Is Taking Physics 1 after Calculus 2 a Good or Bad Idea?

College Majors Science Majors
1

<p>I am into my first semester of college and I am taking Biology 1, Chemistry 1, and Calculus 1. The problem is that I think I am going to want to major in Physics, so I will techically be behind one semester compared to my peers. My university usually only offers physics courses in a specific order(It offers Physics III only in the Fall semester, etc...) So if I took Physics II in the Fall of 2011, I would be unable to take Physics III in the Spring. That would mean I would have a whole semester I could not take classes since most of the other courses require Physics III as a prerequisite.</p>

<p>If I wait until after my freshmen year to take Physics, I will be back on track with everyone else. However, I am worried that I would have trouble with the Physics I since it would have been a year since I took Calculus I. Do you see any problem with this? Should I take Physics I next semester or wait? An example of my future schedule would be this if I decide to take physics after calc 2:</p>

<p>Fall 2010: Spring 2011: Fall 2011: Spring 2012:
-Biology I -Calculus II -Physics I -Physics II
-Chemistry I -Elective -Differential Equations<br>
-Calculus I -Elective -Multivariable</p>

<p>I forgot to mention that I only have one more liberal art class left since I took college courses in high school for two years. Any input would be great. Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>After 3 semesters of calculus, and being lectured by so many upperclassmen and professors (because I go to school a lot rofl), and I am a physics major myself, and I love physics very much…</p>

<p>You can either co-take physics 1 and calculus 1. This is what most freshman do (those enter college with calculus being first math class, and if physics is their first course).
I didn’t. Although I had caclulus 1 before entering college, I had chemistry and calculus 1 in my freshman first semester. So I began my physics 1 last semester, along with calculus 2.</p>

<p>But usually it’s a good idea to co-take physics 1 with calculus 2. The reason is because you don’t even know what limit and derivative are until you finish calculus 1.</p>

<p>In physics one you will learn simple vectors, cross product and dot product which are cover in calculus 3. But that’s okay because they are so light and totally not important at that stage, so most schools don’t give a damn about those. They will tell you how to perform cross product, dot product, and vectors. But you still have no idea why you need cross product and dot product until you hit calculus 3.</p>

<p>You will see do product and cross product in physics 1 all the time, for example: work and torque, angular momentum, respectively. </p>

<p>Again, at this stage your concern is able to solve problems. Unless you are a physics major, or some hardcore engineering course where definition of cross product, dot products, and fields are required. These things are beyond physics 1.</p>

<p>In our school, calculus 2 is just about integration and differentiation techniques.
If you do take physics 1 after finishing calculus 2, that’s not bad. Consider calculus 3 begins with vector.</p>

<p>However, word of caution. I forgot to mention earlier: course curriculum varies from school to school. At our school, calculus 3 covers vectors and vector functions, integration over spaces, multivariate calculus (partial derivative, double and triple integration), and series. Many schools cover series before calculus 3. Some school offers 4 semesters of calculus!!!</p>

<p>Beyond those two course, you definitely need linear algebra and differential equations to continue your physics major study. </p>

<p>In fact, you will encounter at least one multivariate application. I believe it’s the center of mass. Not a bad deal at all.</p>

<p>As my math professor (for linear algebra and vector analysis course, he has background in math and physics) said: it was better to know all the calculus to enter physics. He said students didn’t really understand what a field is until they hit vector calculus. At the moment I am doing vector calculus as the first half of the course, and later I will do matrix, which is essential for quantum mechanics.</p>

<p>

What are those “elective”? I don’t understand. </p>

<p>Physics 1 requires very light calculus.
Physics 2 will require a lot more consider the applications aren’t straightforward anymore.</p>

3

<p>I decided to take Physics two over the next summer semester. It starts the end of May and ends at the end of August so it won’t be too compressed. Here is what the schedule will be like:</p>

<p>Fall 2010: Spring 2011: Summer 2011: Fall 2011:
-Chem 1 -Calc 2 -Physics 2 -Multivariable
-Biol 1 -Physics 1 -Linear Algebra/Differential
-Calc 1 -Liberal Arts -Physics III(Waves,Optics, Special Relat.)
Elective</p>

<p>I was just worried about that I would have been too far behind if I waited to take Physics until after I finish Integral Calculus. Does anyone think Physics 2 would be too hard over a three month summer course(May 24-August 20)?</p>

4

<p>

Next time you should just break up into lines. Too hard to read</p>

<p>So I assume this is the scheulde that you decided

</p>

<p>Since you have three semesters of physics, and according the note that you provide, I guess physics 2 is about electricity and magnetism.
I don’t think it’s hard at all. What happen is that you need to stay in focus. It’s summer, my friend. People get lazy over summer. Stay focus. That’s the big challenge.</p>

<p>How far are you behind? It totally depends on your major. Let say you are a physic major, I don’ think you are too far behind. Maybe just a semester. But you have more summers to make up one or two classes that are behind.</p>

<p>Look through the courses that are required for your major, and check if physics 1, physics 2, and physics 3 as pre-requites. Compare how many will be affected.</p>

5

<p>Okay my bad. I didn’t look re-read it.

</p>

<p>It seems like you are your planned schedule will work fine. If everyone begins physics 1 now, you will be take physics 3 with them in Fall 2011, am I correct?</p>

6

<p>Yes, you are right. I will be back on track by the Fall of 2011. Thanks for the help. I am going to try to take the Physics course over the summer.</p>

7

<p>I think it can also depend on your major and school. Back when I was an undergrad, all engineering and science majors (including computer science) required Calculus I,II,III, Chemistry I, Physics I, Physics II (Actually, we were on quarters but for this post, I am using what it would be in semesters).</p>

<p>To be accepted into the “college” (last 2 years), a CS major only needed Calculus I,II and Chemistry I. What many CS majors did was wait until after taking Calculus III (vectors) to take Physics I. Now probably only CS majors could do that because all they needed was 2 Physics courses and probably would not take anything else that needed Physics I or II as a prereq.</p>

<p>For all other engineering majors: your Physics sequence should be ONE behind your Calculus sequence: Physics I with Calculus II, Physics II with Calculus III, etc. It makes it easier.</p>