"Power reading" for learning physics?

[John Mcrain]

Does power reading works when learn physics fields,mechanics,aeorospace,electrics etc?

 

[BvU]

No

 

[John Mcrain]

No

where then works?

 

[BvU]

Politics, psychology, newspapers

 

[John Mcrain]

Politics, psychology, newspapers

Why you think think power reading will not work for physics fields?

 

[PeroK]

Why you think think power reading will not work for physics fields?

Why do you think it might? Have you tried it?

 

[John Mcrain]

Why do you think it might? Have you tried it?

No,I don't know to read with power-reading technique.
But It will be great if I read book with 300pages about fluid dynamics and understand everything inside..

This is reason why I ask,so if I can read fast with great understanding then I was plan to take power reading seminar...

 

[PeroK]

No,I don't know to read with power-reading technique.
But It will be great if I read book with 300pages about fluid dynamics and understand everything inside..

This is reason why I ask,so if I can read fast with great understanding then I was plan to take power reading seminar...

That would be great. You might also need a technique for powering through the exercises. And, you'll have to avoid textbooks that leave any of the vital details to the student as an exercise. That would be a real bummer if you're trying to power read and you're supposed to work something out for yourself. That just wouldn't be fair at all.

 

[John Mcrain]

That would be great. You might also need a technique for powering through the exercises. And, you'll have to avoid textbooks that leave any of the vital details to the student as an exercise. That would be a real bummer if you're trying to power read and you're supposed to work something out for yourself. That just wouldn't be fair at all.

I have few problems:
English is not my mother language plus I read very slow and often loosing concentration.So I often read a few sentences and I don't rember nothing ...

So reading complex of fluid dynamics on english is extremely difficult,slow and frustrating to me..So I read one page and give up

 

[PeroK]

I have few problems:
English is not my mother language plus I read very slow and often loosing concentration.So I often read a few sentences and I don't rember nothing ...

So reading complex of fluid dynamics on english is extremely difficult,slow and frustrating to me..So I read one page and give up

I can't help you there.

 

[hutchphd]

Perhaps you should try to find books that emphasize the formal mathematical approach.

 

[BvU]

So reading complex of fluid dynamics on english is extremely difficult,slow and frustrating to me..So I read one page and give up

I have to confess I know nothing at all about power reading except I think they go diagonally across a column or a page. Point is it works for stuff you know enough about, so that you can swallow chunks of sentences instead of separate words. Introducing new concepts, learning new facts and relationships don't come across that way.

For your case I have two things that come into mind:
If english is the problem, perhaps work through a translation instead of the original text (doesn't work for many languages, I admit).
And if reading is the problem because your mechanisms for absorbing new information prefer other paths (audio, video, hands-on, class lectures, ...) then try to find such paths.

A third possibility is to find a mate or colleague in the same circumstances and study the material together.

All in all, no easy solutions and definitely: no tricks.

 

[Choppy]

Some tips on reading better:

• There are no short cuts. You're not going to sit through a seminar, learn some tricks and magically increase your reading speed or comprehension to any practically significant degree.
• Practice. Practice. Practice. The more you read, the better you'll get at it, particularly if you're reading outside of your native language. Improvement won't come overnight.
• Building on the above, you have to figure out what works for you to achieve the best comprehension. When it comes to STEM textbooks, most people don't just read them cover to cover. In fact, they're rarely meant to be read that way. They're meant to be worked through. Students are supposed to engage with the exercises, making notes, think about how to apply the concepted independently to other scenarios, etc.
• Read with specific goals. Something like "learning fluid dynamics" is pretty broad. Figure out a syllabus for yourself. Break it down into manageable chunks. What's reasonable for you to achieve in an hour sitting?
• Consider your reading environment. Limit distractions around you. Turn your phone off. Find a quiet place where you can concentrate.
• Take breaks when you need them. Don't expect to sit down for five hours of reading right off the bat. Unless you're really excited about the material your covering, chances are your attention span will be limited.

 

[atyy]

where then works?

Usually the concepts of physics require some thinking over to assimilate, maybe several different expositions or viewpoints that may be found in different textbooks. Also, one has to apply the concepts, at least to some simple problems, to check if one understands them.

Nonetheless, it might be interesting to try power reading. It won't give you mastery, but maybe an idea of the problems and the language. I think it won't work, but it might be interesting to try experiment with power reading the Feynman lectures.
https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/

Or maybe some of these Very Short Introductions.
Physics: A Very Short Introduction
Light: A Very Short Introduction
Gravity: A Very Short Introduction
Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction

 

[Mondayman]

In my experience learning physics and maths is slow going, there is no shortcut method, to truly understand what you are reading, you have to follow along line by line and understand the derivations and proofs. Moving on to step n+1 without understanding step n fully is not going to work.

The only thing that has made learning smoother or easier for me is having a concise syllabus that outlines the exact sections that are required for the class, so you know what material is important and what you can skip or gloss over.

 

[John Mcrain]

I also find hard watch video when man talk on english and with text translation on english.My brain switching from sound to text all the time,so don't know if will listen man voice or read text...Then I cover text with paper and just listen..

Do you feel easier to read long text from books/papers than from monitor?

 

[Vanadium 50]

English getting worse yours is. More putting effort towards you must.

Your English was better two or three months ago. You should go back to doing whatever you did then, because it was working much better than it is now.

It's pretty clear what you want: to learn advanced topic with minimal effort and lightning speed. That isn't going to happen. If it were that easy, everybody would be doing it. Your best chances involve setting realistic goals and then use the techniques related in this thread to meet them.

 

[AndreasC]

Not 100% sure what power reading is but if I've got the gist of it, asking if it's good for physics is kinda like asking if it is good for sex.

I'm pretty skeptical of all these concepts where someone claims to have developed an incredible method with unparalleled results for speed of reading and comprehension. They may have some useful tips and tricks but reading is one of these things that people have been doing for millenia, if there was some easy hack to make it that much more efficient then it would be well known to everyone by now. I don't think it works that way and especially about physics, where it is not getting through the text but understanding the concepts, trying them out and applying them that is the real difficulty. Personally what has helped me more than anything is copying the important parts to a notebook in my own words. Just reading through a textbook does nothing for me any more beyond just making me sleepy. It used to once upon a time when the stuff I read was simple enough to do that but not any more. But this makes reading slower, not faster, and it's a feature, not a bug. It is also why I have come to prefer more difficult yet more concise texts.

 

[John Mcrain]

Personally what has helped me more than anything is copying the important parts to a notebook in my own words. Just reading through a textbook does nothing for me any more beyond just making me sleepy.

Yes this only way how I can learn too.

 

[Frodo]

The story is often told that, after studying the Elements, King Ptolemy asked Euclid whether there were an easier way of learning mathematics, to which the great geometer replied, "There is no Royal Road to geometry."

Neither is there one to science.

“There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits.”

― Karl Marx , Capital, Vol. 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production

 

[physicsponderer]

When you say 'power reading', do you mean speed reading?

 

[Mayhem]

No. You haven't understood something until you can solve problems with it. I'll sometimes read an entire chapter in no time and think it was quite straight forward and then be completely stumped on even some of the simpler problems.

 

[physicsponderer]

No. You haven't understood something until you can solve problems with it. I'll sometimes read an entire chapter in no time and think it was quite straight forward and then be completely stumped on even some of the simpler problems.

I'm not sure I agree, but there is tremendous food for thought there.

 

[physicsponderer]

They say that haste makes waste. This is especially true with reading and studying.

It calls to mind getting less sleep than you need, in order to study more hours.

 

[hutchphd]

Yes this only way how I can learn too

There are books on my shelf that took me hundreds of hours to "read". I think any speed reading attempts are absurd on their face.. This is not Updike.

 

[Mayhem]

I'm not sure I agree, but there is tremendous food for thought there.

To me, it shows where math and physics dissociate. The reason I tend to think I understand it is because I can understand the math, but physics requires conceptual understanding as well. With maths texts, I find that my understanding of the content is roughly equal to my ability to solve problems.

 

[physicsponderer]

To me, it shows where math and physics dissociate. The reason I tend to think I understand it is because I can understand the math, but physics requires conceptual understanding as well. With maths texts, I find that my understanding of the content is roughly equal to my ability to solve problems.

Most students of physics find the math easier than the concepts. I am the opposite. I find the math much harder than the concepts. Sometimes I wonder whether I might have mild math dyslexia, technically known as dyscalculia. I'm not terrible at maths, but it seems to be my weakest subject, out of the traditional school subjects. I am not talking about music or art or phys ed or computer programming.

 

[AndreasC]

Most students of physics find the math easier than the concepts

Not sure this is the case. I know many people who have trouble with the math.

 

[symbolipoint]

Politics, psychology, newspapers

Not even for those if one wants to understand something; depending on what information one is interested in interpreting.

 

[symbolipoint]

I also find hard watch video when man talk on english and with text translation on english.My brain switching from sound to text all the time,so don't know if will listen man voice or read text...Then I cover text with paper and just listen..

Do you feel easier to read long text from books/papers than from monitor?

What is very important is to acquire the English language first, and build your written/read literacy over quite a large bit of time, possibly some years. No way around this.

 

[John Mcrain]

Most students of physics find the math easier than the concepts.

For sure physics is harder,phsyics you must really understand,math you can practice with repetition..
If you don't understand physics,none repetition will help you!
So if your IQ is low, forget about physics
You can't be pretty if you are ugly.

 

[weirdoguy]

math you can practice with repetition..

Maybe some high school math and basic calculus but even then not everything you can practice with repetition. In general math needs as much of deep understanding as physics. During my studies at Warsaw University most of first year students failed because of math.

I would say that high school physics is harder than high school math, but on advanced level the difficulty is kind of equal.

 

[John Mcrain]

I would say that high school physics is harder than high school math, but on advanced level the difficulty is kind of equal.

I agree.

 

[symbolipoint]

For sure physics is harder,phsyics you must really understand,math you can practice with repetition..
If you don't understand physics,none repetition will help you!
So if your IQ is low, forget about physics
You can't be pretty if you are ugly.

"IQ" is a big misunderstanding.

 

[physicsponderer]

I would say that high school physics is harder than high school math[...]

For me high school physics was a breeze for the most part (some or the math was a slight problem), while high school math was a nightmare. I remember looking at a model answer of applied math and understanding easily how the initial equations were created by resolving the diagram horizontally and vertically, and being able to see that the simultaneous equations were solved for the solution, but not being able to see how the solver had been able to see how to solve those simultaneous equations. When I showed it to a friend, he said, it's just a matter of getting better through experience. It's the same now. It's as if math is the only major school subject I find difficult. When I think mathematically I become error-prone and generally stupid.