Physics: A note for the uninitiated

I cannot stress too much how important it is to understand what is here, and advise you to ponder this any time you feel frustrated with physics.

Physics has a very different nature from most of the classes you will take.  It has very little to do with information and synthesis of information, and has much more to do with problem-solving and applying problem-solving tools to new situations.

Physics has a little bit more math than will make some of you comfortable, so you will need to struggle with that, but you need to struggle with that outside of the classroom.  In the classroom, you will want to concentrate on concepts.  At times, the concepts may be very difficult, and you do not want to get bogged down the first time you see them.  The only way you are going to "get" anything is to take it away and think about it for a while, and also to practice, practice, practice solving problems.

Since we are learning problem-solving skills, you will be expected to take the methods we have learned to solve one problem, and apply them to another.  This means that on homework or a test, you will not have "seen" all of the problems before.  This also means that in order to truly test your skills, you should expect to see problems on the homework or test that are harder than any we have solved in class.  This class is not about recitation of material learned.  It is about taking what we have learned and applying it to new situations.  You should realize, then, when you look at a problem to solve, you should not expect to see a solution.  In order to get to the solution, you need to start to try to solve the problem, apply the tools you have, and the solution will eventually come.  Initially, this will be frustrating to many.  Every problem will look like a new problem, with no indication of its solution.  But eventually, my hope is that you will see that every problem is actually solved in the same way.

Physics' different nature has the result that, perhaps for the first time in your life, you should not expect to immediately understand everything we do in class.  This may be frustrating for you, but what you must do is to take it away and go over your notes, and try to apply the concepts to a few problems before you decide there is a problem with pace or with understanding.  As a matter of fact, you are expected to not understand everything, and expected to think about the material outside of class before you ask too many questions.

That being said, I am not asking that you ask no questions in class.  I expect many questions, and welcome discussion.  You just need to be careful about expecting too much in class, and need to allow the discussion to move on sometimes before you "get it".  The most important thing to me is that you learn something in this class.  But you should realize that the most important learning always takes place outside of class.

I see Physics as being important in its dual role of being about how the world works and about learning problem-solving skills; I hope that you begin to see how it really applies to the world around you, and that you begin to start to think of things from a physics point of view rather than thinking of everything as a "black box".

So you say you must do better, so you say you will do what it takes to do better?  So, it may take a lot, but you certainly can do better!