Remembering physical science equations?

[Buttermellow]

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Do you have any nifty mnemonics that help you remember equations?

For example, I always thought of F=ma looking like "fema." (although this is an equation we should definitely know by now...).

 

[Monocles]

I always have trouble with the right hand rule so I try to remember it like this.

- B is direction of magnetic field, and it's your index finger. Bam! is the sound you make when you shoot a gun. (Pretend to make a gun with your hand 😛)
- F is the direction of the force, and it's your middle finger. When you tell people to F' off, you use the middle finger.
- V is the direction of current, and it's your thumb. I don't have any clever mnemonics for this one. Just remember it's the leftover.

 

[ReptarBar]

smh at people still using fingers for cross products...

 

[Buttermellow]

- B is direction of magnetic field, and it's your index finger. Bam! is the sound you make when you shoot a gun. (Pretend to make a gun with your hand 😛)
- F is the direction of the force, and it's your middle finger. When you tell people to F' off, you use the middle finger.
- V is the direction of current, and it's your thumb. I don't have any clever mnemonics for this one. Just remember it's the leftover.

I always remember that V is the thumb by picturing myself giving a thumbs up and saying "velocity thumb!" I'm a very visual learner so if I can picture something silly I can usually remember it... which is why your suggestions are perfect 🙂

 

[ModusProbandi]

Very Bad Finger
(starting with your thumb)

 

[Amrazzz]

Power = PIV (=IV), PIR (=I^2 R)
CAVE (Q=CAV)
VIR/wire (V=IR)

 

[ridethecliche]

My test is friday.

Tomorrow I'm going to go through the EK book and just write down all the formulae in a notebook and look at them when I have a few mins here and there.

This is what I've come to realize. In passages and in discretes, they give you all the info you need to 'plug and chug' for the most part. If you can figure out how the concepts relate, you're golden.

That said, I'm still familiarizing myself with the equations. To get the best intuitive understanding, I should have been doing this 2 months ago while doing tons of passages. So it goes.

 

[ReptarBar]

if you want to take it a step further, just spend some time looking at the units for every quantity and how they relate with each other. then you will be easily able to tell if an equation you are using is wrong since the units don't work out.

 

[bambam02]

^^
agreed. The key to learning the physics equations is really memorizing the units of the quantities. Remember what your units should be for quantities like power, energy, work, forces, pressure. Ive seen MCAt questions that can be answered alone just by knowing the units.

This is helpful because there are multiple equations for solving for a quantity like power, and energy.

for example--> power can be solved for using P=FD/t, P=torque*theta/time, P=FVelocity, P=P(deltaV)/t, P=IV, But its all measured in watts which breaks down joules/sec...or N*m/s or kg*m^2/s^3 or amp-volts.

Another example is solving for wave velocity. you know velocity is given in m/s. so you know that you can just use wavelength and divide it by the wave period which is measured in seconds to solve for it. That's how I remember and think of the equations, it helps me understand them

I score 13-14 on my practice test in the PS section thinking of it like this.

But, if your more mnemonic kinda guy here a few i use. Q=MCAT (mcdeltaT)

DiRT... Distance = rate*time.

Pv=RT i think PerVeRT, (v is specifiv volume, v/mass)

RIP - Real, Inverted, Positive---> this is for lenses and mirrors, if I is negative, the image will be real, and positive. (1/f=1/i+1/o)

For momentum--- I always think of car crashes and collisions, so DMV---> momentum=MV.

only ones off the top of my head

 

[btc8]

This is kind of arbitrary, and I do not think it will be on the MCAT, but it sure helped me in the EK physics tests when they asked about identifying a particle's charge in a magnetic field:

Right hand= pRoton
Left hand= eLectron

Basically, use the left hand rule for electron, and right hand for proton.

 

[FutureMD23]

I just read over all Gchem and physics equations about every day for 2-3 weeks leading up to the test. Other than than it was really just practicing questions and passages for so many weeks that you begin to remember the equations and understand them. And UNDERSTANDING everything is so much more important than flat out memorizing the equations IMO