4 ms·
I think the only way to consistently memorize an equation is to deeply understand it. Not just how to apply it, but essentially how to derive it. What motivat
by antognini 10y ago
I think the only way to consistently memorize an equation is to deeply understand it. Not just how to apply it, but essentially how to derive it. What motivates it. Why it must take the form that it does.
With fundamental physical equations you have to be a little hand-wavy, because they are, well, fundamental, so they can't be derived from anything else. But you can motivate the form of the Schrodinger equation from the classical wave equation. (I should note that Feynman disagrees with this claim, but you can find a nice motivation for the form in Penrose's Road to Reality.) Regardless, going through these motions will serve to embed the form of the equation in your mind.
It also helps to write the form of the equation in a number of different ways. Some may be easier to remember than others. Maxwell's equations, for instance, are pretty easy to remember if you write them in terms of the EM stress-energy tensor.
- godelski 10y agoThis is always how I have memorized them, really through repetition (back to doing problems). The thing is that except for the basic ones and ones I use excessively, I forget; I think this is common. In comparison I can remember mnemonic lists of random items created years ago. I can't help but think there is a way to store math information similarly. Because that would suggest that it is a problem with the storage of the information. I've always looked for more effective ways to study. And to counter your suggestion you can definitely fully understand the principles of an equation without being able to remember the equation itself. A simple example of this would be the Laplacian in spherical coordinates. It is easy to understand what is being done and the Cartesian form is trivial (most people have this memorized even) and the spherical can be derived from it simply. Problem is this takes way too much time. I don't think an example like this you could argue that there isn't an understanding of what is going on, just a familiarity issue. And thus how the information was stored. I'd argue that most of those that know this off the top of their head do so from repetition and not because of a better understanding than their Cartesian only counterparts.
- sn9 10y agoMark Eichenlaub's Quora answer to this question [0] should give you much to think about. [0] https://www.quora.com/Do-grad-school-students-remember-everything-they-were-taught-in-college-all-the-time https://www.quora.com/Do-grad-school-students-remember-every...
- selimthegrim 10y agoSurely you mean the Faraday tensor?
- antognini 10y agoYes, you're right, my mistake!