Show me the money!...erm...equation!

[mareserinitatis]

I hope cosmic_reverie doesn't mind me snatching her comment (from a public post), but I thought it was interesting:

Some people do better at memorizing the fact that cyclones turn counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere; I do better by knowing the latitude, calculating if the vorticity is positive or negative, and interpreting the value.She has a background

Comments

[cosmic_reverie]

The process of solving a problem often tells me more than just memorizing certain facts.

Yes! I laugh at myself because I'm such a physicist, I can't just be handed a fact on a platter, I want to know where it comes from, what foundational physics it comes from, and what the math looks like. If I struggled this much with my Atmospheres class, I'm not sure if my Geophysics class in the fall will be any easier for me.

[ext_233906]

I'm the same way, mostly. Sometimes I get by on the fact that I know the math while I'm still struggling with the concept (thereby solving for X with this system of equations), but I never feel like I have a good understanding of a concept until I have the mathematical formulation down. It gives a strong context for understanding the theory, I think.