Praise Thank you physics forums, 20 years later

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After 20 years, a user reflects on their journey with physics forums, which helped them during their initial pursuit of a physics degree. Despite life and work interruptions, they are now ready to restart their studies in physics. The user expresses gratitude for the support received from forum members, noting the value of the community in answering complex questions. They are excited to engage with the forum again, sharing their past experiences and looking forward to new inquiries. The discussion highlights the lasting impact of online educational communities.
smithpa9
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About 20 years ago, in my mid-30s (and with a BA in economics and a master's in business), I started taking night classes in physics hoping to eventually earn the science degree I'd always wanted but never pursued. I found physics forums and used it to ask questions I was unable to get answered from my textbooks or class lectures.

Unfortunately, work and life got in the way and I never got further the freshman courses. Well, here it is 20 years later. I'm in my mid-50s now, and in a position to start that effort again. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I remembered my physics forums ID and password, and even more shocked to find that my old account was still active, along with the questions I asked 20 years ago (and surely will have again in round 2) and the very generous answers from those wonderful forum members.

So now I'm looking forward to starting my journey all over again with a whole new set of questions. Thank you to all physics forum members past, present, and future, to whom I will undoubtedly be turning for wisdom again. Starting now. :-)
 
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Funny! IIRC, PF was barely more than a HS project back then.
 
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Love these kinds of journeys!
 
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I want to thank those members who interacted with me a couple of years ago in two Optics Forum threads. They were @Drakkith, @hutchphd, @Gleb1964, and @KAHR-Alpha. I had something I wanted the scientific community to know and slipped a new idea in against the rules. Thank you also to @berkeman for suggesting paths to meet with academia. Anyway, I finally got a paper on the same matter as discussed in those forum threads, the fat lens model, got it peer-reviewed, and IJRAP...
This came up in my job today (UXP). Never thought to raise it here on PF till now. Hyperlinks really should be underlined at all times. PF only underlines them when they are rolled over. Colour alone (especially dark blue/purple) makes it difficult to spot a hyperlink in a large block of text (or even a small one). Not everyone can see perfectly. Even if they don't suffer from colour deficiency, not everyone has the visual acuity to distinguish two very close shades of text. Hover actions...
About 20 years ago, in my mid-30s (and with a BA in economics and a master's in business), I started taking night classes in physics hoping to eventually earn the science degree I'd always wanted but never pursued. I found physics forums and used it to ask questions I was unable to get answered from my textbooks or class lectures. Unfortunately, work and life got in the way and I never got further the freshman courses. Well, here it is 20 years later. I'm in my mid-50s now, and in a...

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