Career advice -- How much math for physics?

[ModusPwnd]

Me thinks thou dost project too much.

I didn't project anything... I just described my experience. You are the one who claimed he would see that stuff. I am telling you I never did.

 

[StatGuy2000]

There was zero programming in my physics program, both undergrad and graduate. Very little statistics, just a bit from stat mech. No t-tests, anovas, blocking or hypothesis testing.

Pardon me, but how can anyone graduate with a BS in physics without having to do at least some programming at some level? The physics students that I knew in my old alma mater (University of Toronto) all had to work with programming in their Practical Physics courses (i.e. lab courses) to analyze experimental data (from what I understand, these programming exercises were done in MATLAB, and many of my physics friends all took introductory CS courses as electives). I don't mean this to offend you, but it makes me wonder about the quality of your school or the physics department you were associated with.

[As an aside, I do agree that physics programs do not teach much statistics at all in their programs except for a little probability theory from statistical mechanics, although my understanding (which could be mistaken) is that at my alma mater, very simple t-tests and ANOVAs are often incorporated in the lab courses as part of analyzing experimental data.]

 

[AnnaD]

Salut Mwett! I'm 18 and I've been struggling with the same dilemma! Your posts really helped me thanks a lot, wish you good luck

 

[Mwett]

Hi Anna, what did you chose finally ? :)

 

[SoylentBlue]

The biggest mistake I made in high school was not taking calc. I was solid in trig and reasonably solid in algebra, but didn't meet calc until first semester as an undergrad. My advice, for whatever it is worth: be as fluent as possible in calc, and certainly keep your trig and algebra skills up to par. Don't fear the math; embrace it. It is just a tool.
You don't have to be a genius. You just have to be motivated and work hard.
Also: talk to profs, talk to other students, see who is doing what and you'll get a good taste of what your career might be like.
Also: get the books ahead of time and start reading. Now that we have the magic of the Internet, you can watch, ahead of time, videos of the lectures you'll be exposed to. Youtube is an amazing tool!
Also: don't feel pressured, during the first or even 2nd year as an undergrad, to choose your direction. Most majors share a base of common courses, so you'll be able to shift your emphasis without losing too much (or maybe any) time.
Also...man, I could go on forever. I wish I had it all to do all over again. So many things I would have done differently. I could write a book about this. Hmmm...maybe I will. Anyway, good luck to you...Keep us posted.

 

[Hellmut1956]

I am on the other side of the professional life from you who is thinking about what to study. At high school, in german Gymnasium, I finished mathematics with nearly the best rate possible. I also was and have always been a physics enthusiast. Nevertheless I decided to go for mechanical engineering in the late 70, which was a mistake. Many of my fellow students have spend their time to then working on a car or motorcycle, what I never did.
Now I had decided to do dedicate my time to naval modeling as a vehicle to organize my life, to have a positive motivation and to dig into the fields I was going to touch. I am working on my sailboat model from scratch since more than a decade. About 2 years ago I decided to apply the design by modeling technology to design, model and optimize the design of my own method to implement a sheet control system. So soon I decided to organize my partial knowledge of the fields involved in my modeling objective. Electronics, even having been an application engineer of one of the largest US semiconductor companies, analog electronics was alien to me. I went to the university here in Munich and was warmly welcomed and got access to all the material, even their intranet. Soon I realized without updating my mathematical skills it would not even be worth to dig into the electronics courses. Linear algebra and Analysis proved to be the starting challenges i would have to dedicate my efforts to. Another field relevant for my objective is physics, as my sailboat would have the physical environment to be most relevant to model the operation of the sheet control system. Here I found out the same without mathematics and without Linear Algebra and Analysis to start with, worthless to dig into the topic. But also electronics demands physics.
As part of the investigation I did I found the Moocs offerings from german, english (USA) and spanish a language I am a native speaker of. Soon I found out that I was able to choose the professor whose teaching style best fit to me. But if you look at the offering from the MIT, from edX, Coursera to name a few I glanced into related courses and was fascinated. So my decision to engage into my building o a sailboat model had brought me to a fantastic source of learning. But for all those courses, and calculus of single and multi variables adds to the Linear Algebra and Analysis. But I have come to the conclusion that without getting mathematical skills to a level where I could understand and think mathematically I would just be like an analfabet or legasthenic person. So I named myself a mathematical analfabet and/or legasthenic. Mathematics is really the only "language" in which you need to be able to think and speak, to really deal with any study this days. Prof Keith Devlin offers a great Mooc course about "Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" in which he also speaks about what is the difference between high school mathematics and that you face in colleges. In 1978 i decided that I was not able to learn to speak, think and work with the language mathematics and that was the reason I decided to go for mechanical engineering. Sadly mathematics in the study for becoming a mechanical engineering career is even farther away from what Keith Devlin calls mathematical thinking and even from the way I did mathematics at high school. Just many years later I understood the justification for it. Engineers have to recognize to what basic mathematics equation a problem can be modified to to fit and then apply the "cook book" solution! I did solve all the the exams questions, but understanding them and did not modify it to fit a style where a cook book solution could be applied. So even having all solutions right I barely passed the exams as many of the in between steps were not touched.
Why I am giving this extensive response? Because if you love physics and you are able to learn and apply mathematical thinking this is the right course to follow. Nearls any course this day requires you to apply mathematics. So the challenge is kind of the same in any science or engineering field, while in physics and mathematics you have one extreme of the goal of learning the language mathematics, while in engineering you are more on the range of learning to do and apply mathematics. But to excel this days I believe you have to learn mathematical thinking. Now mid of 2015 I believe you can study upfront to gain the skills in mathematics to then have a much easier run when you register at a university. I can only tell you that having found out for me that I have found Moocs from professors whose style fit to me I enjoy mathematics. So I have decided to refresh my mathematical skills learning Calculus for single and multi variables by using the course for calculus from the MIT in their OpenCourseWare offering, same applies for Linear Algebra and to study Analysis from the Mooc offering of a german university who builds its course based on the Analysis Course of Terence Tao, Analysis with honours and where his 2 books can be legally downloaded from his personal website.

 

[Mwett]

Juste another question, what job could a physicist get ? And what difference with an engineering's job ?
I'd rather study physics but my father would prefer I became an engineer. So I need some arguments here..

 

[Hellmut1956]

I used to work for large US semiconductor companies. Physics come with a solid mathematical and physics skill set and have learned with those skills to solve tasks. This ability qualifies you for many jobs in the industry! Besides that, once you start your career live gets you to places and jobs you could not have about thought about before! With technology developing so fast requirements needed tomorrow do not exist yet, but a solid skill set will make you able to deal with new tasks. But overall I dare to say is one aspect that is key! If you like what you do, if you feel passion for it, you will be good! Does not matter what it is!

 

[Chronos]

When I was at uni [back in the dard ages] all the necessary math skills were either pre or corequisite for physics courses, depending on level of application involved. I assume that situation has not changed substantially. So looking at the math required for physics electives in your field of choice will give you a good idea of what is necessary. Keep in mind these are just minimum requirements and remain open to the prospect of picking up additional math electives appropriate to your field of choice. Making the transition from a degree in physics to engineering is usually fairly trivial and the technical demands are less rigorous. At worst it might take an extra year to complete your engineering degree. A double al major in physics/engineering will significantly enhance your employment prospects.