How to study physics - study tips - Simon clark

Physics Study tips for students

Hello my Socratic friends! We help you become a great student. In this series, 

we are giving you a lot of salute advice about studying - how to take notes, how to remember, how to get from what you read - now we also want to give you some specific advice on how to study something. Please topics. Because Socrati focuses on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), we will start with that basic science, physics. Believe it or not, if you are any kind of scientist, you want to study some physics. It's going to help you in the underlying behavior of matter, of electricity, of gravity, of magnetism ... in all kinds of fields ... well, I'm not a physics major. I have read a bit. I am working through Feynman lectures in my own way, as you do. But we at Sukrati want to make sure that you get the best advice from people who really know what you are talking about. So today, we have a guest star! Our friend Simon, who earned a Masters in Physics at Oxford and has just defended his PhD in Physics from the University of Exeter. He knows a little bit about the subject. Hi simon! Hello socrati glad to be here! What time is it in LA? I have no idea now. So I understand that you want to know more about how you want to study physics. Well, Iactually has an entire YouTube channel dedicated to this idea ... and the greatness about it is that physics is one of these subjects that anyone can learn. It does not matter what your background is, who you are, where you come from - anyone learns physics with the right instructions. It is very democratic! Oh, I knew you were the right person to talk to! So ... where to start? How did you get started in physics? Was this your first physics class, or ...? Okay, so my first experience with physics would be when I was about 10 years old. I remember we were experimenting with Verdoing in elementary school, where we were driving a toy car under a slopestat made of various materials. So one was made of carpet, one was made of lordwood, one was made of foam… and we were asked to make a prediction about which car would land first, on which surface. I remember thinking about the properties of the material, and weighing it with gravity was about to take them down the slope. And I think it shows that there was a kind of magic quality to physics. That if you understand those rules, then you have understood how the world works, you can make information about what will happen in future! And so Iguess that gave me a glimpse into the real power of physics. Which technique helped you the most, given Overy's early experience in physics? So when I started learning physics, a lot of teaching was done very conceptually. It will be talking about energy. We are going to talk about space that has nothing that you can actually cut your teeth in an aqueous way. So I think the important thing was that when it started being undeniable and you started putting math into the equation so to speak :) And in that case the most important technique was definitely repeated. So, for example, a lot of physics is calculus, basically: derivative, integral ... This is something that is offered in high school, but is known to you right through my Ph.D. . And so while he was learning, the only way he was really able to learn the stuff, both in math classes and in scienceclasses, was to do exercise after exercise and I would really like to say that learning quantitative skills is the best Is the way. To get your head conceptualized, but then practice problems. And you know, Calculus, I think, was a particular example of this where you drill integrals after integrals until you actually do it. You have mentioned calculus many times ... what about other math classes? Well maths is basically the language of the universe, which means that it is the language of physics.

You have to understand mathematics for any serious level of study. You often know, in problems, you are looking at the rate of change of a variable or you are doing othervariable sum in a field, and of course, it is calculus. Among other things, like, forex, Newtonian mechanics, or what I did my PhD on which fluid mechanics was Earth, vectors are super important. Actually, make that vectors and matresses important. They are tied into the field of linear algebra, you know and it becomes important as you move to higher level physics and other fields, for example, group theory. But if you are going for the more fundamental aspect of mathematics, I definitely say that it is important to understand algebra, because that is the way in which the most practical laws are expressed. You know you have to nail those early mathsclasses, and I think that there is a lot of potential with physics, especially in algebra. What about probability and statistics? Oh yes, of course! Another really important course and especially if you are keen to go into research. I think TechoShe is basically, basically, you should take all your maths mysteriously. Some people complain that you have to do a lot of math to get dofices, when the fact of the matter is that if you don't like doing math, you don't like doing physics. This path is harsh, Simon. No, I'm just kidding. We like mathematics here in Sukrati. And in an upcoming episode, we'll talk about how to study mathematics. But now back to physics! Physics is basically mathematics! The epics degree is, effectively, a mathematics degree with a lot of applications. Can you remember a particular course you took or the book you read that took your share of physics and put it into high gear? Yes, definitely. I think like a lot of people, I remember when I first read something by Richard Feynman my copy here was "Six Easy Peace". I was given this at a Somerschool, which I went to at the University of Oxford and I remember reading this copy that surprised everyone because I read it while I was walking in the Pyrenees, I put it to bed, Taught in trains all over the country, and in particular was an excerpt of this - so this is excerpts from his lectures on physics, and a part of the lectures he has done on quantum mechanics where he talks about the double slit experiment And Heisenberg's indecisive relationship turns out to be about experimentation - I just remember reading it and I told everyone I knew about it that I thought I was so cool that I think That when it clicked for me, that's how I'm really isolated about it, as if it's something I want to read. So you know, this is actually one of those books that really killed me that I came out of high gear. It seems that you can find a lot from self-study infographics. Definitely yes! I remember looking at physics books in a bookstore when I was a kid and not the "Tao of Physics" and more. But now SO has many books that are accessible to lepers.

 I mean I'm really thinking a lot about the books I read when I forget about physics, and then even during my degree in my PhD, and I tell about the Madithys video if If you want to study physics, which books should you read, ooh on my channel! I'm going to wash now! Very good! Thank you! Well, not now ... We still have to finish our video Simon. Oh, yes, but you will, right? Absolutely! Love giant simon clark video. Let me live through your PhD feats! Now I know that this is a long order, but in short - you can study what are the studies of different fields? Oof big question! So this video is actually this video by Dominican Walliman called the map of physics, and in that he breaks physics into three branches, so I think I'm gonnacrib from him,

Because this is a very good explanation. The three branches are classical physics, quantum mechanics and relativity. So classical physics was physics before the 20th century. It's things like Newtonian mechanics. If I throw the ball into the air and catch it it is welded by classical physics. But what we have realized in the 20th century is that if you take that theory too seriously - for really small things or really big things - it kind of breaks down and its predictions do not match the universe. Soquantum mechanics is what happens when you zoom in on small scales and molecular and subatomic scales and the energy only comes in random components, in packets or "quanta". That's where we get the name "quantum mechanics". This has really big implications.And at the other end of the scale, if you blow up scientific physics to large sizes like galaxy or universe, you should start using relativity, which indicates the fact that you can not go faster than the speed of light and it will distort scientific physics in other ways, These again have very big implications. And most of all, how did you choose what you wanted to focus on? So the physics course Oxford is structured, until the first year of your degree, you only take the math and physics modules and in those modules you do every kind of physics. I did classical mechanics. I did fluid mechanics. I did quantum mechanics. I did Special and General Relativity. Frozen material physics, optics, electromagnetism, circuits, frozen material physics ... so I're basically exposed to the whole spectrum. That course is like the moment of thunder. The idea of ​​describing a fluid-like continuous system like water with two inequalities ?! That's great! I knew I wanted to do that. So in my fourth year, where I could choose my courses, I went for it, and then I got into my PhD. I basically follow what I think is good. Honestly, while my core physics is derived from thosclass, I think the approach I consider as a physicist is more active outside the classroom. So going to discussions, reading research papers, doing research and writing my PhD thesis ... you know, your education in physics starts in the classroom, but it doesn’t end there. It goes into the rest of the world and it continues throughout your career. So let’s say we have an idea of ​​what to study next in physics. So if you have a specific area of ​​interest, the best thing you can do is get the first experience with that field. So if you are in university, ask the educators if they are after the summer internship or if there is a little research project that they like. It doesn’t really have to be much, but you see them working in a research environment. Additionally, it also looks great on your CV when you are applying for future research positions and degrees. What Academic can also do is give you a list of important research papers in your field so that it gives a really detailed grinding background in your particular field. How did I get started in the field of my stratospheric dynamics, when I did a research project on this topic during the legendary year in Oxford, what else should our Socratic friends think if they want to study physics? Are there some programming languages ​​that you recommend? I started in C, which is one of the most hardcore languages, but I used Python a lot in my PhDwork, and if I do this again I would recommend starting with Python. Something has to be said to start with simple language.

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