Navigating my Senior Year: Surviving Engineering Mechanics

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the challenges faced by a senior applied math major preparing to take a calculus-based Engineering Mechanics (EM) course after transferring institutions. Participants share their experiences and advice regarding the necessary preparation and the relationship between prior physics knowledge and success in the course.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Homework-related
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses concern about their preparedness for EM due to a lack of recent exposure to general physics and seeks advice on what to study beforehand.
  • Another participant notes that while there are similarities between electromagnetism (E&M) and mechanics, E&M is generally considered more abstract and challenging.
  • A suggestion is made to review the EM chapters of Halliday and Resnick, emphasizing the importance of vector calculus and differential equations for mathematical preparation.
  • There is uncertainty about the level of the EM course, with one participant indicating that their experience involved advanced topics like vector calculus and complex analysis, while another suggests it may be more elementary.
  • A later reply clarifies that the course is university physics 2, which is calculus-based and covers electromagnetism.
  • Concerns are raised about the effectiveness of the course textbook, with some participants indicating that past students relied more on old exams than the textbook for preparation.
  • One participant mentions their experience with a simple engineering EM course that focused primarily on vector calculus with minimal physics content.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the relationship between prior physics knowledge and success in the EM course, as well as the perceived difficulty level of the course. There is no consensus on the necessary preparation or the effectiveness of the course materials.

Contextual Notes

Participants highlight varying levels of course difficulty and content, indicating a lack of clarity regarding the specific expectations of the EM course. There are also references to different teaching methods and resources that may impact student preparation.

SolaScriptura
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Hi,

I'm an applied math major and this is my senior year. I was suppose to get EM over with last fall but I transferred institutions and they didn't offer it in the fall. So I was going to take It in the spring but my schedule didn't allow it. Now I have to take it in the spring and I have to take it calculus based. I did general physics I not university physics I. My math advisor says I should be fine because I've seen a lot of the calculus already. However, I'm worried that I might not do so well since I've forgotten a lot of the material from gen phisics I. So what should I study before EM? How mush does EM depends on your knowledge from mechanics? Thanks. Any suggestions would be helpful. Also, I'm an honor student with a 3.84 GPA.
 
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From my experience E&M is not all that closely related to mechanics although you will see some similar terms and some of the calculations are similar (i.e. adding up force vectors in the x and y directions). Be warned though, most find E&M significantly more difficult than mechanics (I know I did)--it feels a lot more abstract. The calculus--from my experience--is not all that advanced. Good luck.
 
Thanks. What do you think i should touch base on before the class?
 
Last edited:
Hey, I had a similar situation where I ended up going back to my physics degree roughly 7 years after I had taken college level General Physics I & II. If you can afford to I would recommend reading through the EM chapters of the excellent Halliday and Resnick intro text. As far as math preparation, vector calculus is crucial and differential equations is very helpful.
 
I'm not sure what sort of EM course you are talking about here.

You said "I have to take it calculus based" which seems to imply it is a fairly elementary level course if there is a non-calculus-based alternative. In that case you probabably don't need to revise anything much.

On the other hand, the EM course that I did in my final year as part of an applied math degree (many years ago on the UK) was at least 90% vector calculus, Fourier series, complex analysis, PDEs etc, and not "elementary" in any sense of the word - though again, it didn't presuppose much knowledge of physics.
 
To alephZero

It's called university physics 2 and it's not algebra based like general physics 2 but calculus based. Both gen physics 2 and university physics 2 cover Electro magnetism.
 
To factorsof2

The problem is that the professor who teaches this course doesn't go by the book( the book you recommended is the book for the course). Most people tell me that the book wasn't helpful for the course and that they just studied off old exams. This is why I'm a little more concerned than usual. Also, I've taken cal 3 and diffy q and got an A in both of these courses.
 
I took a simple engineering EM course. It was just vector calculus .. and maybe like 5-10% physics.
 

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