Physics One material in Physical Chemistry

[Spirochete]

I managed to get through a physics for bio majors type class with very little understanding of mechanics. I didn't put much effort in because at the time I was a biology major.

Now I'm more interested in chemistry and will soon be taking the dreaded physical chemistry. I am curious how much mechanics and stuff from Physics I will I have to know to understand P-Chem?

 

[leumas614]

I'm taking p-chem now but I'm only a third of the way through the course. So far I only needed to have some familiarity with things like work or energy. I don't think you need to know it in depth.

 

[physics girl phd]

"Mechanics" (aka. Newtonian mechanics) material isn't covered much in P-chem... what is covered more is concepts from quantum mechanics and thermodynamics (which involves concepts of energy and work as mentioned by leumas614 above). These are typically in a third semester physics course, although it depends on your instituton). I would, however, additionally recommend that you see what courses are required prerequisites or corequisites for the class.

 

[Mike H]

I think it depends on the particulars of the course - basic mechanics cropped up when I was doing p. chem. (for instance, a little bit of the classical wave equation when discussing wavefunctions, a good bit of mention when doing the section of the course on kinetic theory of gases), but you should be good with the basic notions of mechanics.

YMMV.