4 ms·

I am currently about to finish Chap 6 on momentum, and working through this book has been one of the high points of this year for me. I have done all the proble

I am currently about to finish Chap 6 on momentum, and working through this book has been one of the high points of this year for me. I have done all the problems but one, and I always try first, then look a little bit, then (often) throw my hands up and just try to memorize the answer. I also makes me tear my hair and think I am infernally stupid, but hey, it's physics.

javajosh 11y ago
You're not stupid, it's just that some of the most intelligent people in the world have been drawn to the subject, most of which is actually quite new (consider that the atom was really only discovered in the 20th century!). The chains of inference are brilliant, and the amazing thing is how teachers treat the subject as a mundane set of tools to get through problem sets (not that David Morin does this). There's this air of understanding that isn't justified. As Feynman famously pointed out, forget about not understanding quantum mechanics - no-one really understands Maxwell's equations because to do so would be to somehow have an intuition for a function that maps each point in a volume of space to 6 numbers (the 3 components of the E and B vectors at each point). This intuition is impossible in the general case, but we fool ourselves into thinking we have that intuition because the pedagogy focuses on special cases. Anyway, don't be too hard on yourself. You are walking in the footsteps of some of the greatest minds in human history, and even though they've cleared a path, the going is still rather steep.
- zentiggr 11y ago
  Logged in just to praise that last sentence... very well put.
iaw 11y ago
Anecdotally, I not met a single person in my academic or professional career that found Physics 'easy.' I was good in the subject and still found that the problems could still be quite challenging. My suspicion is that Einstein and Feynman both struggled at times with the basics...
keithpeter 11y ago
Others have reassured you that this is perfectly normal when learning physics! Sets of worked examples have a long history in the subject - Newton provided examples in the Principia and you could argue that Galileo's dialogues are basically worked examples with the mistakes shown first. A couple of rhetorical questions... Do you find you can get a bit further with each new example within a chapter after reading the solution to the last one? Is the author building up the complexity in small steps and inviting you to take one new step with each problem? Are you trying to apply the author's problem solving strategies as outlined in Chapter 1 (very generous of the author to give that out as a sample)?
- forkandwait 11y ago
  To answer all at once -- Morin does build in some repetition, so often there will be 4 or 5 problems more or less alike, and by #3, I can start to get them pretty well, though #1 might be impossible. However, sometimes it doesn't go quite as smoothly. And yes, his chapter #1 is awesome and useful. I mostly check my answers with limits and units. Also -- I read a chapter from his bigger book with pencil, often copying out, before I start a chapter in his little book. I don't have any other resources -- I hate watching videos on the computer at night, no school that is convenient, etc. So sometimes I feel like I just have to get everything from his solutions b/c I don't get his lectures first. Finally, ... My plan is to work through this book by the end of the year hopefully, then do Astrom and Murray's feedback book, then come back to Morin's red mechanics book. And then who knows -- that is probably 30 months out.
  - keithpeter 11y ago
    Wow: you would get so much from talking with other people or working with a teacher on this one. Coffee bar in local University where postgrads hang out once a month or so? They like being challenged with 'easy' problems - sometimes not so easy to explain...

javajosh 11y ago

You're not stupid, it's just that some of the most intelligent people in the world have been drawn to the subject, most of which is actually quite new (consider that the atom was really only discovered in the 20th century!). The chains of inference are brilliant, and the amazing thing is how teachers treat the subject as a mundane set of tools to get through problem sets (not that David Morin does this). There's this air of understanding that isn't justified. As Feynman famously pointed out, forget about not understanding quantum mechanics - no-one really understands Maxwell's equations because to do so would be to somehow have an intuition for a function that maps each point in a volume of space to 6 numbers (the 3 components of the E and B vectors at each point). This intuition is impossible in the general case, but we fool ourselves into thinking we have that intuition because the pedagogy focuses on special cases. Anyway, don't be too hard on yourself. You are walking in the footsteps of some of the greatest minds in human history, and even though they've cleared a path, the going is still rather steep.

zentiggr 11y ago
Logged in just to praise that last sentence... very well put.

iaw 11y ago

Anecdotally, I not met a single person in my academic or professional career that found Physics 'easy.' I was good in the subject and still found that the problems could still be quite challenging. My suspicion is that Einstein and Feynman both struggled at times with the basics...

keithpeter 11y ago

Others have reassured you that this is perfectly normal when learning physics! Sets of worked examples have a long history in the subject - Newton provided examples in the Principia and you could argue that Galileo's dialogues are basically worked examples with the mistakes shown first. A couple of rhetorical questions... Do you find you can get a bit further with each new example within a chapter after reading the solution to the last one? Is the author building up the complexity in small steps and inviting you to take one new step with each problem? Are you trying to apply the author's problem solving strategies as outlined in Chapter 1 (very generous of the author to give that out as a sample)?

forkandwait 11y ago
To answer all at once -- Morin does build in some repetition, so often there will be 4 or 5 problems more or less alike, and by #3, I can start to get them pretty well, though #1 might be impossible. However, sometimes it doesn't go quite as smoothly. And yes, his chapter #1 is awesome and useful. I mostly check my answers with limits and units. Also -- I read a chapter from his bigger book with pencil, often copying out, before I start a chapter in his little book. I don't have any other resources -- I hate watching videos on the computer at night, no school that is convenient, etc. So sometimes I feel like I just have to get everything from his solutions b/c I don't get his lectures first. Finally, ... My plan is to work through this book by the end of the year hopefully, then do Astrom and Murray's feedback book, then come back to Morin's red mechanics book. And then who knows -- that is probably 30 months out.
- keithpeter 11y ago
  Wow: you would get so much from talking with other people or working with a teacher on this one. Coffee bar in local University where postgrads hang out once a month or so? They like being challenged with 'easy' problems - sometimes not so easy to explain...