What makes a physics test difficult?

Question

What makes a physics test difficult?

Answer 1

A self-defeating attitude.

I never tried to memorize all of the various equations, just a few basic ones, and derived the rest on the fly. One particular thought process that really helped was using dimensional analysis.

As with everything else in life, it's all a matter of having confidence in ones ability.

Answer 2

The tree is covered with a lot of  leaves.

The leaves rustle, speak, argue among themselves.

But shouldn't they  know that the roots feed them?

Physicists behave as leaves.

They rustle, speak, argue among themselves.

But they forget the roots of science, namely that we build the base

of a science  on abstract ideas.

The base of the classical mechanics is constructed on abstract

separate absolute space and abstract separate absolute time of Newton.

The base of thermodynamics is constructed on the abstract

ideal gas  theory.

The base of the theory of radiation is constructed on

the abstract black body theory.

The base of SRT is constructed on the abstract theory

of four-dimensional space theory.

On this abstract base, physicists build a concrete building of

science and are surprised when they discover paradoxes in it.

But in  nature there are no paradoxes  observed.

Something is not in order with logical thinking.

It is necessary to stop, look back and

to reconsider the abstract base of science.

Maybe the abstract ideas are not abstract ones.

But everyone is in a hurry to try to understand  reality,

and they create new abstraction. It is a way to “mad infinity”.

Therefore we live in the world of abstraction, of paradoxes,

in the Orwell’s world.

Therefore they wrote:

“ The universe does not look right. That may seem like a strange thing

to say, given that cosmologists have very little standard for comparison.

How do we know what the universe is supposed to look like?

Nevertheless, over the years we have developed a strong intuition

for what counts as “natural”—and the universe we see does not qualify.”

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-...

“Does Time Run Backward in Other Universes?”

By Sean M. Carroll

=========.

My question is:

“ Who is right: The Universe/ Nature or the brain of some physicists? “

Answer 3

All those darned questions!

Actually, physics is usually only tough because just about everyone, by nature, looks at effect only, rather than cause and effect.

For example, look at the basics.  Gravity.  It makes stuff fall down.  That's a view of the effect only.  If you look at the underlying cause and effect though, gravity is actually about two masses attracting one another.  Two pieces of cotton, in the absence of any other gravity field, will attract one another, just as the Earth attracts every object sitting upon its surface... and quite a lot of things not on its surface.

So, instead of simply trying to memorize a bunch of equations, try to understand why things work the way they do.  It'll make physics go a lot smoother.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

Answer 4

calculation made it difficult.......

Answer 5

it's because you dont really understand the concept

rather than memorizing formulas etc, understand how the formulas were derived and how to apply them~

concept, concept, concept

it's all about understanding concepts

and yes, having good knowledge in maths do help

Answer 6

the subject in general is difficult. but i guess remembering the formulas is hard if they don't give you them on the test.