Re: Posted this at LJ - but then deleted it. Thought it'd be better sending it privately.midgar_skylineSeptember 1 2009, 07:57:16 UTC
(^^) Glad to be your first then! I say the title "physicist" with reference to being a 4th year - meaning final-year undergraduate Masters - student of a MSci (Hons) Physics with Astrophysics degree. Technically, I have not graduated yet (although most of my friends have now left me, since they were on the Bachelors course), but we've been told that once into 2nd year it would be appropriate to term ourselves as physicists and I have been using the title since as such.
It's just personal opinion, but I do know some other physicists who share my observations, that physics and philosophy can come very close together at times - especially when one starts approaching the world of Quantum Mechanics, where you have to start thinking more abstractly (in the case of QM, trying to understand it using philosophical techniques as a placeholder is often the only way to grasp the inital theory of it, before applying physical knowledge).
If it makes any sense whatsoever, I am deep down, both consciously and unconsciously, an Atheist, but I would
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Re: Posted this at LJ - but then deleted it. Thought it'd be better sending it privately.midgar_skylineSeptember 1 2009, 07:57:47 UTC
I am sad to say that even in my 21 years of life, I have come into contact with those same types of people you mentioned being similar to Janele
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Re: also...:^)midgar_skylineSeptember 1 2009, 09:02:31 UTC
Hhhmmmmmm.....
I am for certain more right-brain than left, though I find numbers and math a hauntingly seductive field of study.
I took a quiz once, and I am far more left-brained that right it seems (19:11).
Anyways, onwards.
Math is a finicky subject, and while in my line of study there are many collegues and classmates who have an innate understanding and instant grasp of new mathematical concepts, I at least however, do not. As such, perhaps, if I may be as so bold as to say so, I am in a better position than most to offer advice, instead of an admitted genius who perhaps doesn't understand what is so difficult to fathom about the subject (I say this because I have had the experience of a mathematically brilliant classmate who did comment unthinkly/offhandedly to me once about the ease of higher mathematics and why some would possibly do physics if they weren't good at it, to which point I was not happy about
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Re: also...:^)midgar_skylineSeptember 1 2009, 09:09:08 UTC
Typo: "why someone would possibly choose do physics if they weren't good at it [meaning maths], to which point I was not happy about". The implication was that one had to be "innately" good at maths to be good at physics, which is to an extent true, but I resented the comment.
Re: also...:^)midgar_skylineSeptember 1 2009, 09:03:35 UTC
As the rules do not change, much of math is based on practice. Doing the same problems again, and again, and again, and again, and again... aaaaand so forth. :) Not to say you didn't do that, but just to say that it is indeed the way to do it. Reading about math from a book does not help; it requires pencil-to-paper and much use of an eraser until you get used to the "pattern" of the new concept you have been introduced to. As a rule, I rarely erase mistakes on my first go-throughs. I leave the mistakes there and just scribble cross them out so I can tangibly see what was wrong about the path I was going down before.
That being said though, lay out your work in some semblance of order. I don't mean it has to be perfect (far from it, you should the preliminary workings-out of physics/math problems), but it's very difficult to "tangibly see" what one is doing when one cannot make out what one was doing in the first place. Write nice and big and clear. :) Can't afford to be environmentally friendly with maths, much paper is used up by
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I'm pretty sure you friended me already. :) I was the one who said that you were free to friend me, but to please not be offended if I didn't friend you back as I have personal rants on here, and also because all my fandom stuff is unlocked anyway. ;)
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It's just personal opinion, but I do know some other physicists who share my observations, that physics and philosophy can come very close together at times - especially when one starts approaching the world of Quantum Mechanics, where you have to start thinking more abstractly (in the case of QM, trying to understand it using philosophical techniques as a placeholder is often the only way to grasp the inital theory of it, before applying physical knowledge).
If it makes any sense whatsoever, I am deep down, both consciously and unconsciously, an Atheist, but I would ( ... )
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I am for certain more right-brain than left, though I find numbers and math a hauntingly seductive field of study.
I took a quiz once, and I am far more left-brained that right it seems (19:11).
Anyways, onwards.
Math is a finicky subject, and while in my line of study there are many collegues and classmates who have an innate understanding and instant grasp of new mathematical concepts, I at least however, do not. As such, perhaps, if I may be as so bold as to say so, I am in a better position than most to offer advice, instead of an admitted genius who perhaps doesn't understand what is so difficult to fathom about the subject (I say this because I have had the experience of a mathematically brilliant classmate who did comment unthinkly/offhandedly to me once about the ease of higher mathematics and why some would possibly do physics if they weren't good at it, to which point I was not happy about ( ... )
Reply
Reply
That being said though, lay out your work in some semblance of order. I don't mean it has to be perfect (far from it, you should the preliminary workings-out of physics/math problems), but it's very difficult to "tangibly see" what one is doing when one cannot make out what one was doing in the first place. Write nice and big and clear. :) Can't afford to be environmentally friendly with maths, much paper is used up by ( ... )
Reply
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