Tutorials try to stimulate clear thinking by solving problems. While they're beavering away, or staring blankly into space, I visit each desk to check on progress, give encouragement, and offer hints. In this process I stress the application of physical principles and the advantage of developing a problem-solving strategy. One part of the strategy is obvious to a scientist but very difficult for a novice. This is to get as close to the answer as possible before switching from algebra to number crunching.
Intuition develops slowly, but surely with practice.
Here undergraduate majors get their first serious look at wave motion, basic electromagnetic theory, and the macroscopic view of the interaction of light and matter. We then look at geometrical optics, briefly discuss aberrations, and spend the last part of the course learning about polarization, superposition of waves, interference and Fraunhofer diffraction. I also try to sneak in a short introduction to lasers and holography. In recent years the course text has been Eugene Hecht's Optics . This is the first of four courses comprising the core of our undergraduate astrophysics program beyond first year.