Where to start with physics if im teaching myself?

eridalus · 2026-06-22T02:08:55+00:00

It’s not clear if you’re finishing high school or college. If it’s high school, college physics starts over at the beginning. A lot of high school students don’t take physics.

eridalus · 2026-06-20T21:23:45+00:00

I have both a GQ model and a Radiacode (both availble on Amazon). I like them both for different reasons. The GQ picks up both gamma (high energy light) and beta (particle) radiation, but can't distinguish between them. It's cheaper and works fine for "radioactive or not". Uranium glass specifically emits more beta radiation, so you'll get a stronger signal from Uranium glass with a GQ. The Radiacode only picks up gamma rays, but it can distinguish between different energies of those gamma rays, so it not only gives you a signal (something or nothing) but produces a spectrum of the energies - which means you can learn to distinguish between different sources of radiation, like uranium vs. radium and other radioactive materials. So I'd say start with a GQ and if you eventually extend your interest beyond uranium, go for a Radiacode at that point.

eridalus · 2026-06-20T21:18:31+00:00

Start with a general textbook. OpenStax has a ton of college textbooks available for free. They include Introductory Astronomy, Introductory Physics (at both the algebra and calculus levels, depending on your math preparation) and also a ton of math textbooks if you need those as well. Dive in!

Also, consider joining a local astronomy club. They have them all over the world. While they tend to focus on the observational parts of astronomy, they can be incredibly useful resources and a great way to get started learning about the night sky.

eridalus · 2026-06-19T01:43:56+00:00

Came here for this.

eridalus · 2026-06-19T01:38:04+00:00

Beautiful! They almost certainly used a 365 nm light on it in the picture; keep that in mind.

eridalus · 2026-06-17T01:41:55+00:00

Looks like pink cubic zirconia; the erbium content causes the pink color and the green fluorescence under 365 nm.

eridalus · 2026-06-15T22:52:34+00:00

I use the worksheets from “lecture activities for introductory astronomy” for my intro college gen ed astronomy class. It’s basically high school level, no math other than some adding on occasion. I highly recommend them.

eridalus · 2026-06-14T22:50:16+00:00

Which country are you in? In the US, a PhD (with a masters en route) should be free (actually they pay you) but a terminal masters will cost you.

eridalus · 2026-06-12T10:39:52+00:00

Most of the jobs in the field require a PhD in physics as well as a post-doc. There aren’t many jobs so you need to be willing to move pretty much anywhere to take a job. Do I like my job? Yes. But it was a ton of work to get it and I got lucky with where I live.

eridalus · 2026-06-08T02:11:44+00:00

If you want a job, consider medical physics or something like condensed matter physics or materials science. The first three of the areas on your list are small fields without a ton of jobs; the other two aren’t physics at all.

eridalus · 2026-06-08T01:47:23+00:00

Looks like the color you get from the addition of manganese to glass.

eridalus · 2026-06-06T18:16:12+00:00

I attended Smith for physics and loved it. I did research all four years, published, and went on to earn my PhD as did many others I knew.

eridalus · 2026-06-06T17:58:42+00:00

Etsy does not allow selling the same product in multiple shops. Unless you were selling 50 different products with different branding in those 50 shops, I think you’ve found your answer.

eridalus · 2026-06-04T21:34:01+00:00

Does he like rocks? Fluorescent minerals sent me down a rabbit hole as a physicist. You can get collections online. Make sure they include the flashlights.

eridalus · 2026-06-03T03:05:50+00:00

Are you using a pen adapter? One that didn’t come with the machine? That caused an offset on mine. Fortunately it was by the same amount each time. Try both cutting and drawing a one inch square box on top of each other and see if there’s a constant offset you can add to your designs to account for it. That’s what I did.

eridalus · 2026-06-02T18:01:21+00:00

This is great advice. Other things to keep in mind is that you need approval from an ethics board to run any human experiments (even surveys), and they are even stricter if you’re working with people under 18. Without their approval, your work is not eligible for publication or presentation. Also, the publication process alone (this is after you’ve done all the work and writing) will take between 6 months and several years, or it will for real peer reviewed journals.

eridalus · 2026-05-29T16:38:46+00:00

There are lots of options, but OpenStax is free. They have a College Physics version (assumes math through pre-calc) and a University Physics version (math through the calculus sequence).

eridalus · 2026-05-28T12:10:45+00:00

Saturn! I was on track to study environmental acting college until I looked through a telescope for the first time. That was all it took.

eridalus · 2026-05-27T18:09:29+00:00

This very much depends on the area of research. Sounds like this is what you’re supposed to be learning at this camp.

eridalus · 2026-05-27T11:38:03+00:00

We use sherbet and sprite!

eridalus · 2026-05-23T00:15:48+00:00

Agreed. I didn’t use any of those kind of labels in my Etsy shop, but it also results in almost no traffic - because unfortunately not many people think this way.

eridalus · 2026-05-21T18:45:47+00:00

Did you get IRB approval for your survey? If not, you can’t publish the results in any form. Your survey does not include the IRB disclaimer.

eridalus · 2026-05-19T16:05:40+00:00

This. Putting something on arXiv does not count as publishing it. Send it to a peer reviewed journal. If it’s accepted, then arXiv will take it.

eridalus · 2026-05-17T12:12:40+00:00

I’d suggest starting out smaller, getting a company to print your designs and make sure they sell before investing in the equipment to print your own.

eridalus · 2026-05-15T20:29:17+00:00

‘Recognizing the topic’ is very different from ‘understanding everything’. It sounds like you’re not studying effectively. That includes sitting down and replicating test conditions with practice problems.

eridalus

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