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Physics hard than Chemistry?

I do all three and can confidently say Biology is the easiest, Chemistry is the second easiest and Physics is the hardest. Maths is harder than all three :rolleyes:

Reply 21

Alcohol5%

OP

2

vickyrkenya

I do all three and can confidently say Biology is the easiest, Chemistry is the second easiest and Physics is the hardest. Maths is harder than all three :rolleyes:

Chemistry interesting, maths is imaginary nonsense and physics is so fundamental its laughable.

I find all three equally hard, perhaps physics more so because it has covered more new stuff.

Reply 22

ChemistBoy

16

Speciez99

Around 50,000 took biology
then 36,000 took chemistry
and 31,000 physics in last years A level exams I believe.

So what?

Reply 23

ChemistBoy

16

vickyrkenya

I do all three and can confidently say Biology is the easiest, Chemistry is the second easiest and Physics is the hardest. Maths is harder than all three :rolleyes:

I don't think the A-level experience really qualifies you to make judgements on the difficulty of these subjects at Undergraduate level. :rolleyes:

Reply 24

vickyrkenya

2

ChemistBoy

I don't think the A-level experience really qualifies you to make judgements on the difficulty of these subjects at Undergraduate level. :rolleyes:

I know 4 people who do biology based degrees at top universities, two who do chemistry and two who do physics. From talking with them, they agree with my A-level experience.

Reply 25

material breach

12

ChemistBoy

So what?

there seemed to be confusion earlier in the thread about which was in the greatest decilne, these figures suggest physics is

Reply 26

material breach

12

vickyrkenya

I do all three and can confidently say Biology is the easiest, Chemistry is the second easiest and Physics is the hardest. Maths is harder than all three :rolleyes:

Everyone will find it differenet, if you are good at maths, maths will be eaiser ect.

Reply 27

hornblower

6

vickyrkenya

I know 4 people who do biology based degrees at top universities, two who do chemistry and two who do physics.

Chemistry and Physics are not Biology-based.

Reply 28

ChemistBoy

16

Speciez99

there seemed to be confusion earlier in the thread about which was in the greatest decilne, these figures suggest physics is

Erm, we are talking about the number of students doing physics and chemistry degrees, not those taking A-levels in those subjects. Chemistry is in the greatest decline (20% drop in the last eight years) at undergraduate level.

Chemistry A-level numbers will always be buoyed up by the fact that it is a required subject for medicine.

Reply 29

ChemistBoy

16

vickyrkenya

I know 4 people who do biology based degrees at top universities, two who do chemistry and two who do physics. From talking with them, they agree with my A-level experience.

You know eight science students, each with their own subjective opinion, hardly authoritative. I know many more science students and graduates than you and I would say that each subject has its difficulties at undergraduate level. Chemistry for instance is very conceptually difficult.

Reply 30

material breach

12

ChemistBoy

You know eight science students, each with their own subjective opinion, hardly authoritative. I know many more science students and graduates than you and I would say that each subject has its difficulties at undergraduate level. Chemistry for instance is very conceptually difficult.

You think more so than physics?

Reply 31

ChemistBoy

16

Speciez99

You think more so than physics?

Yes i would say so. Physics is fundamentally more mathematical than chemistry at an undergraduate level and many of the theories encountered by an undergraduate student can be defined mathematically. Chemistry is a bit less rigorous and requires a more conceptual approach to it's teaching and learning. Chemical concepts are very complicated and it is understanding these concepts that makes chemistry difficult. In physics there is a mathematical difficult that you don't encounter in chemistry. Neither subject is more difficult than the other - their difficulties lie in slightly different areas. Of course when you get to a higher level you realise that the edges between all the science (in fact all academic study) run together somewhat so there are shades of gray about this rather than black and white.

Reply 32

alastair

1

Chemistboy: Do you know any degree level physicists since your maths application is very much A-Level based. Yes a lot of physics is maths (20% of my course is pure maths) but there are also many non-mathematical 'conceptually difficult' problems at degree which are almost impossible to understand such as Special Relativity.

I know 1 chemist, 1 biochemist and loads of physicists and i would say they both had busier timetables than me but looking at the stuff they had to learn from a non-chemist view mine seemed harder.

Reply 33

ChemistBoy

16

alastair

Chemistboy: Do you know any degree level physicists since your maths application is very much A-Level based. Yes a lot of physics is maths (20% of my course is pure maths) but there are also many non-mathematical 'conceptually difficult' problems at degree which are almost impossible to understand such as Special Relativity.

I know many degree level physicists, I work with them. I'm not saying there are not conceptual difficulties in physics, but with many things one can rely on mathematics to back you up (not saying this is any easier). In chemistry when one considers the nature of the benzene ring one doesn't have any mathematics to back it up, it is just a concept and one that is, in its true nature, quite complex.

I know 1 chemist, 1 biochemist and loads of physicists and i would say they both had busier timetables than me but looking at the stuff they had to learn from a non-chemist view mine seemed harder.

That is your opinion, I would not agree that any one course was harder than another.

Reply 34

morals_officer

9

There are only a couple of thousand physics and chemistry undergrads in the country, and roughly 10 times as many psychologists. No matter which is harder, we can still get lovely jobs.

Although anything that isn't physics is, of course, just stamp collecting.

Reply 35

oxymoron

7

morals_officer

There are only a couple of thousand physics and chemistry undergrads in the country.

Are you sure?
I'm pretty sure there are two or three hundred each of physicists and chemists in each year at oxford alone ... that makes nearly 2000 just at one university ....

Reply 36

morals_officer

9

Yes, I am sure. It was a statistic quoted in the times, I think, a little while back. Theres roughly 3000 come in every year, with not everyone doing 4 year it probably reduces to around 10-11 thou.

Which isnt that many looking at the size of the UK's student population (couple hundred thou, easy)

Reply 37

not1

15

Well, there are 215 people in the first year of physics at Imperial alone.
As for physics being harder than chemistry, I don't know; physics doesn't seem that hard to me. It probably has more maths though.

Reply 38

mayed3883

edders

Well, there are 215 people in the first year of physics at Imperial alone.
As for physics being harder than chemistry, I don't know; physics doesn't seem that hard to me. It probably has more maths though.

Seconded. The main difference in difficulty is the level of maths required. Physics has a lot more, and it gets harder the further you get. I'm just finishing NatSci at Cambridge and did chem and physics in my first year. My experience was that a lot of chemistry, especially on the organic side depends on knowing a large body of facts and general principles for organising them together and the practical side is more important. Physics needs you to memorise less raw information, but is usually a bit more subtle. If you can do a course which lets you start off doing several subjects and specialise later, then go for it! You'll be in a much better position to choose a year down the line and you'd be surprised how often the other subject can help you, especially as research is becoming more & more interdisciplinary.

Rupe.

PS: just wanted to make the one post so logged in using bugmenot... Sorry to whoever's account I'm using!

Reply 39

x_didi_x

Hehe it's confusing me even more now! I have applied to Natural sciences and straight physics in uni and am now in the stage where i have to choose my firm and insurance choice now... As I really enjoy both chemistry and physics.. and find them equally easy/hard... i think it's better if i go for natural sciences.. but then i really like Imperial and i've always wanted to do physics in uni! Anyone in similar situation?

Physics hard than Chemistry?

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