- #1
BHL 20
- 66
- 7
I'm currently coming towards the end of my first year in university and I have found that there are two things which I particularly like : quantum mechanics and statistics. With the way things are in my university, these subjects are mutually exclusive after first year (if I do one I won't be able to do even one class of the other). However I cannot decide between them. When I'm studying quantum mechanics I feel I want to do physics, with or without a double major in pure maths. When I'm studying statistics I want to instead do mathematical sciences (a combination of maths, applied maths and statistics; you cannot do any of these three on their own).
I know there is some statistics used in physics but it's quite elementary, and doesn't require a deep understanding of the concepts. If I had to self-learn one of them, I would prefer that to be physics because then I could be led solely by curiosity : not being limited in what I can learn if I want to learn more and not being forced to learn more if I'm not interested. With statistics, I don't experience this desire for more when I'm learning it, but I am SURE that anything new will be fun.
I'm also interested in it from a philosophical standpoint - it's only because of statistics that we can infer something about a system while not knowing everything about it (from a limited number of observations). That's why it bothers me when the analysis of scientific experiments isn't statistically rigorous or if I don't understand the theory behind it.
Ultimately, it's physics and preferably QM that I would like to do post-graduate research in. I know if I didn't do my undergraduate degree in it my chances of doing research would be much worse. But after doing mathematical sciences I reckon that I could always do research in mathematical physics, which I have heard is more of an area for mathematicians than physicists, and I would not mind that. Sorry for the long post but I had to make the situation clear. Any advice?
I know there is some statistics used in physics but it's quite elementary, and doesn't require a deep understanding of the concepts. If I had to self-learn one of them, I would prefer that to be physics because then I could be led solely by curiosity : not being limited in what I can learn if I want to learn more and not being forced to learn more if I'm not interested. With statistics, I don't experience this desire for more when I'm learning it, but I am SURE that anything new will be fun.
I'm also interested in it from a philosophical standpoint - it's only because of statistics that we can infer something about a system while not knowing everything about it (from a limited number of observations). That's why it bothers me when the analysis of scientific experiments isn't statistically rigorous or if I don't understand the theory behind it.
Ultimately, it's physics and preferably QM that I would like to do post-graduate research in. I know if I didn't do my undergraduate degree in it my chances of doing research would be much worse. But after doing mathematical sciences I reckon that I could always do research in mathematical physics, which I have heard is more of an area for mathematicians than physicists, and I would not mind that. Sorry for the long post but I had to make the situation clear. Any advice?