<p>I was wondering what the most effective sequence would be to take geology, biology, chemistry, and physics.</p>
<p>I have taken geology, and I’m in biology right now. I’ve noticed that both of those courses have pieces of chemistry knowledge just…expected. </p>
<p>Do you think it would be:</p>
<p>Chemistry > Geology > Biology > Physics?</p>
<p>It depends on what you took in high school, but if you’re starting out tabula rasa, I would suggests chemistry before either bio or geology. Beside that, I don’t think the order matters. You don’t need any of the others for physics (there are places in all where physics is helpful, but I doubt these will come up in your beginning classes). There’s no need to take geology before biology or vice versa; take them however you like. </p>
<p>My school requires 2 semesters of physics, plus chemistry and biology, among other science requirements. Usually, students take their first semester of physics and chemistry during their freshman fall, and take their second semester of physics in the spring, sometimes alongside bio, but more often they save bio for a later semester. Students usually only take bio first if they went through Chem AP in high school.</p>
<p>I don’t know that there’s really a ‘best’ order. What you laid out might be easier in some respects as far as certain aspects of geology and biology go.</p>
<p>Physics doesn’t require any prior knowledge of chemistry though. It’s pretty fundamentally it’s own science. There are things that are pertinent to chemistry as well, obviously, but they tend to be treated in very different ways between the two fields. Things like the ideal gas law, aspects of the properties of liquids and solids and other things are both central to branches of both chemistry and physics. They’re different in many respects though, and are used in very different ways. Because of that, they’re basically taught from the ground up in both fields.</p>
<p>Biology and geology both rely on some principles of chemistry though. Depending on the class, the relevant chemistry will often be covered at the beginning of the class…more so in biology than in geology since on the whole, biology is going to involve a lot more chemistry than biology.</p>
<p>In short- It may be best to take chemistry before geology and biology. It won’t really matter for physics though.</p>
<p>[xkcd:</a> Purity](<a href=“http://xkcd.com/435/]xkcd:”>xkcd: Purity)</p>
<p>Take physics, then chemistry, then biology, then geology.</p>