Ask a third year physicist anything!

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XD a close friend of mines in first year physics at sussex!!
i went and sat in on a lecture of his the other day (i love physics) but it was the most boring thing ever lolol - classical physics lecture about capacitors (lectured by the little lady with red glasses...dunno where shes from). the whole electricity/electromagnet thing i hated in a levels :frown:

. on the plus side, we did spot someone in his group who is a doppelganger of one of our friends ^^

Antonella I think - was she Italian?

I suppose the thing to remember is you have to know the boring stuff before you get to the interesting stuff. Case in point: We did quantum field theory today and the equation we were looking it was the same as a mass on a spring, but you need to know how those systems work well before you get to the more abstract concepts :smile:

Reply 21

QuantumHatter

Are you basically told that everything you learned at A level is an oversimplified version of what physicists currently consider to be the truth?

Reply 22

Antimatter

Original post by QuantumHatter

Are you basically told that everything you learned at A level is an oversimplified version of what physicists currently consider to be the truth?

You're told that at basically every level until you yourselves are pushing the frontiers of that subject. Which makes it so amazing.

Reply 23

POWCATTY

Original post by Antimatter

ahahaha asking me to identify accents is even more futile than trying to get me to like capacitors!!
yeah i know...i have a bad habit of skipping the boring stuff and jumping right in lol - bit impatient :P. also did not help that i did not do maths - which, looking at my friends notes, is the basis of everything!!

Reply 24

Manitude

Original post by Antimatter

Amazing! But I'm not sure about others... How's yours?

We have an open door policy so all lecturers doors are open at all times and we're encouraged to pop in and see them, and often have coffee/chats with them. The head of department tries to come into our study space at least once a week to have a chat and see how he can improve, and all the staff really want the best for us. An anecdote I like to tell on open days is when I was struggling on a question revising in first year I knocked on my lecturer's door but he was out, but the guy in the office next door popped out and asked if he could help (bear in mind I'd never met him before at this point...) and spent an hour helping a first year with basic mechanics. It turns out he's a world leader in supersymmetry searches at the LHC :o:

We also have a ball once a year (next Saturday!) where a lot of staff and students go to let their hair down and relax, then often some staff come out to the local clubs with us!

Good stuff. That's actually very similar to ours with the open door policy. Also the physics society (Which I am president of :biggrin:

) has a few social events where we invite lecturers along. Most notably our christmas ball and the staff-student football game/BBQ at the end of the year. We also get a few coming to the lectures we put on. Sometimes we get guest speakers in which tend to be more popular with everyone.

I've heard that Edinburgh is very different, that office hours really are the only time you'll speak to lecturers outside of lectures. I'm trying to find out what it's like at other universities so it's something the department and the society can advertise!

We only managed to have lecturers in the club with us once and it was one of the most memorable nights in my university time so far (though for other reasons too!)