Why is Physics So Hard? Advice to Improve

[General_Sax]

Exactly, I have no problem solving for a variable. Too bad the problems don't simply give you the numbers needed to plug into the equation.

Good. They can't make it too easy.

 

[theJorge551]

thanks for the confidence. I definitely need it ( and I do better when I have confidence)

We all do, man. Glad to know I could help, and keep us posted!

 

[Klockan3]

Mathematics is entirely arbitrary.

No it is not, it was constructed to fit the laws of this world.

It does not dictate physical phenomena.

No, but it was created in such a way that it is optimal for expressing physical phenomena and it is our only way to do so.

Someone can understand Newton's Laws qualitatively but not be able to express it quantitatively. That's my distinction - a very fine one, I know.

Then I'd say that he most likely don't understand it qualitatively, he just think that they does. People have so many erroneous beliefs about things like physics, it takes a really long time to hammer them out and it is impossible to do that without the maths, words like acceleration and velocity have different meaning to different persons till you define it mathematically etc. I'd say that it is really rare for people to understand Newton's Laws qualitatively but it is really common to be able to express it quantitatively. People in general are a lot better at maths than they are at physics.

Also, no your view is far from delicate, I have the same opinion but got to the reverse conclusion. When learning the physics you either already know the maths or you do learn the maths implicitly in the process. If you take a non calculus based physics course you should after that understand enough concepts from calculus that you could take your first calculus course in a week or else you didn't understand the physics. Calculus is trivial once you understand concepts like F=ma qualitatively.

 

[chiro]

No it is not, it was constructed to fit the laws of this world.

No, but it was created in such a way that it is optimal for expressing physical phenomena and it is our only way to do so.

Then I'd say that he most likely don't understand it qualitatively, he just think that they does. People have so many erroneous beliefs about things like physics, it takes a really long time to hammer them out and it is impossible to do that without the maths, words like acceleration and velocity have different meaning to different persons till you define it mathematically etc. I'd say that it is really rare for people to understand Newton's Laws qualitatively but it is really common to be able to express it quantitatively. People in general are a lot better at maths than they are at physics.

Also, no your view is far from delicate, I have the same opinion but got to the reverse conclusion.

Definitely agree on this comment.

One of the things mathematics is good at is if used correctly, it provides a good way to state the structure and behavior of particular things which include physical systems.

Because of this non-ambiguity it is usually a good way to really get all people to have a standardized interpretation and understanding of the so called physical systems. Not only that, because of the non-ambiguity it allows anyone to compare the reality of the system against the language of the theory and straight away anyone can tell if its outright wrong (whether in general or by a single anomaly) or whether it still stands against the specific tested situation.

On why physics is hard, one thing I have to add is to first think about the history of physics (this can very well apply to any science humankind has endeavored in building).

Our understanding of physics has come about by a very large number of people who are very smart and very dedicated through curious investigation to find out about their world. I think everyone has at least one curiosity about their world, but with physics it is certainly something that needs a fair amount of dedication, insight, and possibly some luck to raise the bar on understanding our universe.

Over time as things have become more well understood, other people have found ways to take and transform that into semester or year long courses that provide a very well condensed, concise, and engineered view of something that otherwise took hundreds of years to understand and develop.

With this said, it is not surprising that many people simply do not understand or "get it" straight away. When we taught the engineered, refined material we are very likely in our time as a student come across situations where we can't look at the material in a variety of perspectives (Feynman referred to this as 'Fragile Knowledge'). It usually takes someone that has been doing it for a decade or longer to know all of the intricacies of their subject which are often in some form at least, left out of curriculum.

So don't feel bad if you don't get it all straight away. Most people don't and even those who do go well in their coursework may find out later that their understanding was not as dense as they thought when they gain new insights, perspectives, and relationships in their working knowledge: most of us do when working on something for significant lengths of time.

 

[thrill3rnit3]

Have some orange juice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKTSaezB4p8&feature=related

 

[sentient 6]

because is physics was easy... then it just wouldn't be fun anymore...

 

[NeedsHelp1212]

I seriously think i got a 100 on the quiz today! lol so happy

 

[Shackleford]

So, F=ma (a straight line provided that mass is constant) is more difficult to "understand" than it's implications. That's rich, because I'm not even sure what the implications of such a statement is (F=ma), but I (and basically any 14 year old) could solve for any variable 7 days from Sunday.

I think you're misunderstanding me. It's a description of physical phenomena.

When I do this thing to various other things, they move.

That's probably the most general and ambiguous qualitative understanding of Newton's Laws.

Expressing it a little better:

When I perform some action on an object, it acquires motion. Through experimentation, this motion depends on the "magnitude" of the action, the "size" of the object, etc.

That's a little more lucid. Still, the definitions of those terms are interrelated. That's why my quantum professor says such things when explaining some physics concepts, "The physics is easy. Unfortunately, we have to do deal with the mathematics."

All I'm saying is the very complicated mathematics used to very precisely describe physical phenomena can be vastly more difficult than merely understanding what happens at a qualitative level.

 

[theJorge551]

Have some orange juice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKTSaezB4p8&feature=related

Thanks...that made my week.



...and yes, I am going now to get some orange juice.

 

[NeedsHelp1212]

We all do, man. Glad to know I could help, and keep us posted!

to keep everyone posted on my journey through high school physics i got an A- for the first marking period! Too bad i did bad on my first quiz for the 2nd MP so I am in for another uphill climb. I have a big test tomorrow on momentum and collisions. It's extremely easy so I am confident i can get a good grade. Too bad I have 4 tests tomorrow as well ( why do teachers all give tests on the same day..lol)

 

[jmason52]

Not sure if I heard this in a movie or read it somewhere, but somehow, it just seems to fit:

Why is Physics so hard? Cause if it was easy then anybody could do it.

 

[Shackleford]

My mechanics professor asked us how we know who is a physicist. He said it's the one who spends the most time looking at a problem.

 

[NeedsHelp1212]

update: halfway through the 2nd marking period I had an A+ (98). Got a 41/50 on the last quiz so i dropped to a A (96) but hopefully with tomorrow's quiz which is on heat i can get back to an A+. Thanks for all the motivation guys.

 

[The_Duck]

Exactly, I have no problem solving for a variable. Too bad the problems don't simply give you the numbers needed to plug into the equation.

Perhaps you don't feel like expending any more mental effort than you have to, but you will "get" physics at a deeper level if you look beyond finding the numbers to plug into equations. For instance, learn /why/ the equations are true and don't take it on faith that, for instance, "distance traveled = (1/2)*acceleration*time^2 + (initial velocity)*time."

 

[cristo]

How can you get an A+; surely an A should be the best grade? American education confuses me...

Anyway, I think if your main concern is that you got an A-/B+ when you really 'expect' an A, then you have nothing to worry about!

 

[Dembadon]

How can you get an A+; surely an A should be the best grade? American education confuses me...

[...]

I've never taken a class in the U.S. where an A+ < 100%. I earned an A+ (105%) in English Literature, but that's because the instructor offered some extra credit. I've never had a math or science course that's even offered extra credit assignments. If one wants extra work, one can take an honors course, which I think is much more valuable than an A+.

 

[NeedsHelp1212]

How can you get an A+; surely an A should be the best grade? American education confuses me...

Anyway, I think if your main concern is that you got an A-/B+ when you really 'expect' an A, then you have nothing to worry about!

Let me re-state I am in high school NOT college. In a typical american high school an A+ is in the range from a 97 to a 100. An A is in the range from a 93-96. An A- is a 90-92. A B+ is an 87-89, B is an 83-86, B- is an 80-82 and so forth until you reach an F.

And my main concern actually was that physics would get harder as the year progressed and my grade would drop lower and lower. Well as of this point the exact opposite has happened. I have looked ahead at future chapters and the topics seem kind of hard (mirrors and other "weird" physics topics- I am so used to physics being just about motion). Hopefully i can continue to understand the material!

 

[Dembadon]

Let me re-state I am in high school NOT college. In a typical american high school an A+ is in the range from a 97 to a 100.

[...]

I've never seen this, nor does it make sense to me. *shrug*

 

[Chunkysalsa]

My HS never did A+, not like I'd get them cept my computer classes.

 

[nlsherrill]

Well, physics is "easy," but the math required to do some physics problems is quite hard. In other words, solving particular problems involves solving very complicated mathematical equations.

I don't really agree with this. Math is not why physics is hard, but sometimes physics has quite complicated mathematics as well. Every single problem except maybe 2 that I solved this semester(University Physics 1) was not hard because of the math.

 

[iRaid]

I'm in hs now and we can't get A+'s wtf..

 

[NeedsHelp1212]

lol are you guys serious? How does your grades then get converted to GPA? For us in regular classes (which physics is considered as a regular and is my only regular class, the rest being honors and AP which actually give you the chance to have a higher than 4 GPA). Anyway, a regular class with an A+ for us translates obviously into a 4.0. An A is a 3.7, A- is a 3.3 and so forth. Let says you are in AP history and get an A- (3.3). That really goes in as a 4.3 because the AP gives it a one point curve. I was under the impression all high schools do this and have A+'s but i guess not?!?

 

[NeedsHelp1212]

hey everyone, i have midterms in this class tomorrow. Wish me luck! I have been studying all day. Once again thanks for all the encouragement and help I have gotten from this thread

 

[lisab]

hey everyone, i have midterms in this class tomorrow. Wish me luck! I have been studying all day. Once again thanks for all the encouragement and help I have gotten from this thread

Good luck!

 

[oddcitations]

hey everyone, i have midterms in this class tomorrow. Wish me luck! I have been studying all day. Once again thanks for all the encouragement and help I have gotten from this thread

You'll do wonderfully!

 

[Angry Citizen]

I don't really agree with this. Math is not why physics is hard, but sometimes physics has quite complicated mathematics as well. Every single problem except maybe 2 that I solved this semester(University Physics 1) was not hard because of the math.

It's not physics or math that's hard. What's hard is setting up the problem. You can run through disgustingly long and complicated integrals like they were 1+1, and still get knocked on your butt by physics math that is often simple arithmetic.

Physics is not a formula-based activity. You can't memorize your way through physics like you can with chemistry, biology and the like. You have to understand the conceptual difficulties in the problem, then translate that concept into another language: Mathematics.

 

[Shackleford]

It's not physics or math that's hard. What's hard is setting up the problem. You can run through disgustingly long and complicated integrals like they were 1+1, and still get knocked on your butt by physics math that is often simple arithmetic.

Physics is not a formula-based activity. You can't memorize your way through physics like you can with chemistry, biology and the like. You have to understand the conceptual difficulties in the problem, then translate that concept into another language: Mathematics.

This is correct. I discovered this just last semester in my Classical Dynamics course with an exceptional physicist. We covered quite a bit of a material. He gave us the hardest problems from the newest Thornton and Marion book. The hardest part was just getting started on the problem, i.e. setting up the problem.

 

[loadshare]

Study harder..never give up

 

[Ryker]

This is correct. I discovered this just last semester in my Classical Dynamics course with an exceptional physicist. We covered quite a bit of a material. He gave us the hardest problems from the newest Thornton and Marion book. The hardest part was just getting started on the problem, i.e. setting up the problem.

Well setting up the problem is physics and mathematics. It's not as if you somehow set it up and *then* go do physics and maths. You can't just arbitrarily separate those parts/steps that make a whole.

 

[Shackleford]

Well setting up the problem is physics and mathematics. It's not as if you somehow set it up and *then* go do physics and maths. You can't just arbitrarily separate those parts/steps that make a whole.

How didn't you take that meaning from my post?