General Overview : Physics

 

What is physics?

To be honest, it’s really difficult to define exactly what physics is. For one, physics keeps changing as we progress and make new discoveries. New theories don't just bring new answers. They also create new questions that might not have even made sense when viewed from within the previous theory of physics. This makes physics exciting and interesting, but it also forces attempts at defining physics into generalizations about what physics has been rather than what it might be at some point in the future.

What should I know to succeed in physics?

Physics(Opens in a new window) can be intimidating, and people often want to know about the prerequisites to start learning physics. Listed below is a rough guide for the bare minimum of what you should know before taking particular physics classes.

Conceptual Physics prerequisites:

All you really need is an open mind, a desire to learn, and a willingness to accept that 90% of what you thought about the universe might be wrong.

You don't need to know every math idea in algebra and trigonometry, and you can learn a lot of it along the way, but the more math that's foreign to you the likelier it is that physics might look like mathematical witchcraft.

Remember, the math isn't there to serve as some sort of intellectual roadblock to prevent people from understanding. The role of math here is to state a physics concept in a concise and clear way. Try not to let the math obscure the basic and, usually simple, physics concept that lies underneath.

More important than existing math knowledge, is your mindset. No matter how much you prepare, you'll come up against roadblocks. The key to being successful is knowing you can work hard and ultimately overcome these obstacles!

Image credit: Adventures Inside the Atom, 1948 General Electric, George Roussos (public domain)

That was a pretty enormous outlook to have!

I hope you find this helpful and now I'll end coz it's already a mouthful of it!😂

Thanks!