From one of my adopters:
[W]hat is the easies part of Physics
My reply:
That’s actually a tough one to answer, since the classes you take are usually adjusted to be challenging — you get “easy” physics at the start, but things aren’t easy when you don’t understand them. And even though classes you take later on are harder, it’s not really as hard as having to learn it “cold,” because you have had the earlier classes. Similar to almost anything you do — it gets easier with practice, and that lets you try more difficult challenges.
So beginning physics, like kinematics, is probably the easiest, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t demanding.
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Something to add to this, pointed out in the link in my previous post:
The beginning physics is made more difficult because students tend to have misconceptions that have to be corrected. While the later physics is more conceptually difficult, the odds are better that you start with a clean(er) slate.
In addition physics requires a style of thinking that is different than what most students are used to. For instance, our non-physics majors taking our courses (particularly the biology students) are used to rote memorization and tend to focus on the particulars of a solution rather than the method that led to it in the first place. I find that to be the hardest part of physics. Once that is mastered a person, in theory, should be able to figure just about anything else out, though the time and effort required to do so might be intense.