How much trouble am I in to take calc based physics without calc?

[bigDee]

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I am taking calculus based physics without calculus. How much calculus will I have to teach myself? Will I need to know everything that I would be learning if I was in the course? I know this is not recommended but does this seem like a near impossible task?

 

[ChubbyChaser]

I cant speak for your school, but honestly My calc based Physics class didnt have too much calculus in it, there was a little bit, but not much. THe main difference was that our questions were more challenging then trig based.

But once again i cant speak for your university. Your best bet would be to talk to upper classmen who took the class

 

[cheezer]

learn derivatives and integrals

 

[bigDee]

Its only a community college, but the professor made it a point that there's a stigma against cc because of the notion that classes are easy, so he definitely is going to challenge us.

 

[jae9970]

learn derivatives and integrals

i agree, but.. learning these two took me more than reading the textbook and solving problems

i guess it depends on how involved with calculus your physics class is, but i would imagine you'll have hard time

are you even eligible to take that class? no calculus pre-requisite?

 

[bigDee]

learn derivatives and integrals

Is it hard to learn? Will it take more than a few days to learn derivatives? Because we're already talking about that and I have no clue what's going on as soon as he started talking about that.

 

[illixir]

We never used calculus in my calc-based physics class all year. Maybe at the beginning when doing position, velocity, acceleration, but even then I remember that I never needed to use it on tests, although expected to know it.

 

[bigDee]

i agree, but.. learning these two took me more than reading the textbook and solving problems

i guess it depends on how involved with calculus your physics class is, but i would imagine you'll have hard time

are you even eligible to take that class? no calculus pre-requisite?

It's a co-requisite. If you register online it won't let you in a class without the pre-requisite but for some reason it doesn't check for your co-requisite

 

[bigDee]

Ok I'm getting two different opinions here. I know it varies but I'm trying to get a better insight on my situation. By the way I'm using Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday. So how long will it take to learn the derivative concepts needed for this class?

 

[jae9970]

if you have talents in that area.. you can teach yourself of course.

have you talked to your professor about your concern? he or she should know the best. Or is this something you are trying to do without your professor knowing? 😀

 

[alesdu1]

Id urge you to consider transferring into the alg/trig physics. Although its no cake walk, it will be much easier. It will also be more than sufficient for the MCAT, so I dont think taking a more challenging class for that reason alone will be of much benefit. I've also heard some really nightmarish stories about calc based physics. Some of these people had taken both calculus AND an alg based physics course in high school and they still struggled.

Bottom line:

It could seriously hurt your science gpa. I wouldnt risk it, not only because you havent even taken the "pre-req," but its also just a plain hard class!