<p>Okay so I’m taking Calculus BC and Physics honors this year and I decided I want to self-study Physics C Mechanics. However, once I cracked open the Barron’s prep book I was immediately overwhelmed with integrals. I heard that Physics C could be taught along with Calculus but the Barron’s book is telling me otherwise.</p>
<p>I just want to study for Physics C Mechanics (no E&M). Would this be possible or would it be too much work?</p>
<p>There really isn’t much difficult calc on the mechanics. As long as you know the derivative of pos is velocity, etc, work is intergral of force with respect to pos, force is negative derivative of potential energy… should do fine since your taking calc</p>
<p>athenos is right. E&M is when the calculus really hits hard. Focus on the Physics than the math, and concepts more than calculations (remember, you can still score a 5 without EVER writing a single number). It’s definately possible.</p>
<p>I took an honors classical mechanics course my freshman year of college and an honors course in E&M. Classical mechanics is much more conceptual and the math is a lot simpler. Most problems can be solved without calculus and simply require that you know some equations and how to use them. The physical intuition is much more important than the math. In E&M, especially if you were to take an advanced E&M course, the math gets really intense and is typically just as important as the intuition.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the info guys! I guess it’s just weird for Barron’s to be starting out with integrals when I haven’t covered them yet. I bought a Halliday and Resnick book to learn from instead of the Barron’s.</p>