Physics Fanatics(or not so fanatics)
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3,191 Posts
Don't go physics... join the dark side... be done with your degree in four years... engineer....
Actually, all my friends who did physics made it sound pretty worthwhile in terms of coursework. If you're interested in it, and you have the math skills, it's a worthwhile thing.
Actually, all my friends who did physics made it sound pretty worthwhile in terms of coursework. If you're interested in it, and you have the math skills, it's a worthwhile thing.
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323 Posts
I will need to study Physics for my undergraduate requirements to go into Med School. In high school it was frustrating because it was first thing in the morning, my class was full of jerks and all the teacher did was talk about The Muppet Show. I got a B-. Shame, shame!:sad::shocked:
:crazy::crying::frustrating::angry:This was awful because I'm good at science and decent at math. This time, I will be at the University of Iowa with someone who knows more about their specialization and less about Jim Henson (who I adore by the way, but who would be a serious digression if you are trying to figure out the mass of anything other than Miss Piggy.
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41 Posts
Slight necrobump here, but I can offer some insights into college level physics courses. During undergrad I waffled back and forth between nuclear engineering and physics before finally deciding to pursue both (by the time I made up my mind I already had almost all of the credits required), it took about five years total to complete. That being said, I'm currently in graduate school for nuclear engineering rather than physics and I have my reasons which I'll list below.
Upper level undergraduate physics courses were definitely interesting, but not what I expected it to be. When I was younger I was always fascinated by conceptual physics and why natural systems behave as they do. This, not surprisingly, led me to this particular career path I'm on now. Since I was simultaneously taking both physics and engineering courses I definitely noticed a difference in the curriculum and teaching methodology. Engineering has a more practical 'bent' to it, almost all questions you face deal with physical systems that I feel are more 'realistic' than homework questions in physics. For instance, an engineer would be asked to find out the necessary flow rate required to keep the temperature from straying beyond a maximum limit and not necessarily on the existence and uniqueness of Fourier's equation. Likewise, in physics the questions would lean more toward showing (or proving) that a certain theorem is valid and not so much its application.
Both are math-intensive and difficult, but I found that physics was the more difficult of the two since the math was more abstract. Personally I found problems to be a lot easier to solve when I could visualize them and intuitively infer what a correct solution should be (or at the very least its shape). This is a lot easier to do in engineering than in physics, particularly so when you start studying hairy subjects such as quantum mechanics. It all depends on how much you really want to know about the math. I've also found that the engineering math courses (beyond differential equations) help out tremendously in catching up to speed, there didn't seem to be an equivalent in our physics department so that also upped the difficulty factor.
Upper level undergraduate physics courses were definitely interesting, but not what I expected it to be. When I was younger I was always fascinated by conceptual physics and why natural systems behave as they do. This, not surprisingly, led me to this particular career path I'm on now. Since I was simultaneously taking both physics and engineering courses I definitely noticed a difference in the curriculum and teaching methodology. Engineering has a more practical 'bent' to it, almost all questions you face deal with physical systems that I feel are more 'realistic' than homework questions in physics. For instance, an engineer would be asked to find out the necessary flow rate required to keep the temperature from straying beyond a maximum limit and not necessarily on the existence and uniqueness of Fourier's equation. Likewise, in physics the questions would lean more toward showing (or proving) that a certain theorem is valid and not so much its application.
Both are math-intensive and difficult, but I found that physics was the more difficult of the two since the math was more abstract. Personally I found problems to be a lot easier to solve when I could visualize them and intuitively infer what a correct solution should be (or at the very least its shape). This is a lot easier to do in engineering than in physics, particularly so when you start studying hairy subjects such as quantum mechanics. It all depends on how much you really want to know about the math. I've also found that the engineering math courses (beyond differential equations) help out tremendously in catching up to speed, there didn't seem to be an equivalent in our physics department so that also upped the difficulty factor.
hey violetta
i do a lot of voodo,but im specialized in necromancy and "the other side" business that your too young to absorb, but here's a story that might be of benefit to u grasshopper:
one night, in the darkest hour before twilight, the Moon told me to look to my side, and before i did, i thanked her and said "looney tunes" she understood, and went about on her business telling Sun what there was for breakfast in the milky way diner...ANYWHO back to looking to my side, i found my eldest parrot transform into a most beautiful gal,eating a purple mango slice. She offered me some leeches but i decided that peacock feathers for dinner two years ago was still making my stomach somersault.
OH physics.right.im getting there.promise.so she kept eating the mango slice, then in a most raged tone, she she said she'll never cook baloni again, because "it was all physic's fault!" i stared back at Moon, and she(Moon) told me to upturn the rooster's poop. i did as suggested, and the roosters poop spoke to me. It told me to listen to the girl because if i don't, parrots will take over the world.
So i did, and after she told me that physics was really...bad, i decided to relate my story to the world and especially to you..grasshopper.
your truly,
madame cinnabon
i do a lot of voodo,but im specialized in necromancy and "the other side" business that your too young to absorb, but here's a story that might be of benefit to u grasshopper:
one night, in the darkest hour before twilight, the Moon told me to look to my side, and before i did, i thanked her and said "looney tunes" she understood, and went about on her business telling Sun what there was for breakfast in the milky way diner...ANYWHO back to looking to my side, i found my eldest parrot transform into a most beautiful gal,eating a purple mango slice. She offered me some leeches but i decided that peacock feathers for dinner two years ago was still making my stomach somersault.
OH physics.right.im getting there.promise.so she kept eating the mango slice, then in a most raged tone, she she said she'll never cook baloni again, because "it was all physic's fault!" i stared back at Moon, and she(Moon) told me to upturn the rooster's poop. i did as suggested, and the roosters poop spoke to me. It told me to listen to the girl because if i don't, parrots will take over the world.
So i did, and after she told me that physics was really...bad, i decided to relate my story to the world and especially to you..grasshopper.
your truly,
madame cinnabon
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1,780 Posts
I graduated with a degree in physics. It wasn't all that hard. What you do in school is pretty much learn a little bit about everything, and that isn't an exaggeration. You learn some E&M and circuit analysis, but not as much as an electrical engineer, you learn a bunch of mechanics, nuclear physics, but not as much as a nuclear engineer, etc. Pretty much you learn the theory behind the applications. You learn WHY things work rather than HOW they work. That's exactly why I did it. I've always been interested in why rather than how. I found my college career very interesting and worthwhile. It seems to me that the main difference between engineers and physicists is what they do when something makes sense. An engineer will try to improve the system further after it makes sense. A physicist will move on because now its boring.
I took college-level physics in high school and really enjoyed it, at least after the trig became more intuitive (sucky trig curriculum, meh). What wasn't as fun sometimes was the people, but I eventually got a teacher who was genuinely supportive and didn't expect me to already know everything. Physics is a lot like history in that it buffers the underpinnings of your logical reasoning; in fact, physics majors get the highest scores on graduate school entrance tests, including the LSAT and GMAT.
Physics is a lot like history in that it buffers the underpinnings of your logical reasoning; in fact, physics majors get the highest scores on graduate school entrance tests, including the LSAT and GMAT.
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293 Posts
Just doing my masters in astrophysics, quite interesting to see lots of ENTPs on this thread!
It's hard to concentrate on one formula, or problem for such a long period of time, if I look away and back, it just looks like gibberish to me :/ but it is definately a worthwhile subject to consider and the most interesting one I can think of, also New Scientist is a good read to see what's going on in the science world
It's hard to concentrate on one formula, or problem for such a long period of time, if I look away and back, it just looks like gibberish to me :/ but it is definately a worthwhile subject to consider and the most interesting one I can think of, also New Scientist is a good read to see what's going on in the science world
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7,384 Posts
Vibration analysis <3 <3 <3
I haven't studied advanced Physics, but I do think Physics is Phat. I was the only elementary education major in my advisor's 11 year career to choose Physics as my science requirement. I love it. I still enjoy studying it for fun-- especially astrophysics. I consider myself a teacher by vocation, astronomer by avocation, and astrophysics is my favorite branch of astronomy.
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4,773 Posts
I double majored in Physics and (eastern) Religion and got a Philosophy minor. I generally abandoned Physics for two reasons. The first was that an Army Reserve deployment interrupted my studies for a year and I lost all of my math skills. The second was that Physics wouldn't allow me to ask the kind of questions I was interested in asking.
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3,191 Posts
Damn. Just damn. No wonder you're so insightful. You're pretty well trained in both cultures.
Well, my dad has his PhD in Physics. He pursued it for three main reasons: he's a very math oriented person, but realized a math major is not as useful as a physics one; physics just "makes sense" to him; and he loved the respect of publishing papers in journals. The physics blood has carried a bit into me, but I'm more down the engineering/business path.
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461 Posts
Astrophysics is what I'm interested in! Although I'm probably studying psychology first, then going for that. I just wanted to wonder, is it really necessary to take the physics career before getting into astronomy?Just doing my masters in astrophysics, quite interesting to see lots of ENTPs on this thread!
It's hard to concentrate on one formula, or problem for such a long period of time, if I look away and back, it just looks like gibberish to me :/ but it is definately a worthwhile subject to consider and the most interesting one I can think of, also New Scientist is a good read to see what's going on in the science world
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293 Posts
Not enitrely necessary, having learned another subject to a high level will show that you are capable of the workload - but a good level of maths and physics knowledge is definately recommended you can do some courses online in maths that cover the first year (with the OU etc) this can help make sure you don't feel a bit lost, and you can fit them around your other work - did for me anyway lol
you can do some courses online in maths that cover the first year (with the OU etc) this can help make sure you don't feel a bit lost, and you can fit them around your other work - did for me anyway lol 1 - 17 of 17 Posts
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