Physicists Definition and 446 Threads

Hi, My partner and I are both UK state registered medical physicists in radiotherapy. We are currently looking to relocate to Dubai but I'm having difficulty finding any jobs online. I can find plenty for other Emirates but we are specifically looking for Dubai. I know if a physicist was...

Please take below as a light-hearted topic suitable for the lounge area, I most certainly do not wish that it gets out of hand. Part I How often do you encounter people harbouring various stereotypes of physicists, either good or bad? Is there often a discrepancy between what people think you...

Hello Being a professional physicist(Quantum field theory and HS theory) I'd like to learn chemistry for some reasons. I've already tried to find a nice Chemistry textbook but failed to find physicist friendly one. My last class on chemistry was in high school like 11 years ago already, so my...

I took great comfort reading a New Scientist article on the Perimeter Institute, Canada where top theoretical physicists pass the day. They asked four how they get through the day. Two replies gave me great comfort: Asimina Arvanitaki I spend most of my time being confused about things and...

Hi everyone! I just saw another PF thread requesting quotes from physicists about superposition. This particular thread topic made me curious about memorable quotes attributed to well-known mathematicians and physicists on any topic. Please share any memorable quotes you can find from famous...

<Moderator's note: Approved. The original thread has been this. The relocation in QM is better suited in case the thread turns into a direction where physical questions are the subject rather than quotations.> I have heard many astounding things about QM. For example, that particles have no...

Can anyone post here quotes from academically validated physicists that state outrageous facts? I realize that Bohr said that if one isn't shocked by QM one doesn't understand it. But I am looking for something more specific. For example a quote about superposition , entanglement etc. The idea...

Hey! I was just renewing my CAP membership but I accidentally forgot to change the year of graduation where it asks when you’re graduating (undergrad student). Do you think I should redo another renewal form with the correct date? (If that’s even okay) Or does it not really matter?

I’m 3 weeks into my first physics class at college; honors physics 1. I really want to major in physics because it’s really interesting, but I’m finding the class very difficult. Trying to solve the textbook problems and follow the professor’s train of thought is very tough, which is frankly...

Hi everyone. I have followed with interest in the work of physicists who have conducted research in the area of complex systems and nonlinear dynamics. For example, consider researchers such as Mark Newman from the University of Michigan, Jim Crutchfield of USC, or Doyne Farmer and David Wolpert...

<< Mentor Note -- After a Mentor discussion we will try to let this thread proceed in the Academic Guidance forum >> Hi all! I was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was 17. It has put me behind at school because I had to drop out for 2 semesters to get my mental health back. I was just...

I will be proceeding onto my masters degree in theoretical physics in about two months time. My goal is to learn as much as I can about quantum and statistical physics, as this is the field in which I would like to do my PhD. In my second semester, I have the chance to either study the...

I always imagine them sitting in their room behind their desks and working on their new theory like Einstein. I suppose most theorists work in groups nowadays to be more efficient but do these lonely workers still exist and are they supported financially or they're working in their free time?

Hi there, My question is more mundane and about your daily work experience. What are the daily challenges you encounter as physicists? What kind of problems prevents you from being as efficient or effective as you want to be? Thank you so much for your time!

I’m a young very ambitious student who would like to embrace a project. As a third year undergrad I feel pretty alone. My fellow colleagues are not very forward thinking nor want to do anything besides pass the exams. Are there any platforms/associations for young theoretical physicists...

Or in other words: The renormalization group is a systematic theoretical framework and a set of elegant (and often effective) mathematical techniques to build effective field theories, valid at large scales, by smoothing out irrelevant fluctuations at smaller scales. But does the...

There is solid empirical evidence that error in particle physics measurements is not actually distributed in a Guassian manner. Why don't particle physicists routinely use student t error distributions with fat tails that fit the reality of errors in experimental measurement more accurately...

Dear PF community, I was wondering, what do theoretical physicists actually do? Putting teaching and marking responsibilities aside, would you be able to describe to me your day-to-day activities when you do research? It is something that has been on my mind for a while. I suspect PF members...

This might appear absurd but concidering that math students are so preoccupied with acquring a deeper understanding of mathematics, most of the undergraduate exams are actually not problem solving math per se, but actually "proof of concept" type of excercises (quite different from solving...

I am wondering, what is the math level of your average CS or physics major? Like how much math do these two take beyond stuff like the Calculus sequence, differential equations and linear algebra? I was having a discussion with one of my old math professors from my community college (I'm in a...

The Scientific Method says that if a theory disagrees with observations, it has been falsified (according to Karl Popper). String theory predicts that spacetime is 10-D, but it is observed to be 4-D. This is a wrong prediction by the theory. So string theory is falsified. String theorists then...

How rare is it that some physics student from a random liberal arts college go on to the likes of Harvard and Princeton for grad school and postdoc and now is a renowned physicist in the field? Do you know anyone like that?

I mean, probably in the future an Artificial Intelligence may solve every problem of Physics and even create a theory of everything. I feel like all the progress physicist have done in 100 years could be done in the future by a machine like in 1 second. So why should we keep on doing research at...

So I'm about to start my second year of college soon, I'm majoring in physics. I've noticed that some universities (places like Princeton, MIT, etc) don't have a course on modern physics, where a more superficial treatment is given to things like special relativity, quantum mechanics...

I'm searching for a good online lecture series to go with the book Mathematical methods for physicists by arfken and Weber . Tell me If you know about such series . Other general tips on starting rigourous mathematical physics are also welcome.

I'm currently doing mechanical engineering undergraduate degree but I don't want to continue with this field for further education. I'm more interested in physics. That's why I have started studying on my own. I'm really confused how to start. I have purchased several classic textbooks on...

The title of this thread is the title to this Phys.org article posted today: https://phys.org/news/2017-08-physicists-complementary-properties-quantum-clones.html First, correct me if I'm wrong, but the problem is not that complementary states cannot be both measured, but that the there is a...

Probably everyone is aware of the new cpu's by intel and amd, which will have many cores. The threadripper will be launched on August 10, and it will have up to 16 cores. I am making plans to build a workstation, the idea is to code in parallel, so the more cores is obviously the better. Also, I...

Hi all, Could you guys tell me how's the job market* for engineer physicists and engineer scientists? These majors seem very nice in terms of the range of the coursework, seeing many different parts of physics and chemistry. However, I'm quite skeptic about their career prospects. I see...

I have a research paper on communication in the workplace for my technical communications class. I need to find two or more physicists that can answer about 12 questions on things like how much writing is done and things along those lines. This interview can be done over email or the phone. If...

Hello PF. I'm a current sophomore in college studying aerospace engineering, but I was a physics major for most of last year. I am curious what would have become of that, since a lack of desire for low-paying employment opportunities trumped my aspirations in the field. I am curious, how many of...

Now this sounds interesting! Is this really "negative mass" or is that marketing spin? Thoughts? Paper: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.155301

I am not asking the question as to whether or not time is real, I am asking the question as to whether or not time flows as in does physics favor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternalism_(philosophy_of_time) OR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_presentism OR...

I know the Higgs field and the capabilities of the Higgs Boson, but I could never understand how physicists concluded the finding of a Higgs Boson

Hi everyone! I had previously posted this poll question before, but I realized (after much feedback from you) that I had not appropriately asked the various research areas/divisions of physics, so I decided to post this new poll question, asking what area of research you specialize in. Please...

Most physicists would agree, I believe, that mathematics is the language of physics. Mathematical models are used to describe the physical world. I therefore found it somewhat amusing but disconcerting that a recent paper found a statistically significant negative correlation between...

Hello All, I'ma recently graduated physicist engineer (or physical engineer, I'm not sure how to say it in English) from Colombia, right now I'm looking for a job in order to save some money for my master degree and I would like to know the experiences of more experimented physicist engineers...

When I opened up the article https://www.wired.com/2017/01/move-coders-physicists-will-soon-rule-silicon-valley/ I expected to see quantum computing as the next field physicists are to revolutionize. I was surprised to see it was data management and machine learning. I am happy for physicists...

What are the differences and the similarities in your opinion? Pros and cons .. go go goo

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170118132244.htm I read this with a degree of skepticism, can we manipulate the quantum back ground? An important step towards a completely new experimental access to quantum physics has been made by researchers in Germany. The team of scientists...

Hi everyone. I came across the following article on Wired about physicists (or I should say, physics graduates) playing an increasingly prominent role in Silicon Valley, specifically in the field of machine learning/data science...

Orch theory explains consiousness of human brain as a quantum related phenomenon. These quantum processes occur in microtubules. But at this temperature quantum computation is not possible. So what is the perspective of quantum physicists on this theory.

Hello, I have a very strong background in math and physics (completed most of undergraduate degrees). I want to learn mechanical and electrical engineering principles and believe that I can start learning at an advanced level. Can you recommend some sources?

Hi, I have an aspiration to become a physicist and as part of a school project I had to come up with 20 questions and I would greatly appreciate it if I could get a few physicists to complete the questionnaire. I don't expect long answers, short ones will do fine. Thank you. 1. When did your...

I mean physicists when they have to create a field they draw it with the same direction of the force, (gravitational, electric for example) i know that the magnetic field acts only on moving charges and i also know that the force is a relativistic effect of lorentz contraction, but why creating...

<<Moderator's note: this is a spin-off of https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/how-long-to-learn-physics.891250/>> To Zapper. Some differential equations have no analytical solutions but some do. I remember a case where a co worker was using a computer to find the solution to x dot = 1 /...

Hey everyone, This is my very first post here on PF. I haven't been in a forum for ages, so excuse me if I make any gaffe. I'm also not very sure if this is the correct section to post this question, so I apologise in advance for any inconvenience. I like physics and engineering a lot. I'm...

Which theoretical physicists win nobel prize based on their works in 30s or 40s?

I know the phrase ''theoretical physicist'' may be a general term, do they or ''mathematical physicists'' use significant figures? I know it's kind of a silly question, but it stems from what I learned in chemistry class. Our chemistry teacher talked about the importance of such things and I...

One of my instructors likes to talk about little aspects of the lives of famous physicists and it has made me really interested in these people. Does anyone have any recommendations on any books that give a good little run down of of the life and times of famous physicists? I'm sure there are...