<p>I had intended on self-studying Physics E&M starting this summer, as Physics: Mechanics is the only physics-AP offered at my school (which I intend on taking next year). I have been told, however, that Physics E&M requires some of the topics learned in Mechanics. Given that...</p>
<p>1) Is self-studying Physics E&M at all feasible/worth it?
2) What portions of Physics: Mechanics would I need to study before starting with E&M?</p>
<p>I took a 5 in Calculus as a freshman, so the math portion of Physics is not a concern to me. Any thoughts on this? Are there better things to do during the summer?</p>
<p>Yes, you do need to understand mechanics to do E&M. However, if you’ve ever taken physics before, you’ll know enough to do what the test requires in terms of mechanics. As for whether or not you should self-study it, that depends on how thorough you will be. I just took the AP tests for both physics courses after self-studying it and feel as though I should have prepared more and done more review; I spent very little time making sure I understood concepts and literally did not do any review whatsoever, and while mechanics went well, the E&M requires that you understand a broader range of material more completely. It’s not impossible to self-study, it’s not even particularly hard to self-study, just make sure you have the discipline to follow through on it.</p>
<p>Edit: I forgot to say which parts you should study in terms of mechanics. Just understand what basic concepts are and how to solve for them, such as momentum (linear and angular), force, and energy. I found that you didn’t need much of anything else to be able to follow the logic in E&M, although gravity serves as a great analog for electric forces and oscillating and dampened systems can be similar to more complicated circuits in some ways.</p>
<p>My thanks! As far as the topics to self-study go, will I be able to start studying E&M and regress to the portions of Mechanics as I need them? Or should I start with the topics you mentioned before anything else?</p>
<p>Also, I was planning on using an old edition (fourth) of the Fundamentals of Physics textbook to self-study, along with a PR book from my friend. Are there better tools with which I could be self-studying?</p>
<p>The mechanics you need to know are usually to study particle motion – how much acceleration does a particle of charge Q and mass M undergo in an electric field E… Or to the similar extent, what’s the radius of the path taken by that particle if it’s ejected into a field B at a velocity V.</p>
<p>guanyunchang, i self-studied both physics C topics while enrolled in physics B and calculus BC at school, and scored 5’s on all of them, so i could give you a hand</p>
<p>how good are you with calculus?? particularly integration</p>
<p>^yodaguy, wanna give me a hand??? lol
This coming year I’ll be enrolled in Calculus AB and Physics C: Mechanics and will be self-studying E&M on my own.
Tell me your secrets. O_O</p>
<p>guanyunchang, i self-studied both physics C topics while enrolled in physics B and calculus BC at school, and scored 5’s on all of them, so i could give you a hand</p>
<p>how good are you with calculus?? particularly integration</p>
<p>in regards to the textbook, i would suggest any of the resnick-halliday texts, they’re solid with well illustrated examples. i used the 6th edition by walker, resnick, halliday. however, i would highly recommend supplementing the textbook with a solution manual. Without the solution manual, i would not have been able to understand many of the exercises, which were quite challenging.</p>
<p>i would also buy a copy of barron’s ap physics C as a guide towards what a lot of the exam focuses on. for example, the test avoids tedious integration in calculating electric field, and is more likely to ask about the relative strength and the direction.</p>
<p>if you have any more questions, private message me.</p>
<p>The Fundamentals of Physics books by Halliday, Resnick, and Walker are good (I used the 6th edition also). I got Physics for Scientists and Engineers, and they have a lot of problems that are really similar to the free response. </p>
<p>Like yodaguy7 said, I used Barron’s because it offered more detail than PR, which is better for those self-studying. The Barron’s practice problems are harder than the real thing so it’ll prep you well for the exam. </p>
<p>Mechanics often gives good background and problem solving skills that are needed in E&M, but you won’t need a lot of it for E&M. Things like velocity and acceleration, circular motion for those mass spectrometry problems, but most of it you could probably quickly learn when you reach it in the book. For example, on the E&M test, they won’t ask you to find the centripetal acceleration on a roller coaster, but they’ll want you to know what a centripetal force is and the formula. </p>
<p>I self-studied AP Physics C Mechanics (5) and AP Calculus BC (5)this year while enrolled in AP Physics B (5) and I took an Electricity and Magnetism class at Columbia University. I’ll be taking the E&M exam next year (junior year), because the guidance dept wouldn’t give enough financial aid to take the exam this year . </p>
<p>I hope that helped at least a leeeeeeetle :p</p>
<p>DOnt worry too much, I got a 5 on Mechanics last year and I never learned Gravitation too well or Springs at all and I left one free response question completely blank, the curve is extremely generous.</p>
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