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/sci/ - Science & Math

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6573460 No.6573460[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

So /sci/ I come to you with a personal dilemma that I seek your opinion on. I'm about to be junior in undergraduate, working towards a double major in Physics and Mathematics and (hopefully, I'm starting really late), a minor in computer science. My dilemma is thus: I feel and have felt now that my life's calling is to work in the field of cosmology and quantum physics, and to ultimately be one who works on theories like String Theory and the like. I've been drawn to physics and math since I was in elementary school, when I was always that faggot that checked out whatever books the library had on physics whenever we had library time as our resource hour (they just threw us in a library and we watched a dumb movie and they let us check out books for a week). Now, it's summer break and I've had time to start digging into more advanced stuff on my free time, and just to get a feel for what's in store, I've just been getting on the string theory Wikipedia page (just as a base, I'm not treating the information as doctrine), and I've become maddeningly disheartened every time.

There's simply so many things that I don't know, and to know that I'm already half way done with undergrad doesn't help. Is there really that much left to learn (which is the answer I'm hoping for), or am I behind (which I don't really think is the answer)?

Physics and math majors are beseeched to answer. Was there a huge jump from undergraduate to graduate level physics and mathematics? Do I just need patience, or do I need to start doing my own extensive research now? I go to private liberal arts college (whoops), and the physics department is small, but very knowledgeable and experienced, but understaffed and strained (one of our professors actually worked on string theory when it was very hot shit, and now he's just teaching intro classes, what the fuck).

Answers, advice?

>> No.6573471

>>6573460
>theories like String Theory and the like

Stopped reading there. You're not very smart, are you?

>> No.6573473

>>6573471
Of course I'm not, I'm an undergrad for Christ's sake. I don't know jack shit.

>> No.6573475

>>6573471
^ pathetic.

>>6573460
>I go to private liberal arts college
What are you, retarded? Go and transfer into a better college for physics or something.

>> No.6573478

Basically, do you still want to do theoretical physics

Get some modern physics textbooks and read those instead and see if you are interested

>> No.6573484

>>6573478
That is what I want to do, yes. I guess I should elucidate on what my education will look like when I graduate (these are all post intro, of course):

In physics:
Modern Physics
Newtonian Mechanics
Electrical Circuits
Electricity and Magnetism
Optics
Quantum Mech
Statistical Physics

Math:
Multi
Complex Analysis
Ordinary and Partial differential equations
Abstract/Modern Algebra (1 year)
Real Analysis (1 year)
Calculus on Manifolds
Modern Geometry

Does that sound on par for what I'll need later on?

>> No.6573486

>>6573484
Oh and Linear Algebra

duh

>> No.6573509

>>6573484
>>6573486

You should do some Lie groups, Lie algebra and representation theory, and also some topology.

>> No.6573518

>>6573484
What school do you go to?

It's fine to say, there are literally hundreds of physics undergrads at any institution you'll name.

>> No.6573521

>>6573509
Modern Geometry will go into a little bit of topology. We have a class called Geometric Topology that I really want to take but it requires Real Analysis, and it's offered like, every other year, so I don't think I'll be able to get it.

However, one of the perks of going to a liberal arts college that >>6573475 doesn't know about is that if I want a teacher to teach me something, I can request a directed study, and get a grade on it. Is there a formal class that that subject material is taught in? I know Lie Groups play a huge role in String Theory, and I haven't really been able to decode what they are as of yet.

>> No.6573526

>>6573518
Washington and Lee university. The funny thing is, since I've given you my school's name and my grade, if you worked hard enough, you could probably figure out exactly who I am haha.

Seriously, there are about six other physics majors in my class, and I think I'm the only one doubling in math. My friend who's a physics/biochem might try to snag the math major as well, but he doesn't know.

>> No.6573571

bemp

>> No.6573578

>>6573460
>felt now that my life's calling is to work in the field of cosmology and quantum physics, and to ultimately be one who works on theories like String Theory and the like

You life calling is to waste your life away on meaningless garbage?

>I've become maddeningly disheartened every time

Good. It's all unmathematical hand waving and perturbative nonsense anyway.

>Was there a huge jump from undergraduate to graduate level physics and mathematics

Yes

>> No.6573588

>>6573578
>You life calling is to waste your life away on meaningless garbage?

I never understand the rationale of people who claimed that trying to understand the universe was "meaningless"? Why is it so?

>> No.6573613

>>6573460
>I've become maddeningly disheartened every time.

>There's simply so many things that I don't know

Graduate student here: One thing you have to know is that you *must* become comfortable in knowing you know jack-shit. You will always feel stupid every day you come into lab if you are doing it right. If you are disheartened by feeling stupid/that you don't know everything you should, graduate school might kill you.

This article by Martin A. Schwartz is something I have every undergrad who steps into my lab read.

http://jcs.biologists.org/content/121/11/1771.full

>> No.6573620

>>6573460
>or am I behind
>>6573484
>Does that sound on par for what I'll need later on?

Are you still learning stuff OUTSIDE of your classes? If not, then you are behind.

You should aim for a decent understanding of Special Function, Calculus of Variation, any and all topics skipped in your ODE/PDE courses, Dynamic Systems and Chaos Theory, Fourier Analysis, Functional Analysis, Probability Theory and Statistics, Topology, Differential/Riemann Geometry, and Representation Theory or you're going to find yourself playing catch up and "what the fuck is going on" a lot in grad school.

>> No.6573633

>>6573588
You may as well be studying philosophy than actual physics as your shit is untestable and unrigorously derived.

>> No.6573639

>>6573613
Thanks anon, that does make me feel better. It's not the feeling stupid that makes me feel bad though; I do kind of agree with the article that it's a pleasant feeling at times, as it usually means I'm getting somewhere. My major dilemma was reading about these advanced topics and not knowing whether or not I should already know them, or how to go about learning them.

>>6573620
Well, I've been trying to learn things outside of school, but I've been very pointed in focusing on those advanced theories I pointed out earlier, but that list you gave seems to be a little more concrete. Luckily, PDE's does extensive work with Fourier Analysis, and I saw it in a Math Methods course I took this year. The rest of it I'll write down and look up over the course of the summer.

Thanks, professors anon.

>> No.6573642

>>6573633
>String theory is currently untestable

Well, yeah, no shit Sherlock everyone knows that. Your point? We should just abandon it because it makes mathematicians cry?

>> No.6573673

>>6573642
Yes.

You're randomly guessing an answer and have no way of testing it. It's metaphysics philosophy at best.

>> No.6574645

>>6573673
So then what are we supposed to do? Sit there twiddling our thumbs? Why is it not okay for theory to predate the confirming experimentation?

>> No.6574671

>>6573639
A study should provide two things:
1) A basis to work with. You can't really get into a problem if you don't have any basic knowledge about how things work. This starts with classical mechanics, electrical systems, basic quantum mechanics and progresses to get harder and harder. Same for the mathematical subjects.

2) To teach you a level of thinking. To think "the scientific way." To be able to tackle a problem, even if its workings aren't known to you. The article here >>6573613
describes it rather well: the professor didn't know it as well. You don't have to know everything. It is the things you don't know you learn from.
I'm currently working on a project involving a coupling of a newly designed cavity. I knew what cavities did, I knew electromagnetism. I knew nothing about how the coupling exactly works. Neither did my professor. It's not his field. It is not something taught in my courses. But I just went and studied it. I understood the math used to explain it, had to learn some techniques and now I can go about tackling the problems of the project.

Point is: studying hard, even outside of your courses is very good. But don't be frightened by what you don't know. Just keep on learning what you want to learn. After all, not knowing something is the reason some of us like science. It gives the opportunity to change that.

Now I'm just gonna shut up. I talked to much already

>> No.6574703

>>6573460
teach yourself theoretical physics, do it on your own as a hobby. do NOT make any attempt to join academia: the job market is basically post-WWIII blasted-out wasteland, and even if you got in you'd just be doing useless committeework the rest of your life

>> No.6574709

>>6573642
>"it makes mathematicians cry"
>being this uninformed
string theory has actually made contributions to mathematics, dumbass.

>>6573673
>"I don't know what speculative science is, and I'm willing to pass judgment on a speculative theory I know nothing about without suggesting an alternative"

>> No.6574715

>>6574645
It's about as useful as constantly trying to prove god.

>> No.6574717

>>6573673
>>6574645
Two idiots arguing from ignorance.

>> No.6574734
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6574734

>>6574645
I theorize the Universe disappears when I close my eyes. As I can't prove anyone else actually exists, this is untestable but seems legit as it matches my observations.

Nobel Prize please!

>> No.6574735

>>6573460
OP I've done a BSc in physics and math.

Every first year was just like you, harping on about what their PhD would be about. A majority dropped out.

It is a very tedious degree, I wouldn't bother planning out any postgrad shit until you have actually completed an undergrad in physics and math.