What is the importance of learning about circuits for physics research?

[iacephysics]

I am thinking of taking of some electronic circuits class as a physics major. I plan to go to grad school in physics or applied physics. Is knowing how to analyze and design circuits useful for physics research? I have seen that there is a lot of circuit design work involved in AMO physics. What else? Thanks!

 

[WarPhalange]

I plan to go to grad school in physics or applied physics. Is knowing how to analyze and design circuits useful for physics research?

Very.

All experiments these days rely on some sort of electronics to at least take data, if not control the whole thing. And since you are usually working with either cutting-edge technology or something you can't just buy commercially, you have to know how your apparatus works, what its limitations are, how to fix it, and whether you need to modify it, etc.

 

[tmc]

Electronics is just one of these things for which you can always find a million uses, like programming. If you do anything experimental, I'm sure you'll find it very useful.