Preliminaries 27
back. Think about the connection between engagement and learning and how important it is to try
to havefunin a physics course. Write a short essay (say, three paragraphs)describing at least one
time in the past where you were extremely engaged in a course you were taking, had lots of fun in
the class, and had a really great learning experience.
Problem 2.
Skim-read the entire content ofMathematics for Introductory Physics(linked above). Identify
things that it covers that you don’t remember or don’t understand. Pick one and learn it.
Problem 3.
Apply theMethod of Three Passestothishomework assignment. You can either write three short
essays or revise your one essay three times, trying to improve it and enhance it each time for the
first problem, and review both the original topic and any additional topics you don’t remember in
the math review problem. On thelastpass, write a short (two paragraph) essay on whether or not
you found multiple passes to be effective in helping you remember the content.
Note well:You may well have found the contentboringon the third pass because it was so
familiar to you, but that’s not a bad thing. If you learn physics so thoroughly that its laws become
boring, not because they confuse you and you’d rather play World of Warcraft but because you know
them so well that reviewing them isn’t adding anything to your understanding, welldamnyou’ll do
well on the exams testing the concept, won’t you?