Recent content by Larry Gopnik

I have my first semester exams in mid Jan so I'll be sat revising most of the time unfortunately.

From my personal experience (I have arthritis that means when it's colder I find it extremely difficult to move my fingers), I find using a tablet useful sometimes. Instead of using my fingers I put my hand in a fist and use the side of my little finger to write. It may not be possible for you...

You know you're a nerd if... ... You're sat reading and posting in off topic discussion on a Physics Forum!

Have you seen that they have just brought out a book of GCHQ puzzles? https://www.amazon.com/dp/0718185544/?tag=pfamazon01-20 I got interested in their puzzles after their Xmas nonogram last year and bought this book the other day.

That'll be a massive workload, I urge against it. If you're set on Medicine then I'd suggest to take either Further Maths or Physics but not both. I took five AS-Levels and found the workload to be extreme - there weren't enough hours in the day.

That's a shame that you feel that way. I thought scattering was mudane, then I had to develop techniques for analysing diffraction data from Synthrotrons - then I realized how truly interesting the field is. Anyway - I've always found that if I found some aspect of my course uninteresting then...

I'm not sure about 'most important' physicist but my personal favourite is Dirac.

Yes people here (UK) can get onto PhDs with just a BSc. This is naturally quite rare but it does happen, it usually happens when a student impresses their 3rd Year Project supervisor enough to gain funding. We also have an undergraduate course (which I am presently taking) which is called an...

I've been wearing them since I was about 13, I have to wear them all the time otherwise I strangly feel really sick, kind of like car sickness. Over the summer while I was on placement I accidently melted my lenses from an accident in the lab and ended up frantically running to various...

I did the EPQ back at school also. I did it on the History of Quntum Field Theory. I would suggest from my experience to not put much mathematics in it - the external examiners who mark the EPQ are most likely English teachers or something similar. I got a few marks deduced on too much reliance...

Sorry, I must not have explained well. At A-Levels (age 26 16) you take (normally) 4 subjects (people can chose less or more but it's pretty much the norm to take 4) and those four guide you into university. I took Maths, Physics, Further Maths, IT and Chemistry (okay I took five) and tts from...

Brit here, you have to decide your uni course at the start of your last year of secondary school, not when you finish secondary school. Yes, you specialise straight away when you go into university, even with medicine. O-Levels do not exist - they are now GCSEs. You pretty much need to make your...

I'm about to go into my third year on the MPhys so I'm in the same boat of thinking about PhDs. I've been told that in the UK, a 1:1 is a 1:1, when applying for PhDs it doesn't really matter what percentage you get overall, if you have got a 1:1 you're eligible. My lecturer mentioned that they...

It's big a case of 'what is more difficult than the other', they all have their difficulties and some people are more suited to physics, some people are suited more to engineering. As for top facilities - Google it, it's not that hard. There are hundreds of brilliant places to work at. We're...

Have you got soje sort of pressure gauge to see if the gas is staying in the tube? It could be as simple as a leak in the system