• Question: How hard is it use physics equations during your practical work?

    Asked by 748hspc35 to Jamie, Sheun, Simon, Will on 24 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Jamie Johnston

      Jamie Johnston answered on 24 Jun 2015:

      I wouldn’t say it’s too hard, generally for a piece of practical work you do a lot of preparation, so if you need to use an equation you are unfamiliar with, you could model it on the computer so that you can drop numbers in, this can be done during or after the practical work. If you are familiar with it then you can just do it in a notebook.

      When I was in school I worried about not being able to remember every single equation when I reached a job, but the reality is that so long as you understand them, you won’t be expected to remember, you are allowed to look them up and use any software or tools to make the job easier.

    • Photo: William Scott-Jackson

      William Scott-Jackson answered on 24 Jun 2015:

      I suppose it depends on the nature of the equation. It’s relatively simple to write a computer program to model how fast something will fall under gravity without considering air resistance.

      However things can get VERY complicated especially with fields such as aerodynamics. There is a field called Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) where complex simulations of how aerodynamic a shape is, is performed on a very powerful computer.

      I’ve have to do some complicated equations when reconstructing medical images from their data as that depends on the physics behind radioactive decay.

    • Photo: Simon Marchant

      Simon Marchant answered on 24 Jun 2015:

      It’s helpful, not having to do real work under exam conditions! I reckon that complicated equations get much easier when you can take your time in solving them!

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