- #1
Mzachman
- 51
- 0
Hey guys, my name is Michael Zachman, and I'm currently a Junior at Purdue University. I've been thinking a lot about physics and I have some questions, so I found your board here and I'm hoping I can get some other opinions from people in Physics :).
So first off, I'm sorry that this isn't going to be the shortest message in the world... there's a lot going on in my head. So sorry about that...
So here's my story.
When I was young I was home schooled (between 5th grade and junior year of high school), so I got to explore a lot of what I was interested in, and didn't feel pressured that learning or "school" was a bad thing. When I was younger I was also an extremely curious person who asked a lot of questions about the world, and really liked scientific stuff a lot. I used to ask some actually semi-intelligent questions when I was pretty young (one example is when I was something like 10 I asked my mom if you had a sealed cube of infinite strength [aka couldn't expand] filled completely with water if you could ever freeze it? My mom didn't know, and tried hard to find out, but never did. I still don't know that one... lol. Do you?). Anyway, once I started getting older and I went back to school and got filled with the "school and learning is bad" feeling everyone else had, it kinda drowned out my curiosity for the world and learning about it. I kinda just quit caring and got into more of a social life and stuff like that.
So then came my decision of what I wanted to do when I went to college. I had absolutely no idea. I had forgotten my interest in science (not completely, didn't even think about it as a career, that was more the more business-like stuff), so I didn't even consider that. My dad is a high ranking manager who has worked for some big companies, and he really doesn't like the feeling of being tied down like that, so he talked to me quite a bit about working for yourself, so I decided to start out in Management at Krannert here at purdue. After about a year and a half I switched to Building Construction Management because I kinda liked the idea of working outdoors more, and being slightly more free than an office job (and then starting my own company eventually).
Then comes the Physics class... First of all, I was always good at math, havent' ever gotten anything less than an A in it... but never knew how it was really applied... I didn't take any physics in high school, so I didn't even really know what the definition of it was either. Well, BCM requires PHYS 218, the first in a two series of classes for Technology students (forces, momentum, rotational stuff, heat, and stuff like that in that one). I really liked it a lot. I ended up with a 98.xx% in the class, and didn't try very hard at all... lol. I felt like I had discovered something BRAND new that I didn't even know existed. I literally knew NOTHING about anything we went over when I started... So the next semester I was convinced by someone to take the optional PHYS 219 (electrical/magnetic stuff, and some nuclear and quantum). I did well in that too... and liked the second half of it (nuclear stuff mostly) even more than the first class... These were starting to bring back the curiosity and love of science type stuff I hadn't felt since I was young...
So now, just before my 6th semester I started wondering if maybe I wanted to give up almost everything I had done so far (not much from management and technology transfers to science...) and switch to physics. So the semester started and I looked for people to talk to and information about physics majors/careers. I ended up talking to the physics advisor at the end of the second week of this semester, and she told me that if I was really interested I should take a "real" physics course, PHYS 172, which is the engineer's and physics major's class. So she told me that she could give me special permission to join it even though I'm not an engineer, or in physics. So I canceled another one of my classes and joined that on friday of the second week of classes... lol
That was 6 days before the first exam (including the weekend...), and this was a "real" physics class according to the advisor, unlike the apparently dumbed down technology physics classes, so I was very nervous. This meant a possible change in my life's path if i did well. I got 100% with basically no studying. haha. I went over the practice exam once and got everything right and didn't do any more.
Also, I am helping like 6 or 7 engineers and other people from this class and other physics classes with their homework (and was with a few of them before I started the class too...).
Now, when I start thinking physics stuff it really obsesses my mind, and even when i don't WANT to think about it, I do. It's actually annoying. lol. I get tired of that, and then just completely stop being interested for a day or two at a time, and then when I feel "relaxed" again I become interested again.
So here is my question... What do I do? I don't even know what physicists do for careers, and what that would be like. Also, I would lose a ton of credits switching over and would basically be a sophomore starting my "senior" year... Which I don't like. Also, I would have to test out of some calculus, because the calc 1 and 2 classes I took were applied for business (learned all the math and then applied it to econ and stuff like that). Only problem with that is that I can't remember any of it really... it's been a year and a half since then...
What do you think about all of this? I've considered switching entirely to physics, double majoring in BCM-Physics, getting a minor in Physics and staying in BCM, and not doing anything at all and just staying in BCM.
Again, I'm sorry this is so long... Kinda hard to get the story across without something huge... :\. I really appreciate any thoughtful help with this though.
Thanks guys :). I'm looking forward to possibly talking on here more in the future depending on what I do.
So first off, I'm sorry that this isn't going to be the shortest message in the world... there's a lot going on in my head. So sorry about that...
So here's my story.
When I was young I was home schooled (between 5th grade and junior year of high school), so I got to explore a lot of what I was interested in, and didn't feel pressured that learning or "school" was a bad thing. When I was younger I was also an extremely curious person who asked a lot of questions about the world, and really liked scientific stuff a lot. I used to ask some actually semi-intelligent questions when I was pretty young (one example is when I was something like 10 I asked my mom if you had a sealed cube of infinite strength [aka couldn't expand] filled completely with water if you could ever freeze it? My mom didn't know, and tried hard to find out, but never did. I still don't know that one... lol. Do you?). Anyway, once I started getting older and I went back to school and got filled with the "school and learning is bad" feeling everyone else had, it kinda drowned out my curiosity for the world and learning about it. I kinda just quit caring and got into more of a social life and stuff like that.
So then came my decision of what I wanted to do when I went to college. I had absolutely no idea. I had forgotten my interest in science (not completely, didn't even think about it as a career, that was more the more business-like stuff), so I didn't even consider that. My dad is a high ranking manager who has worked for some big companies, and he really doesn't like the feeling of being tied down like that, so he talked to me quite a bit about working for yourself, so I decided to start out in Management at Krannert here at purdue. After about a year and a half I switched to Building Construction Management because I kinda liked the idea of working outdoors more, and being slightly more free than an office job (and then starting my own company eventually).
Then comes the Physics class... First of all, I was always good at math, havent' ever gotten anything less than an A in it... but never knew how it was really applied... I didn't take any physics in high school, so I didn't even really know what the definition of it was either. Well, BCM requires PHYS 218, the first in a two series of classes for Technology students (forces, momentum, rotational stuff, heat, and stuff like that in that one). I really liked it a lot. I ended up with a 98.xx% in the class, and didn't try very hard at all... lol. I felt like I had discovered something BRAND new that I didn't even know existed. I literally knew NOTHING about anything we went over when I started... So the next semester I was convinced by someone to take the optional PHYS 219 (electrical/magnetic stuff, and some nuclear and quantum). I did well in that too... and liked the second half of it (nuclear stuff mostly) even more than the first class... These were starting to bring back the curiosity and love of science type stuff I hadn't felt since I was young...
So now, just before my 6th semester I started wondering if maybe I wanted to give up almost everything I had done so far (not much from management and technology transfers to science...) and switch to physics. So the semester started and I looked for people to talk to and information about physics majors/careers. I ended up talking to the physics advisor at the end of the second week of this semester, and she told me that if I was really interested I should take a "real" physics course, PHYS 172, which is the engineer's and physics major's class. So she told me that she could give me special permission to join it even though I'm not an engineer, or in physics. So I canceled another one of my classes and joined that on friday of the second week of classes... lol
That was 6 days before the first exam (including the weekend...), and this was a "real" physics class according to the advisor, unlike the apparently dumbed down technology physics classes, so I was very nervous. This meant a possible change in my life's path if i did well. I got 100% with basically no studying. haha. I went over the practice exam once and got everything right and didn't do any more.
Also, I am helping like 6 or 7 engineers and other people from this class and other physics classes with their homework (and was with a few of them before I started the class too...).
Now, when I start thinking physics stuff it really obsesses my mind, and even when i don't WANT to think about it, I do. It's actually annoying. lol. I get tired of that, and then just completely stop being interested for a day or two at a time, and then when I feel "relaxed" again I become interested again.
So here is my question... What do I do? I don't even know what physicists do for careers, and what that would be like. Also, I would lose a ton of credits switching over and would basically be a sophomore starting my "senior" year... Which I don't like. Also, I would have to test out of some calculus, because the calc 1 and 2 classes I took were applied for business (learned all the math and then applied it to econ and stuff like that). Only problem with that is that I can't remember any of it really... it's been a year and a half since then...
What do you think about all of this? I've considered switching entirely to physics, double majoring in BCM-Physics, getting a minor in Physics and staying in BCM, and not doing anything at all and just staying in BCM.
Again, I'm sorry this is so long... Kinda hard to get the story across without something huge... :\. I really appreciate any thoughtful help with this though.
Thanks guys :). I'm looking forward to possibly talking on here more in the future depending on what I do.