What to take instead of AP Physics C E&M?

Parent Cafe
16

To speak to the curricular point: It would be highly desirable to have some exposure to E&M before enrolling in a university physics course in E&M. It will make a lot of difference in understanding the course concepts. A student who is majoring in Chemical Engineering, even if pre-vet, will almost certainly need the calculus-based E&M course.

Depending on what was covered in the high-school chemistry course, it would also be desirable for the student to have some exposure to E&M before taking freshman chemistry, if the student is going to do that.

If the student is not going to take freshman chemistry (due to AP credit), then thermodynamics is also an issue. Freshman chem usually includes “baby thermo.”

Here are my specific recommendations, that don’t require enrolling in anything, to cover the physics background that is needed:

  1. Buy the PSSC physics high-school text book. Over one of the summers ahead of taking physics in college, help your daughter go through and really understand the chapters on electricity and magnetism. There are not too many, and you will be able to help her with it. (This would not apply to parents in general.)

  2. If your daughter is going to take freshman chem in college, then nothing else is needed.

  3. If your daughter has AP credit in chemistry, and is not going to take freshman chem, then it depends on whether her class covered thermo at the AP level (most do), and whether she feels confident about the thermo material. If so, then nothing else is needed.

  4. If your daughter has AP credit in chemistry, and is not going to take freshman chem, but does not feel comfortable with thermo, then it would also be advisable to go through the thermo chapter or chapters in a college freshman chemistry text, ahead of taking chemical engineering thermo. Another option to cover introductory thermo (one I might recommend) is the text Engines, Energy, and Entropy: A Thermodynamics Primer, by John Fenn.

  5. Optics can almost always be learned “on the fly.” I don’t think prior exposure is needed. (By this, I mean optics for chemical engineering/pre-vet. It might be different for a student intending to major in physics.)