Oh, I thought I was in College

[hjo3]

Originally posted by: sm8000

Originally posted by: MrCodeDude

Originally posted by: radioouman

Originally posted by: NatePo717
Most of the problem is understanding. The math part is trivial. Once you understand what is happening in the problem the math part is a snap.

And drawing the diagram makes sure that you understand the problem and don't just solve it by multiplying 2 numbers together.

I KNOW HOW THE BLOODY PROBLEM WORKS. I'VE DONE THIS BEFORE IN REGULAR PHYSICS. ME DRAWING A STUPID DIAGRAM DOES NOTHING FOR ME, EXCEPT TAKING UP SPACE AND TIME.

CRAWLLLLLLLLLLLLLLING INNNNNNN MY SKINNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THESE WOOOUNDS THEY WIIIILL NOT HEEEEAL!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ColdFusion718]

He just wants to make you guys draw diagrams like second nature; trust me, when you get into more difficult problems, being able to draw a diagram correctly will most likely determine if you get 8/10 or 2/10 on the problem. I sucked at drawing the diagrams so I did poorly in college physics hehe

 

[mugs]

CLEP out of it

 

[HardcoreRobot]

you have only been in college for a few weeks, enjoy the easy stuff while you can

 

[dullard]

College is to train you for the real world. The two most important lessons to learn are:

1) Do what your superiors say to do or you lose your job.
2) Document everything so that when you go back to it 5 years later you know what you did instantly instead of spending 2 months of company time to relearn/redo it all.

I see you still have much to learn on these two subjects.

 

[blahblah99]

He didn't ask you create artwork out of the problems, just a simple picture.

A dot with a 45-deg incline and a vector pointing in tha tdirection would be fine.

Just wait till you get to EE courses.. try doing circuit analysis without drawing any pictures.

 

[2cpuminimum]

Originally posted by: dullard
College is to train you for the real world. The two most important lessons to learn are:

1) Do what your superiors say to do or you lose your job.
2) Document everything so that when you go back to it 5 years later you know what you did instantly instead of spending 2 months of company time to relearn/redo it all.

I see you still have much to learn on these two subjects.

Good science requires GREAT documentation. If you get any science job you need to be extremely thorough and specific in labeling things. I probably spent about an hour today labeling tubes. Truly, having to draw those diagrams IS good for you, and it's probably good for your grade too. As for the answer being worth 3/8 points, that seems a reasonable amount.

 

[silverpig]

He's getting you used to drawing pictures which really do help later on. I drew a picture for a problem I had in a 4th year quantum statistical analysis class. Was doing some work on a basic polymer structure and finding energy values etc, and a picture really helped.

 

[EyeMWing]

Oh come on. I could knock out those pictures in like 4 pencil strokes. fsck the skier going down the slope. You draw a line, put a box on the line, and draw an arrow or two. BFD.

 

[Rogue]

Originally posted by: QuantumPion

Originally posted by: Rogue
You know, this is my whole problem with college. It all feels like busy work to me. I'll be half way done in December and then I'll probably enroll in one of those accelerated learning, evening adult programs to finish the rest.

The purpose of college (at least engineering and sciences) is not how to solve Newton's or Maxwell's equations, it is to teach you how to think. If you can't be bothered learning problem-solving techniques now you will have serious trouble with the more advanced stuff later on.

I'm 29 years old and have been solving some of the hardest problems people should ever be asked to solve. I have no shortage of problem solving skills, hell, I can solve problems that aren't even mine to solve. I've been a corporate professional since I was 19 years old, all of my own making. Trust me, I understand problem solving.

 

[spidey07]

No offense, but drawing any problem out no matter how trivial it is is helping you learn.

get over it.

 

[DrPizza]

Sounds to me like your physics prof is making sure that everyone *understands* what's going on and is not merely multiplying numbers. My physics students have another week or so left of "triple v dat tables" to complete for problems. I require them to make a table of initial, final, average velocities as well as displacement, acceleration, and time. It seems a little anal at first, but then, my students typically walk away with a greater understanding of the concepts as a result. Heck, I refer to the units of acceleration as "mph per second" for the first couple of days we work with acceleration, then m/s per second for the next few days before I ever introduce m/s^2.

 

[RedCOMET]

Originally posted by: theknight571
ahhhh... Physics....

I took the "entry" level physics and after 2 tests was averaging a 35% in the class.

Decided it was better to drop than fail so I went to talk to the prof... he asked me why I wanted to drop I was at a "B" level.

I was like WTF... 35% is a "B".. LOL

I stuck it out... ended up at like 42%...which by then was still a "B".

One hell of a Curve.... lol

-TK

Yeah, i know what you mean. That was the same for my physics classes, digital logic and part of circuits. But the curves weren' that extreme for all of them, it was relative to how the class was doing.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Rogue

Originally posted by: QuantumPion

Originally posted by: Rogue
You know, this is my whole problem with college. It all feels like busy work to me. I'll be half way done in December and then I'll probably enroll in one of those accelerated learning, evening adult programs to finish the rest.

The purpose of college (at least engineering and sciences) is not how to solve Newton's or Maxwell's equations, it is to teach you how to think. If you can't be bothered learning problem-solving techniques now you will have serious trouble with the more advanced stuff later on.

I'm 29 years old and have been solving some of the hardest problems people should ever be asked to solve. I have no shortage of problem solving skills, hell, I can solve problems that aren't even mine to solve. I've been a corporate professional since I was 19 years old, all of my own making. Trust me, I understand problem solving.

And of course you draw it out.

Now tell me why MPLS has trouble carrying EIGRP/OSPF/PIM and exactly the reasons why and how you can accomodate them.

And of course we have to do it without drawing.

😉

 

[TankGuys]

Originally posted by: MrCodeDude
I KNOW HOW THE BLOODY PROBLEM WORKS. I'VE DONE THIS BEFORE IN REGULAR PHYSICS. ME DRAWING A STUPID DIAGRAM DOES NOTHING FOR ME, EXCEPT TAKING UP SPACE AND TIME.

Well congratulations. I know what you mean, I was there once too. But take it from me (I graduated with a degree in Physics research, took every undergrad (and many grad level as well) physics class available. Drawing those "stupid" pictures gets you in the habit, because TRUST me, no matter how much you think you know, you'll need them soon enough.

Doing a problem with 3 measly forces without a picture is easy. Doing one where you have 7 ore more masses, all interacting, with multiple forces on each... not easy. If you don't become a pro at drawing FBD's now, you'll be very sorry later.

 

[remagavon]

Get ready for another 4 years of this fun. College is often full of BS, but you just have to deal with it. Thankfully I'm in a school now that doesn't have very much 'busy work' at all, almost everything gets to the point and I'm loving that aspect. The only downside is attendance at lectures matters, but I can show up and learn a little 😛 Good luck with the rest of your school. 🙂

 

[DrPizza]

Incidentally, if you start doing some research into physics education, you'll find that one of the biggest problems is that students enter physics courses with a horrible set of pre-conceived wrong notions about physics principles. Requiring students to draw these diagrams is one tool used to help alleviate the problem. Great, you're one of the students who doesn't need them. I'd bet that they benefit at least half of the class.

In my first few years of teaching physics, I went to a physics teacher's institute. I kept questioning, "are you kidding me? Everyone knows that." And the profs looked at me and said "yeah, you're probably right." Later in the course, we watched videos taken shortly after the graduation ceremonies at 2 ivy league schools (Harvard and MIT?) I watched with complete shock (and in the corner of the video, there was a window showing the shock on the professors faces) when engineering graduates didn't think it was possible to light a flashlight type of lightbulb with only 1 wire and a battery. There were engineering students with no f'in clue what "complete" circuit meant. And, the number of graduates who thought the wires on each side of the filament in a lightbulb both went to the point at the bottom of the bulb was staggering. Congratulations to your prof for making sure the students understand the problems.