Scheduling for First Semester at New School

[lubuntu]

I am transferring to a new school and also transitioning from taking a more part-time class load to a full-time and want to maintain a reasonable course load. I will be taking

Modern Physics
Math Methods of Physics
Sophomore Lab

What I want to know is whether or not I should take Linear Algebra for my fourth class- it isn't required by my degree but I want to learn it and it is a pre-req for some more interesting math courses. Apparently, the Math Methods course is very difficult so I don't want to overwhelm myself. The other option would be to fulfill a gen ed pre-req or take a free elective in something I am interested in.

Should I take it easy for my first semester at a new school?

 

[General_Sax]

I vote for taking it easy.

Give yourself a semester to become acclimated.

 

[lisab]

I think it's going to depend on you, and how much change you'll be going through. Will you be moving, in addition to transferring? That will add a lot of stress.

I took it easy in my first quarter after I transfered, and I was glad for it. There's plenty of time for stress before you graduate .

 

[hitmeoff]

DO you know what text you will be using for Math Methods? And what topics will be covered?

I know in my school we have a three quarter (two semester) series of math methods for physics and Boas is what we use. First course is sophmore/junior level and the last two courses are major (junior/senior level) courses.

In the first course, we basically review the first two years of math in the span of 10 weeks (Calc I-III, and ELementary Diff EQs/Lin Alg) plus a few other topics and we begin to learn Mathmatica. If this sounds like the course you are going to take, I would say its not very difficult, but of course mastering (and I truly mean mastering) the topics covered are going to pay many dividends when you take your junior/senior level physics courses.

I would be prepared to know what upper division math is like. Its not about formulas or plugging and chugging. THeres not much in the way of direct calculations. Its more about proofs. Here are properties of vector spaces/determinants/linear transformations...etc...now that you have the definitions, theorems and axioms, show that this and this is also true about this mathematical structure.

This level of math may not be directly applicable to physics at the undergrad level, but I certainly do believe that learning the abstractness of math allows you to think about physics problems in a different way. This can be very helpful for junior/senior level physics classes which are more theoretical than practical.

And yes, if you go far enough in physics, you will certainly gain something from learning the abstract side of math. For example, group theory has implications in the standard model: the pauli matrices (linear algebra) form a group isomorphic to SU2 groups (group theory). If you have some familiarity with lin alg and abstract algebra BEFORE you encounter these ideas in a grad level physics class for example, you can concetrate on the physical meaning of these ideas instead of having to figuere out what the hell group theory is and what its about ON TOP OF trying to learn the physics.