Asking pretty much every community I’m in. I’m 14, but I’d like to start something like this early(as early as I can). I didn’t do so many serious engineering-type activities when I was younger like participating in a robotics contest for example, and I really don’t want to wait until it’s too late.
Any tips that would be useful during college or things you’d recommend I do before college?
cbe chem
I’m a math major, but for the classes I’ve taken on physics I’d say having a good intuition of calculus will help out immensely. I like to think of physics as applied calculus cause it is just that interrelated with calculus.
Example: Lets say you have an apple falling from a tree. Downward gravity is 9.81 m/s^2, so you can use calculus to integrate to get the velocity formula (m/s = 9.81 * x + v_i), and even integrate again to get the position formula (m = 9.81/2 * x^2 + v_i * x + p_i).
I took Calculus and Physics 
, and I forgot everything 
Anceint spell:drop out
If you have any homeworks, DO THEM before they are due last minute. Trust me, it’ll save you a lot of trouble. You also need to view the equations like this: They are your tools, know how to use them in ways that might not be initially obvious.
For example, buoyancy (which I am doing right now).
It is: Buoyancy Force = (Liquid Density)(Gravity)(Submerged Volume of Object)
One question I had:
Given:
Density of Al = 2700 kg/m^3
Density of Ethyl Alcohol: 790 kg/m^3
Volume of Object: 96 cm^3
String is used to hold up the object (it’s neutrally buoyant aka just floating fully submerged).
Find the tension in ths string:
Step 1: Find the mass of the object
For this, find the volume of the object in meters. So do 96/(100^3) to turn it into 9.6e-5 m^3.
Now find the mass with: mass = (density)(volume) which is (2700 kg/m^3)(9.6e-5 m^3)
The units (m^3) cancel out giving you 0.2592 kg.
Step 2: Find Tension force w/o Buoyant Force (reminder: N = (kg*m)/s^2)
T (string w/o Buoyant force) = mg or (0.2592 kg)(9.8 m/s^2) = 2.54016 N
Step 3: Find the Buoyant Force
Reminders: Ethyl Alcohol density is 790 kg/m^3 and the use the volume calculated earlier (9.6e-5 m^3). I’ll just neglect the units for now so you can read things better, just know it’s in Newtons from now on.
Buoyant Force = (790)(9.8)(9.6e-5) = 0.743232 N
Step 4: Find the net force.
You’ll learn more about what this is later, it’s a simple concept.
Since we’re finding the tension force on the string, the string will be our focus. So it’ll be our positive downward force, with the Buoyant Force being a negative upward force opposing gravity.
String Tension = 2.54016 - 0.743232 = 1.796928 N
That’s the answer
Im in Physics C currently
Ya probably do that and mechanics
im still in chemistry :(
As binary said, calculus is very important to physics (and in my case, suddenly started appearing everywhere in uni).
My best advice is to make sheets or something of all the formulas and physics content you’ve learnt, particularly niche applications because they might come back to bite you later.
Unpopular opinion but physics and Math (all kinds) are pretty fun when you get into it. Normally I’d recommend living your life before you do hard stuff, but if you insist on doing it early then go pirate some college documents. I did that for my programming, engineering, and information science stuff. You should also pirate documents if you took dual enrollment classes like I did.
tldr: Google is your friend (not really)
coldest take in existence
f = ma, where m = m/v * v and a = g
yep that holds
I’m a physics major and can help answer some of your questions.
But first,
Are you more interested in physics or engineering? Both these subjects can overlap a fair amount but they are still fundamentally different fields to enter. Physics is more about the raw understanding of the universe and how it functions while engineering is focused on the ways to use that understanding to solve real-life practical problems. Physics and engineering aren’t entirely distinct and there is more of a gradient of careers between them; here is a diagram of that gradient I just threw together:
There isn’t really a rush to learn about physics or engineering before you go to college. Related extracurriculars like robotics can help you develop a good problem-solving mindset ahead of time while also looking good on a college application, but they aren’t necessary. Personally, I didn’t partake in any STEM extracurriculars in high school and it hasn’t hindered my ability to perform well in my physics classes. You don’t need to stress yourself out about getting ahead of the game or anything.
Before college it would be a good idea to develop good study habits and time management. College, especially for physics and engineering, is going to have a larger workload than high school and it will be useful to have the skills to manage that workload beforehand.
This is very true, calculus is a very commonly used tool in physics and engineering and understanding what you’re doing while using it will be extremely helpful. If you’re taking calculus in high school make sure to study it well and get it down the best you can before college. If you’re going to take calculus in college instead, don’t worry. Learning calculus along with physics or engineering is still entirely possible (it’s what I’m currently doing) but it involves a slightly larger workload.
Another thing you could look into in your free time is programming. Physics and engineering involve lots of computation at higher levels and knowing how to program at least a little ends up being somewhat of a necessity. You don’t have to be a programming master or learn a crazy hard language, but getting yourself familiar with something like Python ahead of time can be useful.
I don’t even have chem yet 
I’m more interested in Engineering, but I heard physics is extremely important to being an engineer. I want to be able to build a car or make a turret or something.
I’m seriously interested in being an engineer, though.
That’s a relief to hear. I did show some coding promise when I was like 11 or so(made it first place in a school wide 5th grade coding contest, school wide as in the entire 5th grade in my school participated), but lets be real, it was 5th grade coding. Coding was and still is the most free class out of them all. So, I really don’t know anything about coding.
Would coding useful to being an engineer, or is that specific to the type of engineer you want to be? Should I take more advanced programming classes in high school/college?
I’m thinking of going for mechanical engineering or civil engineering(my inspiration comes from Lloyd Frontera ).
I’m still in middle school technically, but for me high school starts in almost a month. I don’t want to wait too long.
I mention that because I don’t have access to calculus classes or physics classes in my school at this point. Still doing quadratic equations in Algebra 1. Could you take calculus twice? I mean, could you take calculus in high school and then in college go for calculus again?
In case my high school math teacher is as bad as my middle school one.
Thanks for the comment!
how early did you do this? I don’t have any experience with super advanced highschool+ courses(algebra 1 guy), so I doubt it’d do much for me. I could use youtube to help, but I feel like most math requires at least basic knowledge for a guide to help.
I probably could have rephrased physics to engineer in my topic question, but this will probably help me too.
I took college level physics in grade 11, the best advice I can give is stay persistent on doing practice questions. Some of the basic physics concepts (kinematics especially) WILL be confusing and put you in a total loss. It may feel more and more difficult as you get in initially, but it will start to make sense so keep practicing! Also, it’s good to have math knowledge alongside physics, even though basic college level physics will not necessarily require extremely complicated math (just inserting numbers into prexisting formulas)
There isn’t a lot of memorization, mostly just logic and math so if thats kinda your thing, go ahead! You also might want to take physic courses in highschool just like I did, because university will be a lot more harsh and provide less guidance than your highschool teachers can.
You said you were 14 in the post, so either you’re in 8th or 9th grade. Me and some of my classmates started dual enrollment in 9th so maybe you could prepare for that.
This has less so to do with engineering and more so with college.
As someone who has just gone through the college application process, having been in the “Gifted Academy” of my school (14 total arbitrary AP Classes under my belt), PLEASE remember to also take care of all else that makes you human. Yes of course, academic achievement is important and necessary especially if you want to go to a big name school. However, you are fresh out of middle school. You’re still a kid. Remember to go outside occasionally, and do things that aren’t engineering /physics related. You have more to your life than a big name school, and it’s important to be a well rounded human outside of that. If you tie your life to the college application grind and for whatever reason it doesn’t turn out as planned, you’re going to be hung off the deep end at much too early an age.
College applications are a gigantic gamble, and at times an outright scam. I worked as hard as I could given my circumstances to get into my dream music school, and I did end up getting in, but now I have no idea whether or not I’ll even be able to afford it. I worked my ass off in community ensembles and private lessons and getting a part time job and taking as many AP classes as I could to save costs- I got a scholarship from my dream school. But as things are right now, I would end up having to pay $500 a month for the next 35 years or $4500 a month. Insane.
Here now at the end of the process I am burned out, tired, apprehensive, and dreading the debt and potential failure of everything I’ve worked for. There were so many other variables in my life that I either ignored or just forgot to consider, in lieu of chasing my dreams. A lot of things are dependant on whether or not you have money. which is also a very unpleasant thing to realize.
I know I’ll most likely be fine in the long run. It doesn’t stop me from worrying, but I do wish that I’d taken time earlier to step back and take better care of myself. Don’t stop chasing your dreams, but don’t also let them consume the rest of your being whole. Remember to go have fun, do that dumb thing, and try new things even if they aren’t what your “specialization” is. Keep your heart open (:
My best friend does calculus for fun. I’m talking differential geometry, tensor calculus, linear algebra, all those abstract pure math concepts. He went home winter of 6th grade and taught himself because he “thought it would be funny.” The best teachers are those random indian guys on youtube. Just sit down with a lot of spite and keep your ears open. He did this with a love for math though, not a desire to succeed, so idk if it’ll translate the same.
In my program, we had two AP Calc classes, which is basically the same course just stretched across two years. Calc AB and BC should be offered at your institution, you could always ask your school counselor about it.