<p>I just switched into Mechanical Engineering this semester from a business administration degree, so I am a junior by credits but am in mostly freshman with some sophomore classes. What the question I am asking though is how much will I be using physics throughout the remainder of my time seeking the ME degree. Physics is not a course which I enjoy much and I find it extremely hard to get motivated to do any of the work for the class. Is this oe of those courses which I can get through and then not have to worry about using again, or is it a course which in which I will use what I learn now for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>Physics is…an integral part of all engineering fields; it’s something you’ll have to get used to for the rest of your life, really. </p>
<p>Btw, congrats on saving yourself from graduating with a joke degree and switching to engineering!</p>
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<p>It’s great having engineers with superiority complex making rest look bad
(even if yer joking it’s pretty dumb)</p>
<p>You will probably need to take 2 physics courses, but everything in engineering is based on physics and is required for understanding. </p>
<p>You will be using most of it in applications though, which you will probably get easily motivated for</p>
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<p>No ME will take at least three physics courses possibly four.</p>
<p>Which aspect of physics is it specifically that do you not enjoy?</p>
<p>All engineering uses applied physics. Basically, physics explains how our world around us works, and ME will use that when analyzing forces etc. But dont let that scare you, its a lot more interesting than the theory you learn in class.</p>
<p>I went through a very similar situation. I did an IT associate’s and trasnfered into a business program to get my bachelors in MIS. Decided it wasn’t for and jumped into a computer engineering program. Went from being a junior to being pretty much a freshman. Rigt now I’m in physics of e&m and it’s very difficult and my least favorite class of all time.</p>
<p>As a mechanical engineer you will take the introductory sequence of physics which is either 2 or 3 classes depending on your school. The topics covered in the first 1 or 2 courses will be mechanics and thermodynamics. It is from this that the rest of physics is built. Most mechanical classes will be centered around the practical application of a specific aspect of mechanics or thermodynamics. For instance, in your physics class you will briefly discuss heat transfer by convection. Later on in mechanical, you will study experimentally determined equations which describe exactly how much heat is transfer from a given body.</p>
<p>Doing poorly in physics does not mean that you won’t be a decent engineer. Physics classes are very different than engineering classes, though at the heart of it the materials are closely related. Physics is more fundamental, and many of their classes are like a math class with a physical theme. Mechanical engineering is more about learning a process for solving a problem and applying this process to different situations.</p>
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This is a little off-topic, but I’m taking E&M right now and it’s interesting; there are some topics that are difficult, but there are others that are very interesting. So far, my least favorite topics are Gauss’ Law and electric fields. My favorite topics are anything dealing with circuits, which include current/resistance, capacitance, and DC circuits. Most of the topics in mechanics were fine.</p>
<p>Engineering is applied physics. Major in the eng subject that you enjoy the most.</p>
<p>Also many schools have a combined physics/eng major.</p>
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<p>Yea fields and Gauss’ Law are probably the hardest topics in e&m. They are also the least interesting because it’s mostly just learning integrals</p>
<p>Hey guys! I’m currently going the engineering path, but I have to admit I’m a little worried about all the physics classes I’ll have to take. I love math and science, but the physics class I took at high school was very elementary. How would you guys rate the difficulty of the core engineering physics classes (E&M, Mechanics, Thermodynamics) for someone with little previous physics knowledge? Thanks!!</p>
<p>Not a problem.</p>
<p>So even though physics is an integral part of engineering, the fact that I would rather do just about anything else is not a problem? Am I reading that right?</p>
<p>Well physics courses are theory. Theory classes tend to be boring filled with definitions and equations. Once you learn the theory you can apply it which is much more satisfying because you see there was a reason for suffering through those physics classes.</p>
<p>“You will* see there was a reason for suffering through those physics classes”</p>
<p>Well said. lol</p>
<p>I don’t see how a physics course is “theory” as opposed to an engineering course. Upper-div physics is a totally different ball game, but the type of physics necessary for most physics majors has a lot of application. Theory ends in class/lecture, your homework and tests are pretty much all applied. None of it is hands on, but its not theory.</p>
<p>Same with engineering classes… they are fundamentally the same as physics, with engineering courses tending to be more difficult as they get more and more advanced. Engineering is mostly design courses which consists of a similar structure as physics, IMO. First you learn the “stuff” (ie: theory), and then you “apply” it in designing something (on paper or a computer usually). They both boil down to problem solving. Some are better at solving practical problems that involve tangible quantities, while others (sadists) like to work with imaginary and “theoretical” quantities.</p>
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<p>Theory is taught in lecture, demonstrated in lab, and tested on in homework and tests. Homework and tests are not applying theory to anything you are simply using theory to answer questions to a hypothetical situation. Using Coulomb’s law to calculate the electric field of particle Q1 is not applied physics. </p>
<p>Engineering is applying science towards solving a problem. This is what seperates science from engineering. Scienctists further the state of knowledge and engineers use this knowledge in a practical way. I would not say engineering and physics or other natural sciences are taught the same way at all. </p>
<p>You mentioned upper level physics courses for a physics major. Keep in mind this thread is about physics for an ME major.</p>
<p>You need to know physics, not the realtivity stuff though (for now).</p>
<p>A good engineer will know how the tools they are using were made, in order to properly use their tools. I wouldn’t use a hammer made of glass or wrench made of rubber.</p>
<p>Don’t worry though. Eventually physics will seem more like concepts and less like a chore. I don’t really use many of the equations I learned in physics. However, my equations were built from them and the concpets still apply.</p>
<p>JoeJoe5, I agree with what you’re saying. Its just that I did not feel a huge difference between the physics and EE classes that I have taken. I’m only a sophomore so that could be why I feel that if you don’t like physics you’ll probably not like engineering either… but then again I don’t really like math, but I like engineering, so maybe it just depends on perspective.</p>