What makes statics a hard class? How is it different than a mechanical physics class?
I didn’t find it to be a hard class, I actually really enjoyed it. A good amount of work, but there aren’t any mind bending principles to learn or anything. The whole premise of the class is basically: the sum of all forces on a body = 0 (static equilibrium).
It essentially takes the stuff from Physics 1 (the stuff on mechanics) and elaborates on them, and it does it in more of a real-world kind of way. You’re not dealing with abstract particles systems (maybe to initially explain the concept, but probably not for the problems), you’re dealing with guy wires, tethers and loads on a crane, for example.
If you’re good with vectors, trig, summing forces, moments (probably referred to as “torque” in your physics class, but it’s the same thing) and stuff on center of mass/gravity, you should be fine. If not, I’m sure your professor will review/explain the basics. Good luck
Thank you for your insight. I’m not too worried since I took two years of physics in high school and got an A in college. The only thing is that more than 30% of engineering students at my school have to retake it.
I agree with Soclydeza. I didn’t find it difficult but it can be time consuming. If you don’t keep up with the work it is hard to catch up. I think a lot of people try to cram all of the work in right before a test and that would be very tough.
For me, it seems like every quarter there is one “focus class” that requires more time. Statics seems to be it. I guess I will see.
Keep in mind that statics is the first (or one of the first) real “engineering” classes that one has to take. I don’t think the 30% you speak of reflects the difficulty of the material as much as how demanding engineering classes are in general; some students aren’t prepared for the amount of problems sets and studying that engineering profs make their students do and it takes them a few semesters to adjust to it. As long as you’re aware that there are usually copious amounts of work to do for engineering classes, no matter the difficulty of the class, and you schedule you time efficiently, you should be fine for this class and any that follow.