An Experiment in the Reduction of Physics Content

An experiment has been conducted in which the conventional introductory physics course for engineers has been reduced, and the capabilities of two groups of students-one group having had certain physics topics and the second group without these-have been compared. The comparison was made in mixed classes in engineering statics. Insofar as the data can be analyzed, they seem to show no essential differences in the performance of the two groups. Certainly, preliminary work in physics did not give that group of students any major advantage.