Organizing Your Physics Calculations: Tips and Examples

[annalise17]

This doesn't really go in the format for this section but I don't think it fits anywhere else...

Does anyone have examples of how they write up their solution to problems? I have one based around special relativity and I want to keep everything in a nice order so I wondered if anyone had anything a little more organised than my scribbles!

Mine is basically:

Diagram
Known Values
Equation
Where x is... etc.
Rearranging for x gives:
Substituting the known values gives:
Answer
Summary: Therefore the value of x is... (? sf)

 

[Clever-Name]

Unless your prof explicitly states that he/she wants it in a specific format then it really doesn't matter. My assignments usually consist of:

Problem statement (what are we trying to find/prove and any diagrams)
Relevant equations (sometimes numbered so I can refer back to them)
math
math
math
math
math
solution (Circled and with arrows to it so the TA knows what the final answer is)

Usually it doesn't follow any strict guidelines. I have never been docked marks for messiness.

Edit - I had one class where the prof explicitly stated that she wanted the final answer in a sentence and 'boxed' at the end. That was the only time I've ever been given 'guidance' towards how to format my assignments.

 

[annalise17]

Thanks :) I haven't written relevant equations at the start before so I might just do that now to neaten things up :)