I need a job

Vanadium 50

Getting back to the original question, stubbornness, arrogance, and thinking entry-level work is somehow beneath you are not endearing traits to many employers. I'm a professional physicist, and when I was 16 I stuffed envelopes for a job. Thousands upon thousands of envelopes. After a couple years, they let me move to the factory where I made cardboard boxes for shipping, and finally worked my way up to a punch press.

I would suggest when communicating with prospective employers that you tone this down as much as you can.

chroot

Exactly my point, Vanadium 50. Well said. I'm sometimes shocked at the sense of entitlement that kids can develop.

I've totally read some textbooks, you know, enough to realize that they're all wrong. I deserve a job doing physics, because, come on, I'm clearly so smart that I deserve one. Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie!

- Warren

benk99nenm312

Defining the field as "numbers in space" shouldn't detract from the idea that it has physical reality. “It occupies space. It contains energy. Its presence eliminates a true vacuum.” The vacuum is free of matter, but not free of field. The field creates a "condition in space.” This sounds a lot like an ether to me. An ether fills up space. It is always present...

In QFT, a photon is regarded as an excitation of the field. Without the field, there is no way that light could exist, or travel. In a similar way, an ether allows for the propagation of light through a vacuum. The ether just doesn’t explain how it allows for light to travel.

I think a field is a more sophisticated version of an ether. If you think otherwise, tell me why. But what is a field, besides numbers. Does a field exist in reality, because the last time I checked, numbers were an invention of man, not God.

benk99nenm312

I don't think that blue collar work is beneath anyone, including myself. I just wish I could do something else, so that's what I have been working at for a while now.

chroot

Fields do not have any physical reality. No physicist ever said they did.
The ether, if it existed, would have been a tangible thing. Its wind would have been felt when moving through space. Fields, on the other hand, are just mathematical formalisms. If you wish to make up your own meanings for terms that already have well-defined meanings, speaking with you will be a waste of my time.
No, fields do not exist in reality. Echo, echo, echo...

- Warren

Wellesley

I must have missed where the OP said "entry-level work" was beneath him.
Searching on google, Hy-Vee is basically a grocery store.

I think he was just looking for a better job than he currently has, at a grocery store....

benk99nenm312

I think you've completely lost it. What gives you this impression of me? Have you never met somone who wanted a better job? I'm shocked at how childish a PF mentor is acting. Critisizing me like that... you honestly should look at your last post here. I don't want to be your enemy. I don't want to be your vision of an evil child. Clearly, you have the wrong impression of me.

benk99nenm312

I found this information on fields by googling them. I know you don't agree with this, but it's not the first time I've heard that information before, so I'm surprised to here that it's wrong.

chroot

What gives me that impression of you?

Here are the facts:

1) You've never taken any physics classes, and haven't yet reached calculus.
2) You think you know enough about physics to declare it wrong.
3) You think you know enough about physics to deserve a paying job doing it.

Your assertions in this thread are laughable, benk99nenm312. Unfortunately, you won't just take the lumps and move on with your life -- you want to keep arguing. You've been given several good suggestions on ways to get a better job, a job that will educate and empower you, at a level that's actually appropriate for your skills. What more do you want from us?

- Warren

chroot

Right, because all serious professional physicists learned about physics via Google.

- Warren

benk99nenm312

I guess I have no more use for you.

Choppy

Getting back to the original question I'm not sure of anything you could do at your age directly involving physics without any certified competance. One option might be working in a lab if there are any universities nearby. This is unlikely to pay well (and in fact it is more likely to be a volunteer position).

Another idea might be to start your own business. I have no idea what marketable skills you have, but if you do a self-assessment there's probably something there. A couple years ago my wife bought a kit and built her own kayak, which is easily worth about twice the price of the kit - and she wasn't particularly skilled in workworking. Something like that could easily be turned into a business and it would develop some hands-on skills. At a friend's wedding the videographers were a couple of engineering undergrads who taped weddings on weekends and they got paid very well for it. Man... if I had it to do over again...

nbo10

hahahahaha, I'm gonna have to remember this quote.

aerospaceut10

Clearly, you aren't aware of your arrogant attitude you are portraying with the posts you've made.


You seriously need to learn how to be more humble and accept the fact that you don't know nearly as much as you think you do.

aerospaceut10

Excuse me, but how exactly do you justify this statement?


I suppose the underlying physics that we use in day to day life, like the thermodynamic properties/cycles that go into operating your car, flying the airplane, and the construction of all the goods you use, are done completely on accident?

fluidistic

If he study physics seriously, one day he'll realize he'll never know "the current understand of physics" because it is simply too vast and too deep.
I've learned many things on PF, one is that learning about physics is totally different from learning physics.

benk99nenm312

When I posted that quote, I was referring to the deeper physics. Perturbation theory is a great example. The concept of virtual particles is hazy, because Perturbation theory describes virtual particles in mathematical expansions, and then I have seen many people rebel the notion of these particles' existence. Some have said that there is no difference between virtual and real particles, some have said that virtual particles are just math (the last one is more common). If you don't believe that, look through some threads here.

I know I can be arrogant sometimes, so, I'm sorry. In whatever defense you will allow me to have, I was somehow being attacked by 2-3 different people when I posted all of that, and I don't respond politely under pressure.