is it worth sacrficng an early leave at schol(11:37) or would i have a fun time in it:psyduck:

Physics is great fun, especially if it has a lab component.

which kind of school

high school
thats why i sorta dont think it matters

do you want to go into a hard science?

Physics is fun. End of chat.

Physics is incredibly rewarding, if you're willing to put in the time and effort. If you're looking to continue studying Physics further, I'd recommend putting a lot of time into studying mathematics. The concepts you'll learn at high school level will be continually revised and revisited, and you'll have plenty of time to refine your knowledge, but you will keep using the same fundamental mathematics throughout. Lecturers will often start from simple concepts and build from there, but they will often assume you know the basic mathematics (and not have the time to teach you the mathematics you might have missed).
Calculus is incredibly important, as is algebra obviously, and if you can take any Group Theory classes I'd really recommend it. Group Theory is easily accessible to pretty much anyone, and is used in most modern physics.

I like math more than physics.

But physics is applied math.

I like the abstract.

Pure Physics is the best subject ever.
Physics calculations using high level Math is lame.

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

I regret not doing physics.

Also, learn to do simple everyday physics in your head; it makes people think you're a genius. Just elementary things like "how long will this 1.5 kilowatt heater take to warm up the pool" or "if i fire a bow and arrow into the air on an angle, where should it come down." This sort of thing comes in handy every once in a while, and it's nice to be able to have decent estimates for things instead of having to guess. You can get some pretty accurate answers too, which is neat.

Physics: it works!

Yes, physics is fun.


Then again I'm an engineering student.

I already have a year of calculus (single variable) done and I sort of have a gist of how calculus works (differentials and integrals and what not)

i also know some basic knowledge on chemistry

I guess i'll take physics and leave school later

F = mv

physics is laaaaaaaaaaaaame

Oh dear I remember that guy. "Fyzziks" expert who thought Newton was wrong, apparently.

Friend14/CaptBevl (or something)

I had that thread bookmarked until I reformatted last night... It think it's the one time in the history of massassi that I lost my rag.

yeah...we tried and tried with that dude but he just wouldn't listen.

and yeah, physics is fun

I agree, physics is awesome.

Well, since Friend14 deleted the "original," you guys are stuck with the Jon'C continued second one! Dont revive it or ill probably ban you for a while!

http://forums.massassi.net/vb3/showthread.php?t=44486

I'm laughing at that newspaper article again, and again I can't stop.

What in the hell...?

When I took physics in college I hadn't taken calculus and so I took an algebra-based physics class. It was challenging to say the least. Fast forward and recently I've been playing around with a 2d physics library while making an iPhone game and that's pretty fun.

I have to say that a rigorous advanced algebra course would be better than calculus. The things you learn in Calc 1 should be pretty trivial with a very strong algebra background. Unfortunately, algebra courses in high school only teach the rules, they don't really teach you how to think with them. At most high schools, Calc is the best you can to for that, but even AP calculus isn't that challenging.

And of course if you get into theoretical physics, you'd better be ready for several years of scary math prerequisite courses.

Physics is cool IF you don't goto a poor podunk school with no budget. Hell, even in these times most schools budgets are turds anyway. I took physics in HS, a coach taught it... *sigh*.... Maybe someday I'll learn physics.

You really need both, they're both incredibly fundamental and you won't get far without either.
What do you actually cover in an advanced algebra high school course? Do you get onto set theory?

Yeesh, if we didn't have a proper tcher for a subject at my school, we just wouldn't offer the subject.

Hahaha that's an interesting idea!

I don't know of any advanced high school algebra course. What I'm saying is that there is a whole lot more to being proficient with algebra than knowing the rules. I'm not talking about higher math, and just talking about simple elementary algebra.

For instance, there aren't really any special rules you need to know to prove the cubic equation, but the difference in ability between a high school student who knows the rules, and a mathematician who can use those rules to do a proof like that is massive. What I advocate is a class that doesn't so much teach you facts as it does teach you how to think.

If you have a rigorous algebra/trig background, Calc 1 is trivial. All you really need to know for any first year physics classes are *simple* derivatives and anti-derivatives, and you should be taking Calc 1 your first semester.

the original thread was better. friend14 had more misplaced confidence.

The original thread got me angry, but I didn't go quite so potty until the 2nd one.

Hell no, I didn't like physics in high school or in college.

Hahaha, from the original thread:

Hmm, it's a difficult issue. Rigorously learning the fundamental mathematics may not be very interesting and it may appeal to a very small segment of students as it might seem like it has no 'real' applications, but if you do slog through it then the physics that uses it becomes much easier.

There's a big difference between studying Applied Mathematics and studying Theoretical Physics. The former will involve a lot of new mathematical objects and learning how these mathematical objects transform and interact with other mathematical objects.

Differential geometry is a perfect example, as you have to learn the different sorts of linearity and which objects exhibit which sort of linearity. For a simple example, the differential operator del

This behaves quite unlike a lot of other operations you might come across. And you also have even weirder graded Leibniz rules.

You can use knowledge of differential geometry to use differential forms. This is differential geometry that is independent of co-ordinate systems, and is incredibly useful and simplifies many problems in General Relativity. But the fundamental knowledge of the rules of differential geometry is essential before you can study any interesting problems of rotating black holes or anything like that.

Applied Mathematics uses abstract mathematics to solve abstract problems. Theoretical Physics uses abstract mathematics to solve physical problems.

There is some overlap in what people might be interested in, someone studying string theory or quantum gravity theories may well be interested in various applied mathematics problems too, but a condensed matter physicist will probably have little interest in the abstract problems and be more concentrated on phenomenology.

My favourite mathematical object is the quaternion, I love those guys, but I've never found any use for them.