MSE Fundamentals

Somewhat uniquely among graduate program with a similar undergraduate degree, a very large fraction of MSE grad students majored in something else as an undergrad (usually physics or chemistry). However, in most programs, there's not a good review class covering the things all your other classes will assume you know already.  Taking the undergraduate overview class can be frustrating for many grad students, with a lot of overlap with material they do know, and little depth in areas they don't. Consequently, those of us with a BS in MSE often end up tutoring our peers in the major-specific basics.

I'm going to try and run two different types of posts on materials science fundamentals. MSE 101 posts will be aimed towards those with a background in general chemistry and basic calculus, but not much beyond that. MSE 501 posts will be aimed at explaining topics to someone with a BS degree in science or engineering. If nothing else, I want to have these written down somewhere I can find them later when asked.

If there's a particular aspect of materials science you'd like me to address, please free to leave it in the comments.