Physics and maths? (1 Viewer)

anom1ly

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questions involving maths in hsc physics are far too rare. get ready to write alot for physics.
 

awoodrow

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In my school we have 17 people doing physics, around 10 people of that 17 do mathematics or 3unit maths, the top 7 physics students do mathematics or 3unit mathematics

Im pretty sure the rest of the class maybe except 1, do general maths
The entire lower quartile of the physics class are general maths/ no maths students

@ my school people who are good at maths are good at physics
guy who is rank first in maths and also rank 1st at physics

There is maths in physics but its all easy maths, maybe not projectile motion idk

my school is weird
well i do general maths and im coming 3/27. Im beating about 7 4 unit kids, 5 3 unit and all the rest 2 unit. so it doesnt always work that way.
 

Schoey93

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In the HSC, not necessarily. The HSC Physics course is very light on mathematics. Engineering Science is much more focussed on maths (like the old physics course)

If you decide to undertake a science / engineering degree at university level, then yes you need to be good at maths (and understand it!) in order to do well in the subjects at university.

1st year university level maths in science / engineering is equivalent to Ext.1 - Ext.2 (except the statistics bit)
2nd year university level maths in Science / Engineering is more like 6u Maths if you do a physics course.

I should scan up some of my questions and answers from one of the subjects I did (68413 quantum physics @ UTS)

Some of the questions would take 4-5 pages of working to get an answer. And i have small writing
This might be true, but if you're planning on taking a science degree, you don't have to study HSC Mathematics. There are Fundamentals of Mathematics courses available to first year undergraduate students. An undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Biology probably would probably require only a basic understanding of maths, too, compared to say, a Physics degree.
 

Schoey93

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The maths involved in HSC physics is almost non-existent. So long as you can substite and rearrange equations you'll be fine.

But in uni (where you'll learn actual physics), you'll need an extremely strong foundation in maths :)
HSC Physics is actual Physics, isn't it? It's... introductory Physics. I don't understand why people talk about HSC courses as though they are only a shadow of the real thing. I've heard the same said for maths, but I can understand why people say that.
 

Schoey93

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Or perhaps the general stereotype could explain this - people who do general maths are slow and people who don't do maths at all are creative (a nice way of saying they're illogical) so they suck at physics. Just kidding XD

Anyway, the peep coming 2nd in physics only does 3U maths while the peep coming 3rd does 4U maths at my school. So perhaps it's not just whether you're good at maths but how much time you put into the subject?
I hope that's a joke. Some people don't do maths because they have other interests or are disillusioned about what maths is. It doesn't make you illogical not to do maths. You don't really believe those steretypes, do you?

Edit: LOL. Just read the "just kidding"! :)
 

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