"Forgetting" physics concepts?

[starstruck_]

Has anyone ever uh forgotten physics concepts?

I'm kinda panicking right now because last term during the mechanics part of my 1st year physics course, there were concepts I KNOW I understood - like circular orbits of satellites or angular motion but
yesterday I was trying to explain orbital stuff to my dad and I ended up confused with things I did know. Maybe I've just been overthinking? I don't know, I also haven't done anything related to that part of mechanics for like 3 months now. The reason why I knew and understood those things well last term was because right before going to uni, I joined my friend's physics class for the last semester of high school, so I had essentially done physics for 10 months before taking a 2 month break and then started it again in uni right after.

((I might have also done it a bit too much, by the end of that term I ended up not even studying for my midterm exam - I did so many problems prior to that, that I started to recall solutions from memory so I just stopped studying for it altogether so I can make sure I was still using my reasoning to solve the problems))


I'm a little scared. I'm friends with some third years and I'm looking at the hell they're going through so I'm just trying to focus on making sure what I"m learning now, I know extremely well so I don't screw my self over for 2nd year and beyond but now that I'm getting confused with things I KNOW I knew really well, I'm just worried.

This HAS happened to other people right?? D/:The same thing with me ending up remembering solutions has happened with electricity too. I ended up doing so many problems I ended up remembering solutions, I guess why my understanding isn't wanky is because this is the first time I've ever done electricity so it hasn't been overdone, and I'm still in that part of the term right now.

((Idk if it's relevant but the last time i did electricity was in grade 11- did not understand it AT ALL, could not solve a single circuit that year, but for some reason circuits immediately made sense to me in first year))

I'm just a little worried I might have screwed up my understanding of basic concepts. That's the last thing I honestly want.

 

[FactChecker]

It's normal. When you first see something and the answer is fed to you, it's normal to underestimate how treacherous the subject really is. It's only when you go back and try to recreate the logic that you realize how tricky it is. The solution is to review often enough to remember the correct path and also to know the wrong turns. Eventually it becomes intuitive.

 

[starstruck_]

It's normal. When you first see something and the answer is fed to you, it's normal to underestimate how treacherous the subject really is. It's only when you go back and try to recreate the logic that you realize how tricky it is. The solution is to review often enough to remember the correct path and also to know the wrong turns. Eventually it becomes intuitive.

I was hoping it would be intuitive by now :/. This was the 3rd time that I covered those topics in mechanics because in Grade 12 I took physics first term, I audited my friend's physics class second term, and then redid mechanics in the the first part of 1st year physics. The way my professor does his lectures is that he teaches us the subject but then throws different scenarios at us for us to apply our conceptual understanding and reason out what would happen in a given situation and why. I used to be able to do those really well.

Now, I'm starting to get confused with what concepts to apply to certain situations and missing out on the little details that I used to be able to pick up before, which helped me with reasoning. /:

 

[sophiecentaur]

Has anyone ever uh forgotten physics concepts?

Everyone!
But the acid test of remembering a concept is to be able to explain it to someone else several times. There can be a real problem when you have a really good teacher because they inject a dangerous amount of confidence into the student. Catch 22 at work.

 

[starstruck_]

Everyone!
But the acid test of remembering a concept is to be able to explain it to someone else several times. There can be a real problem when you have a really good teacher because they inject a dangerous amount of confidence into the student. Catch 22 at work.

I would teach people but I am always avoiding them at uni xD oops .
gahhhh i'd have hoped the concept would be engraved ;-; I've done the thing 3 times.

Like I was re-teaching my self orbits and was trying to reason out why satellite orbits have constant tangential velocities, but wasn't sure if my reasoning was correct.

: something in orbit would feel a centripetal force, but there is no force accelerating the object in the tangentially. If so, it would end up being non-uniform circular motion? (haven't learned this yet).

but I don't know if my reasoning is makes sense, where as when I was doing this topic, I WOULD know if my reasoning make sense or not. That's kind of what's happening

 

[FactChecker]

Like I was re-teaching my self orbits and was trying to reason out why satellite orbits have constant tangential velocities, but wasn't sure if my reasoning was correct.

Are you talking about circular orbits? In an elliptical orbit, the velocity is highest at the perigee and lowest at the apogee. It is not constant.

 

[starstruck_]

Are you talking about circular orbits? In an elliptical orbit, the velocity is highest at the perigee and lowest at the apogee. It is not constant.

Yeup! For circular orbits. Oh wait I guess I never did understand it then. This has to do with conservation of energy more than it does with uniform circular motion . I mixed up uniform/non uniform circular motion with orbital stuff, yikes.