<p>I personally love theoretical physics. I also love bio lab and chem lab. However I dislike and am not too good at physics lab. Most of the time we have to attach weights to test moment, springs and draw graphs. I often have trouble understanding them. I'm pretty good at physics theory but not here.
I want to study electrical or mechanical engineering but since I heard there's a lot of practical things. I personally like tinkering with machines and stuff like these though.</p>
<p>Are you sure that you understand the theory, if you don’t understand the experiments that demonstrate the theory?
They’re complimentary. And specifically the point of labs is to prove how that which the theory describes is measured.</p>
<p>Study engineering, if you want to study machines and stuff.</p>
<p>Two options: </p>
<p>1) You might not be as clear on the theory as you thought.
2) You have a poor physics lab in which they don’t explain how it relates.</p>
<p>More often than not, physics labs simply don’t have the precision necessary to prove the point that they are supposed to. </p>
<p>They have a place, but don’t feel too bad if it just doesn’t do it for you.</p>
<p>Most high school courses are dependent on the teacher - it’s tough to come to a conclusion based on a single course experience. College physics will have better labs and a more mature curriculum. If you like the subject material in general, a different teacher will get you a different perspective.</p>
<p>i love physics lab but absolutely loath theory lol</p>
<p>The specific professor/lab instructor may play a role in this also. As I kind of remember my Physics courses:</p>
<p>Physics I (mechanics) - Prof did not have precision nor ability to tie theory to practicality</p>
<p>Physics II (Electricity/Mag) - Prof made the theory come to light in the labs</p>
<p>Modern Physics - No lab, but I learned more from this prof than from almost another prof in ANY TYPE of class</p>
<p>Computational Physics - Prof only knew FORTRAN…was clueless if student used “C” and pretty much had to look for the final answer to give a grade for an assignment.</p>
<p>OP, I read between the lines that you are interested in the kinds of physics they talk about on space shows and Discovery channel, am I wrong?</p>
<p>Cuz I don’t see how else to make sense of what you said. What is your question?</p>
<p>It’s normal to have classes you hate.</p>
<p>One of the things that drove me up the wall with labs was that I would get very frustrated if I didn’t get results that exactly conformed to theory. If I was 10%-15% off the expected outcome, I’d do what most students did, and fudge my results so that they’d be closer to the ideal.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until years later that I learned that lab results usually have some kind of experimental error, and being off 10%-15% was normal in a lot of cases.</p>
<p>The thing is, in labs, for some reason it’s hard to pay attention to the instructors and even when I try, for some reason, the words just feel blank to me. I need to read to get a good idea… and yeah, the teacher is a bit of a prick.</p>
<p>
Ha! It’s when you get a 1300% error you know you messed something up!</p>
<p>THESE labs were the best part about school, HANDS-ON activities well suited for Engineers. Enjoyed all CHEM, Phys, even those rocks in GEOL</p>