study physics

At the moment I’m attending a course on physics, it’s about thermodynamics. One moment I was about to leave the course but I talked with my teacher and he kind of persuaded me to stay. So far I’m glad I did.

I don’t know what to consider “studying” physics. I’ve been interested in physics for all my life and I’ve read several books about physics and science. I know quite a lot about science but I’ve never thought it’s studying. Bah. Maybe this is, then.

I’ve always said I would go back to school to study physics after I retire.

Calculus based physics was required for my major, and while the classes were some of the hardest I took in college… passing them with Bs was a huge success for me. (My university had a 70% failure rate.) I found physics I (mechanics, motion, etc) to be a lot easier to grasp than physics II (electricity and magnetism)... and I put in a LOT of time to pass… but yeah, I suppose you could say it’s worth it.

I didn’t get to the theoretical level, however, which is what I’m really interested in. I still read up on it. It’s fascinating to see the world beyond the obvious and the visible.

i recommend it, its not easy, but it is not boring, its so fascinating to learn how things really ‘work’ and to understand how sooo much stuff in this world is done – how buildings, bridges and motors and everything is created, and then to get into the amazing aspects of light, sound, electricity… its great and i miss it at times…

is a physicist who without any trace of condescension
attempts to explain his work on theorectical physics.. Check out this link ( weekly ) – always interesting:http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/

I ordered both volumes of roger penroses’ Spinors and Spacetime:http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521337070

The reason i’ve added this, is that I notice nearly all my goals relate to programming languages ( easy to get wrapped in these microworlds.)
I don’t really give a damn about creating web applications or databases, but i like the way programming makes you think, sieving everything through the (stretchy) sieve of your own concepts
i should try to get at the real physical intuition behind the maths – i was thinking that programming/simulation etc would aid in this , but now i’m not too sure.

I’d like to “re-learn” the physics I did at uni, at least informally.
I bought a book called Div,Grad and Curl and All That recently.

I like non-journalistic science books that try to explain mathematical/physical concepts ( visually if possible.)

I spent a couple of hours on Hyperphysics yesterday until my brain could no longer comprehend even simple logic such as “What was my name again?”

I did enjoy it and learned a bit… How can I apply it to something real-world? I’ve no idea. :)