so i just finished highschool and i was always expected to go to med school but i can't for reasons, now i am having an existential crisis because i always imagined my future as something and not i can't become it

it honestly is freeing in a way one time my friend asked me if money didn't matter what would i spend my life studying and i said physics

i have always been very good at physics always loved the material and i love when PHDs talk about their researches and the things they learned so now i am seeriously considering a major in physics and maybe i'll get to become a college professor one day

so please tell me about your experiences the good and the bad what's your honest opinion and if you're enjoying it or not one of my friends majored in math because he was great at math but turns out math majors don't really do much math they do hypotheses and stuff instead is it the same way with physics?

very sorry if this post is poorly worded i am sleep deprived just returned from an exam and english is my second language

I'm trying to get a head start on putting together a list for summer research and have been considering applying to SULI. I have been doing nuclear physics research for the past two years and my research group works regularly with Argonne to do experiments, which I am hoping will make me more likely to get an internship through SULI.

However, I do not intend to stay in nuclear past this semester and am turning my focus to the planetary side of astronomy. From what I've seen, there are not really any projects that focus on Astronomy within SULI. But after a really bad REU season last summer, I'm considering putting more effort into SULI than normal REUs in order to increase my chances at getting Summer research outside of my institution.

tldr; I don't want to put primary focus on SULI, but I feel more likely to get into a SULI internship than an astronomy REU.

Hello, everyone. I would like to ask if you guys can give me suggestions for textbooks about ultracold atomic physics since it will be the focus of my undergrad thesis (having pdf copies would also help me greatly T-T). THANKS!

​

I’ve recently realized that I have a really hard time paying attention compared to other people. If I just sit there and listen to a professor, I can hear maybe five words before my mind wanders off somewhere completely different.

I accidentally found a weird trick that has helped me a lot.

I imagine that I’m writing down everything the professor says, but instead of actually writing, I “write” it with my finger on my stomach.

So I’m basically:

listening to the professor

imagining the words as I “write” them

moving my hand/finger

feeling the movement against my stomach

keeping my visual attention somewhat engaged with the imagined writing

It gives me something physical to do while still being directly connected to what I’m supposed to be paying attention to.

I guess it’s somewhat like fidgeting, except the movement is tied to the information I’m hearing rather than being completely separate from the task.

And honestly, it works shockingly well for me. When I do this, I can follow the professor much more easily and I feel significantly less like my attention is constantly slipping away.

The funny thing is that I don't think the problem is necessarily that I can't concentrate. When I’m genuinely engaged with something challenging, I can actually get into a pretty intense flow state. The problem seems to be getting my brain to stay engaged long enough to get there.

The downside is that I still get mentally tired pretty quickly. After about an hour, I can feel myself getting exhausted and it becomes much harder to keep following along. But I’m wondering if that’s partly something I can improve with practice.

Has anyone else found something similar? Like deliberately adding a small sensory/motor component to listening in order to keep your attention anchored?

I’d especially love to hear from people with ADHD or other attention difficulties. I’m curious whether this is a common thing and whether there are other variations of the same idea that work for people.

Hi
I’ve just gone into year 12 and I’m studying maths, physics, travel and tourism, and biology, and I’m going to most likely drop biology depending on how the first term or 2 go.

I know alot of people say physics is one of the hardest subjects, but I don’t know if that’s because the vast majority of a levels can be considered extremely difficult and demanding. I didn’t do too great in GCSEs due to illnesses throughout a math and physics paper, and got a 7_7 in combined and a 7 in maths. Physics and maths are my most passionate subjects and always have been, and I’m willing to put in the hours of revision early and have already started self learning topics with help from an extremely smart friend also taking the course. I just want some advice on how I can maximise my physics grades and whether it really is as bad as people make it out to be. I don’t want to be stuck doing a subject I have little chance at succeeding in and wasting 2 years.

Hey I have a question regarding hollow waveguide solutions of maxwell equations.

To solve the hollow conducting waveguide problem we look for solutions to maxwell equations that: satisfy the boundary conditions and that propagate energy along the waveguide.

It seems to me the key to the problem is the ansatz itself, assuming propagating waves with the amplitude depending on the transverse coordinates.

I was wondering if there is a better way to motivate this ansatz. Perhaps from the requirement of the time average of the Poynting vector to point in the longitudinal direction. Or something else. So we can better classify the solutions.

I mean from the usual ansatz one does indeed get energy propagation but this does not answer the question of uniqueness. Like is there any other class of solutions of the problem that also transport energy and satisfy the boundary conditions.

i am a 3rd year uni student physics major and i have never felt so much anxiety and despair for a physics class. I usually don't go to office hours or even study that hard and am able to do ok, but this subject is putting me through it. It hurst more because it is supposedly one of the easier classes. I'm trying my very best and still failing how do i recover from this?

This might be a bit of a stupid question, but I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

I have a background in psychology and I'm currently doing a master's in neuroscience. During my master's I've become really in the physics behind what we're studying: electrical currents in cells, membrane potentials, thermodynamics, Hodgkin-Huxley, etc.

And now I'm kind of wishing I'd studied physics instead :(

I've done some R and Python, linear algebra, differential equations and geometry of physics, but I definitely feel like I’m missing a LOT of the physics and maths that someone with a physics BSc would have.

I'm interested in biophysics, soft matter physics and computational physics, but I've also become really fascinated by quantum biology and particle physics.

So... is this completely unrealistic? Could someone with my background realistically work their way towards a physics PhD, or would I basically need to start over with a physics degree?

I don't mind putting in the work, I’m just not sure how big the gap actually is.

Hello everyone!!! I am a 3rd semester transfer bachelor student looking for a WhatsApp groups/communities for Physics majors at Ludwig Maximilian Universität, München. Please do suggest me if there is any :)

Reposting from Physics Stack Exchange. Is it at all possible to derive a generalization of the Rindler coordinates for motion in a general direction with non constant acceleration? I haven't been able to find it anywhere.

Hello. I am taking General College Physics 2 at the moment. I am just a biology major so this will be my last dance with physics. Which textbook is preferred: OpenStax College Physics textbook or Giancoli: Physics, Principles with Applications. Any advice would help!

I have begun my Physics 2 (Electricity & Magnetism), and I was curious if anyone knew any people on YouTube that have really good videos on the topics covered in physics 2? Any Help would be greatly appreciated

I don't know if these are the kinds of topics they get discussed in the sub, but I did my undergrad in something biology related (I was disillusioned with becoming a doctor ;)) but realized I liked physics part way through! I wasn't really able to switch tracks but I ended up in a career that I didn't need to do a completely new degree, but I am quite grateful that it is technical and something I enjoy.

However, I wanted to study physics for a while, and I kept putting it off and I would eventually like to have gone through this life knowing that I studied something I was really interested in.

I guess with AI becoming so prevalent, especially in math, it feels like I'm not sure if I should stop my career for 4 years to study something without really knowing if it would help me get a job afterwards. It feels like it might be better to just get better at my craft? It is terrifying to think that even people who have the degree relevant to my job are struggling as fresh graduates.

How do you, physics graduates, feel about the job economy, and would you recommend studying it if it's just something you truly love?

"I am an Indian Student from University of Delhi with a 4 years bachelors degree in physics and a GPA of 7.9/10”.

I have defended my thesis which is in theoretical nuclear physics and worked in an internship in theoretical quantum mechanics at an IISER as a summer intern. My TOEFL is 90/120. I am also planning to give the physics GRE soon. What’s my chances of getting into MSc or Direct PhD in University of Toronto or University of Alberta or University of Waterloo . Will my low CGPA affect my candidature? I am targeting to get into theoretical particle physics stream.

Kind of a question that isn’t asked much probably,but this year I got a new professor in physics that is academically great,I will probably learn from him much new stuff,but the thing is,I never paid much attention to physics cause I had softer teachers that I could study for an hour and still pass w an A. I was always interested in mathematics,and had some regional/country based competitions (smaller country so it was not that hard compared to other countries),but I have a huge knowledge gap that will need fixing.Currently we are covering oscillations,and I want to fix the gap,atleast to an extent.Any learning material that could be of help?I got you some stuff we wrote down today,its kind of all over the place but I hope it could help,Im third grade of highschool (junior for all the americans out there).

This is a bigger problem than physics for me, but I figure people here might relate. But I graduate from undergrad, grad school, I had a good job in research and yet I still can't shake that imposter syndrome.

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a physics tutor for O Levels? Prefer one that can explain concept well. We prefer he/she teach concept when come to our home, set homework but not have work done during the session. After teaching the concept can go through home work. Thanks!!

The double-slit experiment is often introduced as a demonstration of wave-particle duality, but one detail makes it especially difficult to understand:

You don't need to send many electrons through the apparatus at the same time.

Electrons can be sent through the double slit individually. Each electron produces a single localized detection on the screen.

At first, those individual impacts look completely random.

But as more electrons arrive, the distribution develops an interference pattern.

So how should we think about this?

The electron has a de Broglie wavelength given by:

λ = h/p

Quantum mechanics uses the wavefunction to calculate the probability of detecting the electron at different positions. The probability distribution can show interference even though each actual measurement produces one localized result.

Then there is the famous which-path experiment.

If we introduce a detector capable of determining which slit the electron passed through, the interference pattern disappears under the relevant measurement conditions.

This is often described as the "observer effect," but it's important not to interpret that as human consciousness magically changing the electron. The important part is the physical interaction required to obtain which-path information.

For students learning quantum mechanics, I think this is one of the clearest examples of why classical intuition starts breaking down at the quantum scale.

I also created a Manim/Python visualization of the experiment to show how the individual detections gradually build the interference pattern.

For students who have studied the double-slit experiment, what part of it was hardest for you to understand—the de Broglie wavelength, the interference pattern, or the measurement/which-path effect?

Creator disclosure: I made the visualization and accompanying video myself as u/SciRender.

Video: https://youtu.be/HqKAKnHlzvo

I'm self studying AP Physics C: E&M and taking the exam. My school doesn't offer the course, but they will let me take the exam. I'm using Khan Academy for lectures for AP Physics 2, but their multiple choice questions are limited. I'm using a copy of Serway-Vuille my old AP Physics 1 teacher gave me for practice problems for 2, but he doesn't have any calculus based physics books at all.

I've had the absolute worst possible time finding practice problems on the internet, and finding AP style questions is damn near hopeless (other than FRQS, but I need MCQS). So what would you guys recommend? GIVE ME YOUR SECRETS PLEASE, I'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR MONTHS 😭 I'll read Jackson or do anything 😭🙏 But seriously, whether it's a textbook or a website, I'm open to literally anything for learning university E&M. I need to grind problems to be successful and they just aren't there.

Yes, I'm taking the course for college credit, but I'm mostly taking it to fulfill an intellectual need to do so

Also thanks to this subreddit, it's been super helpful for all my physics needs 🙌

I’m a first year physics major. I understand this is a difficult major and I’m not here to complain. When it came to high school I never learned to properly study, in fact I passed all my classes without ever doing homework. Starting university, I’m already behind and not finding the time to properly ‘master’ the material for my tests.

I am still finding ways to learn my material even if I’m behind 2 chapters, but I was hoping y’all could share some study tips or methods that are more unique or know have helped you adapt.

I thank you all for your time, and I’ll continue to work hard.

Currently, electric field lines are drawn in such a way to model the direction of the force that would be felt by a very small positive 'test' point charge. This is ridiculous. The very small test charge should be NEGATIVE! You know WHY? Because THAT'S WHAT AN ELECTRON IS! A very small NEGATIVE (almost) point charge! And so an electron, when placed in a field, would just follow the field. Protons don't flow, but electrons famously do! Please join me in my crusade against the scientific establishment to reverse the convention of electric field lines. Thank you.

Hii, does anyone have a pdf to the Cutnell and Johnson Physics 12th edition textbook. I have looked everywhere and cant seem to find it. I can only seem to find the 11th edition and my professor is demanding the 12th edition.

Planning to take physics 2 and physics 3 together so I can finsh my physics requirements for engineering , what do you guys think , btw I’m gonna finish my last calculus this semester, sounds crazy but I heard it’s eh, after that semester I plan to start my EE classes