Physics with astronomy

Gwyllin

If anybody in here is doing that course or if anybodt knows somebody who does, please contact me or ask them if they have time to contact me! I'd love to know more about that course!!

Crucifix

I'm not doing Physics with Astronomy, but I just finished the first year of Applied physics, and first year is practically the same for both courses, so if you have any specific questions I'll do my best to try and answer them.

Gwyllin

Oh, that's allright! I can ask you about applied ohysics then! How much time do you spend attending lectures, tutorials etc each week? And how much time do you spend reading outside the university?

Crucifix

We had about 26 hours a week of lectures, labs and tutorials.
As for work outside, both semesters we had one class with regular assignments, and the other classes might have one or two large projects; so some weeks I would spend only a couple of hours in total, and other weeks it'd be an hour or two a night, and a good 6-12 hours over the weekend.

Gwyllin

Thanks! That was almost all I needed to know! A few more things though.. What are the labs like at DCU? Are the lecturers knowledgeable and make their lectures interesting? Have you every experienced anything boring during your time there to now?

Crucifix

The first year labs are perfectly fine, apart from the stools which get very uncomfortable after a few hours. For the most part the lecturers are great. Every lecturer really loves Physics, which I think really helps things. They're all very helpful. As for boring stuff, the maths can be a bit dull. Some classes on the computers course from the first semester will be covering very basic things, and as a result can be boring if you know your way around a computer (and each class is part of continious assessment so you can't avoid the ones you feel you don't need to go to). Also, there is a class all year for General Physics. This mainly covers Leaving Cert physics with some extra detail and some extra topics, so if you know your stuff it can be a bit dull. But that said, the lecturer is (in my opinion) very good and there's no harm refreshing your memory, so I ended up attending pretty much all the time. Hope that helps.

Gwyllin

Ah, that was very informative! Thanks a lot!! Just a couple more question and I'll get back to the thread if I have more questions later.

How many science subjects should you have taken and which? You mentioned that basic physics is repeated. Do they walk through it quickly or thoroughly?

Thank you so much for bothering to respond!
Gwyllin

Crucifix

You don't need chemistry or biology. Many other science courses have a 'common' first year where you do basic stuff in other sciences, but Applied Physics and Physics with Astronomy don't.
Technically you don't need to have done LC Physics, but it would be quite tough.

Gwyllin

Crucifix wrote:

You don't need chemistry or biology. Many other science courses have a 'common' first year where you do basic stuff in other sciences, but Applied Physics and Physics with Astronomy don't.
Technically you don't need to have done LC Physics, but it would be quite tough.

Isn't there any kind of preperatory physics course one can take?

canker

Buy real world physics and just read whats in the yellow boxes. That will deffo be enough of an intro to physics and will remove the need to attend physics for general science because thats pretty much all that is offered on that course.

I just left 2nd yr physics astronomy, found the whole thing very basic and unchallenging. I would recomend that if you want to enjoy it you do a lot of outside study, do more than is required on projects and get into the library and read proper physics research papers.

"1 in 5 people are red colour-blind so at least 6 of you are lying" - My favourite quote from 2 years Physics and Astronomy @ DCU!

Crucifix

canker wrote:

"1 in 5 people are red colour-blind so at least 6 of you are lying" - My favourite quote from 2 years Physics and Astronomy @ DCU!

Ha ha, we got the exact same. Vince Ruddy, what a guy!