Disconnect between Physics 1 and 2?

[mynamewastaken]

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Hi all,

Just started physics 2 and I'm finding it immediately harder than classical physics. I did well in physics 1, but i'm freaking out I feel like I understand nothing in physics 2. anyone have a similar experience? I always heard that the second half was slightly easier....it's also calc based and i havent taken calc since high school 7 yrs ago...help?!

 

[TheRealMD]

Hi all,

Just started physics 2 and I'm finding it immediately harder than classical physics. I did well in physics 1, but i'm freaking out I feel like I understand nothing in physics 2. anyone have a similar experience? I always heard that the second half was slightly easier....it's also calc based and i havent taken calc since high school 7 yrs ago...help?!

They are rather different subjects even though they are called "physics 1" and "physics 2". In the beginning, it makes no sense but eventually you'll grasp what they are teaching you (usually around AC currents).

 

[Law2Doc]

Hi all,

Just started physics 2 and I'm finding it immediately harder than classical physics. I did well in physics 1, but i'm freaking out I feel like I understand nothing in physics 2. anyone have a similar experience? I always heard that the second half was slightly easier....it's also calc based and i havent taken calc since high school 7 yrs ago...help?!

Are you taking it in a compressed summer course? If time permits get a tutor or find a study group or seek out the prof in office hours. As with all the mathy sciences, doing tons of problems makes the difference. Where I took it, I actually considered 2 much harder than 1.

 

[spanamit]

You mean your physics 1 was not calc based? That is quite surprising.

 

[mynamewastaken]

Both calc. based, but the prof. for physics 2 appears to emphasize the calculus much more which confuses me....it is a summer course so my problem is the HW probs from the book are way more involved than anything we get to in class....also the prof for the first half was good at saying "heres why you would do the calculus, but this is what you really need to know (insert equation)"....guess i'll just plug away it's only 3 more weeks. just dont want this last pre-req to be my worst science grade ya know?

 

[spanamit]

Use the Portable TA: A Physics Problem Solving Guide, Volume II by Elby. It is an excellent help book/guide for Physics II.

You might be able to check it out from your college library. Otherwise, I am sure you can buy a second hand copy for less than $20.

 

[Gospe1]

The huge disconnect of these courses comes from the fact that our brains can usually visualize the answer in physics 1 but physics 2 is completely foreign. Just wait until you start drawing circuits. I think thats the point where it clicked. Another really important thing to understand is how charge is affected by concentric rings with point charges on the inside or outside. For some reason we had tons of problems on this.

 

[EBI831]

i was the opposite. i was a complete dummy at physics 1 and the rest of the class rocked it (go figure with the curve how my grade ended up) and for physics 2 it just seemed to click and was more interesting b/c it was less about visualization and more plug and chug in my opinion. but, it might've also been my teacher. maybe you're just not clicking with your teacher, as someone suggested, i'd see about getting a tutor and i'd also invest in some extra physics problems in like MCAT books or Cliff's or something b/c at the core i hate to admit it but it's just memorization of how to do a few types of problems and then adapting it to the new situation or test question.

 

[Dr. Josh]

My physics 2 was so much harder (I took it in a summer semester at the same time as chem 2) but it was totally because my professor was so horrible. In fact he was so bad that 18 of 25 dropped or transferred out of the class. Of the 7 remeianing only 5 passed. Yea, it was a great experience.

 

[87138]

Honestly, if you can get your hands on EK Physics Audio Osmosis you should listen to that as much as your free time permits.

I took Physics 2 last summer while prepping for the MCAT, and by listening to the AO Physics stuff while walking to and from class, and when driving in my car, it hammered a ton of the fundamental ideas found in Physics 2 (obviously it doesn't hit everything, and it's not super in-depth, but it helps you get the basics ironed out so that when you delve deeper in your class, you're prepared).

This method worked really well for me, and I was glad since much of my Physics-heavy MCAT PS section form was rather Physics 2-heavy.

 

[Meatwad]

What does the class entail? Is it some physics on steroids? I only ask because you said it's harder than classical physics, which implies Physics II isn't classical. To most, at least, the following topics are considered "classical," physics:

Mechanics
Waves
Thermo
EM
Circuits
Optics

Is your Physics II class just EM, circuits, and optics, or is it more than that?

 

[deleted103644]

In general both Physics I and Physics II should include mostly classical and a little modern physics. Physics I is mechanics + a little relativity, and Physics II is EM + a little quantum. Generally you take both in the same series, so if Physics I is without calculus, so is Physics II (although you get almost nothing worthwhile out of physics without calculus). A lot of people have trouble with EM the first time they see it, just because it is a lot less intuitive (you have forces that act perpendicularly to motion and wave interference - stuff that doesn't make much sense to brains evolved for hunting smaller mammals in the plains/jungle). If it's not making sense to you, find someone who gets the material and try to learn with them.