Since I will be studying Mechanical Engineering B.Sc. at RWTH Aachen University starting in the winter semester of 2023, I thought it would be reasonable to attend a bridge course. Unfortunately, the popular math bridge course was not an option for me as it had already started on September 4, 2023, and I had not completed my preliminary internship by that time.
Nevertheless, I still found it worthwhile to attend a bridge course, especially to get a sense of the study program in advance and to meet new fellow students. Therefore, I chose the Physics bridge course, which took place from September 25th to September 29th and fit into my schedule.
It turned out to be an optimal decision because the content was much more interesting and challenging than expected. The bridge course consisted of morning lectures and afternoon exercises in tutor groups. During the lectures of the bridge course, we focused on mechanics and learned a significant amount of content. In one week, we learned about as much as we did in the entire EF (tenth grade for G8) in school.
On Monday, we covered physical quantities in great detail. It may sound simple, but our Prof. Dr. Stefan Roth always had challenging tasks ready, some of which not only required a grasp of physics and mathematics but also everyday knowledge.
On Tuesday, we dug into the concept of force, going into even greater detail than in school. The force-related tasks were, like all the others, quite challenging at times.
Wednesday was dedicated to the study of motion, and on Thursday, we revisited the concepts of work, energy, and momentum.
Today, on Friday, the last day of the bridge course, we discussed periodic oscillations and once again tackled difficult exercises. I worked on these exercises together with fellow students in my assigned tutor group in the SemiTemp building at RWTH.
With this post, I want to demonstrate how interesting and beneficial a bridge course can be. I highly recommend the Physics bridge course to everyone, especially to future mechanical engineers or industrial engineers.