What do you guys think of my Mechanics final?

[Shackleford]

I'm just curious what you think of it. Easy? Average? Difficult?

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n149/camarolt4z28/IMG_20101212_192514.jpg?t=1292203747

 

[Kevin_Axion]

Four questions? My exams are usually about twenty questions.

 

[Shackleford]

Four questions? My exams are usually about twenty questions.

Well, each problem has 4-5 parts.

Twenty questions?!

 

[Kevin_Axion]

Well, I looked at it quickly, your absolutely right mine don't have as many sub-questions. My exams are generally 3 pages foolscap, front and back.

 

[Coto]

My feeling is that it was an easy final. Not necessarily long or short as Kevin said, but the content of the questions was very straightforward and didn't require much creativity on the test writers part. That is, so long as you knew what the concepts were, a straight forward application of them would yield the solution. NFTR (No further thinking required. :) )

 

[Phyisab****]

aargh how you integrate the equation of motion in problem 1c? I would say it looks a little on the easy side, except I haven't figure out this bleepin problem.

Edit: ok I figured it out nevermind. Thank god I passed this class a long time ago.

 

[Coto]

As for Kevin: Obviously the # of questions has very little to do with the difficulty of an exam. Generally speaking, the appearance of more questions indicates that the questions are somewhat easier to solve or at the very least, are less intensive to solve.

 

[Shackleford]

My feeling is that it was an easy final. Not necessarily long or short as Kevin said, but the content of the questions was very straightforward and didn't require much creativity on the test writers part. That is, so long as you knew what the concepts were, a straight forward application of them would yield the solution. NFTR (No further thinking required. :) )

Unfortunately, I was deficient on problem 3. I did most of the other problems. I'm kicking myself because it's just integration, which I've been doing for years.

 

[Kevin_Axion]

It was also stupid of me to assume that this was a high school exam, I realized it wasn't when it was asking for Lagrangians. But, if the concepts are known I would presume the exam is still easy, it appears as though they are "plug and chug" questions.

 

[The_Duck]

Having just taken the physics GRE, my contribution is that 1 and 2 are not dissimilar to the kind of questions the PGRE asks.

 

[fluidistic]

First, how much time were you allowed to complete the exam?
Second, is that your first course in mechanics (first year university level) or the upper undergrad one?

 

[Shackleford]

First, how much time were you allowed to complete the exam?
Second, is that your first course in mechanics (first year university level) or the upper undergrad one?

2.5 hours. This is the junior-level course.

 

[VanOosten]

i would say average length and difficulty, it is comparable to what i have seen.

 

[fluidistic]

2.5 hours. This is the junior-level course.

Ok then I'd say medium/hard. The exercises might have been tougher for example involving rigid bodies, but 2.5 hours seems too few to me hence the level of difficulty. By the way it's Lagrangian, not Langrangian. I find it strange that you covered this topic in the junior level physics.
Here all final exams (worth 100% of our grade) are 4 hours long. I've ran out of time in some of them (and I'm not alone).

 

[Ryker]

Ok then I'd say medium/hard. The exercises might have been tougher for example involving rigid bodies, but 2.5 hours seems too few to me hence the level of difficulty. By the way it's Lagrangian, not Langrangian. I find it strange that you covered this topic in the junior level physics.

Wait, so is junior level the one from your junior year or the first mechanics course you take?

 

[Nabeshin]

Looks relatively easy given that none of these questions is anything surprising or new, very straightforward application of what I'm assuming you've already learned (moment of inertia, lagrangian, etc.). Basically exactly what Coto said. The real difficulty in exams comes when you have to synthesize things in a way you haven't done before, but none of these questions really requires that.

 

[fluidistic]

Wait, so is junior level the one from your junior year or the first mechanics course you take?

I don't know. I'm not the guy who started the thread.
I understood junior level as first year university course. Am I wrong in that? I'm not an English speaker so there are great chances I got it wrong I guess.
I think mechanics is taught during the first year of university for physics major. So junior year is the same year as the first mechanics course, I believe.
Sorry for any confusion.

Edit: I forgot to mention in my previous reply that I answered as if you have no help from any books/sheet of formulae, etc. You might tell us if you have access to anything else but your brain.

 

[Kevin_Axion]

Classical Mechanics is taught in first and second years of University,

 

[Ryker]

Yeah, but there's usually two courses in classical mechanics, right? I'm currently in first semester, and we haven't even mentioned Lagrangians, and that third one would be a stretch to solve, as well. So again to the OP, was this your your first mechanics course or the second one?

 

[General_Sax]

I think it's somewhat on the easy side, but still respectable.

P.S. is this an old final? How did you manage to take a picture of it if it wasn't an old final?

(terrible sentences... sue me)

 

[╔(σ_σ)╝]

I think it's somewhat on the easy side, but still respectable.

P.S. is this an old final? How did you manage to take a picture of it if it wasn't an old final?

(terrible sentences... sue me)

Yeah I was wondering the same thing. We aren't allowed to take our final papers away,at my school.

 

[AlephZero]

OK, I last took a university exam (in the UK) many years ago, but after a few decades of doing this stuff for real...

These questions are trivial. My total THINKING time to figure out the solutions was about 2 minutes. That's 2 minutes total, not 2 minutes per question.

The rest is just simple algebra/trig/calculus, and/or punching a calculator. I would expect to score 100% for about an hour's work.

Just to let you know what it looks like from outside the "ivory tower"

 

[lisab]

I don't know. I'm not the guy who started the thread.
I understood junior level as first year university course. Am I wrong in that? I'm not an English speaker so there are great chances I got it wrong I guess.
I think mechanics is taught during the first year of university for physics major. So junior year is the same year as the first mechanics course, I believe.
Sorry for any confusion.

Edit: I forgot to mention in my previous reply that I answered as if you have no help from any books/sheet of formulae, etc. You might tell us if you have access to anything else but your brain.

The junior year is the third of four years - American universities take 4 years to complete a bachelor's degree.

I think that exam would be medium to hard for a first year, but fairly easy for a junior year class. Mostly for the reasons others have said, it looks like stuff that would be expected to be covered thoroughly in the homework.

It is a bit long, though.

 

[Shackleford]

Yeah, it is a bit long. Our other two midterms had three problems each with five parts.

This is the final I took last Friday. We did cover a bit of material in the class. I suppose it was our best guess what was going to be on the final.

Vector Analysis
Newton's Equations
Simple Harmonic Motion
Gravitation
Calculus of Variations
Hamilton's Principle - Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Dynamics
Dynamics of a System of Particles
Motion in a Noninertial Reference Frame

 

[Klockan3]

It isn't long at all, it is just 4 questions. The subquestions aren't extra work but instead just gives you hints on how to proceed to the later parts.

 

[mxbob468]

i hate to be disparaging but...

ridiculously easy.

 

[Anonymous217]

i hate to be disparaging but...

ridiculously easy.

Exactly what I was thinking. Here's what my mechanics final's going to be like (which is tomorrow), except that it also includes special relativity. This is mainly a first year/second-year course (mostly freshman).
http://pdfcast.org/pdf/practice-h7a-final

 

[fluidistic]

The junior year is the third of four years - American universities take 4 years to complete a bachelor's degree.

Ah, I thought it was a first year exam. This changes everything.

I think that exam would be medium to hard for a first year, but fairly easy for a junior year class. Mostly for the reasons others have said, it looks like stuff that would be expected to be covered thoroughly in the homework.

It is a bit long, though.

Exactly. Fairly easy for a third year exam. Seems like they stick with Newtonian's mechanics (not even rigid bodies) and the Lagrangian part was a joke of a problem.

 

[mxbob468]

Exactly what I was thinking. Here's what my mechanics final's going to be like (which is tomorrow), except that it also includes special relativity. This is mainly a first year/second-year course (mostly freshman).
http://pdfcast.org/pdf/practice-h7a-final

i'll say this about your exam: more difficult than the OP's but not extremely so. 1-4 are fair mechanics problem.

on the other hand:

problem 5 is an extremely easy pdes problem but i imagine it becomes increasingly difficult when you're not in/haven't taken a pdes class. i don't see the point of this. if mechanics requires knowledge of pdes then require the students to take pdes prior to mechanics but don't hastily try to squeeze it in.

 

[capandbells]

Seeing that Berkeley final makes me feel very discouraged. I mean, I could do most of it (except 5 and 6), but I'm a junior, and my 300-level mechanics course didn't have tests that were that difficult. It makes me feel very underprepared and a little dumb, frankly.

 

[Jack21222]

Easier than the one I took on Thursday.

 

[jetforcegemin]

problem 5 is an extremely easy pdes problem but i imagine it becomes increasingly difficult when you're not in/haven't taken a pdes class. i don't see the point of this. if mechanics requires knowledge of pdes then require the students to take pdes prior to mechanics but don't hastily try to squeeze it in.

PDEs is covered in one of the prereqs for the course, Math 54 ( Linear algebra/Differential Equations).

 

[Anonymous217]

Math 54 isn't a pre-req for H7A.

 

[jetforcegemin]

Physics for Scientists and Engineers -- Physics (PHYSICS) H7A [4 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture, one hour of discussion, and three hours of laboratory per week.
Prerequisites: High school physics; Math 1A or 1AS; Math 1B or 1BS (may be taken concurrently); Math 53; Math 54.
Credit option: Students will received no credit for H7A after taking 7A.
Description: Honors sequence corresponding to 7A-7B-7C, but with a greater emphasis on theory as opposed to problem solving. Recommended for those students who have had advanced Physics on the high school level and who are intending to declare a major in physics. Entrance into H7A is decided on the basis of performance on an examination given during the first week of class or the consent of the instructor, and into H7B-H7C on performance in previous courses in a standard sequence.
(F,SP) Staff


Doesn't it say 54 in the prereqs list?

 

[jetforcegemin]

editops double post

 

[Anonymous217]

That's strange, but the first day of lecture the professor said that the pre-reqs for the class were just to take Math 53 concurrently. Most of the freshman in the class (that I know of) are in 53 or 54 this semester. For the final this year, I wouldn't expect a question similar to #6. #5 is okay without 54 though.

Most of the LA stuff we need are learned in class and you aren't expected to know it beforehand (although it's very simple), such as taking eigenvalues to find angular frequency.