We all reach the point in our lives where we must answer this infamous career defining question: “engineering or medicine?”. What this question actually translates to for you as a student is “would you rather study physics or biology?”. Well once it’s phrased that way the answer of course becomes obvious. And just in case you don’t know the correct answer, let me tell you why physics is the absolute best science to study, with no exceptions what-so-eer!
No memorization
The tricky part in physics is putting what you’ve learnt into new contexts, NOT reciting information you’ve meticulously memorized. This means physics relies on your critical and analytical thinking skills more so than memory. Thinking is less annoying than sitting for long study sessions hoping to memorize the curriculum
Biology has you memorize long lists of factors affecting processes and their definitions, physics has you memorize a short equation or statement at most. The rest is derived from those simple short rules. And speaking of that…
Physics is mostly deductible from itself
Physics is purely logical. Meaning it (like math) builds on top of itself. This means that from some basic building blocks, your whole curriculum could be deduced just by combining these fundamental rules.
In a bio exam it’s often said that if you forget something, it’s game over. There is no way to get that question right other than luck. The same is not true for physics. Since physics is built on top of itself, you can go into an exam knowing two equations, and right then and there come up with the rest of what you learnt during the semester. This means there is less emphasis on memorisation and more on understanding.
Here is a really simple example: the rule for speed is “speed = distance / time”. So what would you do if you were asked to get the time a car took to travel a certain distance with some given speed? Simply rearrange the equation: “time = distance / speed”. That’s it! Just basic math!
Elegant mathematical expression
Math isn’t just the base of physics, but also its language. To explain a concept in physics or to justify an answer, you often write a series of equations all elegantly based on the last. Biology on the other hand has you express yourself with plain english. This seems great at first, but it won’t when you find yourself constantly repeating lengthy sentences over and over again. I get finger-go-blue syndrome everytime i’m done with a bio exam!
Being more concise isn’t the only thing that makes math based expression trump plain language. Math is also more precise. There’s no room for interpretation. There aren’t any misunderstandings. If you use this sign ”=”, then two things are equal. No questions asked.
Maybe you have other preferences???
Maybe you prefer memorisation, and critical thinking is like doing push ups for you. Or perhaps you like certainty, and in a system based on memorisation all you have to do is recall information, and you get an A+.
Maybe you don’t care that physics is deduced from itself. It’s not like you’re not gonna study, and rely on being able to come up with the curriculum while solving the exam. That’s too risky and time consuming.
Maybe you hate math and how it’s written. That would make sense, since you already know English, so why learn a whole nother system? Natural language (the language we use in everyday life) is called natural for a reason. It’s intuitive for us, and we could express anything in it with little effort.
Conclusion
There are reasons why you might prefer physics, but these reasons could be turned on their heads becoming reasons to hate rather than to love. Mabe the better science depends on the student, their skills and passions. maybe what works for you isn’t what works for me and all of us are different… NAH, that’s ridiculous! Physics is best for everyone and if you say otherwise then you are my eternal enemy 😜.