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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Did she take AP Physics 1 in 9th grade? That class is a non-calculus based class so in a way for some students it ends up being harder than a calculus based physics class. Knowing calculus can make visualizing physics problems easier. [/quote]

If you can't understand basic physics without calculus, you aren't understanding physics. Physics is more than math. [/quote]
This is the half truth. Math helps make physics digestible and really clearly demonstrates complex ideas into forms that work with your intuition.

For example, you can qualitatively describe Schrödingers equation all day, but if you don’t actually know what an eigenvalue, commutator, an operator, or hermitian space is…you really can’t use any of this knowledge, nor can you build up your interpretation of quantum mechanics- which isn’t intuitive, at all.

Physics is an abstraction of mathematics. Many physics problems are inherently examples of mathematics used in a certain physical space. For many people the physics is only explained with the math.[/quote]
I imagine plenty of born physicists might have been turned off on the field upon being thrown the SUVAT equations to memorize before even seeing a velocity-time diagram.

I know many physicists who believe introductory physics is harder to learn without calculus.[/quote]

+100 My son did a lot of tutoring for AP Physics when he was in high school. He said he would have been lost if he hadn’t taken Calculus prior to the class.[/quote]

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