How did you get interested in physics

cool_jessica

Interest in any subjects is all depend upon students, if the students feel comfortable and easy to understand then only they for that subjects.

Dr_Scientist

I was inspired by my high-school teacher!

Spinalcold

For me it was a long and indirect path. I'm 30 and just started university this year to major in physics (took a little work to get my math skills back after 12 years of nothing more than Pythagoras).

When I was a kid I loved math and science, I had to write one page reports in grade 4 and 5, so my topics were black holes (still theoretical at the time) and paleontology (I wrote to Drumheller and they didn't know I was a kid so I ended up with a fist full of technical data...that I tried in vain to comb through). But I was also interested in the creative side of life, and loved fantasy and science fiction novels. So I started attempting to write stories when I was in grade 5.

Unfortunately this was also the time my parents divorced, which was better in the long run, but I don't think I handled it well. It took me many many years face my emotions and even longer to learn to accept them. Through this time I lost interest in learning, I had only 2 teachers through the rest of school who could keep me engaged in learning (both were math teachers and actually strove to challenge me). So the next about 15 years of my life were about trying to heal through the use of writing stories, poetry and music.

It was only about 4 or 5 years ago that rediscovered the joy of scientific knowledge (not to discount the arts, I find them very important to being human). It slowly reached an apex, starting with space documentaries, to wikipedia, The Teaching Company lectures, and finally with a combination of Walter Lewin's FANTASTIC MIT lectures and Richard Feynman's lectures.

Unfortunately, it also came with another life shock that forced me to re-evaluate my life and decide to choose a different path to follow.

So, I've always loved physics, but I had to deal with a lot of emotional damage from school first before I could concentrate on learning. It's not always a direct path, but that's ok, I learned valuable lessons and now am extremely excited to be on this path.

Nuclear Physics here I come!

NeptuniumBOMB

What really got me into physics is the addiction of having to know how the universe runs. I've always believed everything could be solved with a specific formula or equation, as i began to learn about the universe, i wanted do understand how it functions, why some things happen while others don't, how it all came to be, whats it made of and was their a creator (btw, physics made me deist so anyone who says science is against a higher power, [god] better think again).
The only bad part is, you don't actually even get a chance to learn these in physics as almost no-one will pay you for you it research it.

NewtonianAlch

Hard to pin-point when or where exactly. I do know that my grandparents always used to buy me books that were far too advanced for me. I remember reading a book on atoms and John Dalton when I was 5 and looking at all the pictures. I used to open up the VCR, watch my dad do some basic electrical repair. Saw my grand-dad replacing old vacuum tubes in an ancient Garrard's jukebox, it was just fascinating at the time. Still is.

cool_jessica

When i was a student i was not much good in physics and reason because its seems to be boring but when i got chance to teach students, it seems very interesting for me and then again i worked ward and i study physics and make my-self some how better in physics so that i can give better education to the studetns.

phylotree

I became interested in physics (biology) once I was introduced about the origins of life on earth. I was first hooked up with amazing string search and compare applications. I then started to steer myself towards computational molecular biology. I took classes in college's chemistry (for 2-3 year students), basic courses in genetics and bio-environment. I also once worked on human immune system and its related maths models. It was boring, but did offer me a lot of chances to learn basic stuff about our HIS and its fights against diseases. I later joined and worked really hard on graduate courses in graph theories before I walked straight out of the school for some personal reasons.

NewtonianAlch

I'm a bit interested to know how you ended up having to teach physics being bored of it and "not much good" at it?

Storm89

I used to go camping with my parents in our caravan when I was little, and I used to sit outside, when the weather allowed it, looking at stars. Looking for shooting stars and generally just taking in the beauty of it. Though I was always a very peaceful child, that was always soothing and relaxing. Still is today, but these days I can't help but go into all kinds of philosophy about it all.

A few years back I really started to watch a lot of documentaries about physics and mostly astronomy. And that sort of sparked it all to where I am now and where I'm heading at the moment. Into studying astrophysics at university. But I have a year of "upgrading" some courses and classes before that can happen. I never took the right classes in High School to move straight into Physics.

MojoMcGunner

I have loved maths for as long as I can remember (my brother four years older than me paid me to do his maths homework for him) and I originally liked physics because it seemed like "maths with an actual point" because much as I liked pure equations, they didn't really mean anything.
The point when I because obsessed beyond hope of return was when I was about 14 or 15, my physics teacher put on a Richard Feynman video of him discussing the nature of physics. The way he spoke about it just sparked something in me. He's still my favourite physicist of all time.

Nano-Passion

I know I have wrote before here, but I just remembered something that I've excluded.

My head got really dizzy when I was trying to make sense of how something can possibly come from nothing as a kid, I will never forget that moment. Later the thought resurfaced from time to time. But it wasn't until junior year in high school when I took a physics class that I started liking it the subject. And since then, I have been on this trek to understand little parts of the universe. There are lots of struggle, but every now and then I stand with awe at the big picture, it is rather beautiful.

twofish-quant

Lot's of Star Trek and Doctor Who. Also a father that worked in the Gemini space program.

One question that I found interesting was that once I figured out who "brainwashed" me, I got interested in figuring out who brainwashed them. For example, a lot of my interest in physics came from Gene Roddenberry, Issac Asimov, Carl Sagan, James Burke, and Tom Baker, which made me interested in where *they* got their interest in physics from.

This can get you into some very odd places. One time I was in a library reading about this obscure 18th century Chinese philosopher, and I thought it a weird coincidence that I believed much of the stuff he did, until I figured out that it *wasn't* a coincidence at all, and that at some point, his ideas had gotten to someone who got them to my father, who got them to me.

genericusrnme

Prof Leonard Susskind's lectures on youtube!

smize

I'm mainly interested with mathematics, but physics is closely linked with it. I'm only getting a minor in physics (with a major in Math & Computer Science) while an undergraduate. I may go back later to get a degree in physics.

But, to answer the question, I mainly got so interested because of my very, very quirky high school physics teacher. Plus, I love to know why things act the way they do, not just that they act the way they do.

ThatTallGirl

I'd always been good at math and science in high school, so with some family pressure I started my undergrad in chemical engineering. Near the end of my first semester, I realized it wasn't for me. Second semester I took my first college physics course, changed majors, and never looked back.