Physicists in the Playground

[Woofsie]

Hello, Playground!

It's getting to that stage now where I have to seriously consider what I want to do in University and beyond. I'm thinking of doing a degree in Physics with Astrophysics.. it's something I've been interested in since I was a kid and I'd LOVE to be invloved in research.

But the life of a physicist is one shrouded in mystery and rumour, and I'd really like to know a little about the career before I jump headfirst into it. So I put it to you, Playgrounders. I figure there must be a few of you crazy sciency-people on here, what can you tell me about this line of work? Does it remain interesting all the way through uni? What level of qualification do you need to get the good jobs? ARE there any good jobs? Anything will help! :smallsmile:


Edit: Also great would be details of your own line of work, what field you're involved in and what it's like.. etc. Personal experiences wanted. :smallwink:

[The Extinguisher]

Woo! Physicists!

I too would like to know what this entails. I forsee number crunching to save the world by day, and partying by night, but I'm pretty sure I'm romanticising a bit.

[SDF]

Myself I'm working on the biology/chemistry to medschool/graduate school route, but I can tell you if you are interested in it start there. Take the freshmen physics courses and see if you like it. The nice thing about college is that you can change your mind really at any point up to graduation(of course it takes longer to graduate if you do that :P) a BS(4 year degree) can get you entry level salary jobs in your field, or others. Most actual jobs in an area require a masters degree, and you really don't need a Ph.D unless you want to teach at Uni.

[Shishnarfne]

Hmmm... I happen to be a physics grad student... So I think that the job market's not bad if you're really interested in research. Yes, there can be a fair bit of calculation: some of it you will enlist your nearest CPU for assistance, some will be your own work. If you go experimental, you will likely have to do more data analysis/collecting and lab set-up.

If you know what you'd like to do in industry, a Bachelor's might be enough. Some pay better for a Masters or Ph.D. If you want to work in academia, they want the doctorate. If you pursue graduate studies in physics, the college really should be paying you to go there (they'll probably ask you to run labs or some such while there, but it's a decent deal).

I haven't selected a thesis field yet, but I have a few ideas in mind... I hope that they pan out. I think that the work stays interesting (though it does get more challenging), but you may need to make a deliberate effort to find the intriguing problems. Also, your professors probably don't mind talking about their research, so feel free to ask them a bit about it. Just be careful, you could be there a while, some of them will talk for hours given an excuse.:smallbiggrin:

[Szilard]

Hmm...I don't really know any physicists, well, maybe my mom and dad, they both have masters in physics (I think).
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Oh and my brother has memorized pi to the 80th decimal point and totally wanted me to tell you guys.

Anyway back to the subject...you can leave now, not you, I'm talking to my brother, now he's laughing, okay he's gone now.
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But there was this one phisicist named Leo Szilard, and he helped Einstien write a letter to the president telling him to invent the nuke before the Germans. If you notice, I have the same name as him, kind of.


...


Phyisics rule!

[averagejoe]

I'm currently double majoring in physics and mathematics. I haven't been able to do any research yet, so I can't actually tell you much, but it's cool you want to do it.

As far as being interesting, I'd say that it gets more so as you go, just because craziness like quantum mechanics gets saved till near the end. It's a pretty intense major though, more so than most. It's nearing the end of the semester, and I find myself putting bars on my h's and confusing "3" and epsilon when I write normal english. :smallsigh:

[Icewalker]

This is basically what I may well go into as well. I'm looking forward to AP Physics next year, and am doing a project in physics and astrophysics (Physics of Megastructures!) this year and next year for AP science classes.

[Charity]

I have a degree in Physics, but I do not work in a related field.
Ikky has a Phd and works in a job shrouded in mystery that is basically research... though he's not around here much these days.

There are jobs out there; you would need a Phd to work in the really interesting jobs, though a lot of companies are well funded and have graduate schemes where they will sponsor your development.

If you are interested in Astrophysics I did several Cosmology modules in my degree, and it included some of the most complex mathematics I had to do, though it was a fascinating course. Only general relativity can beat it for mind bending counter-intuitive thinking.

I strongly advise all of you to study a subject that interests you, most occupations have flexible entry requirements (even the medical profession) and it is much easier to motivate yourself to study that which interests you.

[Manga Shoggoth]

I can echo Charity.

My Degree (BSc Applied Physics, Bradford) is a little dusty now, and I have never really used it as I went into IT (which generally requires numerate degrees).

To get into research you really need a First Class degree (at worst 2:2), and you will probably end up doing a doctorate in a research post. Competition is quite tight as well.

In the general workplace a good degree will help you get you into all sorts of jobs. The subject is not always an issue - as I noted above, IT jobs generally require a numerate degree (I have even seen Music grads...)

I never had to deal with the Astrophysics, but the maths required for even the simpler* parts of Physics can get a little hairy - I started to get lost somewhere around complex integrals in Fourier Transforms (I understood them when using sine functions, too).

I should warn you that - interesting though the subject is - some of the lectures can be incredibly dull. On the other hand the practical side is amazing. I can still remember the fun I had with my practicals, and I expect our entire year can remember the horror of the Araldite Laser**.





* If Quantum Mechanics can be considered simple.
** Don't laugh. It was a real laser, and it worked. One of the PHds had his hand in the way when it pulsed.

[Exachix]

I'm a wannabe Physicist!

Does that count?

I'm going to do a Physics (with Planetary and Space Physics) (MPhys) Degree next year, hopefully.

[Bor the Barbarian Monk]

Ooooh! I'm a physicist...kinda. I'm always experimenting with physical-type laws. For example, I've spent over 40 years tripping, falling, etc. I'm pleased to tell you that gravity still works...not so pleased after each "experiment." :smallfrown:

I'm also trying to convince my friend Julie not to teach her unborn child anything about gravity. My theory is that the child should be able to fly. Ignorance of the law, and all that. :smallbiggrin:

Although I have abandoned most of "experiments" involving item density, I've been known to still walk into the occasional door frame to discover it's still harder than human flesh. :smalleek:

Oh...and an object at rest is usually asleep, so it shouldn't be awaken with a phone call, or it mught be grumpy. :smallannoyed:

Here ends Dr. Bor's lessons in physics. Live and learn, my children. Live and learn. :smallwink:

[Werewindlefr]

As a PhD student in particle physics, I can say that it remains interesting in university. Better even: graduate-level physics are way more interesting (for people who like physics anyway).

[Caracol]

Not a physicist (I'm a Naturalist), and not really good at physics... but a supporter of physicist all around the world!

One of my best friends studies Physics at the uni, he will probably specialize as a Sound Physicist. One of my housemates is a physicist and he works at italian university for a protein unfolding research project.

I personally don't like physics that much, but maybe because I'm not good in maths and I dislike mathematic representations of natural laws (this is just a matter of personal tastes anyway). I appreciate all the work and researches that physicists (and generally every scientist) do everyday.

[Ikkitosen]

As Chaz said, I'm a PhD in physics after studying physics with biophysics (read: physics with girls :smallwink:) at uni. Undergraduate physics is a blast if you're the type of person who looks at things and wonders, why? I don't mean how do bridges work I mean why do we see two rainbows or why's the head on your beer whiteish when the rest is brown and they're the same stuff...

Anyhow, good undergrads do not necessarily make good post-grads. Postgraduate physics is a lot more self-driven than the hoop-jumping of undergraduate years. It took me a while to manage the transition from clearly defined goals to the more ephemeral "find clever stuff out and then tell people about it". I heartily suggest trying to get a summer placement with a research group whilst you're an undergrad to test the waters.

As for careers, I work in physics now and my PhD got me ~15% more starting pay and a steeper promotion gradient with no top limit. Plus acceptance as the expert in my field, which you'll be too once you've written a book on whatever you've done!

Also, despite the mind-numbing horror that is thesis authoring I thoroughly enjoyed my PhD. Look for opportunities to do cool stuff (I worked in some of the best labs in the world, lived in Japan for a coupla months, spoke at international conferences, that kind of thing) to go with the work and you should have a grand old time :smallbiggrin:

[Woofsie]

Hooray for encouraging replies! :smallbiggrin:

Barring something unforseen between now and my application, I reckon I'll go ahead with Physics. The amount of maths involved is slightly worrying but meh.. I'll take that as it comes. It's not like I'm bad at maths now or anything.

Thanks for the relpies guys!

[Ted_Stryker]

No reason to set your major in stone at this point, although it's fine to declare one at the start.

Personal testimony is fine, but I'd also recommend finding a summer position or even doing research during the school year to find out if you really love it. And you'll need to love it if you go on to grad school, because you won't get rich as a grad student, although you almost certainly won't have to pay for post-bachelor's schooling the way many in the humanities do, so there is that.

The math requirements aren't exactly lax if you go the experimental route, but they aren't quite as stringent as they are for being a theorist. You'll still have to be at least somewhat conversant with some of the theory in your particular specialty no matter what. There also is no getting around having to learn things like calculus of one and several variables, vector calculus, complex analysis, and the like. Physics classes do tend to teach the math they need for understanding of the material as they go.

The Ph. D. is a research degree, so it's a big change from the undergrad emphasis on coursework, especially if you go the experimental physics route. This is the chief reason why I recommend doing it as an undergrad, because that sort of work is the kind of thing you'll be doing most of the time in your 6-ish years in grad school. And you're going to start off with the grunt work, but you'll be expected to contribute original research as you become more experienced. Your dissertation is *required* to be original work of some kind, and that's pretty non-negotiable.

I design and build astrophysics experiments (along with numerous colleagues, of course), and these are the sorts of things I have done in my time as a physicist:

Electronics design/operation (the first thing I did in grad school was build a room-temperature preamp for a cryogenic experiment).

Vacuum and Cryogenics - I get to work with high-vacuum equipment and liquid nitrogen and helium.

Optical design - I've done a lot of optical design work in my day, for ground-based, balloon-borne, rocket-borne, and satellite missions. The satellite thing was actually a design study, so no hardware was built, but the designs were definitely physically constrained because of space and mass limitations for the payload.

Mechanical design - It's got to all fit together and work properly, with nothing blocked or plugged, etc.

Data analysis - I do most of my coding in IDL, although I'm far from the data analysis superhero in any of the collaborations I work in.

There's a lot of stuff that goes into doing physics, but you've got something like a decade in front of you to learn it (if you go the Ph. D. route), so there's time...