MECH&AE 156A
Advanced Strength of Materials
Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: courses 82, 101. Not open to students with credit for course 166A. Concepts of stress, strain, and material behavior. Stresses in loaded beams with symmetric and asymmetric cross sections. Torsion of cylinders and thin-walled structures, shear flow. Stresses in pressure vessels, press-fit and shrink-fit problems, rotating shafts. Curved beams. Contact stresses. Strength and failure, plastic deformation, fatigue, elastic instability. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Gupta is a really, really good teacher. I took 101 with Mal and didn't understand anything despite getting an A so I took Gupta for 156A and I have to say he teaches very very well and I understand everything that he taught. my only beef with him is that he doesn't derive any equations but he expects you to know the assumptions made during the derivation. he gave two midterms and they were both from his in class examples and homework. he said the final would be hard but it wasn't really. it was harder than the midterms (definitely) but it wasn't impossible. he's kinda arrogant though and is always bragging about how smart he is and how much money he makes consulting. but he has good stories that are related to solid mechanics. he also brought up stories about how when he was our age they had to use recycled paper and ink and how it was horrible and how they used these plastic bags and it was so hot and he had to walk like a long way home so the handles would creep and like break. idk he was short of telling us he walked uphill to school both ways in snow (it probably doesn't snow in india but I am not sure). PS:I wanted to review him before I got my grade so that it doesn't influence my review (although if he gives me a B consider this review void and replace it with "HE SUCKS")
Gupta is a really, really good teacher. I took 101 with Mal and didn't understand anything despite getting an A so I took Gupta for 156A and I have to say he teaches very very well and I understand everything that he taught. my only beef with him is that he doesn't derive any equations but he expects you to know the assumptions made during the derivation. he gave two midterms and they were both from his in class examples and homework. he said the final would be hard but it wasn't really. it was harder than the midterms (definitely) but it wasn't impossible. he's kinda arrogant though and is always bragging about how smart he is and how much money he makes consulting. but he has good stories that are related to solid mechanics. he also brought up stories about how when he was our age they had to use recycled paper and ink and how it was horrible and how they used these plastic bags and it was so hot and he had to walk like a long way home so the handles would creep and like break. idk he was short of telling us he walked uphill to school both ways in snow (it probably doesn't snow in india but I am not sure). PS:I wanted to review him before I got my grade so that it doesn't influence my review (although if he gives me a B consider this review void and replace it with "HE SUCKS")
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - This class is really difficult because of the material, but the professor herself is pretty good at teaching, although she tends to go fast and sometimes she skips over small details that can make things confusing real quick if you're not paying attention. The lectures are all recorded so I recommend watching them at your own pace and going back/rewatching parts if you're confused. The professor is really helpful if you have individual questions and she responds to email, so as long as you ask her your questions you should be okay.
Fall 2020 - This class is really difficult because of the material, but the professor herself is pretty good at teaching, although she tends to go fast and sometimes she skips over small details that can make things confusing real quick if you're not paying attention. The lectures are all recorded so I recommend watching them at your own pace and going back/rewatching parts if you're confused. The professor is really helpful if you have individual questions and she responds to email, so as long as you ask her your questions you should be okay.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Very standard upper div. The homework was pretty heavily weighted and was fairly difficult as well. However, pretty doable and a nice boost if you do well on it. I definitely recommend starting it early and using as many resources as you can (office hours, lectures, extra textbooks/websites) to make sure you do well on it. The midterm was pretty straightforward, open book with a time limit. The final was a lot more difficult, both because the material was more difficult and because I thought the time limit was a little harsher. Overall, though, I thought there was a pretty generous grade scaling that made up for the timing issues. Definitely work to get the right answers on the homework so you have that cushion, and run through a lot of practice problems for the tests. Other than that, lectures weren't super useful and his notes could get confusing, so I did most of my learning by working through the homework problems and doing the lecture sample problems on my own. Also definitely run through all the equations and what they're used for so that you aren't scrambling through your notes for the final. Probably would take this class again because it was relatively low stress and a lighter workload.
Winter 2021 - Very standard upper div. The homework was pretty heavily weighted and was fairly difficult as well. However, pretty doable and a nice boost if you do well on it. I definitely recommend starting it early and using as many resources as you can (office hours, lectures, extra textbooks/websites) to make sure you do well on it. The midterm was pretty straightforward, open book with a time limit. The final was a lot more difficult, both because the material was more difficult and because I thought the time limit was a little harsher. Overall, though, I thought there was a pretty generous grade scaling that made up for the timing issues. Definitely work to get the right answers on the homework so you have that cushion, and run through a lot of practice problems for the tests. Other than that, lectures weren't super useful and his notes could get confusing, so I did most of my learning by working through the homework problems and doing the lecture sample problems on my own. Also definitely run through all the equations and what they're used for so that you aren't scrambling through your notes for the final. Probably would take this class again because it was relatively low stress and a lighter workload.
Most Helpful Review
Professor Mal is pretty good at teaching the material for 156A. Make sure you go to lecture because a lot of his exam problems incorporate stuff he discussed in lecture. Many students made a mistake on the first exam, in which he told us many times not to make that mistake in lecture. Make sure you do the homework on your own and carefully because many of the problems end up on the midterms. Caution: The two midterms have pretty high averages, while the final was on the difficult side. One simple mistake can cost you a lot of points. I would advise you not to rely on the textbook too much because Mal says there's a lot of mistakes in the book.
Professor Mal is pretty good at teaching the material for 156A. Make sure you go to lecture because a lot of his exam problems incorporate stuff he discussed in lecture. Many students made a mistake on the first exam, in which he told us many times not to make that mistake in lecture. Make sure you do the homework on your own and carefully because many of the problems end up on the midterms. Caution: The two midterms have pretty high averages, while the final was on the difficult side. One simple mistake can cost you a lot of points. I would advise you not to rely on the textbook too much because Mal says there's a lot of mistakes in the book.
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