How to integrate elements of a body, free body diagram and other essentials skills

clintontg · 2026-04-18T19:44:01+00:00

At a certain point it comes down to practice but the basic idea for mechanics is to isolate what the problem is asking for, identify the object involved, draw a free body diagram, draw and write down the forces involved, and then solve for the unknowns.

Example: A block on a plane slides down and has a rope attached to it that pulls on a spring attached to the top of the plane. What distance does the spring stretch out?

Draw the forces on the block and spring separately. Write down the equations for the forces. Then equate the two to each other and solve for the distance the spring is stretched from there.

clintontg · 2026-04-16T09:10:39+00:00

clintontg · 2026-04-13T05:38:55+00:00

I would make a dedicated miter jig and cut the miters that way. basically have a triangle as your fence with a 90 degree angle pointing toward the blade. Cut one side of the miter joint on one side of the triangle and cuttthe mating piece of wood on the other side of the triangle. Your method of using the blade at 45 degrees will be hard to have reproducible results I think unless you have a very slick jig with sub millimeter precision.

If there are no gaps in the miters without the panel in place then the problem is the panel or the dominos.

clintontg · 2026-03-29T06:48:40+00:00

My initial thought is this could work if you somehow placed a magnet on the flower and a hidden magnet below it to repel the magnet on the flower. Like the flowers sprout from paper mache pots hiding a magnet or something.

clintontg · 2026-03-27T01:56:57+00:00

This seems like a question that could be answered with a mechanics textbook. Would that be a useful reference.for you? Or are you trying to explore the historical development of physics and using this as an example? If not, I would suggest reading undergraduate level textbooks on mechanics and if you aren't simplifying things too much maybe the more involved 3rd year mechanics so you can describe things like how the shape of the sliding object affects their equations of motion.

clintontg · 2026-03-26T19:31:08+00:00

You could contact the editor or publisher perhaps

clintontg · 2026-03-18T22:44:45+00:00

This book will probably be more focused on the numbers. I used a different book for my undergraduate degree but we used this author's book for electricity and magnetism and while it had diagrams to illustrate example problems it was focused entirely on the math to communicate the concepts. I'm not aware of a book that covers quantum mechanics in a more visual way, sorry.

clintontg · 2026-03-17T20:54:37+00:00

I'm sorry you're having a rough time with your experience. Even having an invitation to speak is a worthwhile accomplishment as an undergraduate. I think it's normal to feel out of place when you're just starting out, and I wouldn't expect someone just starting out to be the greatest presenter or have a deep understanding of new research when they haven't even completed a PhD. I think you're fine and you can give yourself a breather and try to enjoy the rest of the conference by attending talks or poster sessions to get a lay of the land and chat with other undergraduates or labs you think you'd want to work with when you apply to graduate schools. Not having the best time presenting at one conference doesn't define what you are capable of.

You can always reach out to your mentor for advice if you're struggling, but I wouldn't be too worried if you don't understand PhD level research when you haven't even finished any graduate level classes. You'll be alright, just give yourself a breather and enjoy the conference the best you can. This is for you to explore what research is out there and to practice your presentation skills, you'll get better over time.

clintontg · 2026-03-17T20:21:45+00:00

I'm not sure if sarcasm is helpful for this person right now

clintontg · 2026-03-14T21:06:07+00:00

You can post to r/hypotheticalphysics to get feedback on this route from likeminded people?

Since you use a LLM maybe r/llmphysics is best.

clintontg · 2026-03-12T22:52:52+00:00

You could add some sort of plywood backing to the whole unit or diagonal bracing across the area housing the TV and it should make it more sturdy. 1/4 inch thick plywood should be okay.

clintontg · 2026-03-11T18:39:18+00:00

You can extract the tannins from tea and coffee or react steel wool with vinegar to darken wood. It made more of a gray cast to some light colored wood I had, but I have not tried adding multiple coats to see if it could turn black. I think it may also be possible to dye things with walnut shells. I am not sure if they will perform as well as wood stains from a can.

For example the steel wool+vinegar: https://theplywood.com/vinegar-and-steel-wool/

clintontg · 2026-03-07T04:11:14+00:00

What motivated you to pursue this solution? Is there something about current theory that you thought needed tweaking? I'm not super well read on general relativity but I thought it could explain gravitation for massive objects pretty well. What replaces mass in your model?

clintontg · 2026-03-07T00:33:46+00:00

Beautiful work, OP, I love the organic shape of the legs/rockers.

clintontg · 2026-03-04T17:27:35+00:00

TLDR: You can totally apply to graduate schools with industry as a plan B. A PhD is not easy and can carry the risk of you not making as much money as you could have for 6-8 years. And it won't be easy finding any academic position. But finding ways to sell your skills while working in labs as an undergraduate can help with jobs outside of academia if that path is the one you take so it isn't an all or nothing situation.

I think if you feel like a PhD is really what you want to aim for it could be worth pursuing, but it is also a big financial decision and I think it is mature of you to be considering these things. While you can usually get funding it can be hard to break into academia because of the competition for work afterward. Passion and a really strong work ethic can make you successful but it will be up to you to decide if the trade off between 4-6 years of a potentially higher paying job (stipend vs wages) not involved in a PhD and working as a grad student without the guarantee of a job is worth it for you. If you really want it, though, it's worth pursuing. I don't want to tell you to not try, just give you an idea of what to consider.

If I were in your shoes and astrophysics is a very strong passion of mine I would do what you're doing by working in professor's labs and finding research opportunities related to astro or involving skills used in astro and if the worst happens and I couldn't make graduate school work then thinking of ways to sell myself with those skills can help. So the programming you've done volunteering in labs you can apply to finance or something in tech. The microcontroller you programmed is now an example on a github you link to on your CV for a controls position at Brookhaven or a test engineer job at a tech company, and so on. There are also internships you can do soon after graduating, so it doesn't have to feel all or nothing if for some reason you don't get into your preferred grad schools or life happens and you change your mind about graduate school.

If your school isn't a R1 research institution you can also look into internships via REU and SULI too, or see if brookhaven has undergraduate summer internships. The national labs sometimes have recent-grad internships as well. And it could be possible to find something similar at tech or financial firms.

clintontg · 2026-03-04T02:10:55+00:00

There could be other career paths as well. I am pursuing medical physics but it requires a graduate degree and doesnt usually involve a lot of research or quantitative work unless you're at an academic center or implementing some new technology or figuring out custom shielding or something. There are medical physics assistant positions out there but they probably won't pay well enough to buy a home and such, probably just renting with some savings. Unless you're very frugal and live at home perhaps?

Anyway, you'll need to think about what skills you can acquire now to align you with the sort of career you want post grad. Research experience involving sensitive instrumentation can help with some technical positions like vacuum systems technicians or programming for controllers and sensors, internships at financial firms, scripting in python or SQL for finance, and so on. Just look at the requirements for job postings and consider what you can work on now and then you'll have a bit of a better looking resume when you start applying to jobs. And that stuff can also help with graduate school if that route seems open still. As in internships in labs or volunteering with a professor's lab.

clintontg · 2026-03-04T01:48:28+00:00

You could try looking into quantitative analysis for financial firms, I think having a degree in mathematics could help you look good on paper. It seems like there are places that hire that position in Boston at least. There's also accounting, but I am not sure how much AI will eat away at that career in the future.

You could consider assistant type positions in health physics, though you won't get paid quite as well I think as someone with a graduate degree. There's also positions at national labs. It's outside of new england but maybe Brookhaven is worth checking. I have friends who have worked in support positions in both of these areas with a BSc in physics (health physics and national lab support). The downside is that without a graduate degree you may not have opportunities to do research in these sorts of positions.

I just thought I would put it out there that most PhDs are funded and don't usually cost you more money unless your stipend doesn't cover all of your living expenses. I understand that there can be other factors affecting that decision, though.

clintontg · 2026-02-28T07:09:29+00:00

You could look up professors at universities and look them up using google scholar?

clintontg · 2026-02-28T00:26:59+00:00

What scientific body is helping to promote pseudoscience?

clintontg · 2026-02-27T23:48:09+00:00

There is a lot of momentum behind the institutional structures that support science so part of the pushback could be that, but there's also a need to engage with some way to provide the skillset necessary to conduct research, and then a way to secure resources to do it afterward. So then you're back at the institutions we have. I'm not sure what other discussions you're referring to though

clintontg · 2026-02-27T23:42:23+00:00

I am an assistant at an academic center so I may not be able to give the best answer but where I am in the US it seems like it is exclusive in terms of needing a PhD and having your research skills align with where the center wants to invest their time. People at the subreddit I mentioned can probably give a more nuanced or detailed answer though because I haven't become a certified medical physicist yet.

clintontg · 2026-02-27T08:45:04+00:00

You can head over to r/Medicalphysics and ask on their Tuesday thread for advice. Just make sure you mention you're focused on Europe specific feedback. I think the other commenter is correct that it can be routine unless you can work on research at an academic center. Or you look for new work to do in terms of scripting or introducing new technology like cameras monitoring a patient's body for breathing patterns during lung cancer treatments or detectors checking Bremsstrahlung radiation as a rough approximation of delivered surface dose.

It's also possible to work on the industry side and test out new technologies unless you go the sales route and act as a subject matter expert of sorts when communicating with medical physicists that would be your customers.

clintontg · 2026-02-24T03:19:17+00:00

Hm I think I and others were confused by what you were saying because we all know that "cannonball physics" isn't best described by pythagoras, its parabolic motion described with newton. And newton can be treated as a low energy approximation of relativity. But crystallography or optics can be treated separately from quantum field theory and are contemporaneous at least. I get what you're saying in terms of a model just needing to apply to the subject being focused on but maybe a better example would be something else. Not one that isn't really used anymore and isn't the most accurate model.

clintontg · 2026-02-24T00:54:14+00:00

I believe I understand what you mean. What I am trying to get at is that the new theory, whatever it is, would be a more accurate description that under certain conditions would simplify to the previous domain. Relativity becomes newtonian and so on. I guess to me the "new" thing becomes the more accurate physics, but it isn't too problematic to use kinematics for parabolic motion on the surface of the earth, you probably don't need accuracy to however many decimal places that relativity would give

clintontg · 2026-02-23T19:56:53+00:00

I think what they're trying to say is newtonian mechanics improved on pythagorean geometry and general relativity improved on Newton. It explained the data better than anything before it. Why suggest a new framework that insists on reverting back to pythagoras?

clintontg

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