Hello, I am currently a third year student at my local community college who is in the process becoming a pharmacy technician for the moment. My long-term goal is to transfer to Michigan State University. Lately I have had some unfortunate situations happen to me. I have passed calculus 1-3 & differential equations with ease, but failed calculus-based physics 1 (mechanics) twice.
I do not know if it was the way I was taught it or how I approached the subject, lecture was combined with labs in the course. I read the textbook & took notes on the most important points, concepts, figures, equations, etc. I got completely lost towards the end of the semester, especially with oscillations, statics, rotational motion and moment of inertia. Occasionally, I would also get lost with the formulation/creation of your own equations for projects from what you know. Maybe it was not enough practice or something like that? It hurts when you are passionate for a subject & yet you do not have the necessary talent or skills to pursue it. I tried physics out but things didn’t work out like I hoped. I wanted to become an astrophysicist where I could do both physics & astronomy. For now, I am pursuing a path to become a certified pharmacy technician or CPhT, I know it’s not the best job in the world, but it’s better than nothing.
A question would be, should I still keep trying or would you suggest that I change majors to a field that doesn’t involve physics? The mathematics B.S. degree at MSU requires that I take a full year of physics, which I do not know if I can do it.
Well, it really depends on what you want to do. If you want to be a pharmacy tech, then it doesn’t sound like you need the physics major. So it’d probably be better to switch to something that you can be more successful in.
If you really want to continue with a physics major, I think you need to seriously look at why you failed your first physics class (physics 1) twice. Sit down with your professor to talk about why you did poorly. Get a tutor if you want to continue in it. Were you just not able to solve the problems? Did you not understand the concepts? Did you run out of time on the tests? Were you just completely lost? If you took a problem from an old exam without the solution, could you solve it now? Failing a class twice is really suggestion that something big is going on to prevent you from being successful in the course. The major would only get harder from here. I don’t know if I’d recommend just powering through, but if you want to continue with the major, then you have to really consider what you will do differently. Just taking the class again without changing anything will likely lead to the same outcome.
This is pretty much how I went through physics. First time was in summer, second last fall. I regret taking it in summer honestly.
Here is how the material was covered & how I went through it.
Introduction, motion concepts, vectors, velocity, acceleration, etc.
1D Kinematics: I didn't really have a problem here, seemed straight forward identifying the givens, draw a dot diagram figure out what you need to find and so forth.
2D Kinematics: I did get a little lost here, but figured out that this is basically two 1D kinematics problems in one, broken down into X & Y components, however I was completely confused when we covered rotational motion, perhaps because the approach to solving these problems are different since it consists of radians and so forth.
Forces/1D dynamics: Force diagrams were not so bad, again felt a little similar to 1D kinematics.
Newton's 3rd Law: Interaction pairs seemed to make sense to me, but became a little confusing because you would have to find a force equation for X & Y consisting of variables from multiple force diagrams.
2D dynamics: Similar situation happened here when it came to rotational motion like in 2D kinematics, was also confusing seeing forces in X & Y as opposed to 1D.
Momentum: Didn't seem that bad, felt like I understood the impulse-momentum theorem, collisions, explosions, and so forth.
Energy: Lots of manipulation of equations from experience, conservation laws seemed straight forward, however putting all the concepts together seems to get me.
Work: I became completely lost by this point, didn't really understand this concept much at all, but lecture on this topic seemed very brief.
Rotational motion of rigid bodies: By far the hardest part of physics 1 for me, especially with net torque, rot. kinetic energy, moment of inertia, angular momentum and statics, was definitely a lot of concepts for one chapter.
Oscillations: Perhaps this the part where my trigonometry was slacking the most, amplitude, frequency, etc. some of the material covered here I haven't done since precalculus 2 in high school.
From my perspective, it seems alot of the problem has to do with rusty trigonometry, radians etc. having not done the stuff in so long; also, rotational motion.
Failing physics I two times is not a good sign. Physics really does nothing but get harder as time goes on. You seem to have some disdain for rotational motion…and that happens to be one of the most important concepts in all of physics. Angular momentum is a big deal in quantum mechanics.
Trig is definitely important in physics. However, the trig used in physics is typically pretty basic. It’s really just right triangle trig and basic radian measure. That’s the stuff that you learn over the first 2-3 weeks of a typical trig class.
Consider the typical flow of a physics degree -
-University Physics I, II, and III (200 level)
-Classical Mechanics I and II (usually 300 level, sometimes 400 level). This is everything that you cover in physics I with much greater depth and complexity…including rotational motion.
-Electricity & Magnetism I and II (400 level). This is everything from physics II in much greater depth and complexity. Angular motion and oscillations are still very relevant here.
-Quantum Mechanics I and II (400 level). Lots and lots of angular momentum here.
Clearly, angular motion/momentum is one of the most important concepts in physics. Same goes for oscillations. I’m not telling you this to discourage you. It’s crucial stuff though.
In addition to this, there are typically a few other courses in thermal and statistical physics, relativity, and some upper level labs.
At the very least, I’d recommend really brushing up on your trig before retaking physics I. It seems like a lot of your problems are coming from this. It might even be a good idea to retake trig over the summer if possible. I definitely wouldn’t recommend taking physics I over the summer. Physics is a hard subject. It’s my major, and there were a couple points where I got so lost on a topic that I started considering changing my major. I’ve always managed to collect the pieces and put it all together though. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes of staring at a problem before it clicks.