Mechanics

Anyone who's done this module in previous years, do we need to actually understand any of this vector stuff, and messing about with formulas, or can we just memorise things in a basic form and use it in the exam, kind of like the mechanics maths modules at A-level?
Anyone who is doing the module at the moment, what's going on :s-smilie:

? Most of it's alright but why is it explained in such a difficult way?
Also, math students, when are our support classes? Do they exist?

Reply 1

Totally Tom

18

Jeeeeez Andre, you need to learn to listen. And turn up on time. We noted last thursday you turned up half way through the SECOND lecture.

Eugh.

Anyways, we don't get support classes but we can turn up to the ones for the physicists. It's explained in such a difficult way because he's an awful lecturer. Just read the notes.

Reply 2

benwellsday

OP

12

The notes aren't much better. All this stuff with cross products makes sense in maths, not in physics, they should stick to scalars. I'll try find out when the physicists classes are then.
And yeah, I turned up halfway through differential equations, I slept in through about 10 alarms I had on my phone. Didn't really miss anything that interesting by the looks of things.

Reply 3

Totally Tom

18

benwellsday

The notes aren't much better. All this stuff with cross products makes sense in maths, not in physics, they should stick to scalars. I'll try find out when the physicists classes are then.
And yeah, I turned up halfway through differential equations, I slept in through about 10 alarms I had on my phone. Didn't really miss anything that interesting by the looks of things.

YOU MISSED OUT ON LIFE.

Reply 4

estel

18

Yeh, Rudolph can be a bit hard to follow at times :p:

The physics support classes support of merely going over the previous week's problems. If you manage to do the problems, you won't see much benefit in going to the classes.

The notes were definitely also quite hard to follow ><

Reply 5

benwellsday

OP

12

The actual problems seem really easy, but I wouldn't say I used anything from the lectures, just knowledge from M1-M3. If I used techniques like that in the exam would I get the marks? If so, then there's no problem, except for people who've never seen mechanics before.

Reply 6

JohnnySPal

2

Rudolf is STILL taking Mechanics A? **** me he's TERRIBLE, good luck!

I once sat on the very back row of L3 for a Mech A lecture, because there was simply nowhere else to go (like, not even a bit of floor near the door). That was one of the biggest wastes of an hour I ever had at Warwick - I couldn't even vaguely tell what he was writing and I couldn't hear him for toffee. Others had the same trouble too we gathered; we observed more than one group of people attempting to throw paper aeroplanes in his direction. They somehow managed to get them all the way to the desks right in front of him, which resulted in a silent PMSL or three.

As for content, you'll probably find the first three weeks or so pretty easy going. By the end I didn't really know what was going on (I did Edexcel M1-M3), but a bit of revision over Easter cured that.

Reply 7

ChiefNX

6

It's clearly your own fault, for actually bothering to turn up to lectures. (Either that or you haven't been buying enough yoghurts to experiment on.) No wonder you're confused, it's probably exhaustion from sitting in the Ramphal building with an ambient temperature of at least

50^\circ \text{C}

and those weird lights on the sides of the seats designed specifically for annoying anyone close to the edges of the rows.

Reply 8

Sparkling_Jules

1

But I thought maths students were used to intense heat; I nearly die every time I have a lecture in the maths building!

Although to be honest it has been better the last few weeks so maybe they finally worked out where/what the thermostat is!

Reply 9

coffeym

10

benwellsday

The notes aren't much better. All this stuff with cross products makes sense in maths, not in physics, they should stick to scalars.

This is such ********. Firstly, the notes are fine. I taught myself this course over Easter having attended very few lectures and lost 2 marks on the exam, so I reckon the notes are just fine.

Secondly, with regards to vectors, don't you realise that the motion you're describing takes place in 3-space? In this space, scalars are totally insufficient at giving an overall theory of mechanics. It's absolutely essential that you master converting all the old formulae you knew at school into vector formulae. For example,

v=\omega r

must now be replaced absolutely by

\mathbf{v}=\mathbf{\omega} \times \mathbf{r}

. This is merely an example, but the point is we care about direction and the only way we can be sure of direction is to use vectors in

\mathbb{R}^3

!

Reply 10

benwellsday

OP

12

I was mostly complaining because in the notes he'd not told us to ignore some term like dm.dv because it was too small, so I got confused until the next lecture when I could ask someone else. And the theta vector in the circular motion bit wasn't really defined and I couldn't think of what it would be. They're probably alright if you can think for yourself but I like things spelt out for me so I don't have to think :biggrin:

And I know why we use vectors, but I've not seen them come up in the question sheets. The past few lectures have actually been alright though, the diagrams are better, and stuff actually makes sense, though I still don't know if we'd have to do anything like he does on the board in the exam.

Mechanics

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you