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Dibs Fall 2026

PHYSICS 5B

Physics for Life Sciences Majors: Thermodynamics, Fluids, Waves, Light, and Optics

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour; laboratory, two hours. Requisite: course 5A. Thermal properties of matter, free energy, fluids, ideal gas, diffusion, oscillations, waves, sounds, light, and optics, with applications to biological and biochemical systems. P/NP or letter grading.

Course statistics

Predicted GPA
3.39
n = 6,642 · 15 terms · ± 0.007
A range
60%
of letter grades
Taken P/NP
0%
69% of those passed
D / F / W
3.1%
incl. withdrawals

Sections in Fall 2026

Sections offered, with live enrollment and predicted GPA
Section Status Enrolled Seat risk Meets Instructor Predicted GPA
Lec 1 Open
165 of 175
94% full
 fills MWF 2:00pm-2:50pm Bauer, D.J.
3.28n=917 · this instructor
Lec 2 Open
164 of 177
93% full
 fills MWF 4:00pm-4:50pm Bauer, D.J.
3.28n=917 · this instructor

Enrollment history

Final enrollment per term, averaged across that term's sections. Four years deep, summer excluded. Per-section live curves are on each section page.

  • 19121F
  • 17222W
  • 18922S
  • 17922F
  • 17423W
  • 18323S
  • 18223F
  • 19824W
  • 18624S
  • 19224F
  • 18425W
  • 18825S
Enrolment by term: 21F 191, 22W 172, 22S 189, 22F 179, 23W 174, 23S 183, 23F 182, 24W 198, 24S 186, 24F 192, 25W 184, 25S 188
Peak 198 Most recent 188 in 25S 12 terms on record

Grade distribution

  • A+ 771 · 11.5%
  • A 2,284 · 34.0%
  • A- 926 · 13.8%
  • B+ 625 · 9.3%
  • B 704 · 10.5%
  • B- 405 · 6.0%
  • C+ 251 · 3.7%
  • C 286 · 4.3%
  • C- 183 · 2.7%
  • D+ 61 · 0.9%
  • D 52 · 0.8%
  • D- 14 · 0.2%
  • F 80 · 1.2%
  • P 11 · 0.2%
  • NP 5 · 0.1%
  • I 56 · 0.8%

Grey bars are non-letter outcomes — P/NP, S/U, incompletes. They are excluded from the GPA entirely rather than scored, because counting a P as a 4.0 would be a fabrication.

By instructor

Instructor Predicted Raw n Terms A range
SAMANI, JOSHUA FRED 3.29 3.29 2,369 8 55%
BAUER, DAVID JEFFREY 3.28 3.28 917 5 53%
HOLCZER, KAROLY 3.86 3.87 758 4 90%
NIEMANN, CHRISTOPH 3.23 3.23 748 4 49%
PAU, JACQUELINE TZE-HO 3.38 3.38 396 3 53%
MCKEOWN, DANIEL FREDERICK 3.53 3.53 378 2 68%
MEHTA, MAYANK R 3.40 3.40 360 2 65%
MUSUMECI, PIETRO 3.53 3.54 359 2 68%
POWELL, IAN EMMANUEL 3.35 3.35 357 2 57%

“Predicted” is shrunk toward the course average, which is itself shrunk toward the department — so an instructor with a handful of students sits near the course mean rather than topping the list.

By term