What knowledge from classical mechanics is needed for electromagnetism? I'm about to take Physics 2 (electromagnetism), my second semester of university physics. I was wondering what to focus on when reviewing the Physics 1 (classical mechanics) class I took. What topics from Physics 1 (if any) are most relevant for Physics 2? I could not find anything on this topic.
 A: You should be familiar with general Newtonian Mechanics, that is what it takes. Review Rigid Body Dynamics.(You may skip variable $\hat{L}$)
Review waves and oscillations if still you have time(and/or energy) left.
A: All you studied in Physics 1 (Classical Mechanics) is focused principally on the Gravitational interaction. This course is very important because you can get used with Physics and Mathematics formalism and at the same time you don't need particular Analysis courses.
In Physics 2 you will study another fondamental interaction: an essential property of the matter is the electric charge and they interact each other. In fact you will start with Coulomb's law. Very similar with gravitational interaction. At the base of this law you will study all these properties until the 4 general Maxwell'equation and your professor will introduce the concept of electromagnetic field.
I have just finished Physics 2 classes and I can tell you that almost all you studied in Physics 1 is important in Physics 2: from kinematics (for example the motion of a charge in an electric field or in a mgnetic field), dynamics until energy conservation (this one is very important) and so on... I can also suggest you to revise integration, derivation and a little bit of differential equations. Analysis 1 will be VERY useful in this course. In fact this course is often required for Physics 2.
But I am also very sure that if you have studied and understood your first Physics course you won't have any problem to study Physics 2.
All I wrote is based on my personal experience of course and more than one answer would be very useful.
Hope it can help you!
