Cooking is much simpler than college Chemistry except for one thing.
In college Chemistry, you are told which details are important and why.
In cooking, the books almost always leave out one or more important details, or if they are included, they don't sufficiently explain why they are important.
You see, you can do it with out a water bath, but it is MUCH harder to get the heat right, and in some ovens you simply can?t.
You can do it in a spring form pan, if it doesn?t leak.
You can put the water bath near the pan, but that only works if you oven was good enough in the first place with no water bath.
You can use a regular pan, but the cake will stick, unless you use parchment paper.
If you get too much AIR in the batter it will puff up and then fall.