Your opinion on leaving cert physics

Just Like Heaven

Hi, I'm just finishing TY and i have to pick my subjects. I have picked Biology, Chemistery and Geography, but i'm not able to do music or ag science in school and must pick again. Physics is the most appealing and unappealing at the same time. For the junior cert i took Higher Maths and just scraped an honours, Will i struggle with physics, is it just a nasty subject anyway?

Cheers

ihavequestions

Physics is grand like! The maths are difficult at time but a pass LC student(like myself!) wont find it toooooo hard!I'm like yourself, just got the honor in Hons JC Maths! Having JC Hons Maths is good enough! The theory is reli interesting, if your into that kind of thing ! I would highly recommend it as a subject!

Just Like Heaven

ihavequestions wrote: »

Physics is grand like! The maths are difficult at time but a pass LC student(like myself!) wont find it toooooo hard!I'm like yourself, just got the honor in Hons JC Maths! Having JC Hons Maths is good enough! The theory is reli interesting, if your into that kind of thing ! I would highly recommend it as a subject!

Cheers I hear the nasty part is the electricity, as opposed to the mechanics which isn't so bad, is this true?

ihavequestions

Oh god!! I hated electricity when I did it first (I'm a repeat ) and COMPLETELY left it out for the LC last year, like thats 10 chapters!!! But then I ended up doing an extra Q on it in the exam, which was SIMPLE and now I like electricity Besides electromagnetic induction *shudders. Mechanics is really easy in the book, but some of the exam Qs are very Applied Mathsy so i think I wont be doing that Q this year!

gant0

I personally really love physics.If you're interested in the theory it's a great subject to chose and the maths isn't hard just that sometimes it's hard to know which formulas to use.We have a huge advantage this year too due to the new log tables and the fact the course hasn't been changed to deal with them.Basicly LC physics students this year will literally be given the answer to a lot of the questions,all we'll have to do is transcribe from the tables to the paper:D....lucky for us.

SquirrelFace

picking physics was definitely the worst decision i made last year.
The teacher lied and said being good at maths was not essential so i picked it, by god did she lie or what!!ive tried really hard but the maths just goes over my head so much because theres so many formulae and basically its all about maths with some really really long definitions thrown in... and the experiments are just boring, its like ; find the frequency of a stretched string.....

gant0

SquirrelFace wrote: »

picking physics was definitely the worst decision i made last year.
The teacher lied and said being good at maths was not essential so i picked it, by god did she lie or what!!ive tried really hard but the maths just goes over my head so much because theres so many formulae and basically its all about maths with some really really long definitions thrown in... and the experiments are just boring, its like ; find the frequency of a stretched string.....

The maths in physics really is quite basic...I'll admit understanding which formula to use is sometimes difficult as the word them quite hard but most of the formulas need are in log tables anyway.

Making It Bad

I love physics! With weeks to go to the LC is it my favourite subject. The actual exam it self is so friendly! I hated the electricity section of the course and am leaving it out completely because the choice you are given on the exam is so generous. The modern physics section is my favourite, and best part is there's at least 2 question on it every year! It's really not that bad at all, just make sure you have an interest in it before picking it.

Fad

Physics is handy enough, the other science's are much more labour intensive.

It's very very different to JC Physics, Physics in JC Science was just tedious >_<

ride-the-spiral

The main maths that you use in Physics is algebra, so if you understand how to manipulate using algebra then you should be fine. The hardest maths that I've experienced have been on higher end acceleration questions (applied use of simultaneous equations) or establishing the relationship between two variable in a formula. The more difficult to understand math's concepts aren't a part of it, you're not going to have to prove the acceleration formulae using differentiation or prove that the area of a speed time graph is distance.

Overall, the maths isn't too intensive but you do need to be competent. I can only speak for fifth year though, and all we've really used maths wise is algebra.

The maths isn't too difficult. Once you understand what's going on in a problem then you'll be able to work out what to do. A good grasp of algebra is required but there's nothing on the HL maths course on it or anything.

If you're interested in it it's a great subject, otherwise you'll probably hate it (same for everything really)

Tiroskan

Physics for the lc is handy, tbh. Plug in the numbers, out comes the answer and the theory is pretty straightforward and simple to understand for the most part. Electricity and magnetism is definitely the trickiest part of the course. I'd say give it a go anyway, you'll probably know within a week or two if you have the knack for it and if you're struggling it won't be too late to switch.

Ruski

Ever since they brought out the new formula booklets, you'd be stupid NOT to do Physics.

Tiroskan

Ruski wrote: »

Ever since they brought out the new formula booklets, you'd be stupid NOT to do Physics.

I'd forgotten about this too. Any plans to change the physics course now, does anyone know?

Ruski

Tiroskan wrote: »

I'd forgotten about this too. Any plans to change the physics course now, does anyone know?

Well they're bringing out a new book with better and more comprehensible information and explanations in it. That's just about it.