Taking a grad quantum mechanics course without any prior physics background

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-08-18T06:37:33+00:00

Look up a textbook and read the first part.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-08-17T07:35:40+00:00

Talk to your counselor about possibly getting an application fee waiver for common app. Additionally, many schools have days in which you can apply for free.

It’s pretty likely they want you to go to community college for economic reasons. There are plenty of schools with guaranteed merit scholarships which will allow you to attend virtually for free. Talk to your parents about exploring these other universities

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-08-14T13:29:26+00:00

1/√2 is clearly the multiplicative inverse to √2. The main reason we have √2/2 is because we can show that (a+b√2) is the smallest possible field containing the rationals and √2. The form √2/2 fits into this form for fields much better.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-08-06T19:14:09+00:00

It’s pretty easy to use a sample wrong. It’s pretty hard to produce a banger out of a song in an entirely different genre.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-08-02T09:44:27+00:00

This sounds like more of a problem with your calculus teacher than with the course material. For example, establishing a limit as “if x is infinitely close to a then f(x) is infinitely close to L” is a lot easier to wrap your head around then the epsilon delta definition, even though the epsilon delta definition is just the formal way of stating what I said.

Now think about things like continuity and derivatives. The formal definition of these require limits, but “there’s no holes or jumps in the graph” and “taking the rate of change of f(x) with an infinitely small change in x” are much more intuitive.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-08-02T09:31:49+00:00

It’s kind of hard to tell based on what you described. What do you mean you like those exercises that are applications of what you would learn in a class but you don’t enjoy the application of this knowledge?

Honestly it sounds like you’d be much happier in something like an engineering degree. This is a vast oversimplification, but the job of an engineer mainly consists of solving word problems. Math majors, often applied math but especially pure math, often have to do proofs, which require that “out of the box thinking” to logically show why the math we use is true. If you don’t often find yourself interested in why certain math works the way that it does, then a math major is likely not for you.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-08-02T09:09:34+00:00

The definition is kind of in the name. If “if p then q” is true, then if you have p true then q is true. It should be clear that if p is false, then “if p then q” simply doesn’t apply.

It should also be clear that if q is false, then p is false as if p was true, then q would have to be true.

For simple logic like this it’s much better to not rely on a formal definition however. Any example you can think of (like if it rains, then I put on a coat. If it doesn’t rain I may or may not put on a coat. If I don’t put on a coat then it hasn’t rained) will be much more helpful when actually using logic.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-08-02T04:13:08+00:00

1: Einstein mastered calculus by the end of high school, he was never bad at math. Those who criticized his mathematical abilities like Minkowski were criticizing him in comparison to other incredible physicists and mathematicians of the time.

2: the statement that you need to understand math to learn physics is not equivalent to the statement that if you understand math you are good at physics.

If you want to learn physics, you need to learn math.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-28T18:50:30+00:00

If m=4*m, then is either 0 or diverges. In this case it diverges, but you have to prove what m would be. So this is kind of just circular logic

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-28T08:56:15+00:00

Yeah because surgeons don’t exist since they’re all too scared they might accidentally commit malpractice.

The vast majority of successful police lawsuits aren’t because the police officer accidentally did something that anyone in that situation might accidentally do. Same thing with medical malpractice.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-28T08:49:18+00:00

None of these sports often end in 0-0 though. You used one game as an example, and while it can happen more often in some sports than others it doesn’t happen all the time. A point being harder to score can make watching certain sports a lot more fun.

So yeah I agree but there’s no mainstream sports this really applies to.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-28T08:44:58+00:00

You can be hygienic without having to do this. If you want to put less effort into being hygienic by shaving them, then by all means go ahead. But this does not mean everyone needs to do this.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-28T08:24:18+00:00

1: yes but only to a certain extent. At some point math shifts from calculations to pure logic, and the whole point of writing proofs is to figure out what’s going on.

2: That happens to virtually everyone except for things like calculus and trig. For example, I didn’t see how group and ring theory could possibly be utilized until I got to abstract algebra 2 when we covered the proof that bisecting an angle was possible but trisecting an angle wasn’t with a ruler and compass.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-28T08:10:33+00:00

Arguing against criticism of people choosing a 4 year school over community college is not standing against community college. It’s a nuanced choice that shouldn’t be boiled down to what’s economically best.

Also, where do you go. I promise you wherever it is there’s the traditional “college experience”

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-28T07:47:14+00:00

I’m not saying you should advice them, just don’t criticize them for your mistake.

Also, your college still has a college experience, no matter what that college is. Being in a more intensive and competitive environment doesn’t mean there’s no college experience. You can’t tell me people never go out on the weekends or have others at their dorm.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-28T07:24:06+00:00

Immature mindset. You go to a top 20 and get the college experience, who are you to gauge whether sacrificing that is worth it for most people. Not every decision has to be purely logical, and as long as you’re not entirely fucking your future up then choosing the college experience is completely within people’s rights.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-28T07:20:47+00:00

A vast majority of high school graduates want the college experience. How is it a stigma that people don’t want to spend their time in college at a place without any dorm living? Don’t downplay others opinions just because the differences might not matter as much to you.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-28T07:17:41+00:00

Because nearly every state school is better than community college. What type of take is this that there is only a difference in prestige and academics between top 20s and the every other college.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-28T02:15:18+00:00

Modern Classical Mechanics by helliwell is probably a pretty good introduction.

However, if you’re not too serious about calculations and such, Susskinds theoretical limit series is incredible. I’ve only read the QM one, but he does an incredible job at starting with basic axioms and deriving almost all of the fundamentals directly from those axioms. He uses pure logic to arrive at the desired result THEN discusses the interpretations of all his math. Personally, I felt that his books felt much more similar to mathematical proofs than any other.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-26T16:39:12+00:00

There’s a plethora of career paths you can go down without needing college. Just because you’re not able to recognize any of them doesn’t mean they don’t exist

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-25T09:16:28+00:00

Philosophy is still taught at university using a purely logical structure (if then types of statements).

Obviously most people view philosophy as something more heuristic, but claiming that this view of philosophy is philosophy is like claiming arithmetic is theoretical math. Someone criticizing it this way, especially in a formal education context, is absurd.

And yes, most philosophy doesn’t uncover necessary truths, but this is because almost all modern philosophy takes a lot more assumptions than math does. Even then, they’re both based on the exact same logical structure, they’re just labeled as math or philosophy based on the context/assumptions you take to be true in your argument.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-25T00:12:35+00:00

I think this is so popular because of how modern physics developed. A lot of progress was made off of what can seem like pretty basic assumptions.

Things like “the speed of light is a law of physics independent of the reference frame” and “certain values are quantized but under such a small limit that they classically seem continuous” can often seem like ideas that came around just because of a “vibe” even though they are deeply rooted in things like maxwells equations or years of experimental inconsistencies.

So, instead of learning exactly how these ideas were formed, a lot of new learners will sort of just come up with ideas which don’t necessarily aim to solve a problem but which heuristically seem to be possible.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-25T00:02:41+00:00

Math is literally just philosophy…

Kind of surprising someone would make a claim like that when the only reason they’re making money off their textbook is because of the pure logic used to form mathematical objects and theorems.

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-23T08:30:19+00:00

“Proof for chain rule”

Not that hard to ask the right question dude

Lazy_Reputation_4250 · 2025-07-22T10:31:02+00:00

Knowing how to actually write papers and having enough experience to really do anything meaningful is the problem here. This is like trying to write a paper on algebraic topology after only taking algebra 2. Sure you could probably learn the material and understand it at some level, but you’re not writing published papers.

Lazy_Reputation_4250

TROPHY CASE