled in H-Materials & Nanosciences, H-Physics, or H-Physics & Astronomy
- Enrolled in Chemical Physics, or Life Physics
- Must have completed the following:
Antirequisites
- Not completed nor concurrently enrolled in any of the following:
- AMATH353 - Partial Differential Equations 1 (0.50)
Leads to
Fall 2026 sections
| Section | Class | Enrolled | Meets |
|---|---|---|---|
| LEC 001 | 7021 | 45 / 80 | MW 10:00–11:20 |
Reviewed on UW Flow
55% liked it58% easy79% useful
From 33 ratings and 7 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.
This course is a nice walk through Fourier methods (series and transforms), separation of variables as a solution method for DEs in curvilinear coordinate systems - primarily rectangular, cylindrical and spherical - and both the Green's function and Frobenius methods for solving DEs, as well as some other smaller concepts including orthogonality and Legendre series and polynomials. I found the concepts and the workload to be quite manageable, and the assignments and exams to be helpful in developing mathematical maturity and physical intuition. Not particularly difficult, interesting and useful. I would recommend this course to all physics students.
Jan 2018 · liked it · 2 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this
Jeff Chen taught this after he switched to teaching with slides. We learnt next to nothing this course
Dec 2024 · didn’t like it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this
Teaches useful concepts for other 300 level physics courses (wish I took it sooner), I find fourier series/transforms interesting because of their applications.
Took it with Jeff Chen, I hate him.
Didn't like his lectures, talked a lot about slides that had very little information and sometimes wrote on the chalk board (small messy writing, poor lighting, too far). I stopped going to class about a quarter of the way through. He has an attitude and is unhelpful with questions, and didn't even post full solutions to the homework. Assignments were manageable with the textbook. Midterm was ok. Exam was less ok. He focuses too much on proofs of things like recurrence relations. The exam only…Dec 2025 · didn’t like itOn UW FlowRemove this
The course was okay at best. Going to lectures felt useless. Like actually. How do you make three hours unsubstantial to my learning? Quite the feat, really. Only good thing I got out of this was Fourier series and solving PDEs; we didn't even get to cover everything the course offered. I suggest taking PDEs 1 from the AMATH side instead to be honest. I choked myself deciding to go through with this. Now I'm taking PDEs 2 and I'll probably suffer. Yay.
Aug 2025 · didn’t like itOn UW FlowRemove this
I liked this course. It was well structured and the professor was very nice. The uploaded notes from Prof. Burkov were difficult to read and not structured well, though, so keep that in mind if you want to study. Assignments were pretty difficult, but both the midterm and final were incredibly easy.
Dec 2023 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this
Discussed on r/uwaterloo
16 posts and comments in 14 threads mention PHYS 364, August 2012 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.
Spring 2023
Which physics prof is most receptive to extra learning questions and likes to actually teach 1 point, 9 comments
“Teacher i prev had has run out of answers,, which physics prof would be best for asking questions and wanting to learn for the fun of it? Ie. …”
u/astrocg: “Just had Thompson for Math Phys 1 (PHYS 364) and he was honestly a pretty good prof. Made that class easier to digest lol”
Spring 2022
Can someone show me the grade breakdown for PHYS 364 this term? 2 points, 0 comments
Winter 2020
Physics majors: questions (And U.S. students please) 10 points, 9 comments
“Hello, I'm a high school senior considering Waterloo for my undergrad. I'm from the U.S. As for how to make my decision, I have some questions... 1. …”
u/neutrinorunner: “… are 6 mandatory lab courses after first year, and you take (MATH 114, 127,128, 227, 228, PHYS 364, 365) which are the science major math courses with much less rigour. …”
How hard is it to override into physics related AMATH courses? (for a Hon physics student) 6 points, 4 comments
u/neutrinorunner: “… To push it even further would profs also be okay with phys 364/365 as indirect prerequisites for AMATH courses that require complex analysis and the third year ODE/PDE courses? …”
u/Ozinater: “… I took Continuum and Fluids (I'm in Honours Phys as well so I took MATH 227 in 2nd year) after having taken PHYS 364 (antireq for the first AMATH PDE's course), lots of people end up overriding to get into both classes. …”
Fall 2019
Why does MathPhys suck? 1 point, 4 comments
u/MoistGochu: “It's ok. The average for final exam on Math Phys (Phys 364) was around 45%. This is the new normal.”
PHYS 364 - Notes 3 points, 1 comment
u/Professor__Professor: “Can anyone donate PHYS 364 notes to this poor child. I didn't get to attend the 1st lecture”
Spring 2019
Phys 364 7 points, 1 comment
u/Bindude: “Anyone else do way worse than they thought they would? I got hard jebaited by the sample final”
Fall 2018
PHYS 364 crying thread 6 points, 0 comments
u/tiltboi1: “Why Jeff hurt me”
2018 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Morou, and UW Professor Donna Strickland for their work in laser physics 489 points, 54 comments
u/DSou7h: “Maybe I shouldn’t have dropped her laser physics course...”
u/DSou7h: “… [Offered: W odd years] Prereq: PHYS 256/ECE 404; PHYS 364 or AMATH 353 It was literally just about lasers.”
Spring 2018
What courses are you taking next term? 13 points, 54 comments
u/tiltboi1: “PHYS 256 PHYS 342 PHYS 358 PHYS 364 and one more elective maybe BIOL239/240 or some cs class maybe”
Fall 2017
Any way to disable UWCourseLinker from posting? 16 points, 26 comments
“posting a reply to my comment I find the bot annoying.”
u/Jackhofmann: “PSYCH 483 PSYCH 484 PSYCH 485 PSYCH 486 PSYCH 490R PSYCH 499A PSYCH 499B PSYCH 499C PSYCH 621 PSYCH 630 PSYCH 677A PSYCH 704A PSYCH 704B PSYCH 707 PSYCH 710 PSYCH 714 PSYCH 717 PSYCH 720A PSYCH 721A …”
u/Jackhofmann: “… 232L PHYS 236 PHYS 256 PHYS 256L PHYS 275 PHYS 342 PHYS 358 PHYS 360A PHYS 360B PHYS 363 PHYS 364 PHYS 380 PHYS 434 PHYS 437A PHYS 437B PHYS 442 PHYS 454 PHYS 460A PHYS 460B PHYS 461 PHYS 474 PHYS 475 PHYS 490 PHYS 491 PHYS 601 PHYS 602 PHYS 603 PHYS 604 PHYS 605 PHYS 611 PHYS …”
Fall 2015
Hi, I am a bot. 75 points, 98 comments
“Hey everyone! After some discussion with mods, I think I am ready to be pushed live. I am a bot designed to provide relevant course information upon request. …”
u/uberpwngnubslyr: “[[PHYS 364]]”
u/UWRedditBot: “PHYS 364 LEC,TUT 0.5 | Mathematical Physics 1 | Course ID: 007450 Sturm-Liouville theory. Legendre, Bessel and other special functions. Fourier series and introduction to Fourier transforms. Separation of variables. Green's function. …”
Check it elsewhere for Fall 2026
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