Do you think taking Calculus Based General Physics and Calculus I at the same time is doable?
According to my college’s catalog, I can take Cal Based Physics as a co-requisite of Calculus I…. I am just curious about the feasibility of taking the two together in the same semester. What do you think about it?
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To me, this all depends upon how adept you are to Calculus. If you’re just jumping into Calc, then I’d say no to both. If you’ve taken PreCalc, or any other Calculus based math course, the advantage of taking both far outweighs any burden of taking both at the same time. When you get hung up in Physics, you’ll have another professor to help out with your word problems 🙂
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If the school says you can take them at the same time, then yes, it’s doable. At my university (where I am a physics TA), the way the first semester of calculus based physics works is basically for the first half of the semester you basically use algebra to do problems (some of it may be tricky, but it’s still algebra). Then, getting into the second half of the course, the professor will begin to relate things to stuff you should have learned in your calculus class (after all, they are aware that many students are taking the classes at the same time, and so work to accomodate them). By the end of the first semester, most things will still be algebra based, but there will have been some basic calculus introduced. It’s really only in the second semester (or whenever you reach electricity and magnetism) that calculus really comes into the curriculum in a big way.
So, you should be able to do them at the same time. Of course, being good at picking up math and science concepts pretty quickly won’t hurt, and will help a lot.
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It depends on how good you are at math in general. The calculus based physics course probably won’t be having you do much more than basic derivatives and integrals. If you have any experience at all with very basic calculus and/or you’re good at math, then I think taking both at the same time is fine.
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5 years ago
I’m currently taking Calc-based Physics and Calc. 2 right now. There have been times throughout the semester where something that was covered in one of the classes popped up in the other class. Therefore, I would recommend that you take Calc. 1 first before taking Physics. Material from Calc. 1 has been essential in Physics.
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It is doable, but you will have to work hard to get good grades in those classes, seeing as how they are not easy courses to get As in
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