dullard
Elite Member
- May 21, 2001
- 25,987
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Physical chemistry is typically broken up into two parts: thermodynamics and quantum physics. For the quantum part, you will do simple partial differential equations (PDEs) repeatedly. In fact, most students get very lost and I've known many who dropped out of chemistry and/or chemical engineering due to the PDEs in that class. Now back to your question. Calculus is typically done like this:
Freshman year: Calc 1 and 2
Sophmore year: Calc 3 and differential equations.
Junior/Senior year: Miscellaneous math courses.
Masters level: Introduction to PDEs and other miscellaneous math courses.
PhD level: PDEs and other miscellaneous math courses.
So to fully understand physical chemistry, you should really have master's level, or even better PhD level math. I too struggled a bit in P.Chem. Now that I have my PhD (including many math courses), I've always wanted to go back and retake P.Chem. Of course, I'm not that much of a geek to actually do it. But if I did, I would learn so much more.
Freshman year: Calc 1 and 2
Sophmore year: Calc 3 and differential equations.
Junior/Senior year: Miscellaneous math courses.
Masters level: Introduction to PDEs and other miscellaneous math courses.
PhD level: PDEs and other miscellaneous math courses.
So to fully understand physical chemistry, you should really have master's level, or even better PhD level math. I too struggled a bit in P.Chem. Now that I have my PhD (including many math courses), I've always wanted to go back and retake P.Chem. Of course, I'm not that much of a geek to actually do it. But if I did, I would learn so much more.
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