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Any advice for a college physics students?
manwiththemachinegun
METAL GEAR?!Registered User regular
METAL GEAR?!Registered User regular
Hey everyone, anyone know some good online tutorials, teachers, videos that show basic college physics being done? Right now I'm working kinematic equations and the teacher and book aren't much help. The teacher doesn't allocate any time in class for helping students with questions, it's a lecture hall format. By that I mean problems involving acceleration, velocity, displacement, etc. By way of reference, I'm taking college chemistry as well, and that is very straightforward. Highest math I went in high school was Alegbra 2/Trig.
The problem I'm having is working the problems, I don't know a good way to do this because I don't know where to start, and don't have any experience even jamming numbers in. These are typically multistep problems where one misstep will throw off everything else.
The problem I'm having is working the problems, I don't know a good way to do this because I don't know where to start, and don't have any experience even jamming numbers in. These are typically multistep problems where one misstep will throw off everything else.
manwiththemachinegun on
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I'm assuming then that this is not calculus based physics? Physics 99-Physics for Liberal Arts Majors or something like that? If so maybe try looking for resources targets at High School physics. And if not, drop the class, go learn Calculus and then marvel at how much more sense physics makes.
Also if there is a math and/or science lab staffed by tutors on campus, it would be a great idea to check them out as they are there precisely to help students in your situation.
Anyway. Why don't you post a few of the problems here and we'll discuss them?
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
If you want to PM me your school I can probably refer you to the right resource. I do this sort of thing for a living at my institution and know what to look for.
Alternatively, your professor will have between 3 and 10 office hours per week for Q&A and can 100% give you better feedback on what you need to know than any online resource, given that he is the one who will be assessing you later in the term.
That'd really be helpful, I will after I finish class today. The hard part is reading a word problem, deduce what the missing values are, and form a use of equations to get an answer that still make sense. I've done algebraic word problems before, but these are new formulas for the most part and I'm having to learn new terms like. "Delta X" "Delta T" etc. I understand like, it's the final minus the initial, but when it actually comes to applying them to a problem, it all falls apart and I don't know where to start.
I screwed up the the Behr free fall lab in the beginning and had to redo a bunch of calculations, thankfully my lab partner wasn't too upset since he's struggling as well, most of the class was in fact. My teacher is very much of the, "wait until you're drowning, then specifically ask me what you don't understand, and then I'll give you some help" mentally.
Like, I get physics is a tool box and you're supposed to solve symbolically, and most answers have more than one approach. But it's really, really hard for me to understand the application of the these equations without plugging in some numbers to make sense.
Using delta doesn't necessarily mean it needs calculus. They could be taking averages of things like speed or position to approximate acceleration and speed, for example, neither of which requires more than algebra.
When I was running into trouble in one, I could just remember something from the other. E.g., when having trouble with a particular problem in Calc, I'd be able to recognize that it was basically the same as just dropping a loop of wire through a magnetic field, and that worked like (blah, blah) and when solving an issue in E&M I'd be able to refer back to the methods from Calc.
I understand that many, but not all, universities pair those classes like that, and you could make life a lot easier on yourself if you were taking them contemporaneously.
* Big If, of course.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Welcome to the lie that is credit hours for science courses.
You may also like "If 3 credit Engineering 3xx doesn't have a lab, why is the entire class in that one room till all hours of the night?"
I only need three classes, however, the Army Baylor PT program is something I'd like to apply for at some point. I'm 33 so I have a few years, but ideally I'd like to be working in a new field sooner rather than later. Anyway, that's the plan.
So that means for a non-science major, it's A&P 241-242, a year of consecutive chemistry and physics, so eight classes plus retaking statistics since I did that in my early twenties. That's if I wanted to do a full Physical Therapist with a doctorate.
I would love to do a masters program and then pick up what I needed towards doctorate as I worked like my PT in town did. But Masters are inexplicably (other than MO MONEY) being phased out in favor of "more highly qualified candidates" even though from the people I've talked to, starting PTs made the same and had the same performance whether they had a doctorate or not.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
This is a good series is what I'm saying.
That's Salman Khan himself doing those. His disembodied voice and digital scribbles teach a wide range of topics there.
Really is a good supplement bit of instruction in my opinion.
And here I was hoping for Khan Noonien Singh and his superior intellect...
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I guess I just wish there was an easier bridge from computational math to physics, but whatever, I'll figure something out. It still sucks though.
Don't know what else to do for the moment other than get some tutoring for later semesters.