physics and astronomy

doonothing

anyone doing this course? can you give me any details about it?
id be really interested in doing it, but unfortunately im not doing physics for the old LC. the timetable was all ordered badly and i chose something else over physics, and i regret that now, believe me, anyhoo i was just wondering if you *NEED* LC physics for it.
i know you dont directly need physics to get into the course, but, as a student of the course, would you say that id be stupid to attempt the course with nothing but 2 year-old JC science as my only previous knowledge of physics?
i ask because the trinity physics course has 2 years general science before you specialise, and that'd be really helpful for me, it even says "no previous knowledge of physics required"!
so can anyone help me out? greatly appreciated...

Crucifix

Well, I'm in Applied Physics and for first year my class and the physics with astronomy class are together for everything.
Basically this semester (that's the first semester of first year), we had a basic physics class, a 'concepts and communications' class, a frontiers of physics class, physics labs, maths and computers.
The basic one is basically all LC stuff. The cons and comms one might throw new physics at you, but it's team based so you could just get the principles for the problem from a team mate, and just study up as you go. Maths and computers would be fine, you'd probably handle the labs, as long as you read over the experiment before hand. The frontiers class, however, deals with tough stuff and could be even harder if you don't have the basic physics.
I really don't know which way to advise you. It's definitely possible do the course without LC physics, but it could mean doing a bit of extra work to make sure you get what's happening, and the course is already quite tough.
Hope that helps a bit, if you've any questions fire away.

doonothing

that helps a lot, thanks.
i wouldnt mind the extra work, and it'd probably be the same in the trinity course...
what's covered in the frontiers class? would that be relatively new stuff to everyone, or would i be the only one not having a clue whats going on?

Crucifix

The frontiers course started of with stuff like Newtons laws that was nice and basic, but it quickly gets into quantum physics, special relativity, black box radiation etc. In my class everyone found it fairly difficult, but very interesting.
I forgot about this before, but the Lecturer we had for Frontiers is leaving the college to do research, so I dunno if they'll just put another lecturer on the class, or change the course in someway.

doonothing

sounds good.
the class i mean...not the lecturer going.
anyhoo, all that quantam mechanics stuff is the most interesting thing in the world to me, that frontiers class sounds like exactly what i want to do physics for...
i know it doesnt matter at all....but how much work would you get? how many hours of college/work a week?
would you recommend physics and astronomy or applied physics? which is more difficult/would require more physics knowledge etc?
am i daft to even consider doing physics for the 1st time in uni?

Crucifix

For semester one I've had about twenty two hours of stuff(lectures, labs, tutorials) a week, but you get report work, projects and presentations to be done. It's not too bad, but it seems to be alot more work, in terms of man hours, than most of my friends courses. Also, don't forget to factor in any commuting.

doonothing

wow...you'd sorta think a science course would have less work, what with the lack of essays etc...
but still. im determined. physics it is, for me.
what other courses have less work though? kinda suprising...
not much commuting for me, 20min on the 17a and im there.

Crucifix

Well, for example first year of common entry is a bit more time in lectures and stuff, but no work outside of that. And say, Economics politics and law, first year has a bit more work, but nearly half the lectures and stuff.
It is a fair bit of work, but I really like the course so far. That said, I haven't passed the exams yet.