Recent content by pmr

Hey Nicolas, First of all, congratulations on getting into a good school! I recently worked as a teaching assistant at Columbia for their advanced level intro physics sequence, 2800 and 2801. I graded papers, held recitations, etc... I also took those courses myself as an undergraduate, so...

I'm sorry, but you just don't know what the real world is like. When you finish school and get an actual job they'll be putting reams of contrived questions on your desk every day. You'll have only a brief moment to answer each one, and precision use of a calculator under time pressure will be...

Try calling the college board, it might be a soft deadline, who knows. Also, any sane school will let you skip whatever intro courses you want. Just register for whichever classes feel at your level. If you complete a major in math or physics with a good GPA and some administrator notices that...

That sounds great. I submitted an application to be a writer on the insights pages.

To offer an extreme view, just for the sake of argument, you might say that all great physicists and mathematicians start at childhood, always. People who have these sorts of minds will always be counting blocks as kids, or multiplying numbers in their head for fun while bored during car rides...

Hey everyone, I have a policy question about posting some articles that I've typed up in TeX. I want to now if it's allowed, and if so then under what circumstances. I'm putting together a website where I'll be posting my notes on math and physics. Whenever I learn something new or work out...

If you want to really learn how to be a TeX hacker then I would suggest the following: 1) Get on a UNIX based operating system, if you're not already on one. Good candidates are OS X, Linux, or FreeBSD. If you go the Linux route then try either Fedora or Ubuntu. 2) Learn how to use a bash...

I second what Kilgour22 said. Incidentally, I'm 26 myself, so I'm in the same boat when it comes to doing a later-in-life undergrad degree in physics.

I never enjoyed moving quickly in school. I've done fast, and I've done slow. Slow is better. I'm sure you'll be able to do the homework and pass your exams, but will you really understand any of it on a deep and fundamental level? Just like your friends said, I would be terribly overwhelmed...

I would list these as the prerequisites: (1) Solid mathematics experience, up to at least intermediate calculus. (2) Experience in a low level programming language. These days probably plain C. You should have written at least 2-3 small programs in plain C. (3) Experience with assembly...

At different times I'm an experimentalist, mathematician, theorist, and engineer. Though my skill levels across those domains varies tremednously. I would be interested in an introductory text from any perspective, really. My key requirement is that any introduction should arrive at the...

I'm solid with Fourier series, yep. The integral expression for the Fourier transform feels close enough to a Fourier series that I almost feel like I could figure out what it does on my own (with a blackboard and a lot of free time). That book by Lathi looks interesting, I'll give it a peek...

I need a good book on the Fourier transform, which I know almost noting about. Some online sources were suggesting Bracewell's "The Fourier Transform & Its Applications." I gave it shot, but it's competely unreadable. On page 1 he throws out an internal expression and says "There, that's the...

If you're taking classes that use MasteringPhysics-based textbooks, then something already feels off to me. I would probably get a D in those classes too, just as a function of getting bored or frustrated with the low quality of the books.

I'd study the following things, and in this order: 1) Vector calculus 2) Basic linear algebra, of the non-abstract sort (especially eigenvalue problems) 4) Classical Mechanics, on a moderately advanced level) 5) Special Relativity 6) Electrostatics 7) Electrodynamics