Evolution of physics.

Transitioning from PHY151 to PHY152 made me to realise that there’s a lot that was hidden to me
when it comes to understanding of physics.Between the the two there’s a great difference when it
comes to solving problems.In this reflective essay, I will focus more on what the the two differs in to
me the most, in terms of air resistance,conceptualisation , and the use of MS Excel,- and how they
are shaping my physics studies when it comes to the real world.

During my time in PHY151, we were focusing more in solving problems without a proper
understanding of what ,how and what we are doing.. Problems were solved using Newtons laws and
conservation of momentum and energy without air resistance or drag force. Solving problems
without air resistance made our calculations to be more easier compared to when there is drag force
involved. I would say it was giving us a foundation of of the actual physics that is applied in the real
world.

In PHY151 we did not use the conceptualisation on how to solve problems but we applied
calculations to give us the final answer. I would say PHY151 gave us a better understanding of the
principles used in physics and how to apply them . When it comes to MS excel, we did not use it to
do calculations and table, our calculations were done with a calculator unlike here in PHY152
whereby we hardly use a calculator because MS excel itself it is a calculator.

When it comes to the PHY152, things changed and we were introduced to air resistance so called
drag force is more similar to friction force because both oppose the motion of the moving object but
here PHY152 drag force it applied when the object is moving in air. The simple calculations we were
taught in PHY152 become slightly not that important but the fundamental is still the same. When it
comes to conceptualisation, it is sketch where visualise the word problem, ,under simplifications is
where we make assumptions based on the known knowledge we have, on physics used is where we
mention the the principles or theories we will be using to solve the problem , maths used, coordinate
system is where we mention where our origin is and whether up or down is positive or negative ,
representation used is where use pictorial or graphs to represent our the object, under strategy
employed is where we use what, how we will solve the problem and do using the principles and
equations to solve the problem and the conclusion is where we compare the answer we got and
whether it makes sense.

The transition made me actually know which principles I should should use when it come to the real
world problems and somehow made my physics course easier because I no longer have to do
calculations of every point as the object is moving but to just drag from the worked first point till the
last point.