Today, I was not productive at all finished chapter 3 of Purcell! Took me long enough (I started chapter 1 around the middle of June……).
Anyway, while I was working through the problems, I realized something: I really don’t understand physics like I think I do. Of course, I can plug in formulas and work through problems, but when a problem starts requiring some thought, I just can’t think :ohno:. Instead, I just go ahead with bashing formulas and hope it works (hint: it doesn’t always work). For example, on problem 3.26, I completely neglected that batteries can do work. Or, on problem 3.29, I just couldn’t figure out how to calculate how “you” do work (answer: you exert force on the shell :facepalm:).
I guess this is a problem with my mindset, especially coming from competitive programming, where guessing is enough to do well, and as a data structures main, tunnel vision and guessing is not a problem as long as you’re not too far off. Or, more simply, you can’t just guess, code something, and (maybe) get AC, and then move onto another problem without actually understanding your solution. You actually have to do the work, and think, and make sure everything makes sense to get AC. Or maybe I’m just at the point where stuff feels natural in competitive programming, and I’m just (wrongly) expecting to feel that way with physics.
Maybe switching to knzhou’s handouts and writing a few proofs will help resolve this issue, idk. Hopefully getting better at physics generalizes to competitive programming too.
Probably, nobody is reading this, but if you are, feel free to share your thoughts!
