Ultimate Guide to First Year Physics (1 Viewer)

Omium

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Ok I've decided to create an ultimate thread for First year Physics,
A large part of this is from my earlier thread.

I'm hoping this will help future students in their first year physics courses as me and my friends received quite a shock from first year physics.

Studying in this Course

1) Do not be a "Formula monkey" (From Forbidden), Trust me when i say this, You will only truly go well in this course if you know how the equations are derived and how they apply which trust me is very easy.

2) Simply LOOK over the content before you go to a lecture so you have an idea of whats going on.

3) You need to put in hard work to suceed in this course as with any other course, you can't cram and expect to go well, Physics isnt one of those courses.

4) Once again i advise you to learn where the equations are derived from, if you do learn how to derive them i GURANTEE you, that you won't forget the equations

5) Physics is very beautiful, You will understand this when you have a very large equation that covers an entire line which reduces to some variant of F = ma .

Laboratory Work



1) It doesn't matter how shocking you perform in all aspects of the lab, as long as you go to the right marker you will get 4/4 regardless.

2) If you ask for a lot of help from the same co-ordinator during your lab, Try to get a different person to mark you, This person will think your very intelligent since they will believe you performed the task without assisstance.

3) A large number of the exercises will involve plotting a linear curve, you need to remember to place everything in y = mx + b.

For example if you have a curve with A*B*C = P*K*x
A graph of A*B*C on the y axis with P*K on the x axis will get you a graph whose slope will be "x".
This is vital

6) The Internet will get most of your pre-lab work done

General Guide: It doesnt matter how well you really perform in the lab its 100% dependant on the person marking you.

Quiz's

1) Suprisingly you can find a lot of solutions to the quiz's if you copy paste the question into google (or some variant of the question)

2) Most of the Questions can simply be solved by looking at the example in the textbook "Serway and Jewett- Physics for Scientists and Engineers"

3) Do the Quiz's with a friend, you will both get the same questions except sometimes with different values.



Good luck and Have fun.

Add any tips or comments if you find them helpful guys
 
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sl123

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As a prospective engo student at unsw, I can't thank you enough. I'm sure this knowledge will be put to good use!

Keep up the good work. It's good to see some REAL information as oppose to 'stupid' comments and questions.
 

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As for lab work 6)

I actually used my physics textbook as well to assist me rather than the internet, but it doesn't really matter.

hahhaha i survived physics with lab work marks heavily biased on who marks it
the lab work, which is worth from memory, 20% of the WHOLE course!!!
take it a little seriously but a good place to meet up with/find/make friends.

prepare to go 3 to a group, one of the experiments require you to.

EDIT:

Our lecture notes for physics, on Joe Wolfe's website (our lecturer for 2008 session 1):

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/1131/kinematics.pdf
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/1131/dynamics.pdf
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/1131/Energy.pdf
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/1131/gravitation.pdf
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/1131/momentum.pdf
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/1131/rotation.pdf

have a look and see why it hardens first year engineering students up so much
 
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rhaikath

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Thanks for all this info!

Same question as the math thread... there's physics and higher physics... whats the deal about that?

Do you learn the same stuff but hard etc like maths in higher physics with scaling and stuff?

I really enjoy physics but only got in the 80s for my HSC...
 

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Thanks for all this info!

Same question as the math thread... there's physics and higher physics... whats the deal about that?

Do you learn the same stuff but hard etc like maths in higher physics with scaling and stuff?

I really enjoy physics but only got in the 80s for my HSC...
Physics and Higher Physics actually have the same lecture, tutorial and laboratory classes and learn the exact same content but the major difference is the exams are harder and have extra question or two.

Your mathematics skills will be more important in first year Physics.
It will be like Mechanics from Ext. 2 in the HSC when you start.
 

Omie Jay

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Also the averages for the mid-semester/final exams are like 40% or something, so dont worry TOO MUCH if u get between 40-50%. If you pass then you are complete awesomeness.

I got around 36% in both of those, but i pwned the labs (which are heaps easy anyway) and went good in the online quizzes, i passed the course with a 56.
 

Omium

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Also the averages for the mid-semester/final exams are like 40% or something, so dont worry TOO MUCH if u get between 40-50%. If you pass then you are complete awesomeness.

I got around 36% in both of those, but i pwned the labs (which are heaps easy anyway) and went good in the online quizzes, i passed the course with a 56.
They switched the Physics midsessions with multiple choice questions, the average has gone up to around 60ish %.


No more Test 1R too
 

inhinyero

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Physics for me is peanuts and very enjoyable! It's fun!

My grades: Phys 1A- 95
Phys 2A- 96


But i was wondering if i will transfer to unsw (since am here in the philippines), will i still have to take up another physics subj?
 

kaz1

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They switched the Physics midsessions with multiple choice questions, the average has gone up to around 60ish %.


No more Test 1R too
The midsession average went up to 85% in S1 2010 probably because they made it online.
 

baekuai

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Physics for me is peanuts and very enjoyable! It's fun!

My grades: Phys 1A- 95
Phys 2A- 96


But i was wondering if i will transfer to unsw (since am here in the philippines), will i still have to take up another physics subj?
When u come here i will kill you u sad piece of shit.
get a life kunt.
 

random-1006

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When u come here i will kill you u sad piece of shit.
get a life kunt.

take it easy you asian tryhards

i love it when you dumb asians make death threats at each other about whos coming first, go make some wontons
 
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tommykins

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take it easy you asian tryhards

i love it when you dumb asians make death threats at each other about whos coming first, go make some wontons
im genuinely curious, what sparks your obvious dislike to asians?

what area are you from?
 

random-1006

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im genuinely curious, what sparks your obvious dislike to asians?

what area are you from?

look at what he said, death threats over marks, some dickhead is afraid someone will come and top him in the class, asians are shithouse, they think that ABSOLUTELY everything is defined by marks, i will bet you $5000 that that guy is asian.
look at how asian the username is !
 

Revacious

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I bet you 5000$ random-1005/6 is a grossly overweight loner. But wait! I can't make that bet, that would be cheating since I already knew that!
 

random-1006

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I bet you 5000$ random-1005/6 is a grossly overweight loner. But wait! I can't make that bet, that would be cheating since I already knew that!

now all i have to do is find out which asian cunt you are out of the 40000 asian cunts at unsw
 

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