Is Studying Physics Still Worth It for Me?

[SweetDnny]

I started college majoring in electrical engineering. I realized that engineering was boring and lacked beauty, so I decided to change to the elegant study of physics. This is after I had taken AP physics in high school, so I knew it was something I liked a lot. I'm now halfway through my second year, double majoring in physics and math with a 3.96 GPA. I'm slowly finding the science more and more tedious and boring rather than beautiful. Last quarter was dedicated to waves and vibrations and Fourier stuff, which I found to be awful. Now I'm being gently introduced to special relativity, which I thought was amazing when I first heard about it two years ago, but now its just alright. In my math class we're learning out of Artin's Algebra, which I sort of like. I originally wanted to be a theoretical physicist, I absolutely despise any lab scenario as well as programming. It's just been a long time since I've seen something that put me in awe the way calculus did the first time I saw it. Does theoretical physics become really cool again, or am I just losing interest? Also, is there anyway that I can do purely theoretical work given how little I know currently? I think maybe actually trying it out could help me decide.

 

[jedishrfu]

I think you're overworked and not spending enough time to see the beauty in things.

William Blake wrote a stanza for it:

Auguries of Innocence
William Blake
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

And from zen:

Before a man studies Zen, a mountain is a mountain
after he gets insights, a mountain is not a mountain
When he really understands, a mountain is a mountain"

You may be stuck on the middle line and if you persevere the amazement will come back.

 

[Pythagorean]

err, theoretical physics is going to be hard nowadays without programming.

 

[jedishrfu]

err, theoretical physics is going to be hard nowadays without programming.

Also with a computer you can begin to see the depth and beauty of a system of eqns applied to a problem.

Checkout the open source physics project at compadre.org/osp

 

[lisab]

err, theoretical physics is going to be hard nowadays without programming.

That was my thought, too.