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/sci/ - Science & Math

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5502957 No.5502957 [Reply] [Original]

I'm thinking of taking a year out before going to university to do physics. What would be some good stuff to self teach and learn over that time?

After having gone through english 6th form with further maths if that helps.

>> No.5502963

Well, repeating calculus and other math related things is always a bonus. But here's an insider tip: learn to program. I kid you not. Everything related to physics - you will learn at the university. You will not learn programming, though. And believe it or not, whatever niché you will work on in your later life, it will most certainly involve working on a computer and you must be able to harness the computing capabilities of that machine.

You have one year. Make sure you get a basic grasp of the most commonly used programming languages as well as one or two math/physics related programming stuff, such as Mathematica or Matlab. Learn to think as a programmer. It will save your fucking life one day.

I have 3 colleages, well, I'm their superior in a way, but we are all on the same level of education - theoretically. I'm the only one who can program worth a damn, and I would not consider myself a good coder. But I can get shit done quickly, in about 8 languages. I was able to speed up the calculations of one of my colleagues about 1400% the other day, simply because he didn't know what the fuck he was doing.

tl;dr: Learn to program. The rest you will learn at uni.

>> No.5502990 [DELETED] 

Find people who have graduated from university in physics and have them simplify what they've been taught at their time at university to you. Spend a year digesting it. Now you've learned it.

You don't need to go to university anymore. But go anyway so you can be noticed by really smart people who will take your education further. Have those smart people simplify what they know in an easy to understand way so you eventually know what they know. Then learn to create new knowledge from what you know.

Win the nobel prize

Retire at the age of -7

>> No.5502991
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5502991

OP, I'm doing the same thing as you. Is this year your last year in sixth form (finishing in july?)
I'm going to self-learn the vast majority of calculus, brush up on any particular topics I struggled on up to that point. I'm going to try to learn a programming language which will help with the computing side of physics.
I will also be getting a head start on some of the physics topics and attempt to cover the broad curriculum and get at least a basic understanding of every topic in all the 4 years of the masters. This will greatly help the information sink in when I come to formally learn it.

While doing all this, I will be working (lightly) to get some bank for help with upkeep for food and shit in university and I will be closing any loose-ends that I want to get out of the way from distracting me.
Finish writing my book (typical ameteur sci-fi, but i've always wanted to write a book)
travel some of Europe (will do this the summer before starting uni)
and do anythign else that would otherwise distract me.

>> No.5503005

>>5502957
Quantum Mechanics.

>> No.5503010

>>5502957
Get this for physics/math/coding stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Methods-Physics-Engineering-Comprehensive/dp/0521679710/

http://www.amazon.com/Mathematica-Cookbook-Sal-Mangano/dp/0596520999

Also get an Arduino and Raspberry Pi for hard/soft ware and coding.

>> No.5503016

>>5502991
Yeah this is my final year

Due to lacklustre A-level results and generally not working hard enough my uni application has been a bit off the desired mark leaving me with offers from places that are entirely decent but aren't all that spectacular. So yeah I'm trying to fix that.

I think I'll also read into philosophy properly and do some music and art related things as side stuff.

>>5503005
I actually have a proper textbook on that from some cambridge summer course. Most of it went over my head at the time but I'm going to try and get my head around it again.

>> No.5503021

>>5502963
I'm considering learning how to program myself eventually. Can I get an email to contact you in case I pick up programming so I can ask for advice?

>> No.5503020

>>5502991
You're going to self teach "the vast majority of calculus" and a programming language, understand the content of a four year course, write a book and travel around Europe all in one year whilst working? Okay then.

I don't think you understand how miserably and pathetically easy sixth form (UK college)-level material is compared to higher education. I'm not sure it's even possible to gain "a basic understanding of every topic"... you'll need an excellent understanding of all the precursor topics before you'll be able to get a "basic" understanding of material at the next level.

>> No.5503030

>>5502963
Many physics courses these days have optional units in programming, at least in the UK. It's usually C++, a few choose java for some reason. Luckily not at my uni.

>> No.5503036

>>5503020
I've been learning the basics of university-grade physics for a few years now in my spare time. I already have a working knowledge of msot of the topics... and mathematical competence in a couple, such as special relativity, maxwell's equations and quite a bit of quantum mechanics. In the other topics, I have a basic understanding of what is going on.

My book can be written pretty easily whenever I have free time... I said my work would be ''light'' meaning not a monday-friday 9-5 job.
Backpacking around europe for a few weeks isn't exactly too hard to make time for... I'll be winding down towards the september term anyway.

>> No.5503037

>>5503030
These courses are in my experience, worth a rats arse. IMO, nothing beats dwelling at home in your basement and working through tutorials and little programming projects.

>>5503021
Sorry, brah. I'm somewhat reluctant as to giving away my mail address here. I'm very careful about my powerlevel and want to keep it secret.

I do however frequent /sci/ somewhat regularly.

>> No.5503038

>>5503016
What grades did you get out of interest? And which AS levels did you pick?

>> No.5503039

any people doing/completed a physics bsc or maters?
What is the msot useful language to learn? I was thinking C++ or ruby, but I dno lol because I'm a pleb at programming.

what kind of programming specifically do you do in uni?

>> No.5503042

>>5503038
Did further maths so we did the entire maths A level in that year. Got an A* in that which was good but a B in both physics and chemistry. Physics was two marks off but still.

I'm resitting things to fix that up.

>> No.5503046

>>5503037
I was already a bit familiar with coding before the course, but I found the task we had to do were quite good

>>5503039
C++ is quite good for science

>> No.5503044

>>5503042
Resitting on ABB? Damn dude still pretty good

>> No.5503047

>>5503039
Finished my masters a year ago and now pursuing a PhD.

The very first thing is learning to think as a programmer. If you're beginning from scratch, start with something that has an easy syntax, like Python or Mathematica etc.

Once you get the hang of it, you should apply your knowledge and do some programming in C/C++, hell maybe even FORTRAN, which is still used widely in physics.

At uni, you usually have very beginner courses, and the class prepares you for nothing - it will not give you the skills needed in the job or in academia.

>> No.5503054

>>5503039
At my uni we're taught Matlab, Java and Python (and C++ for people who take advanced programming).
Matlab is really great to handle matrixes and solving differential equations.
Python helped me obtain plots and useful stuff like that.
I'm starting Java next week so I can't give you an opinion on that one.

Matlab seems like a no-brainer for me, it will help you one day or another.

>> No.5503057

>>5503044
Well I have high standards, I was really pissed off when I read my results. B grades just feel sub par to me after doing GCSE (granted they're much easier).

Also I applied for Oxford this year and I got to the interview stage. I seemed to fair pretty decently then compared to everyone else as well but not quite well enough. The people I knew who got in were noticeably more hard working than myself so I've resolved to fix that about myself and learn some shit if I reapply. Plus I know a guy in the year above who did that and reapplied to get an unconditional there so I know it's possible.

I've got an offer from Bham which seems good but not great, I'm still waiting for Durham but I'm not hopeful because they asked for my marks as well. If I get in there I think I'd take that though.

>> No.5503060

>>5503039

Programming languages are all basically the same. You will end up using Matlab or something in any practical sense. If you need a program made for some specific thing you're working on, the company you work for will have a CS major ready to do it for you

>> No.5503062

>>5503057
Yeah I guess if you applied for an oxbridge and were so close to an A I'd retake

Unrelated question, what do you feel the quality of teaching at your school was like?

>> No.5503070

>>5503062
Pretty good, we have a range of fantastic teachers to not that great but the ones at the bottom end are still pretty good. At least in the subjects I do.

We have one guy in maths who is really incredibly clever, you can just tell by speaking to him and I am so annoyed that I never had lessons with him. One of my chemistry teachers is a trinity cambridge graduate and he certainly knows his stuff.

>> No.5503072

>>5503057

Retaking a class to get out of a B is moronic. You aren't going to learn that crap from taking tests, it is much more wise to get out into your job and actually practice to learn it

>> No.5503073

Learning a language like C or something as mentioned before wouldn't be an awful idea.

I suggest you just kick back and live life for a bit though. Maybe get an oddball job or 2, at most do some light reading of some more theoretical shit. Although maybe not the absolute best use of your time, going a little wild before you start uni seemed to really help me when I was actually in it. I was as tempted by keg parties, or going to bars every night, as I'd already been there/done that.

You'll have plenty of time for book-learning in school, you won't have nearly as much time for weekend road trips n shit then as you do now.

tl;dr enjoy life for the year until you start uni, 100 courses are generally really easy anyways, so the transition wont be too bad.

>> No.5503077

Im in a similar situation OP. I am so confused with what to do with my life.

I applied to natural sciences, as I want to do chemistry and physics. I was rejected from the pool from cambridge (tfw) but I got a place at UCL. Im not sure whether I should take that, or take a year out and reapply for straight physics at somewhere like imperial. My reason for this would be wanting to study astrophysics and particle physics, as UCL makes you pick only one of these options as your physics "stream", and another "stream" for chemistry (probably physical chem).

As for you, learning as much maths as possible will always be impressive, if you really want to push the boat out why not do further additional maths?

>> No.5503078

>>5503073
>was less tempted by keg parties, ...

fix'd

>> No.5503083

>>5503072
It's not retaking a class, it's retaking a test.

I did it with chem2 by just reading through my notes in the run up to exams and it went fine. The Bs were just the results of a bad performance on one module for each subject so I'm just having another crack at those which isn't much of a strain because it's only AS material.

>> No.5503119

>>5503077
You doing NatSci everywhere else? I hear that's inadvisable.

>> No.5503121

>>5503119

Yes. Why is it inadvisable?

>> No.5503127

>>5503121
I dunno I was thinking of applying NatSci at other places but I was told that it's only really great at Cambridge because that's their entire science course whereas with other unis it's alongside the lone subject sciences so there's an issue with effective allocation of resources. Plus the other courses generally have a lesser degree of freedom with the stuff you can choose.

UCL for example

>> No.5503140

>>5503127

True, although at UCL it would effectively be a double major in chemistry and physics, with a fourth year MSc in physics. And for some reason the grades for natsci at ucl are A*AA, although this is the minimum offer and most applicants get higher, but physics at UCL is AAB only, which would put me off transferring to straight physics in my first year or something.

>> No.5503153

Is codecademy a good way to learn how to program?

>> No.5503158

>>5503021
>I'm considering learning how to program myself eventually.
Sounds a bit impossible at the moment.

>> No.5503171

>>5503153
I don't think so