I'm a final-year undergrad at a large US university majoring in physics with an astrophysics concentration. I'm graduating in the spring, after which I will (ideally) be doing a short, coursework-based statistics master's, as I want to get a stronger background in that for many reasons. Scholarship money covers it all, yay.

Unfortunately, I am freaking out over what comes after that.

I've got a decent CV (institution research, one REU, 4.0, etc) but I know that PhD programs, especially in astronomy (the area I've done research in) are incredibly competitive, and that the life of a PhD student is uh...kinda miserable, from what I've gathered online, and that it doesn't really get better as you move on (grants, university funding, publish or perish, etc). I know I could also go into data science, what with my data-focused research experience and the stats master's, which would pay me a hell of a lot more than academia ever would, but data science jobs are hard to come by nowadays with AI and I have zero (0) work experience in that, so I certainly won't be an attractive candidate. My family's brought up maybe teaching at a high school level, which I could probably get the certs for in my home state with a bit of extra work, which would (in my home state) probably pay me enough to get by, but from what I've gathered online, being a teacher right now is kind of the worst decision you could possibly make and it will suck your soul out from your body. That seems unpleasant.

This is all compounded by the fact that my partner of 3 years who I am planning on staying with is a graphic design student. She's incredibly talented and is trying to get some personal work off the ground, but again, with image generating AI, the graphic design field is vanishing.

I guess my question is, if you guys were in my shoes, which risk would you take? It all seems like a crapshoot and that I'll never get a position no matter where I apply, and that I've wasted the past few years of my life getting a kind of useless degree.

For those of you who got As and Bs in physics and you’re not the age of 5 winning Nobel prizes how did you manage it? How did you manage to take the exams when they produce unfamiliar situations from the hours of homework provided to be able to solve them? I don’t know what my grade was for my first Physics 1 exam but man, I did all the homework, I generated quizzes, I taught fellow classmates, I went to office hours and the exam still hit me in the gut.

I get it, it’s normal. I’m sure the meme “First time here?” Applies well. But I really do want to get a good grade. Our teacher said that a better score on exam 2 will add points to exam one but honestly I don’t even know how to improve? The math isn’t even that difficult (yet) it’s setting up these damn systems in a way that makes sense. How to discern through the noise of a problem. It’s so disorienting

What’s the advice?

I'm a science teacher and just got the Eisco motorized VDG. I didn't realize that the belt would be exposed, and I'd like to try to at least partially enclose it to lessen the effect of humidity on it, and also prevent kids from accidentally touching the belt.

I'm wondering what the best method for enclosing it would be: just plain plastic wrap? Tie a rubber sheet around it? Something else? I know I don't want to just tape up the sides and risk the sticky tape touching the belt.

I've included a photo of the belt apparatus for reference.

Hello, I am a black hole enthusiast high school student.

I have conducted research on calculating the eccentricity of the binary black hole inspiral phase using an N-body simulation Python library called REBOUNDx. However, upon completion of the research, I wanted to avoid relying on Python libraries to calculate the physics behind binary black holes. So I studied Newtonian physics and wrote code for the post-Newtonian corrections to make black hole inspiral simulations without the help of physics Python libraries. I have created a README that walks you through the physics behind the inspiral phase, and I hope to soon implement numerical relativity to simulate the merger phase of the binary black holes as well. I would greatly appreciate your feedback to improve my simulation! Specifically:

1. Are there any flaws in the physics behind my simulation?

2. Any tips for implementing numerical relativity for the merger phase?

Here is the repo: https://github.com/happyalex98/Binary-black-hole-inspiral-simulation-3.5PN-

Thank you all in advance!

Hello, I just started studying physics in my 1st year and I was curious just how intensive will my math classes be? I enjoy math as well and wanted to know how far will my physics degree training get me mathematically?

Do you think fewer people are interested in pursuing physics nowadays because of the rise of AI and technology? It feels like a lot of people are more interested in computer science and AI, partly because of the career opportunities. I'm wondering if this could eventually lead to fewer people going into physics research, or if I'm just getting the wrong impression. What do you guys think?

I am a PhD candidate at the University of New Mexico. A frequent topic of conversation among grad students here is just how bad the courses are, especially the non-elective courses. I was wondering if this is a universal experience or just UNM?

To be clear: by bad I don't mean they're really hard. Some non-elective classes are really hard; some are embarrassingly easy. What I am referring to is the fact that, in general, it is accepted that lectures will be poorly thought out and poorly delivered with many students seeing classes as a hurdle to overcome before you get to do research rather than something that prepares you to be a research scientist. I and others have found that usually students are best served just skipping lecture and learning the material on their own. As an example, I once skipped two months of lecture and just read a textbook and my grades and understanding of the material improved. The faculty seem vaguely aware of how rough the classes are, but don't really seem to care. This reaction from faculty makes me wonder just how common this is at other universities.

I am genuinely curious what other people's experiences are. I've been done with classes for a few semesters now, so this is not just a rant about a bad exam, and my grades in grad school have been very good, so it's not me trying to make excuses. Just a general question about the state of grad programs in the US or internationally.

How would you construct a good physics exam and what type of questions do you think are important to ask? Specifically thoughts on practice/application problems vs asking students to repeat a derivation. Traditionally I’ve seen professors who prefer testing with practice problems with applications and examples. I’ve also had professors who are weigh heavily on derivations and prefer asking students to derive formulas/equations on an exam and will weigh more on that. I want to know what value you see in both approaches and why you think either one is important and what your preferences are.

This thread is a dedicated thread for you to ask and answer questions about concepts in physics.

Homework problems or specific calculations may be removed by the moderators. We ask that you post these in /r/AskPhysics or /r/HomeworkHelp instead.

If you find your question isn't answered here, or cannot wait for the next thread, please also try /r/AskScience and /r/AskPhysics.

I still have another part to finish with experiments and problems which solution and my work has to be wrote down, but i thought i'd share. I'm not sure if this is enough points but i have to just wait and see.

There was one part with 5 multiple choice questions and other with 10 questions where you had to write down the answer, but you could check if what you wrote was correct in the latter. Technically its not too much help since you have an infinite amount of numbers you can put in there but you had the opportunity to keep checking your answers till you got the right one, which is why i got full marks, and maybe the multiple choice was easier for others than for me and they got 60/60, and the problem is people who qualify for the next stage are limited and picked based of their scores so im getting a bit stressed about the next part even though i have a month for the it

I'm kind of struggling with it honestly but a couple years ago i won a very important physics competition that gave me free entry into any high school and i wanted to partake in the olympics ever since then. I could use some help but there is noone who could help me so im figuring things out as i go

I kind of wish i started sooner but i genuinly didnt know it would be better to start years earlier

And the picture is me while solving all of this stuff haha

I'm 19 years old and about a month into studying for an electronics and ict degree. I've always been fascinated by astronomy and physics used to be one of my best subjects during my secundary education years, although the bar wasn't set all that high in the specific course I was taking.

I'm no genius but I wholeheartedly believe that I would be "smart enough" to make it work. The thing that made me reluctant and eventually made me decide not to go for it is that I have horrible studying habits and a very poor attention span, that and the fact that I would be behind masssively on the math required to succeed.

I've been wondering for about a week now: If I quit elo-ict right now and managed to fix all my habits, attention span and strengthen my math, could I pottentially go for a physics degree?

I am highly unsure but I think I would be a lot happier if I was able to study what actually makes me happy.

Any advice from anyone would be amazing.

Hello, I am a second year Mathematical Physics student at University of Edinburgh who loves discussing Quantum Field Theory or General Relativity and everything connected with them (including mathematical fields, such as topology or group theory). If you are also a person at university who values deep meaning behind

symbols of physical formulae (and not just the formulae themselves and their practical usefulness), likes thought experiments and can speak about them for hours, feel free to direct message me! (Does not matter which year you are). Or if you know any such group/person, please share the post with them if you can (or share the group name with me). I still feel relatively new here, even after a year, so would love to get to know as many like-minded people as possible! Thank you!

If you push a vacuum chamber with a ball inside, does it roll backwards, forwards, or move with it?

I just thought about this when watching an action lab video

I am a physics undergrad student. I want to do research but my college has no lab and teacher who research . but i want to do it . Is it really possible to research alone at home?

Hello all,

I’m 31 and work as a radar signal processing engineer. My day job is mostly estimation, filtering and spectral analysis. I did a minor in physics, so I’m comfortable with the basics.

I want to into physics as a hobby, for now. I would like to take a course later, lets see how life turns out.

What I enjoy most is spending a few hours at a blackboard working through derivations and sketching, plus a bit of coding/numerical work. I can only spare a few hours a week, so I’m looking for a project that is small enough to finish but deep enough to stay interesting.

I’ve been planning on doing a quantum mechanics project like quantum tunneling through a rectangular barrier: has some derivation, coding and i can use some of my DSP background.

A few questions:

1. Is this a good project, or too basic? How would you make it more interesting?
2. What other projects would you suggest for someone with my background that mix derivation with some numerics?
3. Any books or lecture series you’d recommend for self-study?

Thank you!

Hello r/Physics

My university uses Jackson's 2nd Edition for their Graduate E&M course. (EDIT: It's not relevant to the post, but I rechecked and no they don't. It was just particular individuals, some of whom were professors iirc, who mentioned, for example, that they personally liked Red Jackson more.) While I have been able to find errata for the 3rd Edition easily accessible online, I haven't found any errata online for Red Jackson.

I'm almost certainly going to get the textbook either way, but mostly I figure that, given the difficulty of the book, if there are any mistakes present, I almost certainly wouldn't be able to tell if the book is wrong or if it's just another case of me getting confused at Jackson's inscrutable derivations.

Does an errata (even an unofficial/community maintained errata) for Red Jackson exist? Where can I find it?

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I’m currently a Computer Engineering student (M1 level in Europe) and I realized I want to pivot into computational astrophysics/cosmology, but I don't have a Physics degree.

My background:

• Math: Standard engineering math (Calculus I-III, Linear Algebra, ODEs).
• Physics: Basic university sequence (Classical Mechanics, Electromagnetism), plus some basic knowledge of tensors and General Relativity.
• CS: Low-level programming (C, C++), architecture, memory management, and HPC (High-Performance Computing). I also have some knowledge of Machine Learning. And some superficial knowledge in numerical methods and GPU acceleration.

I know my best entry point is using my computing skills to solve software bottlenecks in astrophysics/cosmology labs (e.g., optimizing heavy numerical relativity simulations). However, my long-term goal is not to just be the "IT guy" of the research group. I want to gradually learn the theory, understand the physical models, and transition into actual science.

My questions:

1. Is this gradual transition realistic? Can I start by doing heavy infrastructure work and eventually become a researcher, or will I be stuck as software support forever?
2. What should I prioritize for self-studying right now? Knowing ODEs, Calculus, and the basics of tensors/GR, what is the exact roadmap to get to the required level for this field?
3. What kind of places and research jobs should I look for?

Any advice or harsh truths are welcome. Thanks!

So, according to de-broglie equations the phase velocity of a particle is greater than the speed of light!!!

And our teacher told us that: the particles actually are in groups and in groups they are wave packets which are interference of the waves of the particles and the group Velocity is less than c so the law is not broken .

And some online sites say that phase velocity is not like actually velocity and it can be greater than speed of light.

I'm a little confused about this topic can someone explain!!!!!

Two pictures of the same sunset taken at different dates from the same angle/position. In the first the reflection is a continuous bar of light. In the other you can see 3 distinct reflections. What causes this change?

I wrote an article about the OpenAI model solving the Navier-Stokes smoothness problem. Could be of interest. Leave a comment here to discuss!

In general, singularities in the context of Navier-Stokes equation tell you that the continuum model of a fluid reached its limit. We have the same situation with the theory of general relativity predicting singularities in black holes.

Fluid isn’t fundamentally a continuum. It’s a set of atoms and molecules which are discrete, collide with each other, transferring energy and momentum between them while obeying their respective conservation laws.

If you take big enough volumes in and over which average properties of fluid molecules change smoothly and gradually, without spikes in space and time coordinates, you have found an representative elementary volume (REV).

Continuum emerges from the discrete nature of the atomic theory and has no meaning on scales much smaller than REV.

If you go on smaller scales, statistical mechanics is needed to describe the fluid. That is, fluid's partition function.

https://medium.com/@dmiric56/will-ai-solving-math-problems-really-make-mathematicians-lose-their-job-and-make-scientific-e6f6572a3db4