MIT Physics Challenge Problems (OCW)

[Ascendant78]

MIT Physics "Challenge Problems" (OCW)

I had a question for anyone who is familiar with MIT and their OCW. I like to use their content to compliment my studies, but I feel some of their challenge problems are quite difficult. I am curious, are those challenge problems something they expect you to be able to handle on your own? I don't know how their work is typically assigned and if this is material they might typically have during recitations, in class as groups (reversed classroom), or something along those lines?

 

[WannabeNewton]

The challenge problems tend to come from books like Kleppner and Kolenkow or problems from the honors version of the class (the two overlap anyways). I don't know how it works at MIT, although I doubt it's any different, but office hours are usually the "go to" place if you're stuck on homework problems at most universities. You aren't necessarily expected to solve the problem sets with absolutely no help whatsoever (take-home exams are a different story of course); chances are you'll be assigned a problem you can't figure out on your own, it's nothing unusual. Again office hours and getting help from classmates are the norms at most universities. That being said, there are quite a few problems in K&K that you can certainly solve on your own with no help. There are also quite a few for which external help might prove necessary. I definitely wouldn't have been able to solve some of the rotational motion problems in K&K on my own when I first used the book-I got help from others.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Yes, an MIT student would be expected to handle these. Maybe not instantly, but with some work.

 

[Ascendant78]

Ok, thanks for the feedback. As far as doing them with some work, I usually can, though it is oftentimes very time-consuming. If I didn't have the assignments from my own courses on top of it, I would definitely be working on more of them.

 

[jesse73]

The K&K problems weren't challenge problems in 8.012 just a regularly assigned pset.

 

[atyy]

But 8.012 seems to be optional, even for physics majors at MIT.

"Most students find the 8.01–8.02 sequence suited to their needs. The sequence 8.012–8.022 covers essentially the same subject matter as 8.01–8.02, but is more advanced mathematically; calculus is used freely from the beginning of the term." http://web.mit.edu/catalog/overv.chap3-gir.html

It is not listed as a requirement for physics majors in http://web.mit.edu/catalog/degre.scien.ch8.html.

 

[jesse73]

K&K tends to be the optional track in colleges