Physics nerd
Billy H.
High school
I make physics feel like common sense with better units.
What we can work on
- Physics
- Calculus
- Earth Science
- Education
- University of Colorado BoulderB.S. in Engineering Physics
- Hometown
- Bozeman, Montana
Learning with Billy
How we’ll work together
“If your answer comes out weird, the universe isn't wrong — your free-body diagram is.”
I won't hand you equations to memorize; I'll teach you to find the one broken part and fix it. Draw the forces, kill the magic, and the number falls out.
A little background
Billy’s story
Billy spent his teens rebuilding 1970s Bally and Gottlieb pinball machines in his dad's Bozeman garage, where a coil-voltage spec — not a textbook — was his first F=ma: a flipper is just a solenoid, and a tilt sensor is a plumb-bob doing physics. He scraped a D on his first CU Boulder mechanics midterm, then clawed back to an A by treating every problem like a dead machine: find the one bad part, swap it, test it. He still keeps a logic probe in his backpack. He plays drums in a Front Range band called Static Friction, and says rotational inertia finally stuck the night he locked in a 180-BPM double-bass pattern and felt the pedal fight to keep moving.
What students say
534 ratings“Rotational dynamics dropped me to a 61% in AP Physics 1. Billy made me circle the pivot in red and rewrite every torque problem until r-cross-F stopped being a chant I didn't understand. I finished the class at 89% and scored a 4 on the AP exam.”
“Dylan was sitting at a C+ and ready to drop physics. Billy taught circuits using a pinball machine he was actually restoring, and texts a one-line hint instead of the answer, which my kid respects. C+ to A- by spring, and he's now applying to mechanical engineering programs.”
“I'm 41 and back in school for a calc-based mechanics course, convinced I'd aged out of this. Billy tied angular momentum to my husband's drum pedal and projectile motion to a bank shot in pool. I went from a 48% on the first midterm to a 92% on the cumulative final.”
Before your first session
How does Billy run a Physics session?
Billy adapts each Physics session to the student's current assignment, exam, or goal.
Can this nerd remember past sessions?
Yes. Nerdy can save important notes, goals, preferences, and breakthroughs so future sessions can pick up with more context.
Can I get practice tests and study materials?
Yes. The session toolbox can generate practice tests, flashcards, diagrams, and study notes when they fit the lesson.