What sparked your interest for physics?

Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time

 

When I was very young, the space race in the 1960s piqued my interest in science and astronomy. Later, in grades 8 through 10, I had quite an interest in electronics. In grade 10 math, Euclidean geometry and proof absolutely entranced me. About the same time, I read an article on the expanding universe, which introduced me to general relativity, and I saw a BBC (via PBS) show "The Key to the Universe" on quarks.

On Physics Forums, I see a lot of bashing of popular-level physics shows and print material, but, without this popular-level stuff (as well as good high school teachers), I would not be doing what I am doing.

Form grade 10 I have been wresting with

pure maths ... theoretical physics ... pure maths ... theoretical physics .. Which ???

Of course, at the level of grad courses, they can be combined, e.g., the grad-level (for both maths and physics) in books like

"Quantum Theory for Mathematicians" by Brian Hall,
"Quantum Field Theory for Mathematicians" by Gerald Folland,
"Mathematical Gauge Theory With Applications to the Standard Model of Theoretical Physics" by Mark Hamilton.

 

ohhhh such a youngin haha

in the mid - late 60's I got interested in the various space programs … by collecting the cards from various breakfast cereal packets
( sadly, something young kids don't get exposed to over the last 20 yrs or so). Watching the moon landing on the old B&W TV
Solar max of 1970 was when mom and dad introduced me to the aurora and I could lie in bed look out into the dark and watch the auroral lights dance across the night sky.
At around the same time I was getting into bulbs, batteries and such. The beginnings of my electronics working life.
In the early '70's, my astronomy interest bloomed with the saving up and purchasing of the first telescopes.
Rock and mineral collecting also started around the same time. Then in 1974 I experienced a nearby M5.0 earthquake and
that was the start of my deep interest in seismology


Dave

 

In the 1960s, my parents bought us How and Why Wonder books, so I became interested in Science and Nature, and the nature of things. I was interested in Astronomy and Space Travel, Rock and Minerals, Paleontology and Dinosaurs, . . . . One moment from second grade that still sticks in my mind is when I read an article of the effects of a thermonuclear explosion on a large metropolitan area. I think that, and my interest in astronomy and space travel, initiated my interest in studying physics, particularly nuclear and astrophysics. I was also interested in how mankind developed and used energy.

I did various kinds of experiments from the H&W Wonder books and playing with electronics kits, a microscope, and magnifying glass. By 5th grade, I started reading articles on atoms and particles, and in 6th grade, I designed an nuclear power aircraft. From 7th grade on I took every math and science course I could.

 

Cool , that was something from my youth as well... '68 onwards. My dad had no understanding of electronics ( a farmer most of his life)
But my grandad (mom's side) did and on may of the school Christmas holidays I stayed there, he always encouraged and helped me
with the building of crystal sets and the like. There were several multi kW Am stations with several kilometres of his place that had coverage
over the Dunedin City region, NZ. so there was no lack of signal to pick up... the problem was more the stations overpowering each other
when received by a basic crystal radio

Wonderful memories of a time when life was much simpler


Dave

 

"Brief history" was definitely one spark/moment but I had already studied Biology at uni by this point and reading around that area not physics so much. As time went on I just got more interested and was doing some NMR then Colour physics in my job although did all the maths was done via the programs not manually (I may have actually learnt something if I had to do some of the calculations manually). However I nearly fell off my chair when my son told me he want to study Physics at uni so that was another push to learn some real stuff. I wanted to be able to talk to him without feeling lost!