Physics 2065: Going Faster and Farther: the Science of the Sporting Environment
Physics 2065
Physics 2065 is a physics course open to non-science students which deals with how physics is applied to sports situations.
Content and Lectures
Physics 2065 lectures are taught by Professor Sica. The course is pretty unique since few schools have a course that is dedicated to teaching these types of concepts. We learned about basic physics principles and applied them to sports like football, baseball, swimming, golf, skating, curling and cycling. I found the lectures pretty interesting and Prof Sica definitely tries to keep you engaged by occasionally playing short video clips like segments from Mythbusters and then analyzing the physics behind it. Sometimes, it is actually pretty surprising because some of the physics behind sports is pretty counter intuitive. For example, having a dimpled surface on a ball can actually help decrease drag.
Prof Sica always tries to simplify difficult concepts into something that is understandable to students from a wide variety of backgrounds. For some concepts, he doesn’t give definite answers. Students always want definite answers, especially when preparing for exam though... but that’s not really how science works. A lot of times, there are exceptions and you’ll just have to accept that some things are better in some situations and worse for others.
Prof Sica also is an athlete and often lectures on things that interest him, especially cycling which is a nice change from a lot of other science courses I have taken. He also prepares a set of review questions at the end of the lecture notes for you to go through. He doesn’t usually provide the answers though (unless you ask him after class or by email). When I didn’t know the answer to some of the questions, I found Prof Sica very responsive both in class and by email. He won’t answer last minute questions (e.g. the day before the exam) though so make sure to ask your questions after lecture or better yet, DURING lecture. He actually welcomes questions during his class which I think is great!
Preparing for Exams
Since everything is based on lecture material, you should definitely know all the lectures thoroughly. Sometimes, the smallest details may show up on exams, even if they may not seem that relevant to the actual physics concepts. It’s good to go through all the practice questions for each lecture, but don’t get discouraged if it seems like some questions don’t have definite answers. Some review questions will be straight forward “recall” type questions from lectures just to see if you were paying attention while others are just to make you think about a certain concept. Don’t worry, the exam will not have those types of “indefinite answer” or “open-ended” type questions.
Exams
For the year that I took it, there were 3 non-cumulative exams worth 25%, 35%, and 40% respectively. Each exam is one hour and solely based on lecture notes and involves 2 parts: approximately 17-18 multiple choice questions and 2-3 short answer questions. Multiple choice questions feature options such as “none of the above” or “all of the above” but there are no standard multiple multiple questions. Short answers questions usually involve 2-3 parts e.g. first part will ask you to state the formula or give a definition. The second part may ask you to do a more complicated calculation. You will be given an equation cheat sheet and you are allowed a non-programmable calculator.
Reflection
I definitely learned a lot of new things about how certain sports work too. I liked how exams were non-cumulative and had a nice balance of memory/recall type questions, conceptual questions, and short answers where I could show my work to get part marks. Overall, I found this course to be pretty interesting and relatively straightforward. Keep in mind that there isn't much room for error though because of the small amount of questions and the fact that there's only 3 exams.
I would recommend this course to anyone who has taken some basic physics (either grade 12 or first year physics) and who’s interested in sports. However, if you hate bikes and cycling, I would recommend the course with some caution as literally 1/3 of the lectures involve cycling in some way. Physics 2065 has traditionally been highly recommended by science students. Hope this helps!
Physics 2065 is a physics course open to non-science students which deals with how physics is applied to sports situations.
Content and Lectures
Physics 2065 lectures are taught by Professor Sica. The course is pretty unique since few schools have a course that is dedicated to teaching these types of concepts. We learned about basic physics principles and applied them to sports like football, baseball, swimming, golf, skating, curling and cycling. I found the lectures pretty interesting and Prof Sica definitely tries to keep you engaged by occasionally playing short video clips like segments from Mythbusters and then analyzing the physics behind it. Sometimes, it is actually pretty surprising because some of the physics behind sports is pretty counter intuitive. For example, having a dimpled surface on a ball can actually help decrease drag.
Prof Sica always tries to simplify difficult concepts into something that is understandable to students from a wide variety of backgrounds. For some concepts, he doesn’t give definite answers. Students always want definite answers, especially when preparing for exam though... but that’s not really how science works. A lot of times, there are exceptions and you’ll just have to accept that some things are better in some situations and worse for others.
Prof Sica also is an athlete and often lectures on things that interest him, especially cycling which is a nice change from a lot of other science courses I have taken. He also prepares a set of review questions at the end of the lecture notes for you to go through. He doesn’t usually provide the answers though (unless you ask him after class or by email). When I didn’t know the answer to some of the questions, I found Prof Sica very responsive both in class and by email. He won’t answer last minute questions (e.g. the day before the exam) though so make sure to ask your questions after lecture or better yet, DURING lecture. He actually welcomes questions during his class which I think is great!
Preparing for Exams
Since everything is based on lecture material, you should definitely know all the lectures thoroughly. Sometimes, the smallest details may show up on exams, even if they may not seem that relevant to the actual physics concepts. It’s good to go through all the practice questions for each lecture, but don’t get discouraged if it seems like some questions don’t have definite answers. Some review questions will be straight forward “recall” type questions from lectures just to see if you were paying attention while others are just to make you think about a certain concept. Don’t worry, the exam will not have those types of “indefinite answer” or “open-ended” type questions.
Exams
For the year that I took it, there were 3 non-cumulative exams worth 25%, 35%, and 40% respectively. Each exam is one hour and solely based on lecture notes and involves 2 parts: approximately 17-18 multiple choice questions and 2-3 short answer questions. Multiple choice questions feature options such as “none of the above” or “all of the above” but there are no standard multiple multiple questions. Short answers questions usually involve 2-3 parts e.g. first part will ask you to state the formula or give a definition. The second part may ask you to do a more complicated calculation. You will be given an equation cheat sheet and you are allowed a non-programmable calculator.
Reflection
I definitely learned a lot of new things about how certain sports work too. I liked how exams were non-cumulative and had a nice balance of memory/recall type questions, conceptual questions, and short answers where I could show my work to get part marks. Overall, I found this course to be pretty interesting and relatively straightforward. Keep in mind that there isn't much room for error though because of the small amount of questions and the fact that there's only 3 exams.
I would recommend this course to anyone who has taken some basic physics (either grade 12 or first year physics) and who’s interested in sports. However, if you hate bikes and cycling, I would recommend the course with some caution as literally 1/3 of the lectures involve cycling in some way. Physics 2065 has traditionally been highly recommended by science students. Hope this helps!