Question

How does the physics learned in the classroom compare to physics in the real world? Provide a detailed response.

Answer 1

There is many topics learned in physics class which have direct implications in real world including circular motion, collisions, energy storage, and heat flow etc. However, One may be able, for example, to get particular answers such as the amount of centripetal force required to keep a car on the road when it is going at a velocity v on a curve of radius r but they might not understand the Dynamic of skid, which depends largely on the psychology of the driver, and various factors like water or ice on the road, wind speed etc. So, i would say physics learned in classroom only provide with the static version of any problem but most of the phenomena in real life is dynamic in nature, which can only be understood if we provide tools for Dynamic nature of physics.

Making the connection with the real world is tough but it gets easier we keep in mind the practical approach rather than theoretical calculations based on set of predefined law. Remember, Any law in physics is valid on some standard conditions, Say Room temperature, Zero wind speeds, zero air-drag, friction-less surface, mass-less strings, etc. you must have noticed that phenomena such as Airo-dynamics comes in higher studies of physics so as you study more and more about physics it becomes more complicated but has close relations with the real world.

Bottom line is - Physics indeed is the science of everyday life but in physics class the teacher may ignore the distracting factors such as friction and air resistance, to make it more generalised as these factors are dynamic and has no fixed value which could be incorporated in the "laws of physics".