I re-watched the first couple lectures of the 8.01 course. I have to warn you that no matter how exciting I claimed it is, it's still a physics lecture... and not very exciting, really. I'd wager that if you're not studying what he's saying it's downright boring.


I forgot how much time you have to spend going over vectors in order to just get started in physics. If you want my advice for the first thing to learn if you want to get into physics, I'd say learn about vectors.

Learn the difference between vectors and scalars.
Learn vector addition.
Learn how to determine the magnitude of a vector.
Learn about dot product and cross product. (There are 2 ways to multiply vectors.)

Then brush up on the most basic of trig. I.e. SOH/CAH/TOA

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Once you understand that much, then we can start drawing Free Body Diagrams (FBD). An FBD is a simplified picture that allows you to label and visualize the significant forces involved in a scenario, as an aid to writing down correct equations.

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Then you need to learn the implications of Newton's Laws of Motion, since that's where we'll be getting our first equations.

1) A reference frame that is accelerating is no good.
2) F = ma / Force equals mass times acceleration
3) F_AB = -F_BA / If object A expresses a force on object B, then object B expresses and equal force, applied in an opposite direction, on A.