Avoiding Issues When Solving Physics Problems

If you get stumped working on physics formulas, take a deep breath, and recheck your work. Go through these common physics problem issues to make sure you have avoided them:

• Mixing units

• Getting the answer in the wrong units

• Swapping radians and degrees

• Getting sines and cosines mixed up

• Failing to treat vectors as vectors

• Neglecting latent heat

• Getting refraction angles wrong

• Getting the signs wrong in Kirchoff’s loops

• Adding resistors incorrectly

• Getting ray diagrams wrong