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Back to Particle Physics: an Introduction

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Particle Physics: an Introduction by University of Geneva

4.4
stars
908 ratings

About the Course

This course introduces you to subatomic physics, i.e. the physics of nuclei and particles. More specifically, the following questions are addressed: - What are the concepts of particle physics and how are they implemented? - What are the properties of atomic nuclei and how can one use them? - How does one accelerate and detect particles and measure their properties? - What does one learn from particle reactions at high energies and particle decays? - How do electromagnetic interactions work and how can one use them? - How do strong interactions work and why are they difficult to understand? - How do weak interactions work and why are they so special? - What is the mass of objects at the subatomic level and how does the Higgs boson intervene? - How does one search for new phenomena beyond the known ones? - What can one learn from particle physics concerning astrophysics and the Universe as a whole? The course is structured in eight modules. Following the first one which introduces our subject, the modules 2 (nuclear physics) and 3 (accelerators and detectors) are rather self contained and can be studied separately. The modules 4 to 6 go into more depth about matter and forces as described by the standard model of particle physics. Module 7 deals with our ways to search for new phenomena. And the last module introduces you to two mysterious components of the Universe, namely Dark Matter and Dark Energy....

Top reviews

AE

Oct 25, 2023

This course has been of great impact on my understanding to particle physics, also it draws the path to me in order to go further in this field, I highly recommend it. Special thanks to the teachers.

VL

Mar 26, 2021

Way hard if you are not a science major! But the challenge is interesting. A quick advice : Refer to the slides if you find the accents too hard to understand.

Thank you for the great course!

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251 - 275 of 275 Reviews for Particle Physics: an Introduction

By Hamza I

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Aug 28, 2020

The course was very informative and finely detailed. I would say, however, that some parts or concepts were made a bit complicated and that they could have been easily explained/demonstrated.

By Samuel L J

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Aug 7, 2017

The course is good, although too general. It could use more challenging exercises and mathematics, more in line with a course in Particle Physics in a standard Physics curriculum.

By Raktim M

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Aug 17, 2023

The topics covered do meet the essential requirements. I am satisfied with the scope of the course.

The delivery of the instructors however could have been better.

By Egor A

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Dec 28, 2021

The course is about just sitting and listening for a person reading a textbook on a camera. The only interesting parts are vodeos from the actual labs.

By mrityunjoy s

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Jul 11, 2020

there is a translation issue in some videos especially the ones with others (except Martin and Mercedes) and also the explanations are a bit monologous

By Egemen B

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Aug 8, 2018

Unassuming about prior knowledge. Quizzes oriented to beginners, lectures to grad students. Confusing, but fun nonetheless.

By Wei-shun B

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Sep 28, 2017

Introductory course and little prerequisites. It is good in general but I still got lost in some lecture videos.

By Ruchit S

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Aug 4, 2020

Interesting material, great instructors, but .... the monotonous, not-so-enthusiastic delivery may put one off.

By abhimanyu b

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Jan 27, 2018

try simplifying the course a little more

By Yifu L

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Aug 29, 2018

subtitles can be improved.

By Deniz P

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May 28, 2020

Although the course covered a wide range of topics, the mathematics were beyond my understanding (as a 10th grade student) and the accents were hard to understand and annoying from time to time. I had to learn most of the topics from other videos on YouTube because the topics were not simplified enough for me to understand. I would say you should enroll for free and have a look at a few videos before purchasing the course like I did. Overall, it was an interesting experience.

By Ali R S

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Jul 12, 2020

English hard to understand, and content impossible to follow. Even though, I am quite proficient in Quantum Mechanics, this course introduced variables in equations, without defining them. It takes thrice the time of the video to fully understand the content of the video.

By Michael V

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Dec 1, 2019

The topic is highly interesting but unfortunately, I have to agree with the negative assessments:

he presentation style is inadequate for learning

By Maaz K

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Jul 7, 2018

bORING

By Bandar A

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Feb 7, 2024

Disappointing Experience with Lack of Engaging Teaching Methods I enrolled in a Coursera course, expecting an enriching learning journey but was met with disappointment. The instruction lacked depth, with professors merely reading from slides rather than providing engaging, insightful teaching. This approach failed to facilitate a deeper understanding of the material. The quality of presentation was another concern. The instructors' heavy accents and the minimal effort in clear articulation significantly hindered comprehension, complicating an already challenging learning process. I had anticipated a course that offered interactive and dynamic teaching to help understand and apply knowledge. Instead, the course relied on a passive format of content delivery, falling short of the engaging educational experience Coursera is known for. This course did not meet the expectations set by its platform, missing critical opportunities for meaningful learning and engagement.

By Rod B

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Apr 4, 2017

Very poorly presented course. Despite having completed quite a number of coursera courses before, and even being already familiar with a good deal of the preliminary material in this one, i soon abandoned it due to the inadequate and scrappily prepared presentation of material. Mercedes Paniccia in particular speaks in a virtually unintelligible expressionless monotone with no explanation or elaboration to relieve what amounts to little more than a list of definitions and bald statements such as can be found in the glossary section of many textbooks. I would strongly recommend finding an alternative course devoted to the subject or maybe seeking out a readable textbook.

By ian m

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Feb 9, 2021

Great subject with a lot of information unfortunately not very easily accessible because of the way it is taught here. The video lectures are lack lustre with tutors reading text unenthusistically from the slides. Some resource links do not work and seemingly have not done so for years. One tutor's English accent is hard to understand unless you run the video playback at 0.75 and have a copy of the transcript to follow. All of this makes learning tedious. I gave up at week 4. Singularly the worst course I have taken on Cousera.

By Bran R

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Feb 13, 2020

Selected portions were good; other sections were plain horrible; difficult to understand the lecturer (not the topic; rather the english). For an english speaking course, videos in another language were not useful. Lectures provided no insight, pure reading from a lifeless script. Wording of problems had lots of typos, and questions were ill formed... I would not recommend this course unless it was cleaned up.

By Pralekh D

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Mar 10, 2017

It must be taught by someone who can speak english clearly. Sorry but I couldn't understand what Mercedes Paniccia spoke, which made the course even more difficult to understand. There are subtitles but it's not possible for everyone to put that much effort. This issue must be taken seriously to make this MOOC much better.

By Kavish S

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Apr 13, 2022

'Teachers who make physics boring are criminals' - Walter Lewin.

Professors are just reading notes and explaining nothing including theory and derivations. Nothing has been explained intuitively. Particle physics is one of the most interesting fields in this discipline but this course has done injustice to it.

By Vlad G

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Feb 8, 2023

Dry, scarce and unenthusiastic presentation with heavy accents. Lack of reading materials. Having an engineering degree with good understanding of math and basic physics I found it impossible to follow this material. Reading all the negative comments, surprised how they achieved the high rating of 4.5.

By Helena Z

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Jan 31, 2024

It is a really badly prepared course. I really tried to overcome issues with it, however I didn't want to waste too much of my time. I cannot understand some professors, there are no materials provided - only slides that don't explain much. Very disappointed.

By Nikhil D

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Jul 29, 2020

this course is not at all suitable for someone who is here to learn particle physics. the teachers assume that we already know what all the symbols mean and its like they are not teaching but reading.

By Willy - K

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Dec 8, 2021

The Professor might be a brillant scientist, but as a teacher he is not that bright. Few others have developped the poor course at length previously. No need to repeat!

By RAJ R

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May 19, 2020

Didn't enjoyed the lectures.