What was the most intellectually stimulating class you have ever taken?

[TechieDork]

I'm a 2nd year Physics major.Today I'm completely mindblown how nature can be so interconnected and explainable with just short and simple mathmeatical equations.

And here this is my experience...

This course is called Waves and Vibrations. It is well known for its difficulty in my college. And this midterm only 7 students managed to pass. The highest score was not even close to 80/100.
The fun part began when the professor (Quantum Field Theorist) introduced us to Anharmonic and how it related to QM. He drew a diagram depicting a force between two atoms. And derived equations after equations until he finally shows us the relationship between Total energy and temperature. I was completely mind blown. It was one of the most intellectual stimulating events in my life.

What was the most intellectual stimulating class in your life?

 

[ZapperZ]

I'm a 2nd year Physics major.Today I'm completely mindblown how nature can be so interconnected and explainable with just short and simple mathmeatical equations.
This course is called Waves and Vibrations. It is notorious for its difficulty in my college. And this midterm only 7 students managed to pass. The highest score was not even close to 80/100.
The fun part began when the professor (Quantum Field Theorist) introduced us to Anharmonic and how it related to QM. He drew a diagram depicting a force between two atoms. And derived equations after equations until he finally shows us the relationship between Total energy and temperature. I was completely mind blown. It was one of the most intellectual stimulating events in my life. It felt like my CPU is 100% used.

Was this before or after you decided that he was like a priest?

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...pure-mathematicians-just-like-priests.984107/

It is hard to know if you've learned anything from threads you left hanging.

Zz.

 

[phinds]

It sounds to me as though you actually have little if any interest in other's experiences but rather just needed to express your pleasure at your own experience. That's not a bad thing, but a better subject line for the thread might have been "sharing my wonderful experience ... ". I don't mean that in a bad way.

 

[TechieDork]

Was this before or after you decided that he was like a priest?

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...pure-mathematicians-just-like-priests.984107/

It is hard to know if you've learned anything from threads you left hanging.

Zz.

This was happened after I decided he was like a priest. I thought people who want to pursue Theoretical Physics fields have to give up the dream of possessing materialistic things ,instant gratifications or limelight. Fully devote themselves to the mission of finding truth and understanding.

People with that level of talents can pursue any lucrative fields if they want but they have decided to stick with what they truly love.

Of course, it was just an anecdotal after all.

I have came to term with my decision. I did choose the right field to study. Physics is my passion. It gives me the mental infrastructure to analyse and solve complex problems. I can't imagine myself doing anything else but it doesn't mean I don't prepare myself to learn some transferrable skills if in the end I don't make it to the academia.

 

[ZapperZ]

This was happened after I decided he was like a priest. I thought people who want to pursue Theoretical Physics fields have to give up the dream of possessing materialistic things ,instant gratifications or limelight. Fully devote themselves to the mission of finding truth and understanding.

People with that level of talents can pursue any lucrative fields if they want but they have decided to stick with what they truly love.

Of course, it was just an anecdotal after all.

I have came to term with my decision. I did choose the right field to study. Physics is my passion. It gives me the mental infrastructure to analyse and solve complex problems. I can't imagine myself doing anything else but it doesn't mean I don't prepare myself to learn some transferrable skills if in the end I don't make it to the academia.

Still, it doesn't answer whether (i) you had the wrong impression of what "theoretical physics" was and (ii) if you've learned anything to correct that.

It would be nice if, once in a while, we have closure on a thread on PF.

Zz.

 

[TechieDork]

Still, it doesn't answer whether (i) you had the wrong impression of what "theoretical physics" was and (ii) if you've learned anything to correct that.

It would be nice if, once in a while, we have closure on a thread on PF.

Zz.

(i) Yes , I did have a skewed view on the stereotypes of "theoretical physics" based purely on cherry-picking fallacy.

(ii) I've learned that people whether they're theoreticians or not aren't homogeneous. Different different people have different beliefs values and characteristics.

Thanks for illustrating the the points.