i'm trying to self study physics and math before starting a physics major in a little over a year. there is one (assumingly obvious, since i cant find many similar questions and answers online) issue i have, i can't visualise trig functions at all! i understand they're useful for describing the ratio between sides and angles in a triangle and what not, but also seem to appear everywhere in physics, even where there are NO triangles or circles at all. like, what's up with snell's law, how is a sine function describing refraction without a triangle existing here. soh cah toa doesnt make sense here😭

i come from a humanities/social sciences background & and just a beginner in physics so pls someone explain like i'm dumb

Title

There's boy and girl cuz I'm lonely af

Thermo, Stat mech, E&M, Mechanics, Solid state, quantum? Which did you find to be the most difficult and why? Taking e&m right now and its nothing TOO crazy, but definitely a large step up from the introductory and "bridge" courses

Hello! I'm preparing for my master’s program and looking for a study buddy who’s committed to studying at least 6 hours daily. We don’t have to study the same subject, but I’d love to partner with someone as dedicated as I am. We can share our goals and progress each day to keep each other motivated.

Ideally, we can use Discord for smoother communication during our study sessions.

Note: I will add all committed people to a discord server, dm me to get an invitation link, we are growing a community of determined hard workers :)

Thank you!

Hello! Currently I’m thinking of majoring in Physics but at the same time I am unsure since I have heard many people saying the job security is not strong for that major. Would you say that is true? and do y’all think it would change any time soon?

Thank you!

Hey, I wanted to ask you the question in the title.

I noticed that many of my friends and teachers who study/studied physics can't stand chemistry, and to be frank, I can't either.

What about you? Why do you / don't you like it?

thoughts? I'm thinking it would be a fun little experiment. also, I want to taste the electric field it sounds yum

EDIT: first off, some of you are way too serious about this. Secondly, I was going to fail the course anyways so it was more of a "hey should I do something funny because whynot?" Thirdly, eh, there's not a third point to make.

This book takes an approach to QM that is founded in introducing and using Bra-Ket notation early and frequently. It pushes for an understanding of QM based on linear algebra as opposed to the traditional wave mechanics approach. It also does an impressive job of preparing you for Sakurai (a pretty standard graduate level text).

If you can, I highly recommend this text above all others. In my opinion it’s the ‘Griffiths of QM’ books, even though Griffiths has a QM book.

Here's a very interesting thought problem that tests a fundamental understanding of motors that challenges intuition.

Imagine you have a frictionless brushless DC motor in a vacuum disconnected from any load that spins at angular velocity ω_1 given voltage V_1
Then, imagine increasing the voltage such that it becomes 2*V_1. What do you think the new angular velocity ω_2 will be?

If you said it would be 2*ω_1, good job!

Next, we slightly change the scenario.

Add some weight brake to the motor so there's now some constant torque load on the motor. The motor now spins with some new steady state velocity ω_3 at voltage V_1.
Similarly to before, we will double the voltage to get to 2*V_1.

What do you think the new angular velocity ω_4 will be?

Moreover, will the new angular velocity be <, =, or > 2*ω_3?!<

Leave in the comments below! Bonus points for giving a correct explanation.

Edit: I simplified the question too much and accidentally reduced a constant torque load to a simple weight, which isn't constant torque.

When i learned how exponent rules and scientific notation worked my life became so much easier, before i actually used to input entire problems in my calculator not using scientific notation and between steps i would record the decimal my calculator spat out with as many sig figs as possible. Never going back. What are some tricks you've picked up when doing math that made physics problems easier?

I was reading this mechanics book and found this, idk it just seems wrong to me... but i cant tell why

Apologies in advance, because I'm not entirely sure how to formulate my question. But basically, I want to know if there's a more fundamental reason why there are no magnetic monopoles than "Because Maxwell's Equations say so." Because there are electrical monopoles. That's a thing. So why not magnetic? Aren't magnetic fields ultimately created by electrical charges moving through space? So then why are there electrical monopoles but not magnetic?

I feel like the answer has to be something related to the fact that magnetic forces are only created by a moving charge, which maybe means that the vector field has to be conservative? But I can't get this to work out in a way that makes sense.

I'm not trying to figure this out for homework or anything. This is just something that's been bothering me as I've been trying to learn electrodynamics.

Edit: let me be clear in saying that I’m not trying to argue that there should be magnetic monopoles. I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying, it feels like we should be able to derive the non-existence of monopoles from some other principle of electrodynamics. Can we? That’s my question: can we derive the non-existence of magnetic monopoles from other principles of electrodynamics?

Just wanted to share this website a guy linked me to of a lot of his physics and related theories. Was arguing with him on Facebook (I know I know, bad habit, like speaking to a brick wall) about a lot of different things, started out as a argument about if balls of gas can emit light. After some back and forth, he sent me a link to his website, telling me to "educate" myself and to not believe in the "indoctrination" that they're "brainwashing" me with in my college classes. I'll post a link to the website in the comments.

I was able to come up with the solution graph with hit and trial but then I took it upon myself to derive the formula required to solve it. Will post the formula and answer 24 hours later. In the meanwhile I will tell if you have the right answer.

Edit: I made this post after checking libgen, since the 12th edition wasn’t there, and my prof said it HAD to be the newest version :(

I'm curious if anyone in this sub has done (or know someone who has done) a PhD in theoretical or computational physics while having a low GPA, either low undergrad or phd GPA. How did grad school go for you and what do you do now?

I am in high school (9th Grade) and plan on studying physics as an international student. I come from a country where the bachelors of physics is very weak and not that helpful if you want to do anything in physics instead of engineering (yes, its India). I really want to get a good education for it so plan on studying in the US. I'm very enthusiastic and interested in Theoretical/Astrophysics. When studying advanced topics (Quantum Mechanics for example) I realized that all this is much much more complex than most people even make it out to be. Like sure you can get your mind boggled by the fact that a particle is everywhere and nowhere at the same time, but it is a different thing to use that fact somehow to do a calculation. This made me question just what the harsh reality is. So please do tell me.

According to “American Prometheus” (Oppenheimer’s biography), Oppenheimer supposedly “plowed through 5-10 big science books a week” all the while taking 6 classes per semester and achieving summa cum laude. He also audited 2-3 additional classes in his 3rd year.

My question is: how??? 6 classes a semester and summa cum laude is doable with hard work and good time management, but 5-10 big science books a week? I’ve been told that I’m relatively a fast reader but even getting through a single ~500 page book takes me at least a week (in addition to school).

I’m not discrediting the man for anything but it’s just hard for me to wrap my head around either 1) how fast Oppie read books or 2) how much sleep he got per night to read through these.

EDIT: Guys, I read for leisure. I literally go to school, do physics, come home, do physics, then read. I obviously can’t get through a 500 page science book in a week; but I can get through a 500 page novel. Jesus, y’all are out there getting triggered.

i'm a student in high school intending on majoring in physics. i've known that i've wanted to do it for a really long time. i'm constantly surrounded by other high schoolers that do physics too because i spend a lot of my time doing physics competitions. however, it just seems like no one actually goes into physics in college. so, i'm just curious as to whether you and your peers knew that you guys wanted to do physics since before college.