Varun Chhabra

Biography

I have a love for the hands-on and practical. I studied mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley because I love working with my hands and exploring how to build something cool. I will always relate a subject back to its real world applications and what you can really do with it. If I am being honest, I find pure numbers and calculations boring. Don’t tell my AJ colleagues I said that! We should look at derivatives as ways to measure change in the real world, maybe for a car traveling cross-country for instance. We can look at that real car and calculate its speed based on derivatives. We can also calculate its acceleration using derivatives and the distance travelled using integrals. Now we have a real journey mapped out rather than just graphs and calculations.

In college, I was a part of BEAM, Berkeley Engineers and Mentors, an organization where I taught hands-on science lessons to elementary school students. We taught potential and kinetic energy using marble rollercoasters and taught reflection and refraction using a tube of water with a hand-drawn arrow that would flip direction when placed behind the water. My goal with tutoring is to inspire students to reach higher and motivate them with the practical applications of the subjects, much like with hands-on science lessons.

This brings me to physics, a beautiful subject. Physics is all about the hands-on and real world applications when done right. Everything from forces to energy to circuits should be brought back to the real world and what we can actually build from the subject. Projectiles, satellites, springs, circuits, lenses, engines, all come from physics.

l love my work as a physics and calculus tutor. They are both very rich subjects with lots of interesting topics and applications. Whether you are more theoretical or more practical, these subjects have appeal either way.

In my free time, I love to play pickleball, build Legos, and play Tabla, an Indian drum. I find music to be my biggest hobby, both listening and playing.