Which is easier: Physics 1 or Chemistry 1?

Rebooter

Quote by flyingpig

You are all "flyingpig almost failed Chemistry and flyingpig complains a lot and therefore everything he says about Chemistry is wrong"

The only "math" behind Chemistry is balancing equations, solving for moles, rate laws, and thermodynamics. The first-yearChem I took didn't stress very hard on the Math.

You are given some set of data, unless you know everything inside out there is almost always that one extra info that you don't know and you can't know it until you do a experiment. It's like Lab problems, in Physics all of them are mathematically answerable, in Chemistry, you just need to know what is given in the Lab manual.

A solid grasp of what the symbols mean in chemistry is WAY more than enough to ace Chem 1&2 at any state school I've ever seen (or attended post-graduate).
Almost universally they give you equation sheets. Knowing what problems go with what equations + tracking units = 100 in Chemistry.

Non-calc based physics is basically the same, but maybe a bit more difficult? maybe? only because of the optics/waves I guess.

osnarf

I think physics I is very intuitive. It should all make perfect sense. Chem I (while it should still make sense), you have to go a little more on faith.

*lurky*

I personally found chemistry to be easier than physics, but also considerably less interesting, thus I got a lower grade in it.

osnarf

I'll second the less interesting part :)

*flyingpig*

Look at the 2009 AP exam distribution

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/ap...Score_Dist.pdf

Only 55% people got higher than a 3, and the mean score is 2.76, with only 18% people getting a 5 and 17% people getting a 4, they combine to be roughly 35% ish

Now look at http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/ap...Score_Dist.pdf

That's 73% of people who got more than a 3 with a mean score of 3.39. The combined % of 4 and 5s are equal to the number of Chemistry students who scored a 3 or higher

*johnwilliam*

Both subjects are some complicated factors. It depends on your interests in some facts like maths.

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osnarf	I think physics I is very intuitive. It should all make perfect sense. Chem I (while it should still make sense), you have to go a little more on faith.

lurky	I personally found chemistry to be easier than physics, but also considerably less interesting, thus I got a lower grade in it.

johnwilliam	Both subjects are some complicated factors. It depends on your interests in some facts like maths.