<p>Which would you say is most important for physics C ?
A previous physics class (Hon physics, Ap physics B?)
For calculus knowledge ?
Or both
In my situation i have a strong calculus foundation but no physics background, Would physics C be to much ??</p>
<p>Based on my experience, having (or currently taking) BC Calc (or an equivalent or more advanced course - AB Calc is a no go) makes Physics C much easier (especially the E&M portion of the course). It’ll help you lots with the many, many derivations.Previous physics knowledge isn’t really necessary as the physics you learn is pretty simple (less material than a regular physics course/ Physics B, but much more in depth).</p>
<p>Prior physics knowledge won’t be of much help, as I took Mechanics last year and had to completely revise my misconceptions. </p>
<p>I would agree that having a strong math base is vital to solving physics problems. Mechanics only really see calculus when working with differential equations (which came up last year!) and deriving moment of inertia. However, you have to be very skilled with algebra and substitutions/manipulations if you’re one suited for deriving and not memorizing physics, such as with uniform circular motion problems (if you don’t have a good memory, that’s ok, because 80% of what you learn can be derived from F=ma). E/M sees considerably more work with calculus (circuits, gauss’ law, etc)</p>
<p>Thank you both sooo much for the quick replys 
… so in other words i should be completely fine with just calculus.
Im a junior currently in AB calc (easy A) and next year ill be taking Physics C along with BC calc i hope thats enough lol</p>
<p>AB Calc is more than sufficient for both parts of Physics C, provided you have a conceptual grasp of it.</p>
<p>Are the two parts of Physics C each as big, as, say chemistry, or are they only as big as ‘one AP course’ when combined?</p>
<p>Mech + E&M = Combined 1 AP course</p>
<p>Typically, college curricula will do Mech for 1 semester and E&M for another semester (so 1/2 year each).</p>
<p>However, in terms of the AP, there are quite a few schools that only do Mechanics for the entire year. Individually, the Mech and E&M syllabi are relatively small.</p>
<p>Difficulty-wise, my guess though is that many students will find it easier to do, say, AP Chem rather than both Mech + E&M.</p>
<p>I’m currently taking physics c right now, and I have no prior physics knowledge and am currently taking bc calc. You should be fine as long as you understand basic derivatives and integrals. That being said…good luck and practice lot cause it is HARD. I consider myself sufficient at math, and I’m struggling haha. If you understand the formulas you can probably pick up half of the points on frqs, but you really have to be able to critically comprehend everything.</p>
<p>Previous knowledge in physics wont help much, but there really isnt that much material to learn. Problem solving skill and conceptual understanding are most important.</p>
<p>As for math-
What you DO need:
- vectors, also both dot and cross products, and simple vector calculus (THIS IS NOT IN AP CALC but most physics books explain it)
- techniques of integration and differentiation, chain rule, u-sub, parts, trig, log and exp, etc. Really helps, but on the actual exam they usually tell you a hard integral when you need it.<br>
- conceptual understanding of integrals. In calculus, all you do is evaluate integrals (albeit with some fancy tricks), but in physics you have to know how to apply integration as a limit of a sum to find moment of inertia, charge distribution, etc.
- differential equations- knowing separations of variables is enough, but very important.
- optimization- needed on energy diagrams (small part, but helps)</p>
<p>What you DO NOT need:
- infinite series- has science applications but not at this level.
- areas and volume
- fancy techniques-partial fractions, logarithmic differentiation, etc.
- theory- limits, mean value theorem, lhopital, etc.</p>