Unveiling the Beauty of Physics: Beyond Projectiles and Speed

[f25274]

I feel like physics is just find a formula and use it in a problem.
I really enjoyed math mostly because of my teacher who constantly tried to show us the "beauty" of math.
Physics. The act of integrating math and the real world intrigued me. Mostly because almost every math concept is theoretical.
I really thought like I'd enjoy it all but the class seems to go so slowly and I'm deteriorating to the state where I don't even care about it anymore.
Is there more to this than shooting projectiles and finding the average speed? :(

 

[Rap]

I feel like physics is just find a formula and use it in a problem.
I really enjoyed math mostly because of my teacher who constantly tried to show us the "beauty" of math.
Physics. The act of integrating math and the real world intrigued me. Mostly because almost every math concept is theoretical.
I really thought like I'd enjoy it all but the class seems to go so slowly and I'm deteriorating to the state where I don't even care about it anymore.
Is there more to this than shooting projectiles and finding the average speed? :(

Bill Gates was asked whether he would be happy if his kids wanted to drop out of college and start their own company, like he did, and he said "no, but if your parent's objection makes you say okay, Ill go back to school, then you probably weren't meant to drop out and start a company in the first place".

If the only thing that attracts you to a subject is charismatic teachers, then maybe you weren't meant to be a physicist anyway. For most good theoretical physicists that I know, the most fun to be had in going to class was to prove the teacher wrong.

Get some good books, a pencil (with an eraser) and a piece of paper. Little physics is learned in the classroom. You are like Christopher Columbus sitting in a classroom in Spain, taking a course in navigation, and asking "is this all there is?". The answer is LOL NO.

 

[Nabeshin]

I feel like physics is just find a formula and use it in a problem.
I really enjoyed math mostly because of my teacher who constantly tried to show us the "beauty" of math.
Physics. The act of integrating math and the real world intrigued me. Mostly because almost every math concept is theoretical.
I really thought like I'd enjoy it all but the class seems to go so slowly and I'm deteriorating to the state where I don't even care about it anymore.
Is there more to this than shooting projectiles and finding the average speed? :(

Unfortunately, this is the way introductory physics is often taught (or at least comes off as) to students. As soon as they get a question they rifle through formulas trying to find "the right one". So naturally, they come to think physics is just plugging numbers into formulas.

It is not. Physics is much deeper than that. In a sense, upper division physics classes are like an introductory mechanics class in which the professor says "F=ma" and then hands you an exam. Specifically, you are expected to derive whichever formula you need from the most general principles possible. A lot of physics is also about approximation, something they don't mention at all in introductory physics classes. Perhaps they are too busy trying to hammer home how well physics works in describing the trajectories of balls in frictionless vacuums, but approximations are really key to physics. A lot of being a decent physicist is knowing what to approximate and when this approximation is valid. I could ramble on here for a few more paragraphs about what I think physics is, but I'll stop here.

Now, I don't necessarily know a better way to teach introductory physics. Most kids don't even want to be there. But suffice it to say that there is certainly much more.

 

[Dickfore]

I feel like physics is just find a formula and use it in a problem.
I really enjoyed math mostly because of my teacher who constantly tried to show us the "beauty" of math.
Physics. The act of integrating math and the real world intrigued me. Mostly because almost every math concept is theoretical.
I really thought like I'd enjoy it all but the class seems to go so slowly and I'm deteriorating to the state where I don't even care about it anymore.
Is there more to this than shooting projectiles and finding the average speed? :(

The problem is that you should have learned these concepts much earlier than in freshmen year at college.