Sounds like a badly designed curriculum if the prereqs weren't required before they were needed.
With a solid foundation in second-order PDEs, it's a matter of setting up the boundary conditions and solving for the Fourier series. The boundary conditions were superimposeable combinations of simpler forms, so it was mostly a matter of determining the correct Fourier series for those forms, then simplifying.
The OP probably didn't understand the distinction between ODEs and PDEs because of a lack of experience.
It was a course in Quantum Mechanics, specifically.
> With a solid foundation in second-order PDEs, it's a matter of setting up the boundary conditions and solving for the Fourier series. The boundary conditions were superimposeable combinations of simpler forms, so it was mostly a matter of determining the correct Fourier series for those forms, then simplifying.
In a usual undergrad course on QM, e.g., following Griffiths, one only solves SE with particular choices of potential -- usually only infinite well and QHO, and maybe a double well to illustrate tunneling. Neither really requires a background in Fourier series.
My apologies, and thanks for the clarification.
I wonder if most physics curriculum's underestimate the amount of time it takes to truly become competent with calculus/DE tools. I may of only escaped because I loved math and did a lot of self study out of pleasure.
More specifically, which of thermodynamics, optics, particle/nuclear physics, solid state, lab courses, E&M, classical mechanics, or quantum mechanics do you think should be dropped from the physics requirement, and which math course should replace it?
Or should the liberal arts requirements be reduced? Or should physics become a 5 year program?