<p>Hello all, fairly new to teh website but thoroughly enjoy the resourcefulness of it. Had a question for you all if you could answer: im taking physics 2 next semester electricity and magnetism, been about almost 2 years since i took physics 1, will i be ok in physics 2? or should i take physics 1 before going into physics 2 again? i've talked to some people on campus and they all told me mixed opinions, some said physics 2 has completely new concepts hence you don't need to know too much from physics 1, but others said that physics 2 directly correlates with physics 1 in regard to some concepts. Would i be ok with physics 2 next semester after taking physics 1 such a long time ago or should i take physics 1 again if it really does play a huge role in physics 2? thanks in advance for any input.</p>
<p>E&M does have a large fundamental overlap with mechanics, but as long as you are comfortable with cross products and vectors in general you should be fine. The equations are relatively simple but all that matters is how you set up the problem.</p>
<p>If you did well in Physics 1, you shouldn’t have to worry about taking it again. Usually, when people say there’s an overlap in mechanics and E&M, it’s an overlap in how you approach the problem and such. You shouldn’t need to take Physics 1 again to learn that.</p>
<p>i did decent in PHysics 1 got a B, remember the basic stuff like F= ma and force applied on one end is the same on the other. So i should just brush up on vectors basically and i should be ok? thanks for the responses btw</p>
<p>In my physics classes so far (introductory calc-based stuff, not the “real” stuff) they haven’t really used vectors in-depth. I don’t think my professor even bothered teach how to find a cross-product the real way, just how to find what direction it points in (most people taking the class hadn’t covered vectors in calc yet).</p>
<p>Just remember F=ma and how to integrate and you should be fine. Things like momentum and rolling motion and the other stuff they like to bring up in Physics I don’t enter into it much (well, not in the class you’ll be taking).</p>
<p>Most of the time in that class, you’ll be mucking about with charges and fields and not directly worrying about the ‘more real’ physical quantities such as energy and momentum.</p>
<p>You should remember stuff about forces, work, and potential energy, but stuff on momentum and all of the rotational stuff from mechanics doesn’t come up in the class.</p>
<p>Yes, remembering everything you learned about potential energy is important for E&M when voltage comes up. Unfortunately, a lot of principles in physics don’t get clearly spelled out for the student. They don’t say up front that only <em>changes</em> in potential energy <em>with respect to some arbitrary zero point</em> matter. Well, they kind of do when talking about gravitational potential energy (if you have a good teacher), but skip pointing this out when discussing electrical potential energy. So you can hurt your brain trying to figure out what they mean by saying “the electric potential energy of this charge is XXX J.” The “XXX” is just as arbitrary as the zero point. Only the <em>difference</em> in electric potential energy from one point to another matters.</p>
<p>Just study hard and you’ll be okay.</p>
<p>As someone who teaches E&M, I find this discussion interesting.</p>
<p>Which parts are interesting?</p>
<p>“In my physics classes so far (introductory calc-based stuff, not the “real” stuff) they haven’t really used vectors in-depth. I don’t think my professor even bothered teach how to find a cross-product the real way, just how to find what direction it points in (most people taking the class hadn’t covered vectors in calc yet).”</p>
<p>The above statement is one of many that is interesting.</p>
<p>Well DocT considering your a professor for this course, you think i should be ok going into this class? and thanks for everyone esle for their input as well it’s given me an idea of what to expect.</p>
<p>Fear not, DocT, I have a two-quarter sequence on E&M once I transfer to OSU that covers it in more depth. One quarter for E, one for M. :-D</p>
<p>In my HS physics class, I feel like we’re learning the same thing you guys are learning in Physics 1.</p>
<p>^That would be the point of HS physics, which is to… learn physics. But there’s no way you’re going quite as in-depth as a college class does, unless you’re at some uber-freak magnet school. High school is kinda there to just give you a background in the major topics, whereas in college, they really delve into the how/why it happens/works/whatever.</p>
<p>Eh, I don’t know…the physics classes at my high school were not very good, but I think we covered almost everything that Physics 1 covered.</p>
<p>Physics 2 (E&M) went much more in depth than high school did though.</p>
<p>What if you took AP Physics?</p>
<p>AP Physics is generally college level and most will accept AP credit if you get a good score… though you’d have to check with the individual college curriculum, I believe.</p>
<p>In general, I have heard that it is not recommended to even take the AP credit for Physics even if you score well enough. However, based on my experience so far, it seems that for at least the mechanics portion, the AP course did a very good job as far as depth.</p>
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<p>Well I mean, that was my basic point, just that college gets more into the background of how it works, and where equations are derived from. Like instead of presenting you with the position/velocity/acceleration equations, they’ll show you how each is related to one another; it’s less rote memorization and more derivation. That’s all I meant.</p>