<p>Hey engineering majors, I see a lot of threads and posts about physics being the hardest class you took, and I hear it from other engineering majors I know.</p>
<p>So I'm wondering: what was it that made physics hard for you? Any specific example problems?</p>
<p>I believe it depends on the individual but some common reasons I have notice are</p>
<p>1) Lack of interest in the material </p>
<p>2) A lot of material is covered and some people like to study at the last minute. You can do that at liberal art classes and calc 1. However, physics, calc 2-3, diff eq require you to study frequently </p>
<p>3) They may get a bad professor who just can’t teach but takes pride in the difficulty of his exams</p>
<p>4)They don’t try to understand the concepts but instead memorize some procedures and formulas. Memorizing is useless in physics since the exams are open note</p>
<p>5) They think study groups <em>help</em> but in reality it is usually a waste of time. You are better off doing a lot of practice problems and trying to fully understand the concepts</p>
<p>If one so desires, it’s possible to push the fundamentals taught in physics (and math, for the record) to mind-numbingly difficult extremes. It’s not the concepts, but the fact that they can be really hard to use if the material itself is hard to apply the concepts to.</p>
<p>Oh, and anything having to do with spinning stuff.</p>
<p>Yes, I had trouble applying the concepts. I studied hard, did all the homework, talked to the prof, had a tutor, etc., but when I looked at the exam I had a hard time even knowing where to start. I made high grades in other classes, but I struggled both semesters of physics.</p>
<p>Well, I am taking Classical Physics I at a local community college, 8 week Summer course. I started this course with a very open mind but I struggled a lot. </p>
<p>It was not due to my lack of interest or not spending enough time, I spent a lot of time studying but the concepts did not stick, my mind was a total confusion of formulas and concepts that made no sense, I was not connecting the dots.</p>
<p>Yesterday, I spent 4 hours at the library, I went over everything slowly, redid all the exercises and suddenly, everything made sense. I was so happy that I went back to the library today and spent another 5 hours today studying, suddenly I was enjoying what I was learning and everything was making sense for the first time.</p>
<p>I guess, it is a bit too late now, only 3 weeks left until the end of the course, I may still pass but even if I have to retake this course, I know I will do much better.</p>
<p>In my opinion, a lot of people who take Physics simply never have that aha moment and if they do not, they will never be able to connect one topic to another and enjoy the subject. That is just my personal experience!</p>
<p>@bschoolwiz It’s amazing. You were humming completely different tune in the beginning. Are you happy you didn’t give up?</p>
<p>Niquii77, I am starting to enjoy the subject but it very painful when you go to class everyday and you are surrounded by kids who seem to get the concepts right away and you feel like you are the only one who is lost.</p>
<p>Confidence in Physics is very important, I guess. When I took my first test, I was literally shaking, my palms got sweaty, my mind drew a blank, it was horrible! I guess, if you are not confident, failure becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. We will see how test 2 goes.</p>
<p>bschoolwiz, don’t worry, just about every student that breezes through the beginning hits a class where they just don’t get it. (Mine was my second term in thermodynamics.)</p>
<p>The hardest part of physics for me was how every problem didn’t have an obvious starting point. Yeah, you know the equations you might need to apply to that particular problem, but you don’t necessarily know how to go about it. Problems don’t always fall into really neat categories. To me, that was the difference that made calc a little easier than physics.</p>
<p>For me it was a poor professor (temp. lecturer actually). He didn’t order a book for the class, he provided few if any homework examples for the test, he was almost impossible to reach via email if you couldn’t make office hours, and the exams were still as difficult as if he had thoroughly covered the material, which he didn’t because he canceled class multiple times due to conflicts with his second job.</p>
<p>In high school I really liked physics, but I have found that at my school the professors teaching the general education courses (chemistry, physics, calculus, etc.) are often resentful because they’ve been forced into doing it, and they feel like many of the students aren’t worth teaching. This definitely isn’t every professor, but it still feels like there are too many cases of “I don’t care how amazing his research is, how did this guy get tenure?”</p>
<p>Physics had BOTH the hardest course I had (Electromagnetics) and easiest course I had (Computational Physics).</p>
<p>Technically, my hardest course was an EE course in Electromagnetics. It was basically what made me “tap out” as far as being an EE major. I know it was the EE-version of Electromagnetics, but I am pretty sure the Physics-version of Electromagnetics would have been just as hard (maybe harder because of the theory).</p>
<p>Now Computational Physics was easy for me and I took the course because it was known on campus as an “blowoff” (meaning easy ‘A’) BECAUSE I already had taken Numerical Analysis in the Math major. Computational Physics basically covered the same material as Numerical Analysis without the “error analysis” portion of the course. To be honest, the Physics and Math departments of Michigan State SHOULD have had a rule that disallowed Computational Math majors (who were required to take a full year of Numerical Analysis) to enroll in the Computational Physics course. Nevertheless, took the course for an easy ‘A’ and for someone who was under a 3.0 GPA, I needed any easy ‘A’ I could get my hands on.</p>
<p>Of course, in many large universities, departments do not talk to one another.</p>
<p>I just hated Electricity and Magnetism. Those concepts did not stick very well for me and I barely passed the class. I really liked all of the mechanics stuff (forces, inertia, gravity etc) which is why I did mechanical engineering haha. </p>
<p>I also had a rough time with the optics/waves class because the professor gave no partial credit in the exams. It was so bad, I didn’t pass a class for the first time ever and had to retake. Luckily, I did a lot better the second time around because the professor was an easier grader.</p>
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<p>Oh please, the angular momentum covered in the intro sequence that all engineers take is like eating sponge cake with strawberries and whipped cream compared to the barbed-wire-and-booger sandwich that is angular momentum that you cover in your first physics majors physics classes. And then quantum angular momentum…eeerrrgh…</p>
<p>Now, those of you mech and aero guys who had to cover the hard version of (classical) angular momentum as well, you guys can complain. :)</p>
<p>I just took a year of general physics in school, and had the same professor for both classes. Most of the class was him deriving and proving formulas on the board in front of the class, and I would zone out after a few minutes. I felt dumber at the end of the year than at the start.</p>
<p>I actually learned physics, at least the electromagnetism part, when I got a job writing software to model radar systems. Trying to simulate electromagnetic phenomena on the computer really forces you to understand it. Physics became interesting when there was a tangible use for it.</p>
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That’s the thing though, that just proves that you can take physics to some really ridiculous extremes if you have your heart set on it. My professor managed to make problems that were obnoxiously difficult using only 1D kinematics. With something legitimately difficult like spinning stuff, the possibilities are limitless.</p>
<p>As someone who took AP Physics B and managed to get a 5 on the exam, I’d say that the hard part is more like applying and putting the concepts and mathematics in practice. I mean, memorizing equations is not hard, not to mention that instructors often allow the usage of reference sheets, as the goal of physics is not mindless memorization. The math is also not as complicated, as the mathematics used in a physics course will generally be pre-requisites, so a student that has not yet taken calculus should not be in a physics course that requires integrals and derivatives to solve problems.</p>
<p>When I say applying, I mean using the equations and theories to solve the problems. For example, in order to find the net force that a number of charged particles exert on a specific one in a 2D space would not only require the knowledge of Coulomb’s Law, but also require some critical thinking and usage of trigonometry, which is not outright stated in the problem. I see that many people just try to memorize equations and suddenly they do not know what to do when faced with a problem more complicated than asking what is the forced produced between the charges of two particles. Basically, it’s just that physics requires little to no memorization and a lot of thinking, problem solving, and rationalization, unlike what most students are used to.</p>
<p>Though, when it comes to mathematics, I found that ironically, the more advanced math is used in physics, the easier it tends to be.</p>
<p>As someone that frequently tutors physics, I’d say it’s:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>They don’t understand the math. Most of the time, people just don’t understand math in general. A lot of people fail precalc and calculus. I don’t consider those to be difficult, but some people just don’t naturally understand it. Physics is hugely composed of math concepts.</p></li>
<li><p>You actually have to understand the material. I see a lot of people get by in college classes by simply memorizing a definition, memorizing an answer or memorizing an algorithm. That won’t work for very long in physics. People try to memorize which equations to use in which scenarios without understanding where the equations come from or what they are actually doing. This just won’t work.</p></li>
<li><p>You cannot prepare for specific questions on the tests. The basic physics classes have a few problems that you can expect on a test, since the scenarios have to be ideal without using more math than what’s covered in calc 1. Other than that, you don’t know what will really be on the test. You know what concepts will be there and you can study the concepts, but you must understand the material in order to apply it to a problem on the test. Depending on your physics teacher (I’ve found this a lot in my engineering courses), you may even have to solve something that requires learning how to do it on the day of the exam when you see the problem. They teach you the tools and you are on your own to figure out how to use them.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’ve always thought physics classes were easy compared to some memorization heavy courses like a&p or biochem. To each their own</p>
<p>My Physics professor gave us a test review sheet yesterday. Me and one of my classmates went over all the problems, concepts, etc, spent hours making sure that we understood everything and I was feeling very confident until our test today.</p>
<p>Problem is, the problems that were on our test were similar to the ones on the review sheet but he added some twists to them that sometimes I simply did not understand. </p>
<p>Anyways, I really don’t know what else we could have done differently to prepare for this test.</p>
<p>I went from wanting to get a solid B in this class to doubting my ability to pass this class even after the insane amount of work and effort on our parts-not to mention all the stress related to our 3 hour long labs and the daily activities we do in class.</p>
<p>Less than 3 weeks until the end of this course. Honestly, I have no idea what it is going to happen.</p>
<p>@bschoolwiz, your post sums up my experience with Physics. Its tough. I have never gotten less than an A-, until Physics. Hang in there. After everything was said and done, I found I did much better than a lot of people. </p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>What book are you guys using?</p>
<p>He suggested: Physics for Scientists and Engineers 8th Edition Serway/Jewett. </p>
<p>Since this is a 8 week-6 credit Summer course, the professor makes his own handouts everyday covering each topic. </p>
<p>I tried to use the textbook he suggested but it made me even more confused.</p>
<p>I don’t really like that textbook. Halliday’s physics is my personal choice, and every professor I’ve ever respected fondly remembers that book from their own undergraduate experience.</p>