Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but I am a junior in HS and I am currently taking AP Physics 1 mechanics. Although the concepts of physics are fascinating, it is by far my hardest class this year and I am getting C’s and occasionally low B’s on tests and quizzes. What I was wondering was how much of the stuff you learn in this AP class (we just finished up learning about torque and rotational inertia, now starting a unit on sound) is drawn from in engineering classes in college. The word problems just confuse me and no matter how many homework problems I do, I still get tripped up on tests and quizzes and blank. I am still unsure if engineering is right for me, and I would like to try it out in college, but if it is very similar to this class then I don’t know how I can keep my head above the water regarding grades, so to speak. Should I rethink considering engineering as a career path? Or am I freaking out for no reason?
I think you have it a bit backwards. Engineering draws from physics. This course you are taking and the second one too will form the base of an engineering education along with mathematics. Clearly, if you do well in physics, you have a leg up on your engineering but in my experience, not all engineers get A’s in their physics classes. The approach to the problems tends to be a bit different in the two disciplines.
Think of it in another way. You have had the experience of seeing the material in high school, if you choose engineering, you will see it again. Perhaps the second time, in college, you will be able to grasp it better.
Ill slightly disagree with xraymancs and say that it is quite important.
The topics you mentioned Torque and rotational inertia happen to be covered in what are widely considered engineering weed out classes - statics and dynamics.
While it is important, xraymancs is correct in that you will see it again and they will pretty much assume you havent seen it before in these classes. Just grasp whatever you can and know that you will have to be able to do them eventually, In the grand scheme of things however, I would not worry as much because so many to-be engineers just tolerate this stuff and then specialize (and do great in!) other fields like fire protection, thermodynamics and the like.
Bottom line - dont let it defeat you, but if you feel it is so uninteresting and abstruse, then you are the best judge as to what to do.
I actually was in a IB High School and did the APs through self study myself because the colleges I wanted to get into had a better credit policy for the APs. AP physics the actual exam I thought was a lot easier than what the study books like PR teach it as.
Let’s put it this way - you know how middle and high school students take algebra, geometry, algebra 2/trig, pre-calculus, and AP Calculus? AP Physics 1 would be like pre-algebra compared to the rest of the engineering curriculum.
Is your Calculus knowledge sufficient? AP Mechanics is Calc based (at least it used to be). If you’re a junior, you’re probably concurrently enrolled in Calc AB if at all. So, it could be simply your math chops aren’t up to speed with what’s needed in class.
I’m going to say that the Physics class is quite an important step towards engineering. Not so much for the principles of torque, etc. but from a learning stand point. You may never use the principles of physics if you go into computer programming for instance. But the thought processes you should be learning in Physics are used throughout engineering.
Engineering is a visual-spatial subject. You get a problem, visualize what is going on and then visualize the solution. Then the math comes in to develop a numerical solution. For a lot of your high school classes to date, the subject matter is typically taught in more of a audio-sequential mode. The teacher explains the problem, shows you the solution and you change a few variables for new problem and then just do the same procedure that the original solution entailed.
So, it may not be an understanding problem as much as how you approach the problem. Sit back for a minute and try to figure what you have. Figure out what you do know, what you don’t know and how those two sets are related. Drawing sketches of the problem can usually help. If you change your approach to studying the subject you may find it much easier to understand and will help kick off an engineering career, if that is where you want to go.
Having a hard time in high school physics isn’t a sign you aren’t cut out to be an engineer - chances are, you’ll take intro physics again in college. If you have a tough time then, the second time you’re learning the material, that could be a bad sign. You do not need to be worrying about this now though!
If you have good math skills … that is a clear sign of engineering readiness … if not, and you have concept issues … well read on.
If teacher is trying to teach AP physics 1 mechanics material consistent with AP Physics C - mechanics … it could be really hard, or the teacher could be hard, or this could be one of the feared NJ schools with unreasonable (to some) requirements.
Physics is calculus, or it’s just a description of physical phenomena (cars push cars foward using the friction on the tires), so you can easily need math to help understand physics …
You should talk to your teacher to get some good feedback on why you are not doing better, and ask for honesty. You might not be working hard enough, because you are smart and maybe write well, and all your other classes are easy. You might not have good algebra skills. You might be having trouble with abstract concepts or turning those into math/calc-lite type equations and then solving them.
If you are willing to work hard, you should review all the great materials available on the internet for students, likely full AP physics 1 tutorials, lots of little demos and exercises. There are demos (little java exercises) for torque … I have done them for review … google “torque concepts or something” and look for schools that you have heard of and then look at 2 or 3 and find the teacher that most speaks to your strengths.
If you are not willing to work hard, I will warn you that engineering can be quite a lot of work, especially for students that don’t immediately get either the math or the engineering.
Also since this is CC, think about going to a school that is cheap, convenient and maybe not prestigious BUT that is ABET accredited. Some are student friendly too, trying to keep students progressing along the engineering track. Or take some of your freshman say physics calc at a community college, work harder than all there so you really master the material, and then enter the fray of trying to keep a 2.0 or 3.0 while juggling 4 or more difficult classes.
@PickOne1 What’s weird is Calc BC is my best class, but Physics 1 is my worst (well, that and history). I think I suffer from the third point you bring up about why I might be struggling, which is turning abstract concepts into concrete equations and processes. I kind of just blank when faced with physics problems (especially on tests), but it makes sense after the teacher explains them to me. Like someone else said, I think I just have to work on figuring out what I know and then finding equations to link them all together.
There are wonderful on-line tools, try a search engine with something like “torque class notes”. I like the little java applets. MIT has online courses for free … and you can work at a slow pace and ignore anything too hard, there are no grades (material will be more like Physics C-Mechanics, but that is a good thing, since that is college level physics you will take soon enough).
If these types of visualizations help you understand, that is actually a good thing, since the visualizations are a lot like a real world problem (torque imposed on a tire by friction with the road) and then you convert it to physics equation and then to math solution. This is the core part of engineering, especially since today we have so many software packages like NASTRAN, etc that solve all the math for you once you reduce a physical system into a mathematical form.
It sounds odd, but getting over the hurdles for Physics 1 now will also help you with strategies for recovering from say a C on a midterm in college, you can usually still get an A in the class if you find the right resources, from real live help to internet to just allocating more hours to a class.