<p>Cal AB (Cal I) => Physics I => Physics II
Cal I is usually the prereq for Physics, so…I would start with Cal I.</p>
<p>However, the more calculus you know, the easier physics will be later on.</p>
<p>Calculus I - equivalent to AB
Calculus II - equivalent to BC
Calculus III - Multivariable Calculus </p>
<p>I think this is how it goes, and Differential Equations is taken after Calculus III. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.</p>
<p>I did not do AP, but after looking at College Board’s curriculum, I feel like AB/BC both refer to Calculus I (with minimal aspects of Calculus II). There definitely is more material in Calculus II than what Calculus AB/BC has to offer. </p>
<p>However, I would suggest just doing Calculus AB for now, and then pursuing Physics I and II.</p>
<p>Oh okay. In my course book and In my school, AB is Calculus I and BC is Calculus II, and Calculus III is also available. I never did believe that BC was Calculus II lol</p>
<p>Actually in most cases BC = Calculus II. That’s why you can usually jump straight into Calculus III if you have BC credit. However, many Calculus II courses do cover trig substitution which is not the BC syllabus (only general “substitution” is), but most BC classes teach trig substitution anyway.</p>
<p>AB covers a bit more than most Calculus I classes.</p>
<p>This is of course very general and it’s easy to find exceptions, there is not a universal and standardized curriculum for the introductory Calculus sequence.</p>
<p>RayonG, your college’s system appears to have slight differences from the norm in the US.</p>
<p>Well, in that case, then Calculus BC should be enough for Calculus II. </p>
<p>Thanks for the AP information, aldfig0, your help is appreciated.</p>
<p>how much trig should I know for calc AB?</p>
<p>I just don’t get how they get the tan, cos, and sine without any triangles present…</p>
<p>Like, they’ll give me an equation without any triangles or anything present, and it’ll have cos etc in it… Where do they get it from?</p>
<p>Edit: this is payitforward, I didn’t realise that I was on my sister’s account.</p>
<p>All the trig you need should be covered in precal…</p>
<p>Yo, AP Calc BC is <em>not</em> Calc II. There’s just no comparing high school math to college math.</p>
<p>AP classes vary widely by teacher, but in general the AP exams are much easier than the exams in college.
I am a physics major and I would definitely say that you should know calculus before starting physics, it makes it much more intuitive. The physics sequence in college is generally intro mechanics/electromagnetism, thermal physics and waves, maybe a general modern physics class, a year of electromagnetism and quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics. Then you could potentially go on to topics like general relativity (important for astrophysics but really advanced mathematically, you usually don’t really go into this until grad school). As for math, you need to know single variable, multivariable, and vector calculus, odes, pdes, linear algebra, and some complex analysis. Later on you will need to know more like abstract algebra. I personally learned a lot of the math in my physics courses although I am also doing a math minor.
I would say its a lot more important to have a good background then just jumping into things, that is how you build intuition which is essential in physics.</p>
<p>Hmm, well I won’t have pre-calculus until senior year…and that’s a long time to wait. I’m really excited about it now…</p>
<p>Can I self-study trig?</p>
<p>I would say that it would probably be hard to self study topics in math or physics without having any background. I mean, I self study stuff a lot, but thats because I have the background from taking classes and have seen the material before. This allows me to know how to take things in the proper context, but without experience I think it would be very hard.</p>
<p>
You are completely wrong, unless the “college” you refer is among the likes of Harvard or MIT.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Just jumping in here… </p>
<p>My math teacher teaches all the upper level math at my (small) school, so he teaches AP Calc AB and BC. His students come back from taking the college equivalent of BC calc and say that their high school class was harder. My math teacher is very, very tough, the average grade is around a B-, but about 80% of his students get 5s on their exams. The students who say high school calc is harder are going to good schools too. So yes, in some schools BC is equivalent to calc II (or whatever it is) in college.</p>
<p>^^Well, yeah, my college is pretty kickass academically (75% of graduates go on to get PhDs). Sorry, I just took it as a general rule that college was harder than high school…My mistake.</p>