Emmy Noether's Theorem: Learning STEM for Beginners

[gibberingmouther]

I bought "Emmy Noether's Wonderful Theorem" by Dwight E. Neuenschwander.

After flipping through it, I realized a lot of the math is over my head. For example, multivariate calculus and differential equations.

Has anyone else bought this book or really studied how to apply her theorem? I want to know at what point in my development as a STEM learner I should be able to understand something like this.

 

[jedishrfu]

When you’re a sophomore or junior physics major in college. It comes up in Classical Mechanics courses and Quantum Mechanics courses.

Noether’s theorem relates conserved quantities with symmetries of the physical system.



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noether's_theorem

 

[FactChecker]

Are you asking as someone with a career goal of a theoretical physicist or just "as a STEM learner"? If it's the latter, there is no need to know the details of how to apply Noerther's Theorem. A theoretical physicist may want to apply it. Is that your career goal?

 

[gibberingmouther]

Are you asking as someone with a career goal of a theoretical physicist or just "as a STEM learner"? If it's the latter, there is no need to know the details of how to apply Noerther's Theorem. A theoretical physicist may want to apply it. Is that your career goal?

I'm halfway through a degree in computer science (I have an associate's degree and I'll be going back to school in a few months).

I know a bit about game programming so my plan for awhile was to get into that field, but now I'm finding that I like STEM, the basic sciences, more. So where programming intersects with biology/chemistry, physics, etc. is what I'm interested in though I know finding a niche in one of those areas might be difficult.

I like learning new things about how the universe works ... but I don't see myself pursuing a graduate education in physics. I'm like a sponge, and I'm good at learning, but I prefer to do so at my own pace by teaching myself from textbooks and the internet. I don't know if I'd be able to handle the rigors of graduate education (unless I waited and learned a lot on my own ... but it seems like that would be a weird thing to do). I might be a sponge, but I'm like a little sponge, not like one of the big sponges who is in the big league of theoretical physics ... that's how I see it.

I could see myself getting to the point of being able to take the physics gre. I am good at standardized tests. So I was wondering if I aced that if it could help me get a job doing programming for scientists. That might be an unrealistic goal though. My shorter term goal is just to understand some of the mathematical models used by physicists in areas related to computing and electronics.

 

[FactChecker]

Computer programming is a great skill to have for obtaining a job in scientific fields. This is especially true for someone like you who enjoys learning the science in that field. There can be a wide variation of mixing the science and the computer skills that will help you fit in somewhere.

 

[jedishrfu]

Checkout open source physics for computer simulations of physical systems. They have a couple of books on it too. The code is in Java and you can use Eclipse IDE for development.

Www.compadre.org/osp

 

[Tom Kunich]

I'm halfway through a degree in computer science (I have an associate's degree and I'll be going back to school in a few months).

I know a bit about game programming so my plan for awhile was to get into that field, but now I'm finding that I like STEM, the basic sciences, more. So where programming intersects with biology/chemistry, physics, etc. is what I'm interested in though I know finding a niche in one of those areas might be difficult.

I like learning new things about how the universe works ... but I don't see myself pursuing a graduate education in physics. I'm like a sponge, and I'm good at learning, but I prefer to do so at my own pace by teaching myself from textbooks and the internet. I don't know if I'd be able to handle the rigors of graduate education (unless I waited and learned a lot on my own ... but it seems like that would be a weird thing to do). I might be a sponge, but I'm like a little sponge, not like one of the big sponges who is in the big league of theoretical physics ... that's how I see it.

I could see myself getting to the point of being able to take the physics gre. I am good at standardized tests. So I was wondering if I aced that if it could help me get a job doing programming for scientists. That might be an unrealistic goal though. My shorter term goal is just to understand some of the mathematical models used by physicists in areas related to computing and electronics.

I think that you will find STEM such a large and varied field that you will be forced to specialize. I tried doing everything from high energy nuclear research to building utility meters that could be read from a passing vehicle. I finally discovered that medical and scientific research instruments were my forte. Let someone with a great imagination come up with the new ideas and then I make those ideas into reality.

I think that mathematics into calculus is probably a good thing to know but you use it so seldom in fields like mine that you have to relearn it every time you have to use it. But I think I really only used calculus to correct some physicists mistakes on an instrument I was programming for the military.