Basic course: Applied Physics

During B1.1 and B1.2 I followed the basic course physics which is part of the new bachelor colleges program.

This course will give me a conceptual base of some fundamental physics concepts. This conceptual base will allows me to create well-funded opinions about scientific and technological developments in for instance medical/nanotechnology, energy technology (wind, solar, fusion, flames) and so on. I also expect that I will be able to solve all kinds of physics-related problems; the concepts will be clarified using demonstrations and examples.

The intermediate test went as expected. I was confident that I pass this little test, because I understand it all. The final test went significant worst. That was due certain information I couldn’t found at my test. That resulted that I couldn’t make a number of questions. Also the final report which I had to write went much worst then I expected. I find it hard to determine how detailed the report had to be and what kind of level of detail they expected. This resulted in feedback where they said that I was superficial. Also I was sloppy in referencing to the numbers which I used to make estimations.

My expectations were partly met. I indeed learnt how to create well-funded opinions, but not in that many areas of physics which I thought we will. I also have the feeling that I didn’t learnt that much. Maybe is this the effect of only expanding the knowledge in areas of physics you already were familiar with, rather than learning about completely theories. Also what I learnt and I did not expect to learnt is that I need to be consistent in referencing where I got my information from which I used for a calculation. That was namely something I did not do, while writing my report.

Nevertheless I think I could use the new knowledge in the future. The only problem is that this new knowledge is so specific, that I also need a very specific problem to be able to use this knowledge. For example, one of the things we learnt about was the transportation of heat through one material to another material. The chance that I need to deal with this in the future is hard to predict.

Following this basic course allowed me, as a designer, to create well-funded opinions about scientific and technological developments. So this means I can “talk” on a basic level of understanding with an engineer who is specialized in something like heat transport. This helps me as an designer communicating better in a multidisciplinary team.