Question for those with a four-year degree in Physics

[mrnike992]

My open question for anybody:

With just a B.S. in Physics, what percent of the threads on PF can you contribute to conversationally or answer (if it's a question thread), and what percent are on topics with which you are familiar enough to understand the subject?

Personally, I could contribute to ≈ <1% of these threads, being familiar with maybe 25-40% of the topics?

Now granted, I'm still in high school, but as I scroll through (particularly the unanswered forum), I am completely helpless to contribute, which kind of irritates me, but nevertheless I'm curious to hear many responses from the more educated. Thank you!

 

[Orodruin]

I am an assistant professor, have a PhD in theoretical physics, am a PF mentor, and I believe I do my fair share of contributions on PF. With that said, I am clearly not qualified to answer (or for that matter, understand) all threads on PF. Physics is a very broad subject and it is virtually impossible to grasp it all. Still being in high school, you definitely should not feel helpless, you have a lot of time to learn and further realize how little one person can know in perspective to the whole.

 

[mrnike992]

I am an assistant professor, have a PhD in theoretical physics, am a PF mentor, and I believe I do my fair share of contributions on PF. With that said, I am clearly not qualified to answer (or for that matter, understand) all threads on PF. Physics is a very broad subject and it is virtually impossible to grasp it all. Still being in high school, you definitely should not feel helpless, you have a lot of time to learn and further realize how little one person can know in perspective to the whole.

That certainly makes me feel better, but is even more amazing. I'm not sure that I fully realized how vast the subject is, that even one so educated would be unfamiliar with certain topics in the field.

 

[dx]

You shouldn't feel bad or irritated about not being able to contribute to all those threads. Just focus on understanding things from the beginning, and you will get there eventually. One of the problems with many people is that they are much more interested in doing "fancy" things than understanding things, so they end up learning a lot of jargon and big words and appear to "know a lot", but not understanding the fundamentals. This kind of problem is of course very apparent in crackpots, but also affects a lot of physicists to a lesser extent. The use of excessive jargon signals a basic defect in understanding.

 

[Borek]

nevertheless I'm curious to hear many responses from the more educated

That's the only important part

 

[JorisL]

Sometimes an interesting follow through question is as valuable as a complete answer IMO. So that might be a way you can contribute.
As you learn more the nature of those questions also changes. Which in my opinion is a sign of progression.

 

[Tosh5457]

My open question for anybody:

With just a B.S. in Physics, what percent of the threads on PF can you contribute to conversationally or answer (if it's a question thread), and what percent are on topics with which you are familiar enough to understand the subject?

Personally, I could contribute to ≈ <1% of these threads, being familiar with maybe 25-40% of the topics?

Now granted, I'm still in high school, but as I scroll through (particularly the unanswered forum), I am completely helpless to contribute, which kind of irritates me, but nevertheless I'm curious to hear many responses from the more educated. Thank you!

I'm familiar in about 80%-90% of the topics, but I can answer only a few of them without having to look at the books.

 

[mfb]

To get an idea, I sampled threads of the last days at random. The range of topics is so broad, it is impossible to know all of them.

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810480/ gardening
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810470/ Symmetry of Orthogonally diagonalizable matrix
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810460/ Thermodynamics: expanding gas
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810450/ Thermodynamics: fridge
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810440/ Statistical mechanics: Why Cannot I Factorize the Partition Function?
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810430/ Analysis: Finding limits of integral in spherical coordinates
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810420/ Nepal earthquake
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810410/ Career guidance: Permanent national lab jobs and immigration status
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810400/ deleted
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810390/ deleted
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810380/ Mechanical engineering: Using a motor to move something 90 degrees
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810370/ Career guidance: Best physics PhD for going into industry?
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810360/ Calculus textbooks: Why "Transition Books (Apostol, Spivak)" are necessary?
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810350/ deleted
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810340/ Electrostatics: charged object
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810330/ Probability theory: Moivre-Laplace theorem (homework)
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810320/ Particle physics: Supersymmetry
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810310/ Particle physics: Dirac Equation and commutation relations
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810300/ Probability theory: multinomial expansion
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810290/ Number theory: equation with several variables
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810280/ Chemistry: Concentration in solution
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810270/ Classical mechanics: Bungee Jumping Physics
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810260/ Engineering: Energy lost due to bushing friction
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810250/ internal
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810240/ Thermodynamics: How does gas behave/flow in different sized tubing/piping?
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810230/ Classical mechanics: A clear sense of basics of physics
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810220/ Electronics: push-pull amplifiers
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810210/ General physics: Significant figures Help
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810200/ Prime numbers: Nice grouping of primes under 105
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810190/ General relativity: Yet another "never crosses the horizon" question
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810180/ Engineering: Friction loss to vertical pipes in a closed system?
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810170/ Acoustics: Total sound intensity from sources
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810160/ Electronics: Effect of load voltage variation in this circuit...
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810150/ Probability theory: On the hypergeometric distribution
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810140/ deleted
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810130/ new member introduction
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810120/ LaTeX question
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810110/ new member introduction
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/topic.810100/ deleted

 

[Orodruin]

I sampled threads of the last days at random.

Let me question your random number generator ...

 

[mfb]

I saw no evidence of a correlation between threadids and topics. Taking equal distances in threadid reduces a possible bias based on time of the day. To avoid a possible bias from week-ends, I would have had to sample a whole week.

 

[mrnike992]

Wow, thank you all, for your responses.

Sometimes an interesting follow through question is as valuable as a complete answer IMO. So that might be a way you can contribute.
As you learn more the nature of those questions also changes. Which in my opinion is a sign of progression.

I feel like this is a great point, one I've never thought of before. And while sometimes I would like to ask questions, I generally refrain from getting in the middle of heated debates between those who know what they're talking about.

Again, thank you all very much. This has been very helpful!

 

[Borek]

I feel like this is a great point, one I've never thought of before. And while sometimes I would like to ask questions, I generally refrain from getting in the middle of heated debates between those who know what they're talking about.

Pretty good approach. To add to that - please don't ask follow-up questions before the main thing is more or less settled. It makes moderation easier and there is no risk of derailing the thread before the OP got the help. Other than that - there are no stupid questions as long as you show that you are willing to learn.