[Here-am-I]

Which is harder?

I am in my senior year of high school, and I have to take either Physics or Chemistry this year. I'm trying to decide which one I want to take this year, and which one I want to take in college. I'd prefer to take the HARDER one this year, but I don't know which one that would be.

I know it really depends on the person's individual opinion, but I think I should be able to trust the majority's opinion, you know?

So far I've seen that Physics is harder... what do you all think and why?

- Rebekah

[thesteve]

It depends a lot on the teacher and the level. I will say that throughout high school and college I found chemistry more of a challenge than physics, and I took several classes of both

[guitarman531]

Well, from my experience, chemistry was harder. Physics is a lot of equations that have theory behind them, but often time the theory is not covered as deeply as it is in chem. Chemistry has a lot of principles/theory and less equations. So it really depends on what you like more. If you're more of a "here's an equation plug it in and use it" type of person, then physics will probably suit you more. If you're more of a "here's a concept now apply it" sort of person, then chemistry will probably be the better choice.

For those who are curious, I've had both high school and college-level chemistry courses. I've also taken Physics 1, 2, and 3 (Modern physics--relativity and quantum) at the university level.

[nate95366]

I'm a chemistry teacher, so I personally find physics to be the "harder" science, if you will. It's not that it's actually more difficult of a subject, and at the high school level it really does depend upon the curriculum and the teacher.
You know the teachers and the rest of us don't. If you're more or less talented in mathematics, I'd say it's a wash.

Nate

[mulletman]

I enjoyed Physics more.... but as to which is harder, it's completely subjective.

[SomeCallMeTim?]

For senior high school, it was fairly universally accepted that the chemistry was harder. For me, physics moved slow enough that I was able to stay on top of all the theory pretty easily, in chemistry I had to think a bit harder.