johnpalmer

So, I bought a Freshman Physics book. And I started working problems. And I was appalled.

I didn't have a scientific calculator! Well, there are Android apps for that - so, that's fixed.

Then I found how hard it is to sketch vector diagrams on lined paper. Wait - how did I not have large quantities of graph paper around? (Any old D&D enthusiast could ask the same question. I still have my polyhedral dice, though!) And I couldn't lay my hands on my scale! (Um - those triangle-cylindrical rulers that let you measure to different scales.) That's not *critical* - but a scale can really help one make a more accurate sketch. Technically, you could use a ruler, "this line is kinda like 3 times that one" but a scale just makes that easier.)

There - I now have them, and some extra mechanical pencils to boot.

But I did not get triangles, a compass, etc.. Yet. (Yes, yes, I also haven't had time to paint it or build it to scale....)

I'm done with vectors - trig is easy, after all.

(Ouch. I may have made some enemies with that - remember, I majored in math!)

I even figured out my problem on the one question that had the rounding error - one answer came out to something like 7.83 and the other came out to 7.858 - so, yes, rounding to 2 significant figures would introduce a difference in the answers of .1, which makes perfect sense - the actual difference was less than .03, so both answers were correct, within the margin of error.

Time to "move on". (Hah! Get it? Because the next section is *motion*! I'm *moving on*... okay, I guess I'm taking high school nerd too far now, aren't I?)

Seriously, this is good and therapeutic... I wish I'd taken physics after I started acing math classes, because I just barely remember it, and it was never quite as interesting as it seems to be when I'm following the math in my head.