First year physics Definition and 23 Threads

Hey everyone! So, I’m starting my second year of physics this Wednesday ,but I have a bit of a problem. I’m having trouble recalling concepts and fundamental details from first year. I took a full year physics course in 1st year (divided into kinematics/ dynamics -first half and Electricity...

I’ll be taking the year long physics sequence at my college this fall and I want to know what specific math topics I should master, so that I can conquer my first year of physics. I’m planning to brush-up on any necessary topics from algebra, through precalc, and including calc 1. It’s an honors...

I am in a small school in North Dakota and will have four students in the class next year. I have been here two years after retiring from another state. Two years ago they took an online physical science class and from what I can figure out they learned very little to use for background. They...

I'm going to start my first year as a Physics major in University, so I'll be taking first year Physics with one variable Calculus with Linear Algebra. I have taken math up to Calculus but I found that I have some gaps in Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry. Not any serious gaps, I know most of...

First off, sorry for posting yet another one of these threads. I've scavenged through this forum for undergrad textbook recommendations and have been somewhat overwhelmed. I'm beginning first year soon and would like a textbook that I can rely on as either my main textbook, or at least a...

Homework Statement Answer true, false, or Cannot tell to teach of the five statements below. A) A 2 kg ball and a 3 kg ball are dropped from a tower. The net forces on each other are the same. B) An astronaut stands on a bathroom scale on the surface of the moon; the scale reads the astronaut's...

I've noticed that Harvard Extension and other colleges seem to only offer one year of "physics" courses in their course offering books. After the first year, what is a logical next step for someone wanting to learn more? Favorite physics topic is electricity, all applications of it.

I signed up for my first semester classes and I'm in the first calculus based physics class. I took calculus in high school, but my physics classes weren't all that intensive in my opinion. Well, I guess that's what you get when your teacher has to teach 8 classes and work as a lab technician in...

I'm starting a physics major this year and I'm currently enrolled in foundation physics (algebra, vector based). However, during second semester I'll be doing doing a regular physics unit which is based around technology. The main topics are Electromagnetism (LOTS and LOTS of circuits work...

Hi all! I'm having quite an internal dilemma. I really love physics and math and my dream for a long time has been to get a science/math phd and become a research professor. However, I just finished my first semester at university and I appear to be better at humanities/social sciences. My...

Hi everybody. This is my first thread ever on this forum :S I'm in a first year physics class, and the other day we did a lab involving a c.c.c (current carrying conductor) and a magnet on a balance. The c.c.c was a wire which completed a circuit. One had a magnet assembly which was placed on...

Hi I can see that MIT, Stanford and Yale have open courses in Classical physics and electromagnetics. Which courses would you recommend for self-studying all the general first year topics at university such as Classical mechanics, electromagnetics, light etc? For classical mechanics I think...

Could someone credible please check my work on this one? Homework Statement This problem is "pulling a sled up a slope" All relevant data is in the picture. I wanted to find FP (The force one has to pull to start the sled moving up with slope). mass = 26.0kg μs = 0.096 slope of hill = 12...

ΔHomework Statement I'm preparing for my first year university physics exam and was wondering if the PF community could give me some 'more difficult' problems that I could work on. If you could can the problems involve combinations of topics (ex. relative motion, kinematics, dynamics...

I've always had problems with learning physics. It's not that I don't like it or can't do the calculations, but rather the memorization of thousands of equations that can easily derived. Of course, memorizing the important ones are necessary, so we don't have to constantly rederive them. So, my...

An object's motion can be described by a function that relates its position x (in meters) to time t (in seconds). Let this function be x = 6t2 + 2t + 4 What is this object's acceleration? I tried inputting 6, but it counted it wrong...

Trying to study for my physics exam and am a bit stuck with this question. hopefully someone can help me out: 1) a) State, with reasons, how the following properties of a simple harmonic oscillator are affected by doubling the amplitude: i) Frequency: ii) total mechanical energy, and...

I'm going to start college in the fall for EE and I made a 5 on my mechanics AP test and a 4 on my E&M AP test. I've been told that these are two weeder classes at my university and while I am confident I could make an A in both with hard work, I'm starting to think it might be smart to save...

Hi, I'm about to embark on my first year physics and would like to ask if there are any significant differences between the following two books: 1. Physics for Scientists and Engineers by Paul A Tipler 2. Physics for Scientists and Engineers by Serway and Jewett 3. University Physics by Young...

"you're in pretty good shape" first year physics textbooks.. Hi, I'm wondering if there were any books for which if you were able to do the problems, then you're in good shape.. For example, if you can problems from Spivak's "Calculus" book as you are in your first year, then you're in pretty...

I'm about to begin a bachelor of science with a physics major. I've already found some books on electrodynamics and relativity and such, but I can't find the motivation nor resources to intepret some of the more abstract mathematics, especially to do with linear algebra, tensor analysis and...

Hi, if anyone remembers I was the guy considering re-doing first year due to only a primitive knowledge of calc and physics thanks to easy level courses in first year. Anyway, because I won't be able to make changes to my schedule soon I really want to make sure I'm on the right track. I was...

This is my second day in physics class and we have merely learned the principles of displacement and velocity. I am having trouble using these principles in the problem which follows... Runner A is initially 10.0 mi west of a flagpole and is running with a constant velocity of 8.0 mi/h due...