Summer Assignment for Honors Physics

Why Math?

Physics is the reason you had those math classes. In fact much of mathematics was developed to solve and understand physics situations. Sometimes mathematical theory leads to new possibilities and insights for physics to explore. Physics uses the language of mathematics. If you are not reasonably versed in the language and techniques of mathematics, you will have trouble understanding the concepts of physics, which of themselves have not always been apparent even to bright people, for example, Aristotle.

You will be given a math placement test upon entering Honors Physics. You will not be asked anything beyond what you should have already reasonably mastered in your math classes to date. However, some students are rusty and some students never really mastered the material. Accordingly, you need to do the following documents/links below to review the basics and to become more proficient. The vast majority of these links contain only a few problems.

Do not assume you know how to do the problems because you recognize the title of the problem set. Try at least a few of each type to ensure you can apply the math concepts to new situations -- you will constantly be doing that in Honors Physics class. Errors involving relatively simple math skills often lead to poor understanding of physics concepts and underperformance on Honors Physics tests and quizzes.

There may be a few problems here and there in this material that we would not generally include or de-emphasize, but vast majority of this material is representative of basic math skills. (This is also good review for SAT.) Do not panic if you have trouble; just continue working on examples where you are weak until you succeed.

Near the bottom are some additional links that you must also explore. They are good tutorials on graphs and data analysis.

multiple skills:

  • Introductory Math Problems
  • Math Worksheet - Algebra and Substitution
  • Powers of 10 & Scientific Notation
  • General Guidelines for operations in Scientific Notation

    It would be good if you familiarize yourself with the basic trig functions sine, cosine, and tangent

    the following are tutorials on graphs and data analysis