Diving headfirst into Physics... possible?

College Life
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<p>Hi, let me cut to the chase.</p>

<p>In high school I was the most apathetic person ever, because nothing really interested me. This particularly hurt my grades in things like Math. However, I don't think I'm necessarily BAD at math. I would get tutoring because I never paid attention during a week of math classes, and then during a 1hr session with a tutor I would just learn everything we were supposed to have been taught that week. I did bad gradewise because I never practiced what I learned beyond that 1hr session, but I managed to get concepts well.</p>

<p>Flash forward to the present. I'm an English major, which is to say I didn't know what I wanted to be but I still felt the need to go to college and take classes. Now that I've spent a year soul searching and am finishing up my freshman year, I've decided that I really think Physics is what I want to do.</p>

<p>So my questions is, is it possible? Is it possible to go from basically not knowing much of any math due to sheer apathy, and do well in Calc and subsequently Physics? I don't think I'm bad at math but I certainly haven't learned much from high school. I really think Astrophysics in particular is what I want to do with my life... but am I just daydreaming or do I have a chance?</p>

<p>Is it possible for someone with basically no math background to suddenly convert and try and tackle Physics head-on?</p>

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<p>I have a somewhat similar story, in that I flunked out of high school, always hated math and science, and years later developed an amateur’s interest in physics, and long story short I’m an engineering physics major now.</p>

<p>I spent all of 2009 studying math at home and during spare time at work, beginning at the ACT prep level (basic high school algebra and very very basic trig), then moving onto pre-calculus, then onto differential then integral calculus. I did this all with books designed for the home learner. By the beginning of 2010 I was in college and with one exception (vector analysis, where I got an A- due to a BRUTAL final exam) I got A’s in all of my math classes. Right now I’m in an error analysis class and struggling to fully understand all of the concepts, but I’m hoping that like the dot product and cross product, it’ll all become second nature.</p>

<p>So my advice is to find the level of math you need to start at because you need to have mad, 1334 algebra skillz to do well in college-level calculus and physics. Calculus is easy, the concepts are quite simple, it’s the algebra involved that trips people up, especially in integral calculus. Differential calculus is so easy because essentially you just have to follow the formulae and you’re done, integral calculus is where you have to do all of the algebra and that’s where people often hit the wall.</p>

<p>My second piece of advice is to take a computer programming class in a language like C or C++. A <em>real</em> programming class in a <em>real</em> programming language, because the concepts I learned from studying C actually bolstered my algebra skills quite a bit by training me to think in terms of functions.</p>

<p>My third piece of advice is to take a basic, high-school level physics class to understand the concepts. In fact, here are some books on that subject:</p>

<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Conceptual Physics Package Edition (9780805391909): Paul G. Hewitt: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Conceptual-Physics-Package-Edition-Hewitt/dp/0805391908]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Conceptual-Physics-Package-Edition-Hewitt/dp/0805391908)
[Amazon.com:</a> The Physics of Everyday Phenomena: A Conceptual Introduction to Physics (9780072828627): W. Thomas Griffith: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/The-Physics-Everyday-Phenomena-Introduction/dp/0072828625/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335399098&sr=1-3]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/The-Physics-Everyday-Phenomena-Introduction/dp/0072828625/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335399098&sr=1-3)</p>

<p>And my fourth piece of advice follows the second, it is to read books of physics brain-teasers:</p>

<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Mad About Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities (9780471569619): Christopher Jargodzki, Franklin Potter: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Mad-About-Physics-Braintwisters-Curiosities/dp/0471569615/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335399167&sr=1-6]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Mad-About-Physics-Braintwisters-Curiosities/dp/0471569615/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335399167&sr=1-6)</p>

<p>Among others… These brainteasers really help build up you understanding of the concepts. I’ve seen many other classmates struggle with material because they didn’t have the fundamental concepts under their belt, they had learned the material at too high a level, too mathematically, so when posed a problem that went beyond the formula (which they understood), they didn’t know what to do.</p>

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<p>Thank you very much sir… guess I gotta start all the way back at Algebra II and work from there, take a Calc class next year maybe.</p>

<p>I appreciate your help! PS Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a great show.</p>

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<p>If you have enough fluid intelligence it is possible. However, take into account the base rates for whatever your goals are to try to avoid the planning fallacy.</p>

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<p>Pay attention to the length of prerequisite sequences – at some schools, the physics major may have a seven semester long sequence of required course. So you may have to take summer courses to avoid graduating late.</p>

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<p>Did anybody understand what michael said?</p>