/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.3358629]

Hello there, /sci/entists.

I have a question: How exactly does a physicist/mathematician get paid? I don't imagine it's like "I'll pay you $30 an hour to sit and think of equations and discover stuff" so how exactly does that work?

I ask because physics/math is my passion, but I don't want to be a computer programmer or something like that.

[Anonymous No.3358632]

Ask the government or a company for it.

[Anonymous No.3358634]

Academia: Compete for grant money by trying to show you've got something worth working on.

Government Labs: Work within the guidelines of the main goals of the program, still compete for money thuogh.

Industry: You work on the problems they care about, not the problems you care about, but you get paid well.

[Anonymous No.3358646]

>>3358634
this, and also you must realize that you have to/want to publish papers all the time to show what you do and be an (hopefully important) part of the community. I.e. you write results in an 5-20 page article and try to get it published. This is true for academia as well as for industry.
Here's a preprint archive to get an impression
http://arxiv.org/

[Anonymous No.3358661]

take note, no modern scientist just sits around all day thinking of equations.

before you get a "job" as a physicist you're a postgrad, you apply to a funding organisation, who pay for your project and wages. in some cases later you can apply for a place at a university as an academic where the university pays your wages.
getting paid to be a scientist is really no different to any other job except some extra paperwork.

[Anonymous No.3358667]

So it's just insane competition and stuff? Really?

Devise experiments, beg for money, perform experiments, repeat?

Is there any way to not have to go through that suckishness?

[Anonymous No.3358669]

there are some more "lucrative" specialisations, such as cryptography...

[Anonymous No.3358674]

get a PhD in mathematics.
luck out and get $3000K starting.
retire after five years and do all the science you want.

[Anonymous No.3358675]

this thread greatly interests me
polite bump

[Anonymous No.3358678]

>>3358667
If you stay at uni doing experimental stuff then you have more freedom regarding what you do but you have to "beg for money". Yap, that's pretty much it.

[Anonymous No.3358680]

>>3358667
in a decent institution its not really begging. and no there's no way round it everyone has to do it because it's the fairest way to allocate money.

[Anonymous No.3358683]

>>3358674
>retire after five years and fuck all the science

fix'd

[Anonymous No.3358702]

>>3358667

I forgot to include a wallpaper as thanks T.T

I really need help then, guys. I've got a fucked up sense of interest. I love studying physics/chemistry/math, but I don't know how I'm going to make a career out of it. It's pretty much the only thing in the world I'm even remotely interested in. I get very high marks in those three things, but my other things are just high 70s.

I want to major in physics and pure mathematics at University of Waterloo in Cambridge, but I really don't know what to do from there.

/sci/, be my life coach?

[Anonymous No.3358712]

>>3358702

at University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Canada*

[Anonymous No.3358717]

>>3358714
>>3358712
samefag or lulz

[Anonymous No.3358714]

>>3358702
get PhD in math, and go catch 'em all, faggot.

[Anonymous No.3358718]

>>3358702
If that's what you're interested in, then do it. Better than working for starbucks.
but unless you're really into pure maths you'll have to do some "programming" at one point or the other (but it's fun anyway)

[Anonymous No.3358731]

>>3358714

Oh fucking lol. PhD is a lot of work though. Fucking thesis papers, how do they work? (Fucking hate essays with all my being. I can do them, but fuck.)

>>3358718

I'm just worried about ending up at the end of university with my degrees and being like "What now? Oh...I have all these options and all of them are stuff that seem boring as all fuck". I believe there's some programming in the pure maths course, and I'm fine with SOME programming. But I really wouldn't be able to tolerate doing it my entire life. I tried doing it a year ago and it just seems like a pain to have to remember all the codes and shit.

[Anonymous No.3358755]

bamp

[Anonymous No.3358763]

>>3358731
The mushroom cloud looks like a clown


i am compelled to ruin this wallpaper for others as it was ruined for me

[Anonymous No.3358777]

>>3358763

Never even noticed it :o

[Anonymous No.3358782]

>>3358763
mind=blown

[Anonymous No.3358828]

>>3358763

I thought that was the point?

Although, it would've been funnier for someone to use that wallpaper for long time and then notice it was a clown.

[Anonymous No.3358830]

>>3358763

i like your style

is there an *ism for that? or just schadenfreude

[Anonymous No.3358832]

clown explosions = ftw
?

[Anonymous No.3358836]

>>3358763
Well fuck. It is a clown.

[Anonymous No.3358850]

[Anonymous No.3358856]

>>3358850

WELL, FUCK.

[Anonymous No.3358869]

bbbbbamp

[Anonymous No.3358894]

Depends on the job.

For example, NASA gets funding from the government - so the gov't gives them money, and NASA pays scientists to do research they want and stuff.

Otherwise, they don't get money. Do you think Isaac Newton actually go "money" for writing Principia Mathematica?

Do you think Cavendish got money for determining the gravitational constant for the years he did it?

No. Getting paid for science is relatively recent. And you only get paid if someone pays you to do what they want.

With math, a business might pay you to model things or solve equations or set them up to optimize sales and stuff.