How to Understand Physics Intuitively?

How to develop an intuition for physics? How to prepare for physics competitions? How to understand physics intuitively? How to study physics? These are all questions I address in this video!

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MIT's Introductory Physics Courses by Prof. Walter Lewin

Physics Competition problems and solutions:
1. International Physics Olympiad:

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YouTube: @SamuelBoschMIT

▬ Timestamps ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00 - How does intuition work?
3:18 - Where does intuition come from?
4:57 - How to understand advanced physics intuitively?
7:18 - Example problem: the potential energy trick
11:51 - This is why you're struggling to understand physics intuitively
12:53 - Best resources for intuition (intermediate and advanced level)
13:23 - MIT physics intro by Walter Lewin
14:16 - Stanford theoretical physics courses by Leonard Susskind
15:04 - Caltech Feynman lectures on physics
15:36 - Problem solving practice: Irodov problems in general physics
16:04 - Problem solving practice: physics olympiads and competitions
16:26 - Best resources for intuition (beginner level)

This video was sponsored by Brilliant.

[Robi-md]

Can anyone here imagine what kind of world we would live in if every YouTuber/creator created such valuable and sustainable content where you can learn so much from it?

[douglasstrother]

Matt Sands (smoking the cigarette in the background) deserves a big shout-out for motivating improvements to Cal Tech's Physics Courses in the early 60's that lead to "The Feynman Lectures" and translating Feynmanese into English.

I was fortunate to have Matt Sands as my Undergrad Thesis Advisor at UC Santa Cruz. He burned through a lot of red pens teaching me to write Physics well!

[gulianophys]

For those interested in the quantum mechanics example, it's worth mentioning Ehrenfest's theorem which basically states that averages behave classically. Since you mentioned Schrödinger anyway.

[Stoic_Persistence]

Excellent content.
I always tell myself I can improve at anything in life or in school trough practice. Trying to understand the intuition behind a problem or theory is how you improve. Even IQ Test score can be improved.

[omarwest]

Nice analogy, very grounded and simple to understand... But I wonder what kind intuition is behind you wearing a scarf over a t-shirt 😂

[shubhamdas]

This is so helpful, thank you so much Samuel 🎉

[peteranguiloso]

thank you for this video. Right now i'm in the topic of electric fields, and its been so hard for me to understand, i'm gonna try what you're saying. Hopefully it'll make things clearer

[Mohammed-srf]

2D: lines and dots
4D: i can see behind you
like ur content and like the content behind u

[karbon]

Thanks for reminding me that I am procrastinating :( Gotta go studying for the IPHO again ;)

[Hussain-qtti]

Could I please ask you a question?
I am curious about your career path. Like you, I am very passionate about Physics, but my father advised me to go into AI and CS-related fields because they have "better career opportunities." I thought these fields were miles apart from Physics, and it's difficult for me to force myself to study for these classes. I just wanna do physics.
But u seemed to have changed your career path entirely from Physics to AI, Quantum Computing, and CS. So I just wanted to ask - how and why did you do that? Did u get bored of physics? Are these fields even related to physics?

I am sorry if these questions sound dumb to you but it would be very helpful if you could please answer them.

Thank you so much!

[MrTropius]

omg! you would have been a great university lecturer

[utube-oj]

Point is, physics is by it's very nature 'abstract', trying to make sense out of it is like hitting head against a wall. So called pure science pursuers (you can find them in universities wasting resources, generally they have very big ego quotient) tend to forget that they are not expected to make sense or have intuition, hence no proff cares about you actually learning applications.

If you want to have intuition then you have something called 'Engineering' the word itself means 'to create'. Physics is like last rites of any knowledge. See for example steam engine! It was engineer who built it, thermodynamics developed later on. Inventor of wheel didn't wrote research papers or solved PDEs to design a wheel. It's the beauty of engineering, it's lively, physics is dead!

You have intuition first, you can't develop intuition by cramming equations, equations are there to articulate the intuition, equations are skeletons they have no life!

[ayusmitaray]

Amazing ! Please keep uploading such videos ..it really inspires me and makes me curious about physics as a teen 😊

[devanhill]

Since this is your most recent video, I feel like I am justified posting this hear. You had a detailed video of why you quit your PhD, but I didn't quite get my question answered. I have decided that is the path I want for myself, but it looks like I won't get into my dream program. What are your thoughts on going to graduate school at universities that aren't your first choice?

[sorinacheul]

I really appreciate all your videos ! Yet, I am wondering.. why did you want to share all of this amazing information if you just droped out of the PHD at MIT ?

[sirloollonator]

Ich muss bis nächsten Mittwoch zwei Leistungskurse fürs Abi wählen,
Ich priorisiere da auch gerade Physik (und Informatik)!

[telugufacts]

You are right when I learned something new I felt that I had already known it which drove me crazy😂

[noname-edun]

I'm doing ap physics and I'm not really understanding the basics concepts. I tey practicing but it doesn't stick in my head, and the youtube videos only seem to give me surface level understanding of the work

[frogstud]

11:53 the irony is that the previous example was quantum mechanics and a tool you mention later is f equals ma 😅

[elliottwadewitz]

For the possibility of 4D visualization have a look at mathematician Bill Thurston.