Teaching myself calculus

[leonardoson]

I feel like I'm being smart (or just a good student). I'm taking Calculus based physics and calculus concurrently next term. I have no calculus based background. I'm currently teaching myself calculus through the Khan Academy website. Am I still screwed for calc physics? A friend of mine recommended to leave the algebra based due to the joy of actually understanding the underlying math.

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[sovereign0]

In my experience taking Physics I, the calculus was mostly used to demonstrate the underlying math behind the relationships we used. It wasn't actually necessary to solve problems, but it was helpful to understand them. I feel that concurrently taking Calculus would help you keep your head above the water. You definitely aren't screwed, but you might be in for a little more work if you really want to master the material.

 

[Lawpy]

I feel like I'm being smart (or just a good student). I'm taking Calculus based physics and calculus concurrently next term. I have no calculus based background. I'm currently teaching myself calculus through the Khan Academy website. Am I still screwed for calc physics? A friend of mine recommended to leave the algebra based due to the joy of actually understanding the underlying math.

Your friend is correct, and you can self-study calculus effectively. There are many excellent resources to help you with that, aside from Khan Academy. Examples include Paul's Online Math Notes and Visual Calculus. Calculus-based physics is a direct application of calculus to physics problems, and the earliest examples you can see in your calculus class are velocity/acceleration problems and related rates problems (such as the sliding ladder problem).

I'm not sure what textbook your calculus-based physics class uses, but the two highly-recommended resources are Serway's Physics and Halliday and Resnick. You can't go wrong with either.

 

[efle]

Honestly textbooks and online materials are usually preferable to math professors. It's just one of those subjects that is very rarely well taught and will end up being you teaching yourself anyways.

 

[leonardoson]

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm not too worried about it, just enough to post a thread . From the khan academy videos, calculus doesn't seem too hard. Working through the chain rule right now. I know it will get more complicated but the "non-premed" students have always put fear into me before. When I got through those classes I always thought, "that wasn't too bad," and got A's in them. I start school in a couple weeks so I don't have time to work through any physics books. I'll just keep working through the khan academy stuff and take what I learned into the school year.