<p>Hi, I am majoring in software engineering and one of the requirement is to take physics with calculus. Since I already took AP physics in high school and passed the exam, I have the option to take the course without the lab. Is it a wise choice to skip the physics lab for a software engineering major? What about for hardware engineering? Will physics be useful in the future? Any response is appreciated. Thank you.</p>
<p>For hardware engineering…YES! Computer hardware engineering curriculum will overlap a lot with a EE program and you will need to know the “physics” behind circuits and circuit theory. On top of that, the physics course that covers electricity is Physics II. On top…of the “on top of hat”, many EE and even CompE-Hardware majors will take Modern Physics which is a physics course that has Physics I and Physics II (and probably the labs too) as prerequisites.</p>
<p>Even for software engineering, who knows…you may go into the scientific software development area (gaining steam as computational engineering/science). One course needed for that is computational physics which will require prerequisites in the same physics courses as modern physics.</p>
<p>So the answer is YES.</p>
<p>Another application of physics (mechanics) is computer game development, where modeling objects moving and flying around is done.</p>
<p>However, the usefulness of physics in the software industry is mainly dependent on the types of applications you are developing software for.</p>
<p>If you do any type of computer graphics, not just games, physics and multivariable calculus are invaluable because they teach you to think in vectors.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you’re building web applications, education in physics could end up going unused entirely. So what are you actually interested in doing with your degree?</p>
<p>I’m never going to survive in college…</p>