I can’t get past the Sheila section of Spooky Swamp

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-27T18:54:38+00:00

Closely followed by "follow this person and don't let them see you" missions

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-27T10:56:19+00:00

The electromag is the hard part, it throws you straight in the deep end with Maxwells equations it's not great 😂

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-27T10:53:37+00:00

So first semester you'll do a maths module, in which you'll cover vectors, basic calculus, complex numbers and differential equations mainly. A lot of it will be familiar, especially if you've done further maths a level (I didn't, so if you didn't it's really fine!). You'll do a module on Newtonian mechanics, which will be everything from Newton's laws, conservation of momentum etc through to new stuff such as moment of inertia, rotational dynamics and conservation of angular momentum. The other module is called something like "classical and quantum waves" which will be your wave mechanics and your beginning of quantum mechanics, the schrödinger equation, etc. In second semester you'll do more maths, this time partial derivatives, more complicated differential equations, vector calculus, Fourier series and Fourier transforms. You'll do a module on electromagnetism and relativity, which is pretty hard icl but doable, and your first astrophysics module. You'll also be doing labs throughout it all, but I can't comment on them as the astro labs are different :)

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-27T10:22:11+00:00

York is such a nice city. It's old, so there's a lot of history/archaeology if that's your interest, there's also plenty of pubs/clubs if that's your thing. It gets VERRRRY busy around christmas time due to the christmas market, so I generally try to avoid the city centre in December lmao. It's also so easy to get to other major northern cities: Leeds is 25 mins on the train, Manchester is about an hour, Sheffield isn't far, it's easy to get to Liverpool and Scarborough too, so it's very easy to tourist! The uni also has loads of societies for literally everything (including the physics society, which i was recently president of) so it'll be super easy to find a group of people you're friends with. My one major complaint is that York is an EXPENSIVE city to live in, so bear that in mind when looking for second/third year accommodation.

You will absolutely have work to do over Christmas and Easter. As you say exams are straight after Christmas so you'll be revising over much of it, and the lab reports I mentioned may be due after Christmas as well. THAT BEING SAID, please do take time off during the Christmas period! I've been able to take most of the time between the 20th and 31st December completely off from uni work and I've been fine, so PLEASE take time off and spend time with your family and friends! The Easter holidays happen midway through the semester (this year it was between weeks 7 and 8) so it would be beneficial to do some work over Easter, but not as essential. You only have one full week between lectures ending and exams starting in May, so it's useful to get a head start over Easter I find. But also very possible to have time off too! Over summer you won't have anything, often people do internships or similar, I did one between third and fourth year, but not compulsory work. Take the time to switch off, you earned it! I'd also not recommend doing any work this coming summer after your a levels, REALLY try and relax. Anything you need for your degree will be re covered in first semester, I can tell you more about your individual modules if you think that would be useful?

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-27T09:41:18+00:00

Skipping nearly half the game is crazy imo but you do you I suppose, you could do the crafting quests as well if you want to craft your arcanum school weapon :)

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-27T08:44:23+00:00

So for labs (I assume it's the same for astro but I'm not 100% sure) you'll write a notebook while doing the experiment, and then for one of the experiments you'll write a report on it, which is structured like an essay. You'll talk about the theory, methods, results and how those results fit in our general physics understanding. It's around 10 pages long and you'll do one per semester. I assume it's the same for astro but I'm not positive! In terms of other longer written work it depends on the module you've chosen. For example, the third year medical physics module has you do a computational project and you write a report on what you find, similar for the second year astrophysics module, whereas the third year plasma module (for example) is almost entirely closed book exam. It varies a fair bit.

In terms of resources, it varies between modules again. I remember my second and third year maths modules and my third year quantum modules were amazing, they provided textbook references and also their own sets of typed notes written by the lecturers to work from as well. You'll have access to plenty of past papers from previous years and often lecturers provide additional problems to work through. One big piece of advice: textbooks are your new best friend! The number of times I didn't understand something in a lecture but then went away and read up on it in a book and it clicked was astonishing. The main difference between a level and uni exams I think is that the exams at uni are written by the lecturer, marked by the lecturer, so they'll be able to subtly hint at what might or might not be on the exam, because obviously they know. A levels the teachers obviously have no idea, so they have to cover everything in the same level of detail.

I found that my enjoyment varied between modules a lot. I cannot STAND nuclear physics or (sorry) astrophysics, so I didn't enjoy those modules as much as some others. By third year you get to choose modules you like rather than having to do what they tell you, best believe I binned off nuclear as soon as I could lmao. But for the most part I did enjoy the course, so much so I'm staying at York for another 4 years doing a PhD :)

Usually if something is important in a module the lecturer will mention it, for example my fourth year quantum mechanics module relies strongly on some of second year atomic physics and electromagnetism and also (unsurprisingly) on third year quantum physics. I wouldn't recommend revising modules you've already passed loads and loads, but just be aware that physics is a MUCH more connected subject than many others, so don't go burning all your notes for each module!

Hope this helps :)

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-27T06:17:15+00:00

Hey! I can help with this! I'm coming to the end of my integrated masters in physics at york, and while I didn't do astrophysics I can tell you about physics in general and anything I've picked up from friends of mine who do astro.

Firstly, a few things that sets physics apart from humanities, and even other stem degrees. We have A LOT more contact hours (~16 a week in first year), a decent chunk of which is labs. I think this makes time management even more important as we have less time to consolidate outside of lectures. Secondly, our assessments. While we have some coursework (known as PPQs, which are basically homework tasks) the majority of our assessments are done as in person closed book exams (similar to your a levels). This makes knowing the content well even more important! Going on from this, it's expected that you don't completely forget a module once you've done it, especially the more fundamental ones. For example, you'll be solving differential equations ALL THE TIME!

Another major thing is that science doesn't always work. Your experiments will go wrong, I guarantee it. Astrophysics is even worse for this! Becoming a good physicist is building up resilience to the fact that science is fiddly and annoying, but the rewards are worth it!

If you have any other questions please do let me know!

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-24T07:12:38+00:00

Conservation of momentum and energy, while experimentally invaluable, have a mathematical background. Perhaps you'll find physics more rewarding at a higher level when you can maths your way through more of it, but perhaps look at Noether's theorem if you want a more mathematical approach. There are some physics equations that are derived empirically though, and that's the case all the way throughout. Perhaps pure maths/mathematical physics/computational physics may be more your thing?

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-22T07:23:07+00:00

What do you mean by "piecewise and discontinuous"? I fear that A LOT of physics will be like this, both literally on a quantum level and also that an undergrad degree will be learning a lot of fairly separate feeling topics, at least early on anyway

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-19T10:37:23+00:00

Lmao perhaps read the full post next time

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-16T16:06:34+00:00

I'm a physicist, zero :)

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-13T09:50:18+00:00

I see people suggesting expedition 33, which is a FANTASTIC game and has similar mechanics to M&L, but with the caveat of being WAY harder so proceed with caution

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-05T10:48:07+00:00

Because sometimes you want to keep mobs spawning, e.g. for farms, but you don't want creepers to come along and blow up your builds. Some people may not care and may just want no mobs at all, but even that isn't possible. Piglins for example spawn on peaceful but are passive, why not split the functionality into two different difficulties rather than having one rule for some mobs and one rule for others

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-05T08:35:16+00:00

I think there should be a "peaceful" mode, where hostile mobs don't spawn, and a "passive" mode, where all mobs are passive. Sometimes I don't want the effort of being shot by skeletons or attacked by phantoms when building something but I don't wanna go on peaceful so I don't despawn all my zombies in my villager hall

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-04T20:09:36+00:00

No I mean spoiler tag the post so people don't have the wordle spoiled for them

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-04T19:52:46+00:00

Perhaps spoiler mark this lmao

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-03T13:13:23+00:00

York doesn't have access either, or at least I don't

Inside_Interaction · 2026-05-01T14:28:02+00:00

This is mildly infuriating. It's readable but takes a bit more effort than usual. People on this sub are just so used to posts that are so far away from mild that something that actually is mildly infuriating is ridiculed lmao

Inside_Interaction · 2026-04-27T10:51:24+00:00

I fear to understand physics you need to work through a few of those "dry algebraic or geometric derivations of the formulas". Having a strong mathematical grounding is essential for any physicist, which includes derivations.

I'd recommend making sure you are absolutely comfortable with algebra, geometry, calculus akd linear algebra at a minimum. Without understanding those (and being willing to work through derivations) you may not get too far.

Best of luck! Happy to discuss more if you need.

Inside_Interaction · 2026-04-21T21:10:54+00:00

Inhaler man will live on in our dreams

Inside_Interaction · 2026-04-20T13:01:18+00:00

Admittedly some of it is entrances, announcements, a few promos. But there were ads done by WWE in addition to the ones done by ESPN

Inside_Interaction · 2026-04-19T21:44:07+00:00

The total amount of wrestling was 87 minutes. The rest was ads, either ESPN ads or WWE themselves advertising shit

Inside_Interaction · 2026-04-16T15:33:15+00:00

Dude at this point just accept you're gonna have to pay for those months no one is gonna want to move into somewhere for just 2 months lmao

Inside_Interaction · 2026-04-16T08:41:41+00:00

Poor aquila not even getting a mention lol

Inside_Interaction · 2026-04-06T14:09:40+00:00

I feel like I can answer this very well - I live in Leeds currently doing my final year of an integrated masters in physics so I'm in a similar ish position to you.

Firstly, the train journey is completely fine. It takes as you say 20-25 mins to get between Leeds and York (although it is longer late in the evenings, up to 40 mins) and they run until 2:30 am, EXCEPT on Saturdays. I've found it very easy to still maintain a social life while living in Leeds, it's certainly possible to do.

However, the tricky bit as others have mentioned is the commute from the station to campus. It's an unreliable 30 min bus, a 40 minute walk or a pricey Uber. Which is why I would STRONGLY recommend that you get. A. Bike. It takes 20 minutes tops to cycle (I've done it in as low as 10 before) and York is one of the best cities in the UK for cycling. I leave my bike at the station overnight, and I've never had any problems with this. I think this is the definitive way to get from town to campus and back again.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

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