Why Is Physics Hard?

Are you asking yourself “Why is Physics Hard?”

Do you want to know why physics can be hard and what you can do to make it easier?

Read on to know the reasons why physics is hard and what you can do to make it easier starting today.

1. The Classwork and the Lab Work Might Be Difficult

This can be because of any reasons listed in this post.

It might mean your math skills aren’t where they should be or you might not be paying enough attention in the lab to do it correctly.

Regardless of what the problem is, it’s important that you do everything in your power to find out the problem and resolve it.

Reading this post is a great first step toward resolving your problem.

However, this post is only as good as your ability to take action on what it says.

To suggest a few things before we get into the other reasons why physics is hard, let me point you in the right direction for what you can do:

1. Talk to the professor about why things are going wrong
2. Talk to other classmates and see what is working for them that you aren’t doing
3. Brush up your problem-solving skills 
4. Do more practice problems (after all, practice makes perfect!)
5. Read the book more
6. Go to class more

And the list goes on and on.

The bottom line is if the class seems difficult, it’s a byproduct of something being wrong.

If you pinpoint this wrong thing and fix it, you’ll unlock the keys to getting through (and thriving) in Physics.

This post should guide you in pinpointing what this problem is so that physics becomes easier for you.

With that said, let’s dive into the next reason why physics is hard.

2. Your Problem-Solving Skills Aren’t Up To Par

This could be an issue if you’ve relied on memorization to coast your way through your classes.

Physics is a different animal from what you’ve seen before.

In Physics, you have to understand why a mathematical concept needs to be used to describe a concept.

In math classes, unless you read the book, you didn’t have to do this.

As a result, your problem-solving skills might not be up to par to do well.

This is, in my opinion from experience, the number one reason why someone fails physics and causes someone to believe that physics is hard.

As an action step to resolve this issue, I recommend this:

1. Watch Professor Leonard

I cannot recommend this guy enough for not just surviving your math classes, but for developing your problem-solving skills.

Before I saw his Calculus 3 lectures on YouTube, I solely relied on memorization to get my way through math classes and physics classes.

In short, it was a disaster (not getting into details, but you know what I mean).

After I saw the very first video of the series, my problem-solving skills shot through the roof!

I was able to see things from a conceptual point of view and all the Physics concepts I didn’t understand before finally clicked.

Everything became easy afterward, and I had performances like in this post.

And it’s not just me who experienced these benefits. Other students who commented on Professor Leonard’s effectiveness in teaching math testify the same thing.

Their problem-solving skills significantly improved in ways no other source could help them. 

You can see these reviews here.

Watching Professor Leonard will resolve any problem-solving skill deficit you may have.

I guarantee it.

You can access his channel here.

3. The Concepts Might Be Too Abstract For You To Understand

This can be a problem if you are in Physics 2 (Electricity and Magnetism), where things can’t be seen.

The reason for Physics 2 being difficult is that you are not given a picture of what things look like.

You are forced to create a picture of the concepts in your mind.

In other words, if you don’t get the picture correct in your mind, it’s game over before the math starts.

In Physics 1 (Mechanics), this isn’t a problem since you can see everything you are being given.

Unfortunately, I’m not the best source on helping you resolve this particular issue when it comes to Physics 2.

I for one struggled with it a lot.

Instead, I will refer you to 2 sources that can help you.

Although I’ve never read these books before, these seem to be VERY engaging books and I highly recommend you check them out.

I’ll put a link to a Reddit thread explaining these books here and the links to the books for Physics 1 and 2 here and here.

I hope this helps.

4. Your Professor Might Be Giving You a Hard Time

This one is avoidable if you pick the right professor before the semester starts.

To pick the right professor, talk to students who have taken professors you are considering and get their feedback.

Ask questions like these:

1. “What is the professor’s teaching style?”
2. “How fair is the professor with grading?”
3. “Does the professor attend his or her office hours?”
4. “How can I do well in his class?”
5. “How much time do I need to put in to do well?”

Questions like these can give you insight into how you will fare in the class and, ultimately, whether or not you should pick the professor.

Note: Sites like ratemyprofessor.com can help, but they tend to be written by those who do not put effort into the class.

As a result, I highly recommend taking these reviews with a grain of salt.

If you are already in a difficult professor’s class, I highly recommend checking this post here where I’ll teach you from personal experience how to deal with him or her.

It’s foolproof and, if you follow it, will get you through your bad professor as simply as possible.

So try it.

5. Your Specific Physics Course Might Be a Pain In The Butt

Let’s be real.

Some Physics courses will be harder than others, especially if you get into the upper-level courses.

The best course of action here is to incorporate study strategies that are proven with research.

Applying these strategies consistently throughout each semester of your college career will make a tremendous difference in how you retain and understand the material you are studying.

From my personal experience, when I applied these strategies, my grades skyrocketed above the rest of the class, and from that point on, I have never felt any doubt in my ability to walk into an exam and ace it.

There are also many case studies similar to mine that attest to proven study strategies like active recall, handwriting notes, the Pomodoro Method and the 90/20 rule, and closing your eyes while studying.

Many of these case studies can be found through a simple Google search of these methods.

If you want to read about these study methods in more detail, I’ve written a post from my experience that you can access here which discusses how to implement these methods in a school setting (even though I don’t elaborate on the Pomodoro technique in the post since I never used it in school).

These study strategies should help move the needle in any class you are in.

So give them a look and try them. 

6. Your School Might Be Making It Difficult

Every school will make their classes more difficult than others.

The best way to combat this is to implement the correct study strategies as we discussed in addition to picking the correct professors.

These two procedures are the keys to making your classes more manageable (and being disciplined in your studies).

Simply follow these 2 pieces of advice for every class you take and you should be able to navigate this issue.

Remember, the material does not change from university to university.

I don’t know why people say courses are harder in some universities than in others.

Since I don’t have any experience outside of my own, I can’t elaborate on that.

If you find that the courses are harder from university to university, I would sit down with students at each university and find out why the courses are the way they are at each university.

With this information, you’ll be able to pinpoint why the classes are harder at one university over another and tailor your strategy for the course accordingly.

Still, apply the correct study strategies, pick the correct professors, and be disciplined.

In general, these 3 things should solve this problem in any university you take Physics at.

7. You Might Not Be Enjoying Physics Enough To Like It

The most talented people in the world tend to enjoy what they do.

They wake up every day excited to go to work and they have fun doing it.

If you feel like studying is a grudge and you need to force yourself to wake up to do what you need to do, you are either in the wrong major or you need to find something that’ll make you enjoy what you will do.

I remember when I was studying Physics that I used to think of Star Wars almost every time I studied the subject.

It made the subject entertaining.

As a result, my grades soared (at least in Mechanics).

I encourage you to think of something you enjoy that you can tie into the material.

It should make the material more entertaining and attention-grabbing.

For example, maybe you are a basketball fan and you’re enamored with the idea of seeing your favorite player shoot a basketball.

Perhaps tie this picture into a concept like projectile motion where you let go of the ball at a certain velocity and you have to calculate the velocity the ball is traveling when it takes 2 seconds for the ball to go from your hands to the rim.

Or, if you are studying Electricity and Magnetism and you like shopping, perhaps imagine a signal of your credit card chip being inserted into the machine for your payment to get processed.

Tying what you are studying into what you like will make a substantial difference in your performance on exams.

It truly makes school a lively game where you can enjoy it instead of dread it.

After all, you are paying for it, so you might as well enjoy what you are getting!

What you tie into the material can be from real life, from a film, cartoon, etc. 

Just make sure it’s something you like!

8. Your Math Skills Aren’t Up To Par

This might be you, right?

Look, if your math skills don’t make the cut, you will not have the foundation required to understand the subject.

Learning Physics is like building a building.

You start with the foundation.

Then, you build the superstructure above it.

You build it one piece at a time until you get to the top.

Every piece builds upon the previous piece.

In other words, you can’t build the next piece without the one before it.

The same is true with Physics.

You can’t understand the concepts without knowing the math behind it.

It simply makes things harder than they should.

So if your math skills aren’t up to par, I highly recommend reviewing these topics depending on which topics you are weak at:

1. Algebra

This one is the killing curse for most students.

They don’t know how to make a substitution to save their life.

Please don’t be like them.

To show you why algebra is important (especially substitution), let’s look at this example.

Consider this equation:

F = ma (Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion)

F = Force

m = Mass

a = Acceleration

Let’s say that I want to represent acceleration in terms of change in velocity over a period of time.

What I’d need to do is find an equation that has acceleration equaling a term that represents a change in velocity over a period of time.

That equation is this:

Since a equals dv/dt, all I need to do in order to represent Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion in terms of dv/dt is simply replace the a with dv/dt.

The equation now looks like this:

You can only do that by knowing algebra.

From knowing algebra, you will understand why you should do a substitution versus, say, elimination.

2. Geometry

Geometry is very important for Physics.

Why?

Because trigonometry depends upon it, which is another math you’ll need to know to do Physics.

To show you why geometry is important, let’s consider this example:

Suppose I have a vector that looks like this:

2i – 3j

For this particular vector, what this means is the vector is going 2 units to the right and 3 units down.

It will look like this as a right triangle:

Note that the arrows indicate the direction of the vectors.

Let’s say I want to find the resultant vector (the vector that forms from both of these vectors combining into one).

These two vectors with the resultant vector will form the right triangle you see above.

To find the resultant vector’s magnitude, I’d use a law called Pythagorean Theorem.

It looks like this:

Essentially, a and b represent the lengths of the 2 x and y vectors I just showed you.

a = 2

b = -3

c is going to represent the resultant vector’s magnitude (and hence, its length).

Pythagorean’s Theorem for this example would look like this:

To find the resultant vector’s magnitude, you’d need to square root both sides, which looks like this:

In this case, you would see this:

Now here’s the right triangle with the resultant vector’s magnitude and the resultant vector itself:

To do this, you need to know geometry.

You will see vectors all over the place in Physics.

And to understand how to manipulate these vectors to find what you are looking for, you need to know Pythagorean’s Theorem, which is a geometry concept.

3. Trigonometry

To prove why trigonometry is important in Physics, let’s take this last vector example a step further.

Suppose I wanted to find the angle between the x vector and the resultant vector. Let’s call this angle theta.

By the way,

.

The picture will now look like this:

With all of this data, I could solve it many ways.

One way is this:

This means I am finding the angle in question while considering the ratio of the opposite leg over the adjacent leg.

In this case, you’d get this:

Finding an angle like this is important in a concept called submerged surfaces, which are basically gates underwater.

In this concept, what you are finding is the resultant force developed between a vertical force and a horizontal force acting on a gate in the water.

This angle is the angle developed when both forces develop the resultant force in the water.

Solving something like this requires trigonometry.

Hence, why it is important to understand trigonometry before you start Physics.

Otherwise, you will be lost when you do these problems.

4. Calculus

Alright, there’s no getting around this one.

To understand the rate of change between different properties in Physics, you need to understand calculus.

It’s that simple.

To prove my point, let’s pick up on the Newton’s 2nd Law example from earlier:

Recall these facts:

F = ma (Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion)

F = Force

m = Mass

a = Acceleration

a = dv/dt

As a disclaimer, don’t worry about it if you don’t understand what I’m doing.

Just understand that I’m doing the calculus to show you why you need it to understand Physics concepts, with this concept being one of them.

Understand that dv represents change in velocity.

We will do something to find the velocity between two points.

Also, understand that dt represents the difference between two points in time that serves as the difference between when the object in question is moving at an initial velocity and the point in time where an object is moving at a final velocity.

This is a concept called the Principle of Impulse and Momentum, which describes the change in momentum (specifically linear momentum) the object incurs as a result of an external force acting upon it over this period of time dt.

For this discussion, mass is constant.

Now, the first thing you’d do is multiply both sides by dt to get rid of dt on the m(dv/dt) side and to put dt with the force.

The equation will now look like this:

F dt = m dv

Now, to get the impulse and linear momentum between the two points in time, you need to do what’s called integration.

Please understand, if you don’t understand this now, that’s fine.

You are not supposed to know.

However, what you should get out of this is seeing how important calculus is to express change between two different points, which is commonplace is Physics.

The Principle of Impulse and Momentum is only one way you can use calculus to express change in Physics.

There are other ways you can express change in Physics like using the relationship between acceleration and velocity to find the final velocity of an object over a period of time.

This is a kinematic equation where you get an equation that finds the final velocity of an object after a period of time given acceleration and an initial velocity.

Again, the trend here is change.

Hopefully, you get the point by now.

You need calculus in Physics because you need to express change between different physical quantities.

So with that said, hit those math books if math isn’t your forte!

9. You Allow Your Peers To Influence Your Thinking

This one is completely mental.

I promise.

What’s happening is you are listening too much to what your peers think about the topic.

As a result, you are falling into their beliefs of how hard it is.

This is called groupthink.

It’s a phenomenon where the need to conform to a popular opinion supersedes all other courses of action that make more sense.

This is toxic when it comes to your performance since not believing that you can do well all because the group thinks it’s hard forces your kind to shut down the possibility of doing well.

This makes you lose the battle before it even starts.

Do you want that?

So, if you are doubting yourself all because the group is influencing your opinions, I encourage you to read this post right here.

It’ll get rid of any doubt you have in yourself and get you believing that you CAN do it, regardless of what other people say.

10. You Aren’t Reading The Book

You’d be surprised by how many people don’t read the book.

And yet, they complain as to why they aren’t doing well.

If you aren’t reading the textbook and wondering why you find physics hard, you should try reading the textbook.

That might be the problem.

Of course, some textbooks are awful and are to be avoided.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t get the information elsewhere.

Try YouTube, blog posts, or any book you can find on the topic in a local library or your University’s library.

You might get lucky.

11. Concepts to Know for Physics

Here’s the thing:

People might tell you to focus solely on Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion.

From my experience, while it’s important to know what they are, don’t fix your thinking on “Which of Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion do I use?”

Instead, I encourage you to do this:

Focus on the problem and pick the concept that is most appropriate for that problem.

When you actually do Physics, you will see that it’s not Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion that you should focus on.

It’s the problem.

If you don’t see this point by now, fear not.

Finish reading this post (or this section, I know you are scrolling), and do Physics problems and the lightbulb will go off.

With that said, here are some fundamental concepts you will see (from Mechanics. As I said, Electricity and Magnetism aren’t my forte, so pardon me if the list isn’t complete):

1. Free-Body Diagrams

These diagrams represent the external forces that are acting on a body of interest.

By the way, a body of interest is a thing you are analyzing the external forces of.

An example of a free body diagram is this:

In this case, the body of interest is the white box and the external forces acting on the box are the box’s weight and a normal (perpendicular) force from the ground.

In this case, the normal force equals the weight since those are the only two forces acting in the vertical direction on the box.

Hence, the box is not moving in the y-direction (and also not in the horizontal direction since there are no forces acting on the box in the vertical direction).

In order to come up with this solution, you need to draw a free-body diagram to visually see what is going on with your problem.

Otherwise, you will spin your wheels speculating what is going on with your problem.

To draw a free body diagram for any body of interest, you simply need to do 3 things:

1. Recognize your body of interest
2. Make note of all of the external forces acting on the body of interest and draw them
3. Ignore drawing internal forces (these forces cancel out due to Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion)

Of course, this post isn’t a lecture on free body diagrams, so if it sounds confusing, fear not.

Below is a video from The Physics Classroom that should clear up any questions regarding Free Body Diagrams.

But, PLEASE understand that free body diagrams are SUPER important in knowing Physics and in knowing them, your life in setting up the equations to solve the problems will be made a WHOLE lot easier!

Trust me on that one!

2. Kinematics

In a nutshell, kinematics is the study of the geometric aspects of motion. 

The key thing with kinematics is that it does NOT take into account forces.

Typically, this is the easy part of the subject since you don’t have to draw free body diagrams AND you don’t have to find forces.

These two things trip people up the most in Mechanics.

All you need to do is understand the concepts behind what you are doing and apply the appropriate equation.

It’s that simple.

3. Equations of Motion

This is the concept associated with the famous equation F = ma, also known as Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion.

This is where you have to draw the external forces acting on a body of interest via a free body diagram to determine other forces acting on the body or the acceleration the body of interest is traveling with given your situation.

Most people trip this up since they do not know the fundamental definition of a free body diagram and what they can and can’t draw.

To be honest with you, if you know the fundamental definition of a free body diagram and what to account for when you draw one, setting up the equations to do the problem will make the problems go a lot easier.

Of course, mastering the intricacies of this concept comes with practice.

But, I don’t think you will find this to be as hard as you think when you try it.

4. Principle of Work and Energy

This concept involves forces acting on objects over a certain distance. 

It can be used to see how much energy has been added (or taken) away from a body through this principle.

I will show you what this looks like since, frankly, every other source I saw did an underwhelming job showing this concept.

And also, I really care that you succeed in your studies.

I will literally spoon-feed you everything you need to know (at least what you could understand at this point). 

Now, I won’t get into detail about calculations because that’ll get too confusing.

Instead, I’ll present to you these concepts just so you can see what you’ll be dealing with.

To show you what this looks like, let’s define some terms:

Energy = The ability of an object to perform work.

Work = The act of changing the energy of an object.

Kinetic Energy =  The energy associated with a moving object.

Potential Energy =  The energy of a body with respect to the object’s position in a gravitational field.

Essentially, what’s happening is the total energy in the system (the object and the external force acting on the body) is the same.

The external force is changing the sum of the potential and kinetic energy on the object it’s acting upon.

To simply demonstrate, let’s say the potential energies were 0 Joules.

In this case, the only energy the object has is kinetic energy.

Now, let’s say T₁ equals 2 Joules.

If we made U_1->2 = 1 Joule, then applying the external force on the object over a distance would increase the object’s kinetic energy by 1 Joule.

In this case, T₂=3 Joules.

Since there is no potential energy on the object, the total energy of the object is now 3 Joules.

As you can see, if an external force is applied to the body over a distance, the total energy of the object can change (hence, the definition of work).

It’s the total energy of the system that remains the same.

There is also a variation of it called the Conservation of Work and Energy where you only have gravity and springs acting on a body over a distance.

This formula looks like this:

T₁+V₁=T₂+V₂

This can be useful when you need to find the velocity of an object at another point or when you need to find the distance a body traveled in order to go from one velocity to another.

I will not go into detail with this calculation (unless you want me to, let me know in the comments).

Of course, if what I am saying doesn’t make sense, fear not.

Read this section again when you get to this concept and it will start to click.

5. Principle of Impulse and Momentum

This concept was the one I showed you earlier in the Calculus section.

It can be used to determine the velocity of an object after an external force (or external forces) acts upon the object over a period of time.

Just like with work and energy, there is a variation of this concept called conservation of impulse and momentum, where you have two or more objects joining together to form one bigger object.

From there, you can find the mass the combined objects have when they join together in addition to the velocity the objects have when they join together.

This conservation of linear momentum equation looks like this:

m₁v₁+m₂v₂=m_combinedv_combined

m_combined is the mass of the objects when they collide (join) together and v_combined is the velocity of this bigger object when the smaller objects collide together.

To take momentum a step further, there is another kind of momentum called angular momentum, which is the moment of an object’s linear momentum about a point.

I won’t get into detail about that one since, well, you’re tired (unless you want me to. Comment below and I’ll update the post for you!).

But, this is a summary of the concepts you will see in Mechanics.

Regarding Electricity and Magnetism, unfortunately, I don’t know those concepts well enough to explain them to you.

Instead, I will refer you to what I think could be a good source to help you out through this link here.

Yes, it’s a textbook, but you are going to have to read it in order to learn what you need to learn.

I hope that helps.

Is Physics Hard?

The short answer to this question is it depends on how hard you make it based on the reasons described in this post.

It could be because your math skills aren’t up to where they should be, it could be because your problem-solving skills aren’t up to where they should be, it could be because of groupthink, it could be (fill in your reason).

Regardless of what the reason is, always do this:

1. Find out why Physics is hard for you. List these reasons on a sheet of paper.
2. Employ the right solution(s) to fix the problem(s).

It’s that simple.

And of course, be as disciplined as possible in order to get the situation resolved.

Now, I do have some parting tips for you on how to study Physics:

1. Use active recall (the number 1 study strategy. It will make a tremendous difference in your grades)
2. Close your eyes while studying (it will increase your memory by up to 23%)
3. Find the Best Source On the Topic and Stick With It
4. Drill Key Term Often (in a nutshell, write key terms on flashcards or on a sheet of paper and use active recall repetitively and consistently to get the terms in your head)
5. Describe Things In Your Own Words (or you are headed for trouble)
6. Understand How to Express Ideas Mathematically (or, just like above, you are headed for trouble)
7. Don’t Memorize. Understand. 
8. Visualize What You Are Working With As Much As Possible
9. Draw Free Body Diagrams As Much As Possible
10. Practice, Practice, Practice! (The most important tip of them all! Without it, you will never understand the nitty-gritty details of Physics!)

And also, always remember this about Physics:

Physics is the science of using math to express a physical phenomenon.

It’s through this expression of a phenomenon that you can use it to solve problems.

Read that sentence again.

This is how you must ALWAYS think of every problem.

You are using math to express physical phenomena in a way in which you can use what you find to solve problems.

This is engineering.

Don’t think like a scientist; think like an engineer.

When you make that switch, the way you understand Physics will change for the better.

And so will your grades 🙂

Thank you very much for reading this post about why physics is hard.

If you got a lot out of this post and you want to see more content that’ll help your grades, help you become more productive, and help you realize your full potential so you can accomplish your dreams, subscribe to Join the Island below.

New posts will be sent to your inbox the moment they are published.

Happy studying!

Until next time,

This is Evan signing off.

FAQ

1. Is Physics easier than chemistry?

This one is subjective. I do not know. 

The last time I took chemistry, I was 18 and did not have the intellectual capacity I do now.

I would need to retake chemistry or read into it again to give you my opinion, but this will vary from person to person.

The best way to answer this question is to talk to different people who studied both subjects in some capacity and get their take.

You might be able to get a clear idea as to the answer.

Ultimately, you will have to take both subjects to find out the answer for you.

So grab a few books on both topics and start studying to find out!

2. Is Physics harder than calculus?

Again, this depends on you. 

There is no clear-cut “Yes” or “No” answer until you learn both materials yourself.

3. Is Physics 1 or Chemistry 1 harder?

Once again, the answer is it depends on what you find harder after taking them and what you define as “hard.”

4. Is Physics or Math Harder?

It depends on what you find harder after doing both courses of material.

5. Is Engineering easier than Physics?

As a course of study, it depends on the branch of engineering you pick and whether you find it easier after studying it than Physics after taking both courses of study.

Some branches of engineering might be easier for you than others and hence, it would influence the answer to this question.

For instance, let’s say you studied Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Physics.

Let’s say you found Civil Engineering to be the easiest of the three majors, Physics the 2nd hardest, and Electrical Engineering the hardest.

In this case, if what you mean by “Engineering” is “Civil Engineering,” then the answer is yes.

If what you mean by “Engineering” is “Electrical Engineering,” then the answer is no.

6. How Useful is a Physics Degree?

Assuming this question is from a job prospect standpoint, I do not know this answer. I have no idea about the prospects of a Physics degree.

I will say that when picking a major, it should be something useful in the job market.

No questions asked about that.

If you want to know the value of a Physics degree, I recommend talking to Physics graduates who can tell you about what happened to them when they graduated with a Physics degree.

This would be your best bet since they’ll have an insider’s point of view about how a Physics degree translates into real-world value.

I wouldn’t trust your university with this answer.

Remember, the university is trying to sell you and they have ulterior motives for helping you.

They will promote things to the hill to take your money without revealing any baggage about themselves.

So if a university promotes you a Physics degree, take what they say with a grain of salt.

Talk to unbiased graduates who have no vetting interest in your success (aka a neutral vantage point).

And do NOT trust your parents on this.

They are not the ones who went through a Physics program and graduated.

7. Is being a Physicist a good job?

It depends on what you define as a “good” job.

“Good” is subjective and can mean one thing to one person and another thing to another.

As far as what it’s like to be a physicist, I strongly urge you to go talk to physicists about what they do and how they like their jobs.

If you are in high school or you are a to be college student, I’m pretty sure that if you send any physicist an email asking you to meet with them for an informational interview, if they are a decent human being, there is a good chance that they’ll agree to meet with you about this (although this is no guarantee).

People LOVE talking about themselves, so if you ask them to pick their brains about their career, they will entertain that idea.

8. Is Math harder in Physics or Engineering?

I do not know this.

Because the question says “Engineering,” I would need to know what branch of engineering you are referring to in order to give this question a good guess.

Also, I haven’t taken a Physics major, so I am not in the best position to answer this question.

Instead, I encourage you to ask fellow students who took both courses of study to get their opinion.

But ultimately, you’d need to take both courses of study to answer this question for yourself.

Because the answer does depend on you.

9. Do Engineers Know Physics?

It depends on the kind of engineer.

Software engineers, no.

For the most part, it is not necessary for their job.

For engineers like civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical (aka the big 4 of engineering), yes.

Physics is necessary to do those jobs.

Hence, these engineers know physics (ok, not every one of them, but a good chunk of them do).

10. Do Engineers Really Need Physics?

It depends on the kind of engineer.

Software engineers, no.

They don’t need physics to do their jobs.

For other kinds of engineers like civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical, yes.

Physics is necessary to do those jobs.

Hence, these engineers need physics.

11. Is Physics 1 Hard?

In general, if you don’t have the problem-solving skills required to not have to rely on memorization, yes, it’s hard.

Unless you become a problem solver, physics will be hard no matter what.

If you can problem-solve, it certainly becomes easier.

Of course, the answer really depends on you since one person finds it hard and another person might find it easy after going through the course.

But the degree of difficulty of the course will come down to your problem-solving skills.

12. Which is harder, Physics 1 or 2?

In general, Physics 2.

Why?

Because you can’t see what you are doing.

You are forced to create the picture in your mind.

In Physics 1, everything you need to see is in the problem.

There is no point in reinventing the wheel.

In Physics 2, you are reinventing the wheel.

Of course, the answer varies from person to person, but in general, Physics 2 is harder than Physics 1.

13. Is Physics Easy With Calculus?

This depends on how easy you find it when you do Physics with calculus.

However, Physics becomes easier when you know calculus.

Why?

Because you can express the relationship between different numerical quantities better than you would be able to without calculus.

I can safely say that expressing acceleration as the change in velocity over a period of time is going to be easier with calculus than without it.

Especially if this velocity function with respect to time is NOT a straight line.

14. Is Physics harder than Biology?

It depends on how difficult you find them if you take both courses of study.

However, amongst most people, the general consensus is that physics is harder than biology.

Why?

Because physics requires problem-solving without relying on memorization to get your way through the finish line. Again, problem-solving isn’t something many students are good at.

Biology, at least in lower-level classes, mainly depends on your ability to memorize a lot of terms in a short period of time, which many students are good at.

BUT, at the end of the day, it all boils down to which one you find harder after taking both courses of study.