Recent content by obstinatus

Hi All, I finished my BS in physics last year and currently work full-time in engineering. I want to pursue my dream of being a research physicist, but I wasn't a stellar undergraduate student, so I'll have to be a self-funded, part-time masters student at first, and I chose to live near the...

Hi, I think I'm having a bit of a brain fart...I'm messing with this numerical code trying to understand the 1-D time-independent Schrödinger's equation infinite square well problem (V(x) infinite at the boundaries, 0 everywhere else). If normalized Phi squared is the probability of finding...

Hi, just reviewing some thermodynamics from the textbook by Sears and Salinger, having a hard time conceptualizing this one. It's an isothermal change in pressure, so the volumes of the mercury and the air both change to reach equilibrium, but if it's a "good vacuum pump", then won't the right...

Hello all, I've recently recovered from a long spell of extreme underachievement in undergrad, having nearly been suspended, due to depression from a variety of factors. This past semester I performed significantly better by rediscovering my love of physics and taking advantage of resources...

This was not helpful.

Hi all, I'm justifying asking the forum because I'm currently in an introductory computational physics course that requires Mathematica, and I hope to soon start other computational work. My https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009AEPQDI/?tag=pfamazon01-20's motherboard and hard drive are supposedly...

I'm self-teaching through Tenenbaum & Pollard's "Ordinary Differential Equations", and for some reason I'm completely stuck on one of the problems, Ch.2, lesson 6, problem #6: Find a 1-parameter family of solutions for [...] the differential equation: 6) yx2dy-y3dx = 2x2dy. I didn't have...

I should have clarified: I hadn't struggled academically in physics so much as outside circumstances had made pursuing a degree (in any field) difficult for me. I would change majors to save time and make myself employable sooner. In the extremely unlikely event that I got into grad school for...

As I've posted in another thread, I'm struggling with having failed to make significant progress in my physics degree; continuing to pursue it as an undergraduate major would likely result in another two years of school (and including a couple semesters off, I've already been an undergrad for 5...

My thought was the GPA I'll graduate with, which is what I can put on a resume. But you're right.

I'm a physics undergrad with a year's worth of credit remaining to complete my degree, all 300 and 400 level courses as I've already done gen eds/ humanities. After graduating high school, I attended a noncompetitive state school for a year and was very alienated, the school lacking support for...

Background: Undergraduate majoring in physics to work in research, hopefully in astrophysics or cosmology. 1.5-2 years behind where I should be academically and (if all goes well) about to start courses relevant to major. My questions are these: 1) How should I study basic mathematics...

I'm a 2/3rd year undergrad physics student currently taking some time off for various reasons, and wanted to join the forum to supplement my independent study/ talk physics! My primary interests are astrophysics/ space exploration and mathematical physics and in my spare time I enjoy running and...