Well, I’m about to leave for a week’s vacation and do not expect to be able to post while away. So, I thought I’d leave you with a small competition.
I’d like to construct a Letterman-like top ten list of reasons why undecided college students should seriously consider physics as their choice of undergraduate major. An important ground rule is that it is not my assumption that anyone choosing to become a physics major would intend to later go to graduate school and become a professional physicist, although they might.
This is a question we often ask ourselves when thinking over the structure of our undergraduate curriculum, and it might provide some help to any people considering physics as a way to go. I won’t pretend that it doesn’t also help me to have the best ammunition possible when recruiting smart kids for physics; and I think CV readers are the right people to provide the best list.
I’ll post what I consider to be the best ten suggestions (not all from the same person – you are free to suggest as few or as many reasons as you like) on Monday the 12th. If there are humorous suggestions, I’ll include at least two of those, and if there are enough, perhaps a whole other funny list. But serious reasons are my main goal.
Have fun!
June 3rd, 2006 at 7:50 am
An undergraduate might consider studying physics to gain a deeper understanding of the fundamental principles that govern our universe and everything in it, while at the same time picking up a broad and eminently useful skillset–the ability to analyze and deconstruct problems, to effectively communicate solutions, a unique sense of the aesthetic, and a facility in math, to name some.
A guy undergrad should consider studying physics if he yearns for alpha-male competition but isn’t good at any sports. A gal undergrad should consider studying physics if she doesn’t want to be distracted in classes by attractive men who have some idea how to please her.
(Was that sexist? I can’t even tell anymore. It wasn’t meant to be. I won’t be offended if you don’t use any of these in the official top ten list.)
June 3rd, 2006 at 8:40 am
‘Cos it’s mathematical models of nature which are non-political! Validated facts are survivors, they don’t depend on fashion or consensus. You are learning something which will never be completely superseded or discarded. As long as you don’t start believing non-tested speculative theories, you can check and in many cases test everything you learn that is well established EXPERIMENTALLY. All other sciences have enormous amounts of guesswork and leaps of faith, but physics is almost complete so biology and geology are extremely inaccurate and unreliable by comparison to the numbers you deal with everyday in core physics. (Of course every other subject is really based on physics in a more approximate way.)
June 3rd, 2006 at 9:01 am
“‘Cos it’s mathematical models of nature which are non-political! Validated facts are survivors, they don’t depend on fashion or consensus. You are learning something which will never be completely superseded or discarded….”
You’re assuming here they don’t teach string theory to undergraduates.
June 3rd, 2006 at 12:47 pm
Because the cows won’t launch themselves.
June 3rd, 2006 at 2:22 pm
The baseline model should be something like a math major, with a solid dose (minor, prepped for grad studies) of economics, supplemented by history and literature, with 3-4 programming classes, and a couple of the not-for-majors only business classes (i.e., intros to accounting, finance, marketing).
This should be no harder than a physics major, especially a physics major with enough math to go on into a physics grad program. It covers a lot of logic, from more than one perspective. It gives the baseline education that a number of graduate programs would find appealing. It should far better prepare a student for the working world than just a physics major.
June 3rd, 2006 at 2:26 pm
To learn how to think logically. From what I hear, this is the main reason employers hire physics grads.
June 3rd, 2006 at 2:42 pm
A major in physics provides you with a vast and unique vocabulary that will not help you one bit on the verbal section of the GRE.
Tom Fish, your first paragraph is fine, but your second contains the basic stereotypes that should be avoided, as it doesn’t describe your average physics major nor does it help in recruiting prospective majors.
June 3rd, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Physicists have many transferable skills, that are highly valued by employers. (Quite the same JoAnne allready said)
Salary increases in the US are well above inflation rates (in case of physicists salaries of course)!
One negative statement as well: Academic careers in physics can also lead to a two-body problem of another kind and/or to the social counterpart of strong coupling.
June 3rd, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Because it trains your mind to discard all of the superfluous information and extract the real reasons for why reality is the way it is.
June 3rd, 2006 at 4:18 pm
David: are you sure you are thinking about physics here, not philosophy? EXPERIMENTS and not great minds are what physicists use to discard superfluous data (otherwise you end up stuck with speculations like 10 dimensions which simply can’t be checked). I’ve absolutely nothing at all against sting theory being a branch of mathematical philosophy/mythology, by the way.
June 3rd, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Reasons why an undergrad should choose to be a Physics major.
Your body learns to run on coffee and no sleep – useful preparation for many careers.
Keeps you indoors – away from potentially carcinogenic solar exposure.
You can save the $$$ your peers spend on dating. No one wants to date you.
You don’t need to resort to menacing gestures and threats to scare people away. Just tell them you are a Physics major and show them your Quantum Mech text.
June 3rd, 2006 at 4:41 pm
You will get on well with your roommates – you’ll hardly be around to get in their way.
And the no. 1 reason why you should be a Physics major is
….drumroll…
….music….
You don’t need to try and convince people you are smart.
They already know you are.
June 3rd, 2006 at 4:46 pm
10. the pranks you play on your friends will become much more impressive
9. you get to play with cooler, more expensive toys than your friends.
8. you can use physics talk to confuse people easily.
7. saying “I’m a physacist” will get you an akward stare that combines aww for your intelligance, confusion for your career choice, and a little bit of small animal in headlights because i bet they dont hear that every day.
thats all i have for now.
June 3rd, 2006 at 5:50 pm
10. That thermonuclear weapon you will be capable of building in your basement is a great conversation starter.
9. You can always put “physics major” on your resume even if you change next semester.
8. The people who control the magnets control the world.
7. Get to legitimately wear those Brian Greene T-Shirts.
6. You might be the next Einstein so you may as well get started.
5. The Millikan Water Drop experiment.
4. Get to learn how to program in Fortran.
3. Always better to start out in physics then transfer into one of those sissy sciences like chemistry or biology.
2. Can try to use Heisenberg uncertainty principle to talk your way out of a traffic ticket
And the Number 1 reason to major in physics.
1. Someday you might be able have a really cool blog….
Elliot
June 3rd, 2006 at 6:08 pm
I second Elliot’s number one.
I’ve also found:
Your heroes are Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein of course.
Hooter’s girls like when you define physics for them.
You can correct tour guides when they innaccurately describe the pendulum of your science building to their group.
The Diraq Delta function.
You won’t ever be content to work a normal summer job.
Your philosophy on life is close to that of a serial killers’.
You get a lot of attention if you’re also good looking and buff (how much do you Bench, Mark?)
June 3rd, 2006 at 6:43 pm
I did it so that I could say I am a rocket scientist at cocktail parties…My mom wanted me to be a rocket scientist or brain surgeon so basically it’s not that difficult a choice.
June 3rd, 2006 at 7:01 pm
In no particular order, but neither chaotic either:
Because it’s the next best thing to engineering.
Because then you would really relate to the cliche that physicists discover what is but engineers create what might have been.
Because there is a Nobel Prize for Physics but none for engineering.
Because physics rhymes with physique: one deals with the constitution of the universe, and the other the body.
Because then you can start a food franchise on Einstein Pizza.
Because you are a principled person who revels in all the immutable physical laws and loves things invariant.
Because that’s what real stuff is made of.
Because you can always branch off to biophysics, geophysics, and any other number of what-have-you-physcis that are yet to be named.
Because you want to get physical.
Because you want to explain multi(>3)-dimensionality in layman’s terms better than those pitiful souls at CV.
June 3rd, 2006 at 8:28 pm
At Georgia Tech, a BS in Physics is 120 hours, while a BS in EE is 130 (2006 catalog). Not only that, but most Physics classes are 5-hours, versus mostly 3-hour EE classes, so you can take a full load with only 3 classes. End result – you’re out at least one full term ahead of those poor struggling EEs.
June 3rd, 2006 at 9:01 pm
I am going to ignore the Letterman request and talk something else.
Speaking as someone who does have an undergraduate Physics degree and went and did other things. (a Masters in EE 12 years later after working) I got the Physics degree because of curiosity. Thinking back – I think it would have been much better if there was a track with a high concentration of solid state physics and perhaps biophysics. The solid state stuff could certainly be where the quantum mechanics was taught. I do think it was enjoyable except for the occasional horrible prof – like anything. Speaking as someone who finished my Bachelors in 1982, I think in the long run my Physics major really was no help job wise since there was no backup and support to keep me “fresh”.
I do think the physics academic community as a whole is seriously geared to ignoring people who do not go on for Ph.D.’s. Aside from the fun “Science Bag” or Physics shows, there is essentially NO outreach to educate people furthur who aren’t on the professional education track. Heck reading several physics blogs is the first time I have had serious science displayed with the math in the last 25 years. Even Math has several non-academic oriented publications that are at a high level, astronomy to a degree also. Thus my degree degrades over time. Of course the basic mechanics are still useful, and the EM stuff, well I got much of that as an EE person, but what are current experimental practices?
I am tired of reading String, Theory/Extra Dimensions, stuff with arcanely named transformations or math spaces that are meaningless as far as I can see. What about these south pole detectors, what about current understanding of superconductivity – with math, but not the academic papers themselves – which are not oriented toward explaning things. I think that if Universities would look at “updating” their undergraduates with courses or publications, my degree would be much more valuable.
June 3rd, 2006 at 11:57 pm
I miss Clifford.
June 4th, 2006 at 2:05 am
Because you want to succeed in (choose one):
business, law, medicine, education, engineering, politics. Or research in physics.
A physics degree (plus a minor/additional courses in econ, history, bio, etc as appropriate) will
(a) give you the critical thinking and problem solving skills that are essential in all of these fields
(b) teach you how to continually learn new material, ideas, techniques in a world that will be constantly evolving — success will depend on your ability to quickly absorb and apply new information, think out-of-the-box, and be flexible in changing directions
(c) position you as a strong and unique candidate for graduate professional programs in the above fields, all of which increasingly involve technology and scientific knowledge (medical physics, technology based companies and areas of business and law, need for high school science teachers, issues of energy conservation/alternative sources).
Plus it’s fun and challenging.
Markk, there are university programs geared toward continuing adult education at some universities (the University of Chicago hosts the Compton Lecture series for the general public, an 8 week series given by one of the fellows — Risa gave these last year — and also has the Graham School of continuing education which has offered cosmology courses.) Museums also have lecture programs and courses which bring in the experts in a field (Adler Planetarium has a great spring course on cosmology — see http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/education/courses/index.shtml).
Don’t know where you live, but if there’s a college or university or museum around they may host courses or public lectures.
The physics community needs to take the lead in changing its culture and its approach. The attitude of too many in the field is at best tolerant, at worst hostile, to anything other than what they perceive as the next generation of research physicists. At dinner after a conference last week the conversation included a discussion of how annoying students were and how best to discourage them from distracting the professor from his real purpose in life. A suggestion that we need to educate and encourage more high school physics teachers was met with vague murmurs of agreement — for someone else at some other institution. Kind of a not-in-my-backyard consensus that someone (else) should do something. We complain about the lack of basic science literacy in the general public and our political leaders, yet, with a few exceptions, aren’t willing to look seriously at doing anything about it.
Practical suggestions:
Undergraduate departments should appoint a committee to take a new and creative look at recruitment, mentoring, career counseling and career placement. Work with other departments and grad/professional schools to design a premed or prelaw track with a major in physics, for example — and then market this to incoming freshman. Talk to your local school district and education department and design (and be enthusiastic about) a program to train high school physics teachers. Bring in physicists who are currently working in industry or on Wall Street to talk about what they’re doing. And when you’re successful, write papers and articles about your programs to encourage and motivate other institutions.
June 4th, 2006 at 3:47 am
1) Because it’s fun being on top of the intellectual food chain
2) You’re about the only science major that engineering majors are actually scared of, so you can have hours of fun with them.
3) When someone mentions Einstein, you get to use the phrase “Yeah, Albert has some great ideas, but…”
4) Get that deer in the headlight blank look from your friends and family when they ask what your thesis is about
5) You get bragging rights about how many hours you actually spend in lectures/labs/studying
6) You get to mention higher dimensions without sounding like a loony
More serious reasons
1) You are able to study a very broad spectrum of phenomena, ranging from the most fundamental laws of nature to very applied subjects
2) You get an excellent “Bullshit detector” and learn to see what is important
3) A great blogging community!
4) It is relatively easy to switch to other subjects after your undergrad (math, engineering, chemistry, CS…)
That’s about all I can think of at the moment, but there are bound to be more.
June 4th, 2006 at 10:31 am
- Physicists are the best paid scientists (http://www.jupiterscientific.org/sciinfo/sciencesalaries.html)
- Physicists make better computer programmers than computer scientists (e.g., according to Microsoft…)
- So you never have to work for a Pointy-Haired Boss
- Physics is beautiful: it tries to explain the most phenomena with the fewest ideas.
- Physics requires artistry and imagination: it starts with the possible and moves gradually toward the impossible.
- Because you want to know the mind of God (the rest are mere details…)
June 4th, 2006 at 10:35 am
Please, let’s not encourage people to major in physics. The more physicists there are, the more competition there is for Nobel Prizes, and for solving the famous problems in physics.
June 4th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
I finished my undergraduate degrees in physics and math, and I’m now in biology (unplanned…I was going to do condensed matter theory, but something went wrong, and I’m still not quite sure what). From my point of view, here’s what’s been most useful:
- The bullshit detector that Dimitri mentioned. You get a feeling for how things should actually work, that is far from universally reliable, but far more than reasonably effective. Also, having seen theories in full bloom (classical mechanics, Maxwell’s theory, quantum) you have models of what “understanding” is that most others lack. As you wander beyond physics this becomes even more important. You’re less likely to have blinders on.
- Technical skill. There’s that old joke:
A physicist is not as good at electronics as an electrical engineer.
A physicist is not as good at programming as a computer scientist.
A physicist is not as good as machining as a mechanical engineer.
A physicist is not as good at math as a mathematician.
So why would anyone hire a physicist? Because he can do 90% of all of these, while their skill drops to practically nothing outside of their discipline.
I won’t be building medical equipment anytime soon, but I can sit at my bench and produce stopgap equipment to try out ideas on my biological systems.
- There will never again be such a thing as scary math. On the other hand, nonrigorous math won’t scare you. When the metal meets the road, you can do back of the envelope calculations and clean them up if things pan out.
- It’s breathtaking.
Now, I’m still in the sciences, and from my point of view, still doing physics. I’m just doing it on tuberculosis. Once you leave this realm, I don’t know what applies.
June 4th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Because – in many ways -
… the future is in our hands …
(as physicists
June 4th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Because look at the alternatives. You really want to spend years of your life studying stupid crap like political “science” or sociology or business?
June 4th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’
June 4th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
See Sean Carroll’s summation in the next post. Obviously there is much besides his knowledge of physics that goes into his closing statement. Nonetheless, a deep appreciation of the complexity of systems like the earth’s climate and the enormous potential impact of modifying key parameters like those underlying greenhouse warming play an essential role in it. What is also vital is a sense of ownership and responsibility about this knowledge and its bearing on every other aspect of our existence— the understanding that it is much more than the preoccupation of a specialized profession.
June 5th, 2006 at 9:41 am
I had trouble understanding the question; do people actually decide to go into physics? I don’t recall ever making any such decision; it was just the way it was. There weren’t any alternatives that were worth being considered, that it was possible to compare to physics and actually have to think about choosing.
Of course, a couple of years later this young new professor showed up and started teaching something called “computer science” (this was Brown in 1965) and I did find myself considering and choosing an alternative. By then I’d realized that the world, including my class, contained both actual physicists — people who could do it as easily as breathing — and the rest of us.
June 5th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
The best I can do is paraphrase the good advice I received or inferred for becoming a Physics major, or for sticking with it when I could have taken a job that provided a real living wage (as opposed to the indentured servitude that is graduate education):
1. (If you are trying to decide between majors) It is a lot easier to get the degree in physics now and move on to something else later than vice versa.
Maybe not inspiring, but its awful hard to go into graduate study in physics with a bachelor’s in, say, Economics. Its surprisingly easy to go the other way, and there are many success stories out there.
2. There are lots of people in the world who can read and write well (despite much conflicting evidence in the blogosphere). There are far fewer who can think clearly. The world needs more of the latter.
This is the underlying reason behind the often-quoted popularity of physicists with many employers. They just don’t put them in the PR department.
3. It builds character.
I could riff on this in any number of ways, but let’s just say you don’t really know what you can do until you try something that is challenging. And who knows, you might be good at it.
4. The party lifestyle.
Ok, this was our standard flip response in grad school to those who, at some anonymous mixer, would ask “why did you go into that?” Its only partly a joke. And it’s worth pointing out that as a simplifying assumption, physicist = wallflower is about as good as the spherical cow.
5. You will meet a wide range of incredibly smart and occasionally fascinating people.
Yes, moreso than in other disciplines. I have an elegant proof of that assertion, but I just dont have enough space to reproduce it here…
June 6th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
speaking as a physics/math major, I picked my majors purely by what I found interesting. This turned out to be really bad career planning, since as Bob M. observed, I found out (but only in final year, slow learner) the difference between actual physicists and myself.. I suppose a little humiliation is good for the character though.
The problem I found is that a physics major equips you for one of two things: postgrad, or teaching high school. Certainly it is in many ways good intellectual training, but I couldn’t earn a living with my degree.
Really the #1 and as far as I can see only reason, in the current configuration of school/life, is because it’s fascinating.
June 6th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
If you become a physicist, you’ll forever make better use of napkins.
The thrill of being on the brink of discovery is second only to being madly in love.
Physics is the greatest intellectual adventure mankind ever embarked upon.
Your expertise could could potentially make you a danger to national security…that’s sexy!
If you enter cosmology, you’ll have insanely excellent travel perks!
Physicists only need one or two suits.
You’ll learn most of the greek alphabet.
Books about unified theories make millions!
June 7th, 2006 at 11:26 pm
Attributes that would be seen as deficiencies in most people (lack of fashion sense, sub-par social skills etc.) confer a sort of reverse prestige on physicists.
When you are referred to as a nuclear physicist or rocket scientist, it may not be a mere figure of speech.
June 8th, 2006 at 5:20 am
When people say about some task “It’s hardly rocket science”, you can respond with, “Yes, if it was, then it would be easy!”.
June 8th, 2006 at 6:46 am
Because…
Chicks dig physicists.
This is supported by reams of evidence, from Einstein to Schroedinger to Feynman, not to mention a pub conversation last night where someone I’d just met declared that she’d only date physicists and musicians.
What was the first thing I noticed about my husband when we met? His astrophysics degree.
I’m working on my own physics degree, despite the fact that I’m not sure if it works the other way around — oh well. But the reason I do it is not for the allure, it’s more for the power trip. No other intellectual pursuit in my life has brought me so low, or lifted me so high. I’m in it for the ultimate thrill of pursuit.
June 8th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
candace,
It seems to me (based on the experiences of several female Physics friends and my own as well) that the converse you pondered upon hold true at a significantly lower rate.
In fact, if I want to get rid of a guy in a social situation I tell him that I teach Physics. (And I have it on good authority that I’m not by any means ugly, malodorous or in other way disagreeable.)
June 9th, 2006 at 11:33 am
Then there is econophysics …
June 9th, 2006 at 11:36 am
twaters,
I believe physicsts don’t need any suits. Just a tweed sports coat and slacks.
June 10th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
Elliot,
A few of us prefer, as a formal outfit, a jacket + skirt = (business) suit over tweed sports coat and slacks.
June 10th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
oops…I guess I fell into the old stereotypes myself…my bad.
June 18th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Why Study Physics? – The Results
I’m currently in England to attend the annual meeting of the Editorial Board of New Journal of Physics. I flew in on Thursday morning, watched England scrape a win against Trinidad & Tobago with friends in a pub in London that afternoon and…
June 18th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
[...] It’s about time I reported on the small competition I initiated before my last trip. As a reminder, I said I’d like to construct a Letterman-like top ten list of reasons why undecided college students should seriously consider physics as their choice of undergraduate major. An important ground rule is that it is not my assumption that anyone choosing to become a physics major would intend to later go to graduate school and become a professional physicist, although they might. [...]