Physics Advice for the people who cannot study physics

[quantknight]

I'm a business informatics student developed huge interest towards science lately, especially in physics. I wanted to pursue physics now as a mature student, but I'm unable to find a way to pursue it.

So Right now I have applied for data science masters, but still i have my thoughts about physics. Since I am unlikely to pursue it what would you suggest for me?should I Forget about studying physics or do I have any chance cracking into physics?

How did you people manage your heart, those who passionately studied physics but pursuing other careers to sustain in your life? I'm asking this in forum because I have no mentors to guide me. I had tried to study through private tutors for physics and maths fundamentals, which is of no use, as they didn't teach anything effective at all. I wasted money for that .

I tried to self learn and it was hard for me, so I couldn't study through that method too. For the last 6 years I have been thinking about making a career into science. I'm writing this with heavy heart. Please advice me.

 

[russ_watters]

That was all very stream-of-consciousness-y, and you omitted a very important consideration: what do you want to do with your life? So I'll just answer that as an engineer, I make enough money to afford this:

It scratches my itch (along with PF!), required no college and involves very little math.

 

[quantknight]

That was all very stream-of-consciousness-y, and you omitted a very important consideration: what do you want to do with your life? So I'll just answer that as an engineer, I make enough money to afford this:
View attachment 221429

It scratches my itch (along with PF!), required no college and involves very little math.

I wanted pursue my career into research, after realizing that I can't pursue into physics research with my educational qualification, atleast I wanted to do data analytics in industry for physics data,or physics related work since I was working as a data mining expert. I'm making science communication videos in youtube, but I want to pursue science in main stream.

So you are doing astrophotography?

 

[ZapperZ]

I wanted pursue my career into research, after realizing that I can't pursue into physics research with my educational qualification, atleast I wanted to do data analytics in industry for physics data,or physics related work since I was working as a data mining expert. I'm making science communication videos in youtube, but I want to pursue science in main stream.

So you are doing astrophotography?

This is still a bit vague.

Unfortunately, the reality here is that if you wish to do science, you need a science background, because not only do almost everyone doing research work in science has a PhD in his/her respective field, there are also many others who can't get a job in doing science with similar educational qualification. So it isn't just enough that you want to do it, you also need to show why you are BETTER than others who have a stronger grasp of the material.

There are research centers, such as the various US National Labs, that have computing centers that provide a service for various scientific disciplines to use their computing power. So you may be able to work in an area that provide such a service to them, meaning you are indirectly involved in their scientific research. But other than that, I do not see a direct way into such research program. Many of the computing work done in physics are mostly done by the physicists/engineers themselves, so any opening for non-physicists, if any, is very small in number.

Zz.

 

[quantknight]

This is still a bit vague.

Unfortunately, the reality here is that if you wish to do science, you need a science background, because not only do almost everyone doing research work in science has a PhD in his/her respective field, there are also many others who can't get a job in doing science with similar educational qualification. So it isn't just enough that you want to do it, you also need to show why you are BETTER than others who have a stronger grasp of the material.

There are research centers, such as the various US National Labs, that have computing centers that provide a service for various scientific disciplines to use their computing power. So you may be able to work in an area that provide such a service to them, meaning you are indirectly involved in their scientific research. But other than that, I do not see a direct way into such research program. Many of the computing work done in physics are mostly done by the physicists/engineers themselves, so any opening for non-physicists, if any, is very small in number.

Zz.

I understand my ignorance on this. I can't be specific because I don't have too much subject knowledge. By research I meant into data analytics part of topics such as astrophysics, particle physics or medical physics. I was thinking that i could try for openings in these fields of research if I have finished PhD in data science. But later discussions in the forum made me realize that I wouldn't be able to get it. After that I had been looking into career where physics with data analytics related industry jobs, such as predictive analytics for machines or large vehicles(IOT) or into medical physics. As of now I couldn't find any. If there would be any possibility of pursuing this job I would pursue it!

 

[jasonRF]

Since you have never done physics research you probably have a romanticized idea of what it is like.

I am an engineer, but the research group I was in during my graduate studies was a group doing pure science for the sake of science. I basically did a lot of data analysis, signal processing, and physical modeling to understand what was occurring in our experiments. I spent a lot of time writing code and slogging through data. Most science is incremental, and my research was no different.

Overall, much of my time working as a research and development engineer (seldom is there much actual research) in industry is not that different, only I have to make prettier presentations for customers and I have a few more meetings. I am not doing any science, but I actually use physics almost daily (electromagnetic theory) and for me, figuring out how to make a system work (especially the gritty details) provides a similar satisfaction as doing incremental science.

jason