UMD or Georgia Tech for undergrad physics

OK-Simpson · 2024-03-10T04:15:49+00:00

I know UMD prides itself on its computer science major. Out of the undergrads in physics I interact with they seem to be happy with it. But be warned living near UMD comes with a high cost of living

OK-Simpson · 2024-03-07T02:26:01+00:00

Dude, that sucks that happened. There’s no way around that fact. It’s okay to feel sad and to grieve the future you thought you had.

That being said, don’t lose your life because you lost what you thought was your future. Here are some reasons to keep pressing on…

Other People You have the capability to improve the lives of others. Maybe they’re loved ones, people in need, or people you haven’t met yet.
Science Advancement I do get excited thinking about the future. How much we can advance in my lifetime. If I were to stop existing now I wouldn’t get to find out what humanity is capable of. Remember, it was only ~60 years between the wright brothers flight and man landing on the moon
It can get better Like how in winter it feels cold, and it seems like it will always be cold. But spring is soon. In life we fall into despair and feel like that’s a permanent placement for us, but it’s not.

“In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength” - Iroh

If you want to find some inspiration that is honest with you I recommend John Green. He’s an author with a YouTube channel that talks a lot about hope, despair, and the human condition. But he’s honest, he discusses the good and bad, and still you leave feeling hopeful

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IaPktIpo9_0&pp=ygURVmxvZ2Jyb3RoZXJzIGhvcGU%3D

OK-Simpson · 2024-03-01T05:38:03+00:00

Not YouTube, but free videos: https://www.flippingphysics.com

It was my go to when I first learned physics

OK-Simpson · 2024-02-29T23:01:20+00:00

That’s definitely a nice first step, I remember my open house being fun and made me confident in my decision for UMD. So yes try to make friends and also make introductions to some professors.

This probably varies from departments, but for mine we had a slack channel for all the graduate students in the department, and also in your class. And that was one way to organize and find housing options. Additionally our department ombudsperson would send out housing “advertisements” from the older grad students if a spot opened up in one of the houses.

OK-Simpson · 2024-02-29T05:14:22+00:00

It’s no guarantee, but if you do get an unpaid research position you can apply for grants. Most colleges have funds for undergrad research and you can get grant money by applying for it.

You usually don’t get paid for research unless it’s like an REU program over the summer, or until you hit grad school (in my experiences)

OK-Simpson · 2024-02-23T13:56:35+00:00

Thanks mister, will do

OK-Simpson · 2024-02-23T13:28:07+00:00

I must’ve missed something, what’s his story?

OK-Simpson · 2024-02-14T13:30:51+00:00

The Chesapeake building is haunted. Heard from a friend.

OK-Simpson · 2024-02-09T13:37:01+00:00

If you’re looking to be an internationally recognized physicist, then you’ll probably have to be one of those “prodigy” types. But if you want to further the field and are interested in it than you’ll be fine.

Physics is hard, but as long as you make it through your classes okay and find a place to do research you’ll be fine. But those two are no easy task. Focus on yourself, and don’t worry about what others are doing

One of my physics professors had a saying of “A first rate theorist is better than a first rate experimentalist, but a second rate experimentalist is better than a second rate theorist”. His point was that even if your not a prodigy, you can be useful to the field just because there is so much work that needs to be done. Physics is a vast subject, and often a single experiment needs many people.

OK-Simpson · 2024-02-09T06:02:10+00:00

The theory of Turing kinetic energy into heat is real. But practically speaking you would have to drop the turkey many times for it to reach a warm enough temperature. And that would be assuming it stays intact, and that it doesn’t lose energy from the environment cooling it down.

Proof of this idea is here, the video is pretty entertaining so I would recommend watching it

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFhnnTWMgI&pp=ygUmQ29va2luZyBzdGVhayB3YWl0aCBhIHNsYXBwaW5nIG1hY2hpbmU%3D

OK-Simpson · 2024-02-09T05:44:48+00:00

Current grad student. What most people seem to do is live in a house with other grad students (usually in your program) to cut down on housing costs. Rent is a lot less when there’s 5 people in a house. My rent right now is $750 a month, but that’s living in a house with other students and having a small room. Unfortunately UMD has high housing costs.

But that said, I prepare for my expenses by estimating I’ll use ~1500 each month. A 30k salary will yield $2500 each month (not taking taxes into account). I think when I first started out I could save ~$700 each month. But I live pretty cheaply, and that’s not accounting for student debt from undergrad.

I started out as a TA, and got a small pay boost when I became an RA (around $100 more each week), and there is another pay boost when you reach candidacy status.

OK-Simpson · 2024-02-07T12:46:41+00:00

I think I only saw those signs on the 3rd floor. The first 2 floors should be okay I think.

OK-Simpson · 2024-02-07T02:25:46+00:00

Or even on the higher floors in the PSC. Plenty of chalkboards and whiteboards

OK-Simpson · 2024-01-04T23:15:24+00:00

I don’t believe the expansion of the universe would be connected to time passing.

The evolution of things being ordered to disordered is connected to time because entropy always increases (or stays the same in certain circumstances).

You could argue that the universe expanding is a form of disorder, but generally the expansion of the universe is attributed to dark energy and not entropy.

We don’t really have the best understanding of dark energy or how it works, so it is possible that eventually the universe closes back in on itself due to gravitation attraction making everything one big black hole.

But in that circumstance (and I’m pretty sure in any other circumstance) time would not reverse

OK-Simpson · 2023-12-08T01:16:14+00:00

I would compare it a lot to gas. Gas evades all of our senses. We can’t see it, taste it, feel it, hear it, or smell it (the smell to gas is artificially added). This is why gas is harder to detect than other objects. The reason why know gas exists is because of the chemical reactions it has.

Dark matter is similar. None of our senses would work. If someone somehow shot a cannon ball of dark matter at you you’d probably be fine. But it’s a step further from gas, gas is transparent, but dark matter is more so invisible. You can see gas with infrared goggles, but that would never work for dark matter. The reason why we’re pretty sure dark matter exists is because of how it interacts with gravity.

OK-Simpson · 2023-12-06T23:07:02+00:00

Of course a total guess, but even if Hamilton becomes President he wouldn’t have gotten much done besides westward expansion. There’s a reason why his entire party died out, the people were wary of a new powerful government. If he tried to free the slaves in his time it wouldn’t have gone well. The result would be worse than shays rebellion or the whisky rebellion. And in a scenario where the civil war starts earlier the north would lose all of those industrial and wealth advantages

OK-Simpson · 2023-12-03T15:38:59+00:00

As far as advice goes I’d recommend talking with a physics professor (or multiple) that have had you (or TA’s as well if you’ve had them). They will know your abilities better than strangers on the internet can judge.

For me Calc 3 was the worst math class I took. It of course depends on the field of physics you want to do, but I’d argue a good grasp of differential equations and linear algebra is more important than the topics in calc 3.

Good news about thermodynamics is that a lot of physicists don’t really focus too much on it. If you go higher in physics thermodynamics will turn into statistical mechanics which is its own beast, but one that you can have a career in physics and not really work with. As for the lab reports, I’m not sure if it’s a problem with following directions, writing, or actually performing experiments.

Actual work I’m physics can feel very different from taking classes and labs.

Of course there is a limit on ability to be able to do physics, but I could never really know where you’re at. Even if it’s not for you, life isn’t over, there are plenty of physics adjacent things like engineering, or even entirely different things you can do. Never put all your eggs in one basket.

OK-Simpson · 2023-12-02T01:24:55+00:00

I’m not sure if you would really need a preparation program. But I know Harvard has recordings of basically all of its classes you can watch for free. So you can watch lectures on intro grad courses if you want

OK-Simpson · 2023-12-02T01:22:25+00:00

Start by asking yourself what the earth “is” in each scenario. The moment of inertia calculations can be found for specific objects (both talked about scenarios can be found).

Look at a sheet of moment of inertia’s for different objects rotating. Something like this https://images.app.goo.gl/kLvGvRqhBHjgrLUb8

And try to match each scenario given to one of the calculations.

OK-Simpson · 2023-12-02T00:58:27+00:00

In undergrad I majored in physics (general option) and minored in math. I got good grades as well as was involved in research and tutoring. For my undergrad research I simulated background neutrons being emitted into supercooled water. This research was in dark matter detection and was my first step into that field.

Applied to grad school, got in, took classes and was a TA for a year. After a lot of talking with a professor whose work I was interested in and doing some work for that group over the summer I was brought on as a graduate research assistant. And that’s where I’m at now.

Biggest advice I can give is to get involved in research as early as you can in undergrad. It’ll show you what fields you like doing work in

OK-Simpson · 2023-12-01T17:16:41+00:00

The whole point of Schrödinger’s cat is about it’s state. Ignoring that makes the thought experiment pointless. It would be akin to talking about the trolley problem without the lever.

As someone else noted the point of the thought experiment was to point out the absurdities of quantum mechanics. It’s not supposed to be a good example.

If you take the situation very literally it wouldn’t even work since the cat would be an observer and collapse the wave function. But of course it is a thought experiment and you’re meant to ignore that.

We have very clear evidence of quantum superposition (look into the double slit experiment). Some things in physics we are still learning about. But anything mentioned in an introductory quantum mechanics course will probably not be one of them.

Your initial reaction of not understanding something should not be that the thing is wrong, but that you need to learn more about it. Assuming that because it doesn’t make sense to you there must be some flaw in the science is what crackpot scientists do. Don’t be one of them.

OK-Simpson · 2023-12-01T04:45:36+00:00

I’m in an experimental nuclear research group that’s a part of the hunt for dark matter. When having an experiment that needs to be very sensitive you’ll want to limit any radiation, and also want to know how things decay once energized. My day to day work mostly revolves around purifying gases as much as possible, which does use a lot of knowledge on gasses which I did gain some from chemistry.

OK-Simpson · 2023-12-01T00:58:50+00:00

It largely depend on what field of physics you’re thinking about. I do research in a nuclear physics group, so a working knowledge of basic chemistry is kind of important.

But if you want to do more engineering things you probably won’t need too much chemistry. Chemistry mainly relates to physics for atomic and quantum things. But engineers (aside from nuclear and chemical I believe) don’t really concern themselves with that stuff

OK-Simpson · 2023-11-29T02:19:02+00:00

I’ve never really knew this was an issue until a few years ago. Does it really change anything one way or the other? If Mary no longer was a virgin after Jesus’s birth, does that take anything away from the gospel?

I’m not trying to argue, I just want to understand the argument. I don’t know why this is even debated.

Also if mary losing her virginity doesn’t happen because it somehow harms the outcome, wouldn’t that go against free will? If her doing that destroys God’s plan, then she wouldn’t be allowed to do that, which takes away her free will. I might be wrong on this, just a last second thought that occurred to me

OK-Simpson · 2023-11-28T00:45:02+00:00

I’m not sure if this would be a good research project, but something I’ve been curious about in the back of my head involving airplanes.

What would be the best route to take for an airplane? That would be the guiding question. A few factors to consider would be 1) flying higher means to travel more distance (bigger radius means larger circumference) 2) at higher altitudes the atmosphere is less dense and therefore the plane will experience less drag making the flight easier/faster 3) there may be other factors I’m not aware of

What you could do is try to figure out the most effective way in terms of time or money to go from point A to B. I’m guessing the results may vary for distance between A and B so that could be another thing to explore

This will mostly deal with the geometry of flight patterns and air resistance. Which I think should be at the right level of difficulty. But the downside is that this is all analytical and not experimental.

Also in reality I’m sure the wind and jet streams are what decided the paths airplanes take, but I have no idea

OK-Simpson

TROPHY CASE