- #1
starstruck_
- 185
- 8
I’m not sure what’s up but I find myself over complicating concepts that are new and ones that I was really good with and have been practicing for the last like 3 years.
I find myself trying to connect things to previous concepts but it isn’t working out.
I’m in second year but I’ve found myself asking stupid questions about first year concepts that I knew in and out-maybe I’m just being paranoid.
Like we had a lab yesterday and the lab manual gave the equation E=
-(grad)V
And then asked what happens to the negative sign.
Instead of going and immediately saying that it disappears because the electric field and potential point in opposite directions. I thought about the fact that the potential is the work done by the electric field and if you find the integral of the electric field with respect to r, the negative sign comes out.
This is where I am stuck, I know if the derivative is taken for the potential, it will become positive again.
So I don’t understand why the equation says
E=
-(grad)V
and I don’t understand how everyone already knows they point in opposite directions. Okay maybe the fact that a negative vector means opposite directions but how?? I have no intuition.I can’t even tell if the issues I’m having are me not grasping concepts at all, me overthinking, or if I’m actually asking good, legitimate questions.I also don’t understand a lot of what I used to understand.
I don’t know how we know that planets sweep put equal areas in equal amounts of time-
HOW do we know those areas are equal?
Where did Gm1m2/r^2 and it’s parallel electricity version come from
Why does force conceptually drop exponentially, over a distance??
I don’t understand anything!
I can’t even picture or imagine Physics problems anymore and when I do, I’m wrong.
I can’t figure things out on my own using previous concepts (like i used to) and sometimes I get confused with those previous concepts when I know for a fact I knew them inside out last year.I’m not sure what’s wrong, am I not using the right mindset for physics? Is this just normal, and there’s nothing wrong? Did I never understand stuff in the first place? Or I did understand and just forgot minor details?I don’t want to say that Physics isn’t for me because I absolutely love my major. I am drowning in work, there is something due everyday but it’s not a chore to me at all.
I’m not bright, in fact I am probably the dimmest out of the people in my year but I’m trying really hard to build an intuition as good as theirs.
I find myself trying to connect things to previous concepts but it isn’t working out.
I’m in second year but I’ve found myself asking stupid questions about first year concepts that I knew in and out-maybe I’m just being paranoid.
Like we had a lab yesterday and the lab manual gave the equation E=
-(grad)V
And then asked what happens to the negative sign.
Instead of going and immediately saying that it disappears because the electric field and potential point in opposite directions. I thought about the fact that the potential is the work done by the electric field and if you find the integral of the electric field with respect to r, the negative sign comes out.
This is where I am stuck, I know if the derivative is taken for the potential, it will become positive again.
So I don’t understand why the equation says
E=
-(grad)V
and I don’t understand how everyone already knows they point in opposite directions. Okay maybe the fact that a negative vector means opposite directions but how?? I have no intuition.I can’t even tell if the issues I’m having are me not grasping concepts at all, me overthinking, or if I’m actually asking good, legitimate questions.I also don’t understand a lot of what I used to understand.
I don’t know how we know that planets sweep put equal areas in equal amounts of time-
HOW do we know those areas are equal?
Where did Gm1m2/r^2 and it’s parallel electricity version come from
Why does force conceptually drop exponentially, over a distance??
I don’t understand anything!
I can’t even picture or imagine Physics problems anymore and when I do, I’m wrong.
I can’t figure things out on my own using previous concepts (like i used to) and sometimes I get confused with those previous concepts when I know for a fact I knew them inside out last year.I’m not sure what’s wrong, am I not using the right mindset for physics? Is this just normal, and there’s nothing wrong? Did I never understand stuff in the first place? Or I did understand and just forgot minor details?I don’t want to say that Physics isn’t for me because I absolutely love my major. I am drowning in work, there is something due everyday but it’s not a chore to me at all.
I’m not bright, in fact I am probably the dimmest out of the people in my year but I’m trying really hard to build an intuition as good as theirs.