hate methods, will i hate calculus? ... oh &physics too

[vexx]

^uni is going to be awesomeeeee.

ok so i have an ebook 'Physics for Scientists and Engineers' by Knight, which has the same concepts as the ones we learn (i think).. so will flick through it over the holidays, quantum physics sounds fascinating. i've read about string theory before in the past which was really interesting, but i doubt i'd be studying dimensions (asides from 1 and 2) and the like at uni.. does anyone on these forums actually study this? like the real physics people?
=getting ahead of myself

Knight's book is generally the most popular undergraduate physics textbook, it's pretty good. It's equivalent to Stewarts Calculus, an undergraduate (and probably one of the best) calculus textbook.

ahh okay cool, well i have an ebook from studytemple so that should be okay and i'll flick through it to see what is being taught quite soon. i'll take note of that calculus book then if i need a good reference for uni when doing calculus! cheers.

[Russ]

Get the subject reader over a textbook

[vexx]

Get the subject reader over a textbook

subject reader?

[Russ]

Published by the uni, it's a collection of all the material you'll need for the course. For calc1, it was all the lecture slides and sets of problem questions.

I never even opened the textbook for calculus

[vexx]

Published by the uni, it's a collection of all the material you'll need for the course. For calc1, it was all the lecture slides and sets of problem questions.

I never even opened the textbook for calculus

oh i see, so its the same for physics? how much are they, sounds awesome. i dont think i'll be buying the textbooks considering i never used my chem one this year anyway.. (ill find ebooks rather to aid)

[Russ]

They're usually...$20? Can't remember exactly, most science subjects don't have them because there's not much extra information.

Just print your lecture notes out before lectures and you're fine

[rustic_metal]

Physics doesn't have them. Maths subjects do, but they're incomplete. You have to attend every lecture and copy it all down.

[schnappy]

^uni is going to be awesomeeeee.

ok so i have an ebook 'Physics for Scientists and Engineers' by Knight, which has the same concepts as the ones we learn (i think).. so will flick through it over the holidays, quantum physics sounds fascinating. i've read about string theory before in the past which was really interesting, but i doubt i'd be studying dimensions (asides from 1 and 2) and the like at uni.. does anyone on these forums actually study this? like the real physics people?
=getting ahead of myself

Knight's book is generally the most popular undergraduate physics textbook, it's pretty good. It's equivalent to Stewarts Calculus, an undergraduate (and probably one of the best) calculus textbook.

I've read a lot of Knight's book in prep for UMEP Physics, I shall now read this Stewart book, in prep of further. Thank you

[dptjandra]

Calc 2 (and from what I've heard, Calc 1) is comparatively easy, but if you hate methods, you might find it pretty dull.  That said, it's not that repetitious (compared to methods with about 50 questions for each topic).  Basically, the whole subject is being taught a concept then about 5 different variations of that concept, illustrated by doing example questions.  You do the same 5 questions in the tute and in a green book they give you (you really don't need to buy the textbook btw).  The exam is IDENTICAL to the past exams and the questions are IDENTICAL to the example ones you've now done 3 times.  There is a little bit on application, but it is mostly mathsy.  I would say there is about as much level of "application" as methods.  However, there are no complex worded questions (just enough to give you the numbers.)  Eg.  A spring is set up with spring constant ___ and a weight of ____ attached.  If the coefficient of damping is ____ and etc. etc..
Also no Tasmania Jones-esque scenarios.  It's all very straight down the line.

In Physics, you do mostly applications to the humans.  It is very interesting, in my opinion (I found the content for Life Sciences very interesting, and it is mostly overlapping with Biomed Physics).  So you won't really do Quantum.  We did Fluids, Thermal physics, Electrostatics and Circuits, Magnetism and Radiation.  I know they also did kinematics in Biomed Physics.

[vexx]

^ thanks for the informative post.
that sounds so fine with calculus 1 then! doesn't sound too difficult to get HD for if you are repeating the same questions like that ahaha yay.

i actually am quite excited for physics now, it'll be good to do something completely different despite your other post saying that it wasn't very good - im sure its not tooo bad !!! (hopefully..) so yeah let us know how you all go with it and how difficult it really was to do well

[Greggler]

Yeah vexx, physics is great.
I just had a horrible teacher this year, and unfortunately VCE Physics is a bit of a joke, but still, it is a fascinating subject, and one which is really relevant to the world around us.

[rustic_metal]

To be honest, I hated physics this year. Nothing particularly interesting and every lecture followed the same format:

1. "Here's a new concept. It's called ____. It's denoted by the symbol ___ and measured in ____."
2. "Here are a dozen equations relating it to each previous concept you've learnt."
3. Rinse and repeat.

[iNerd]

To be honest, I hated physics this year. Nothing particularly interesting and every lecture followed the same format:

1. "Here's a new concept. It's called ____. It's denoted by the symbol ___ and measured in ____."
2. "Here are a dozen equations relating it to each previous concept you've learnt."
3. Rinse and repeat.

Wow. That pretty much sums up my dislike for Year 10 Physics.
Here's a new concept. It's called Newton's 2nd law. It's formula is F = ma where F is measured in Newtons, m in kilograms and a in metres/second². From this you can also derive the formula a = F/m and m = F/a . Now go practise 100 questions

[Greggler]

Yeah like i, and many others have said, vce physics is pretty crap. But if you try to extend yourself a bit beyond the course then itbecomes a lot more interesting, and actually a fair bit easier.

[HERculina]

Yeah like i, and many others have said, vce physics is pretty crap. But if you try to extend yourself a bit beyond the course then itbecomes a lot more interesting, and actually a fair bit easier.

wats more mathier vce chemistry or vce physics? O: