How do i know if physics is for me ?

[B4ssHunter]

i am a high school student who loves physics
the thing is , i dream a lot about making a change in physics that i often think of it more than i think of physics itself
i don't want to be famous or anything i just wish if i could contribute to physics
when it comes to studying physics it has always been a subject that i scored good grades at , and now when i look into math i see more than just a subject , its a challenge that i fell in love with .
but how do i really know if physics is my thing ?
i have always loved the atom and nuclear science and the idea of bombs from atoms but i have always wanted to be a computer programmer , 2 years ago i was introduced to physics and i fell in love with it somehow .
any ideas ? should i read more books about it ? i did read a little and i felt fascinated but i didn't really read lots of books , but i have read lots of articles though .
i am just afraid that i might want to be a physicist more than i want to study physics . i am not sure though .

 

[yungman]

when i look into math i see more than just a subject , its a challenge that i fell in love with .
but how do i really know if physics is my thing ?
i have always loved the atom and nuclear science and the idea of bombs from atoms but i have always wanted to be a computer programmer , 2 years ago i was introduced to physics and i fell in love with it somehow .
any ideas ? should i read more books about it ? i did read a little and i felt fascinated but i didn't really read lots of books , but i have read lots of articles though .
i am just afraid that i might want to be a physicist more than i want to study physics . i am not sure though .

You never know what you like until you get into it. Even at that, you can change your mind. You just have to try it.

You don't have to choose between programming and physics. In scientific and embedded programming, you might required to have good knowledge in physics and calculus. Same as you likely need to write programs as a physicist. Not to complicate even more, you might want to gain some knowledge in electronics as the line drawn between the three is very blur.

Before you even get too hung up on any subject, study more math, be good in math, trigonometry, algebra. Then calculus. Math is the language of science just like English for business, law etc. Upper level physics books mostly explain in calculus rather than in English.

With that, then you choose the class that you like/required. I don't know how much jobs for physics major without a PHD, but there are a lot of jobs for EE and software engineers and you don't necessary need a PHD. You don't even have to choose until the 3rd year in college. Just go all out with the calculus, ODE, PDE. You can't go wrong. If you are strong in math, everything else will be easy and fall into place.

 

[tia89]

i am a high school student who loves physics
the thing is , i dream a lot about making a change in physics that i often think of it more than i think of physics itself

Don't run too much... if you like physics then study physics, if you are good results will come

i don't want to be famous or anything i just wish if i could contribute to physics

Everyone in the research world DO contribute to physics... clearly they are small contributions, but without these no big discovery would be done... big discoveries are built up of many many people doing small steps and finally one doing the big step of putting all together and finding the connections others didn't see

i have always loved the atom and nuclear science and the idea of bombs from atoms but i have always wanted to be a computer programmer , 2 years ago i was introduced to physics and i fell in love with it somehow .

these two do not necessarily mutually exclude... most of the research in nuclear and atomic physics is done with computer simulations of complex systems nowadays

any ideas ? should i read more books about it ? i did read a little and i felt fascinated but i didn't really read lots of books , but i have read lots of articles though .

Leave articles if you are not specialist, they are boring mostly (trust me I read a lot of them) and too specific... books are perfectly good to understand if you like this... and then try, I assure you that if you do not really love it, you will leave it alone soon

i am just afraid that i might want to be a physicist more than i want to study physics . i am not sure though .

Everyone who loves physics wants to be a physicists more than they want to study physics... but being a physicist passes through studying physics so, if this is your dream, go on... and then you will realize that between studying physics and being a physicist there is not such big difference after all