11/12/2015 Taylor Tucker
Written by Taylor Tucker
This semester I’m taking fluid mechanics. I really didn’t know anything about it before I signed up. Hopefully here I can answer some questions other people might have.
TAM 335 is taught by Professor Keane. Some of the concepts covered are based on differential equations, so concurrent or prior registration in a diff equations class can be very helpful. The flow chart suggests taking 335 concurrently with TAM 324 (Behavior of Materials), but I have found that since these classes are very different, they don’t necessarily need to go together. If you don’t take them together, the way you order them is your preference. 324 requires a fair amount of writing, so a lot of people will take it first to get it out of the way.
This class has one two-hour lab each week. The labs are held in the fluids lab in Talbot. The two fluids you will work with most are water and air. My lab section finishes the lab in an hour and a half or less on average. The lab report requires some effort and is graded out of 10 points. In my experience, the report takes a couple hours to finish. Each report is due at the start of the following lab, so you have a week to do it.
There are also homework assignments due each week (for us, every Friday at the start of lecture). Each homework assignment has six problems and is graded out of 30 points. Lectures MWF, no discussion, three midterms (each 50 minutes with two to three problems) and the final. No quizzes. Grades and homework are posted on Compass.
Other things you should know about this class: Readings from the textbook are posted in the class schedule but not required. The lectures follow notes printed in a separate book that also has plenty of space for taking notes. Even if you’d rather use your own system of note-taking, I highly suggest following along in the book during the lectures, and using it as a reference. Office hours are normally held in Grainger room 429, with extra hours before each exam.