My Experience With Freshman Physics

Today I talk about how my freshman physics courses were, and really what I could have done to make them better.
The Walter Lewin video referenced:
• Video

[@ma-ox2pm]

More freshman physics videos pls!!! Need all the help for next semester!

[@aryantaywade298]

@Deangelo Lucas yup I remember this scam, totally works

[@korakatk318]

My turn next fall!

[@leonashley9330]

I live in England and for my 'high school' i took a "further maths" class which made me learn mathematical intuition quite early as I wanted an A* in every course i took. This class had 25 people to start, 2nd day 10, 2nd week 5, and it ended up at 4. It just shows how people get weeded out in ratio to the mathematical intuition they want to develop, as any good mathematician would not just ignore something they don't understand, they would make sure they understand every part of a problem because they HAVE to know.

[@jeremydiamond8865]

I'm a computer science student and mastering physics nearly made me drop out of school. Not the physics classes themselves though they were hard mastering physics was the problem. It must have just pressed all my buttons in the wrong way because I legit finish a single problem without becoming uncontrollably angry. Even as a sophomore I knew I could make something better and it killed my motivation. It got to the point that halfway through my second required physics class I told the professor about the problem and he gave me permission do 20 written problems a week instead.

[@schmud68]

can totally relate to that, at my uni we only had our 2 first year courses using mastering physics. i ended up taking these both in my first semester of uni hoping to get into some 2nd year courses in my 2nd sem. i swear man, u get the right answer, but u forget to put in the correct sig figs, or u mess up on evaluating it on your calculator, or you missed something simple during your derivation etc. out of the 4 other semesters i've completed since then, i've never experienced such agony with anything ever again. it's absolute trash

[@GravisTKD]

As a biomechanics teacher who is considering going back and formally completing a physics degree (from square one), I have enjoyed checking out your videos. It's nice to revisit some freshman perspectives that I haven't dealt with in well over a decade before I take the plunge and go back in. Thanks for making these, Andrew. You're doing a good thing here.

[@madisonyork5513]

Thanks for your videos, Andrew; I'm a freshman physics major right now, and it sure makes me a lot less anxious to hear your experience/tips.

[@someguy3987]

You're very inspiring and pleasant, Andrew.

[@wilsondelmas3934]

Thank you for this! I'll be taking my first physics class next semester. Your experience will help me greatly!

[@pipertripp]

I'm starting to teach myself the I to physics this winter, just gotta wrap up my astronomy first. Really looking forward to it and your advice about the conceptual problems is well taken. I'm not trying to "survive" a course, I want to master the subject, so your reflections on your own experience are really useful. Cheers and happy holidays to everyone here on the channel!

[@basiacdno8268]

Your experience is soooo similar to mine. I enjoyed the labs because it was the physical part that proved the theories I learned, but then the theories tested on the exams would confuse me when I didn't do the math. Once I did the math and lost the fear of not having enough time, I did much better. I went from a 40 on first exam to an 80 on the final. Next semester is physics 2! Super excited for that part. My prof also used masteringphysics and he also is shocked at the kind of questions we have to complete. He hates the program as much as I do and we rant about it during office hours. It's nice to have a professor as down to earth as him.

[@ariusmaximilian8291]

I'm a freshman physics student. Loved this video. everything you said was close to what I ve experienced. thanks Andrew!

[@AndrewDotsonvideos]

You bet!

[@yasploofyh8358]

hows life now?

[@ariusmaximilian8291]

doing geophysics phd@@yasploofyh8358

[@Skye3979_]

I will be starting as a Freshman Physics major this August! I love your videos. :)

[@anjaninator]

Was not concentrated on math during hs but decided to go on the engineering path again. I have to make up a lot of math these next few sems and your honesty made it a lot less daunting, thank you!

[@satyampandey2222]

i felt the guesssssing part. i used to do it a lot, mostly because i wasn't sure of the theory behind the questions. I changed my ways and started focusing on the concepts lot more and tried to make sense of everything i read and corelate it to other things i read.

[@nathanmonson6764]

I think I had the exact opposite experience as you. My freshman physics course was designed for physics majors, and I was the only math major in a room of ten physics students. The prerequisites for the course were the same as the regular freshman physics course, but we covered things like Lagrangian mechanics and relativistic mechanics, so rather than conceptual problems we had to learn a lot of math along with the physics we were learning. Our class started with about 30-40 students and was cut to 11 after two weeks.

[@godiswatching_895]

Ayyyy

[@AndrewDotsonvideos]

Likewise!

[@gmcenroe]

I was a chemistry major at UC Berkeley in the late 1970s. We were required to take 5 quarters of physics using the classical Halliday and Resnick volumes I and II and then the Introduction to Quantum Physics also written by same authors for final quarter. The classes were I. Newtonian Mechanics II Waves, III Electricity and Magnetism IV. Optics and V. Intro to QP. The easiest class was optics, the hardest was E&M. I couldn't wait to finish these classes because I became and organic chemist even though I was great at math.

[@devnavinmadeswaran5939]

Thanks andrew really helpful!

[@newbygamer]

Very interesting video. A lot of what you say could also apply to economics courses. A lot of times they ask you conceptual questions and relations between variables and while you can try to solve it intuitively, its always much easier to plot the graph and draw out the change that occurs. Say for instance the interest rate in Canada decreases compared to the US. How does that affect the US$? You could approach that with assumptions about how people will now want your bonds cause they have more value, so they will give you more foreign currency making your supply of foreign currency increase but you could also graph it out to check, and verify that supply increases which causes the exchange rate to decrease, meaning appreciation. Math never lies.

[@michaelupdike-bz6rg]

After 1 semester of freshman E&M (I skipped mechanics) I can say it was literally the opposite way around. We used UT quest which is similar to mastering physics but I always thought the questions where well done and I learned a lot from answering them. Labs on the other hand were absolutely miserable and I learned almost nothing from them. Overall good experience at the University of Texas 10/10 with Dr. Markert. WIll review on yelp.

[@briannawilliams5299]

There were soooooo maaanyy quuueestiiioooons lol . I can say that going through the math with only variables and then interpreting what that meant was a huge help. Engineering physics was where my love and appreciation for being allowed to solve, and leave , equations in variable form was born lol. Also, Walter Lewin’s lectures were an integral piece to my success; plus he makes it fun just in case your professor is lackluster.

[@bitterbob30]

I just found your channel about a week ago and goodness gracious it brings back memories of my days in college, both good and bad. But that sentence you had in this video about don't think about conceptual problems conceptually, let the math speak for itself is bang on great advice. As an engineering student I really liked my physics classes but I was terrible at them and scraped by with B's by the skin of my teeth in both. A lot of it was exactly because I was thinking conceptually too much. For example, the famous shoot the monkey problem... conceptually you think if my bullet is going 1,000 m / s I need to aim higher than if it's only going 500 m / s. I totally understood that all objects regardless of mass have the same acceleration towards the center of the earth. Cool. Still doesn't make sense that a fast bullet aimed at Mr. Monkey's abdomen will hit the same spot as a slow bullet aimed at Mr. Monkey's abdomen... conceptually. Then you put the math to it and it clicks that yes, the principle holds true because there is no horizontal acceleration for either body. So to make the conceptual thinking click, the fast bullet will hit Mr. Monkey in the abdomen at a height closer to the branch he was hanging on to and the slow bullet will hit his abdomen at a point closer to the ground. I still remember getting that breakthrough like it was yesterday. I was about half way through my college career and someone mentioned something totally unrelated but that's what made it clicked for some reason. Same great feeling happened the first time I got a C program with pointers to compile.

[@jacobduffy9033]

Just finished introductory mechanics this semester and completely agree with everything you've said. My course was designed with the physics major in mind much more than the regular introductory physics (covered some thermodynamics at the end). This meant that our professor never curved test or our final grade (class average was a 49% at the end of the semester). I got a 78% which was the only C I've ever got in high school or college so far but with never taking a physics course in high school or college, it should get better.

[@CrustyJoeMC]

The class average was a 49 but a 78 was a C? So almost everyone failed?

[@derekdurst9216]

Ah...Mastering Physics. Something everyone in my physics class hates.

[@Pharoah2]

Freshman physics my midterm and final were entirely multiple choice. Not fun

[@AlchemistOfNirnroot]

Evil still exists....

[@christinawheeler3275]

I’m about to finish my first semester of freshman physics. My class is just for engineers though (specifically bioengineers) and it’s only a class of maybe 70 students. The class is harder than I expected it to be, and not because of its inherent difficultly, but just because there isn’t a lot of time spent on practicing each new topic so unless you really know the ins and outs of the equations, it’s easy to get bogged down by one caveat of a problem.

[@voiceofreasonjnp4112]

I was thankful to have a professor after freshman physics that took his time to teach. Even after freshman physics, I still couldn't tell the difference between my ass and my head. But this one professor linked physical concepts with the math. He helped us have a more intuitive feel for the subject. So now I can look at an equation and "physically" visualize what that equation is describing.

[@nestorv7627]

gosh, that shirt really looks good on you

[@andrewtran6669]

I'm taking AP Physics C: Mechanics soon, which is equivalent to freshman physics 1. Excited. I took AP Physics 1, but that was prior to my forays into the STEM field, so I didnt care about it and did bad. This will be a nice rebirth for me

[@nestorv7627]

the beginning (kinematics) will be pretty easy if you already took calculus

[@Thomas-er8xg]

I’m possibly taking freshman physics next year!

[@BanAlMandalawi]

See this is why I love prof. Walter so damn much.. it's because he takes you through the math first and then helps you "see through the dumb equations".. and he also admits it when he doesn't find a particular result intuitive cuz its okay if you can't see everything from a mile ahead :) Great video Andrew

[@saassas5879]

My school's intro sequence is two five credit courses and one four credit courses. Just finished the first five credit course and my only complaint is that I feel like we tried to cover way too much info. Like we went from projectile motion to basic relativity to an intro to particle physics, and then back to rotational motion. And the last week and a half of class we covered three chapters worth of material, which made up around half of the questions on the final.

[@bens0nbernard]

Can you talk more about Calculus 1 & 2. Any advice for students that love physics, and are doing well in intro classes but are struggling in math classes. Thank you.

[@autid]

Oh god the class sizes in first year compared to everything after at my university. 100s of people in first year maths and physics then in later years it was max 30-40 if it was a course required for a specific major and maybe 15-20 otherwise.

[@levileonidas613]

Bruh perfect timing I have to take Physics 1 and 2 and that’s it IM DONE I gotta pass this class I have 6 months to get ready what can I do better prepare myself for the HELL on Earth to pass this course!! Any tips!! Resources.. specific videos.. or private tutors you can refer me to???what ever it takes Im willing to do I gotta get through these classes although I have a itch to learn about other dimensions and galaxies 🌌 those topics not gone be on the exams I’m sure..So all the cool stuff I’ll learn outside of class! I love Dyson who knew the explanation of a photon could be so amazing! but anyways help a brother out! I gotta PASS advice please! Tips! Books! Ect!! thanks have fun with the PhD you’ll do great! I appreciate the videos! what’s your goal once your done by the way?

[@eratonysiad2582]

Freshmen physics courses at my university were a lot different. Like in high school, all questions are always formulated in such a way that you have to solve everything through math. I don't think there were any conceptual questions. Other than the one in EM about ferromagnetism, which I didn't study because it didn't show up in any previous exams😅.

[@GiI11]

I failed my first physics midterm because up to that point I regarded the math secondary to the concepts.

[@AlchemistOfNirnroot]

I remember A level physics. In AS (1st year) we had around 15-20 people in the class and at during A2 (second year) it was 4 (including myself). A level is the last two years of study before university in the UK BTW.

[@ellan1664]

Is A level’s advanced or does everybody take them before university?

[@Kenster-gn7hv]

I've been studying maths for 3 semesters now and have taken Analysis 1,2 Linear Algebra 1,2 , geometry and topology and complex analysis. I feel like switching my major to physics however. How would you recommend I transition from maths to physics?

[@Nchinnam]

My freshman physics classes we had multiple choice for one half and the other was free response.

[@akshatchobdar3038]

4 years later i will come to this video again when im graduating high school, i hope so my curiosity doesnt die. Let this comment be a reminder of the past.

[@anmolmehrotra923]

👌👌👌

[@seppe8156]

Going into physics, I had the idea that we would start of with intuitive axioms and build up from there, all in a logical fashion. Because that's how newton etc. did it. I think the college could be to blame, at least in my case. They just throw out formulas and it takes a great deal of my time trying to figure out where they come from mathematical and logical wise, but i think it's worth it.

[@197jm]

That is done in freshman level physics because often the derivations are too hard to follow without the math background you pick up as you go

[@seppe8156]

@@197jm yes, but still. I thought we would start from the axioms( and explain why we use these axioms), and then build up.

[@Sergeak21]

In the example, you used two cylinders which are equal in everything apart from one having half the mass of the other. I am sure my statement here is incorrect because Andrew gives an answer which is different to mine, but I just wanna know exactly why. My thinking of this problem is since the two cylinders are equal in everything apart from the mass, then the frictional force of the one with the smaller mass going down the ramp must be smaller. this is because the frictional force is calculated by µR. so shouldn't the cylinder with less frictional force go down faster? Again I know I must be wrong but can someone explain why?

[@geddon436]

So, if physics is more intuative using math, then it would make more since to study calculus first, before going too in depth in physics?

[@Smapiecus]

I'm really vibing with the whole being the only physics major in a room of engineering majors rn. It's a weird, but welcome, change from high school where everyone is in the same boat of just taking classes because they can.

[@chaoticchargewars]

I tried to watch the video Walter vid but it was on private. Also am like 2 years late to watching this tho

[@ablabs6863]

At my uni there are three physics classes: -physics for math, chemistry and physics majors (considered the hardest of the three, exams and midterms are all long answer questions) -physics for engineering majors (exams are all multiple choice, pretty difficult) -physics for bio/kinesiology/health science majors (exams are all multiple choice, almost easy enough to be considered a bird course)

[@l.1244]

What about Engineering physics😏

[@Batwing-lb6oz]

In my college there's math engineering lol

[@GravisTKD]

It is interesting to see that spread. I haven't encountered a division like that in my universities, but I can see why they might do that. I *have* encountered biology/A&P courses that are divided between bio majors and kinesiology majors, though. Ironically, many of the kinesiology students at my first university were gunning for physical therapy school, and most PT schools would *not* accept credits in the kinesiology-based biology courses; they required the "bio majors" version. Given how many KNES majors at my school wanted to go to PT school, it largely defeated the purpose of having a separate course IMO. I bring that up, because I am a kinesiology teacher. Biomechanics is one of my specialties (inasmuch as I have any), and I have struggled teaching even the most basic aspects of Newtonian physics to college juniors and seniors; their foundation is practically nonexistent. I would personally curate a "physics for kinesiology" course if I thought it would help to prepare students for applying those principles in biomechanics. Meh. Oh well 🤷‍♂️

[@antimatter2376]

Just know f=ma and you're all set.

[@dialga4688]

That even applied in my sophmore year

[@genghisgalahad8465]

FEMA....the truth is out there, Agent Mulder.

[@noir935]

While everybody in the comment sections is talking about proof classes, I am basically trying to understand why everytime I apply 32t sin A it gives me a decimal. ;I

[@aydencook03]

Did you take physics in highschool? And if you did, what is your opinion on that?

[@grandunification]

I took algebra based physics in high school as well as AP calc BC. I took calc based phys 1 my first semester of college and all of that went OUT the window. It's so much more intuitive when you look at the calculus, it was literally INVENTED to do physics. Same but even more for phys 2.

[@bobross5716]

Really? I took AP physics and calc, and I thought freshman year wasn’t really that different. You don’t really do much with calculus for physics 1 and 2.

[@ethanclark4116]

I did like no calc in physics 1 but a lot in physics 2. Magnetic and electric fields and things.

[@jordanismyname3961]

I did physics in highschool and am currently in AP Calculus, we didn’t use any calculus in physics, and there’s no AP physics offered at my school, but I loved it. The only thing I didn’t like was that we had to do a few projects where we made stuff, like a catapult or toothpick bridge. I personally don’t like labs or projects, I like the theory side of it. At the end of the class, my teacher gave us the option to vote whether we wanted to do two more projects, two more tests, or one more project and one more test; we almost unanimously voted for two more tests, including myself.

[@AdityaKumar-ij5ok]

I don't know about the high school education system of other countries, but do you really do physics without calc in high school, so I have a doubt that the physics is done at all, can you please tell what's in your high school physics syllabus is??

[@eisk.6059]

Hello, I would be interested in how was your physics during high school... Thank you

[@SimicChameleon]

There are three types of physics calc based physics algebra based physics and conceptual physics for starter

[@highgroundproductions8590]

In my school, they actually give healthy difficult real homework assignments that you hand-write.

[@joeblough5536]

All of my freshman physics tests were multiple choice. No short answer and there was even an online test

[@joeblough5536]

I should also mention the class was non-attendance and the homework was all online and was allowed 3 tries(it tells you which ones are wrong). A cheat sheet was allowed for the tests. Was the easiest class ever.

[@kr1szkr0sz88]

I miss having multiple choice questions in my Physics papers.

[@teenconservative3433]

About to start freshman physics in a month, mechanical engineering major, love physics yho

[@kimberlylara509]

Whats the difference if some students get geoscience while others get physics?

[@loughlan775]

Late comment, but... I think one of the biggest problems is that in freshman Physics students have to learn 15-20 chapters of material, per semester. Which implies, professors have to teach 15-20 chapters of material, per semester. It may be different for different folks, almost all of my other Physics/math classes where only 6-8 chapters per semester. That's a lot of material, but it's kinda necessary cause freshman are, in a way, playing catch up to modern times. (insert your favorite criticism of [American] public education/education in general) In addition, most people who are 'weeded out' are ones who think Physics sound cool, but then take the class and realize that they are not interested, which is fine. Life would be really boring if everyone liked/was good at the same things.

[@Dinghly]

Omg I have mcq for my physics exam for my freshman year!

[@alexcastel2244]

Freshmen physics I earned 3 A- 😑 , because I always missed at least one multiple choice Also an a is 95 and above in my uni

[@MrInfoJoe]

i related to this a ton

[@AK-km5tj]

Would you please recommend some books for self learning physics? Also, keeping with my pattern, 24th comment

[@godiswatching_895]

He has already made a video on that.

[@AK-km5tj]

GodisWatching_ ok thank you

[@HentonyBarbosa]

The Walter Lewin video is private now :/

[@BarriosGroupie]

Where did you do your freshman physics?

[@rajarshimukherjee4844]

Where were other majors:(

[@beingamo4]

I agree, freshmen physics has a lot of "gotch ya"s. Just finished phys 1 with a b+

[@nefariousnektarios]

Fine work!

[@varunv2584]

I'm already developing "mathematical intuition" with Singapore O levels A Maths lol 😂

[@justinw8370]

Did anyone take the Ap physics series (Ap physics 1 and physics C Mechanics and or electricity and magnetism) then take the same classes at the college level? How do they compare and what should I expect to be different from the high school Ap classes? I’m about to be a freshman and will enter physics 1a this fall. They recommend that I took it no matter what score I got on the Ap exam.

[@nasirsiddiqui7573]

my 2 favorite freshman physics moments: taking a quiz in the morning after a night of HEAVY drinking. my hoodie had vomit stains and after finishing my quiz, i literally fell asleep in front of my professor for the rest of the class. still got a full score though. going to a lecture after eating three weed brownies. i burst out laughing at one point when my professor said the moment of inertia was actually something called a tensor that only the 3 physics majors(myself included) sitting in the hall of over 60 students would have to worry about. (bonus non freshman moments): going to quantum mechanics after smoking weed which i hadn't touched for almost a year at the time and losing my mind when i learned fermions are antisymmetric under exchange, thus leading to the pauli exclusion principle eating mushrooms and doing my statistical mechanics hw. didn't actually learn or get anything done, but just stared at a page with some notes on partition functions.

[@justinlacek1481]

I never took physics in college but it sounds a lot like these logic classes i took.

[@l.1244]

Nope, wrong.

[@justinlacek1481]

@@l.1244 I'm not talking about the material; I mean It's similar in that you make a lot of assumptions and have to tweak your way to the answer by using certain concepts. I'm not talking about the whole propositional logic stuff that you can take in place of math, I mean the completeness theorem/ first-order second-order set theory stuff

[@l.1244]

@@justinlacek1481 just nope. Now fuck you.

[@quinnherden]

@@justinlacek1481 Eek. Sorry this "L.A." person was being so unpleasant.

[@justinlacek1481]

@@quinnherden It's the internet, can't expect much.

[@pubgplayer1720]

I sincerely hope to god freshman physics is calculus based. I do not want to go through a repeat of IB physics.

[@Goku17yen]

ah ha (freshman physics) *that’s hot* yobama

[@samyakroul8087]

From your shirt, I take that you are a Marvel fan. Are you?

[@crzyaboutstuff]

I found this hilarious because as a mathematician that also did a Physics degree, I had troubles because I only thought about Physics via Math and never built any physical reasoning skills.

[@user-en5vj6vr2u]

I think the same except I suck at math lol

[@marianamelo7789]

Do americans have physics in high-school??

[@ahmadromman6815]

Guys last time he took my calculator! Make sure to subscribe to keep your presents!

[@chrisryan6464]

Labs in 1st year physics were absolutely horrible, but stats were the worst.

[@brunocordova545]

Is freshman physics calculus or algebra based?

[@aspenarbour]

Bruno Cordova ... both?

[@nerdycatgamer]

juju on the beat

[@thisguy2989]

I'm a simple man. I see a Pug, I like.

[@PHILLYMEDIC69]

no you're not wrong. Freshman physics is dreadful.

[@joshuabillie5083]

Nice like ratio

[@meg1653]

should i say first???

[@meg1653]

ps love ur vids LOL

[@elijah1110]

Yes