/r/PhysicsStudents
A place for physics students of any level to discuss the intricate profoundness of the universe.
This subreddit is aimed towards undergraduate and graduate students pursuing a PhD in physics. It is not as serious as r/physics (although papers and articles are encouraged!) and not strictly for physics help like r/askphysics. Just a community of physics students wanting to share info, asking for physics help or looking for advice!
Related Subreddits:
/r/Phys (papers and blogs only)
/r/PhysicsStudents
My school project is vacuum airship, 10m long. It can hold up to 40kg, but, we also need to make it strong enough to resist... Like... A LOT of pressure, we talking about 6 700kg in general. We have some ideas, but we'll be glad if someone can help with info or interesting suggestions
The answer for this question was given as option C. I understand the you get this relation if we balance torque about COM. But, won't we have a component of weight along the rod, which makes it accelerate?
I'm in the fourth year of my PhD and my advisor is a huge pain in my ass about coming into the office. I do computational work and I don't TA or anything, so there's no reason that I physically need to be on campus except for the fact that she wants to talk to be able to talk to me in person (whenever she wants). I think email is typically the most efficient way to communicate for most problems, but if that isn't sufficient then a zoom meeting is fine. I really would like to move out of my state and finish the work remotely, but I don't think that will be possible given my advisor's attitude towards remote work... I think most PhD students feel the same way that I do, but the mid career scientists tend to disagree. (Late career are generally more flexible and don't care about anything, early career seem to be closer to grad students on this, but the mid career folks are the most difficult about it.) Unfortunately, it seems to me like advisors and departments are trending back towards making students come back into the office. It's all unfortunate because the PhD and postdoc life makes it very hard to start a family and get your personal life stable, and the option to work remotely seemed like a great way to make that at least a bit more feasible, but it seems like things are trending in the wrong direction (in my opinion).
What do you all think? (Of course, the situation is different for people who work in labs etc, so this might be more relevant to computational and theoretical folks) How do you feel about remote and hybrid work? How does your advisor or department feel about it? Which direction do you think things are trending? Which way do you want things to go?
Hello, I am in the first year of a master's degree in optics and photonics, and it was not the field I wanted to do in my master's degree (I don't hate it but it is not the field I like the most), I want to do theoretical physics abroad, and I think I will continue in this master's degree before leaving my country and doing another master's degree in theoretical physics (probably in Germany), now my question is whether I am wasting my time or whether this first master's degree can be very useful in my career even if it is not very related to the second one I want to specialize in, and whether as a student it can help to find a job while doing my second master's degree (laboratory assistant, teaching etc...).
It should be noted that this master's degree in optics and photonics has a multidisciplinary aspect and is also oriented towards materials physics since many of the teachers who provide this training come from this field.
Hi everyone,
I’m really torn between pursuing a degree in Physics or Mechanical Engineering. I love both fields and have a strong passion for both, but my priority is physics because I want to eventually aim for a first-class degree in it. However, I also want to learn mechanical engineering as it interests me a lot.
I’m wondering if it’s possible to do both degrees, or if it’s too much to handle? I still have a year before starting university, so I’ve been thinking about self-studying mechanical engineering topics to get a head start. Will this make it easier to keep up with both degrees if I end up going down that path?
I’m curious if anyone here has pursued two degrees in physics and engineering or is currently doing something similar. How did you manage the workload, and would you recommend this path?
Thanks in advance for any advice or experiences you can share!
In this image I isolated two circuit loops: the yellow one and the blue one.
How can I tell if the resistor or battery is opposite the direction of current? I know it sounds kinda dumb but to me I just thought it all goes the same direction.
Yellow loop: the current of emf2 is to the left, so does that mean emf1, and R1 are both opposite the direction of current because it’s not going towards the left? Except R2 because it’s also going left?
Blue loop: the current of emf2 is to the left, so does that mean R3 is opposite the direction of the current because its current is not pointing towards the left?
Cause whether it’s going the direction of the current or not affects how I set up my Kirchhoff loop rule equations.
I have an entire problem written out for Kirchoff’s junction rule. I understand everything up until the box I highlighted green and then next to it, I wrote, in green, what I thought the current circuit would be.
Preface: i wrote current as a lowercase i so it’s easier to read in the text.
I understand how I got to the first equation in the green box of emf2 - R1i1 - emf1 - R2i2 = 0
But I don’t understand how that became
Emf2 - emf1 = i (R1 + R2)
I know you add the R2i2and R1i1 from the first side to cancel out and then add it to the other side, but I thought that would get you Emf2 - emf1 = R1i1+ R2i2
How does it become i(R1 + R2) ?
I was curious of USAPhO scoring works. Is it 25 points per question? For a max of 150?
I am making a mousetrap car that needs to do a wheelie, highest non tip angle wins, how should I do that?
Edit: It has to travel at least a meter as well
Preface: If you read this post in hopes of finding a clever physics joke to impress your peers I’m afraid you will not find it here. This joke is frankly the opposite to clever and unfortunately, it might not even translate well into english…
Some time ago I took a course in classical mechanics and a small part of the course was about orbital mechanics. At one point we were given the task to reason our way to the best way of interplanetary transfer (depending on which quantity to minimize).
My suggestion was as a crow flies.
P.s The answer they were looking for was more of a Hohmann transfer rather than an animal-like transfer
Hello guys, can anyone help me get to the correct answer? 1st: I stupidly looked up the problem and just typed in the answer ( mainly because I didn’t think it was correct and this homework is past due to I won’t get any credit for it but it’s good practice) 2nd: I know that we have to use the momentum conservation theory but I literally cannot figure out how I’m supposed to get 4488.8. So I know that initial part of the equation should be 2110m and the final part should be MVmodule + 4MVmotor. After that we can substitute Vmotor for (Vmodule- 84) so my overall equation should look like 2110Mmodule=MVmodule+4Mmodule(Vmodule-84) after this I don’t know what to do. If I distribute the 4Mmodule I get 2110Mmodule=MVmodule+4MVmodule-336Mmodule which then give me 2110Mmodule=5MVmodule-336Mmodule from here I would get rid of the Mmodules leaving me with 2110=5v-336 which over all gives me 489.2, which is wrong. Any help is greatly appreciated.
This isn't hw but i didn't know what flair to add lol. Anyways, I'm kind of confused why the textbook said that the Vc is equal to 2idelta"? is it because of the reference node?
I graduated with a 2:1 (UK grading) in physics recently, which is a good grade and I feel happy I managed to do it, but I feel like I completely frauded it. Its only been a few months but I probably couldnt even do the first year content again without relearning it, since ive forgotten it all.
Is forgetting the entirety of your degree and feeling like you learned nothing common?
Hello, I'm just a new physics student and I'm from Spain, just started college and could pass the exam to be here. Now I have done 2 months. Also I'm new to reddit so hi!! I just love it and I want to become a physicist.
Im learning everyday a lot of new things, and that makes me very confused about what do I really like, I know that I will have time to talk and discover it, but i feel so disoriented in this. I like to think that my job will give me some sense, so I thought about medical physics, but then I'm good at programming, and I really like math (abstract) and particle physics, so I thought about doing theoretical physics, then I think that I would like to do applied physics and I like laboratory.
Maybe I'm going too fast, but I would like to know people that have experience with that, maybe I can ask my teachers, idk.
I don't ask what to study, that is so personal... But how do I know what I like?
Also, I'm happy that I belong to this community, so I don't know if people study together or what things do people in here. I'm new on reddit :)
Hey there I'm a Cybersecurity student and I need to declare my minor within next Spring Semester I love physics and I'd love to take it as a minor having in mind that I want to work as an academic. Is physics a good choice?
I’m looking for some advice as I’m looking to study physics next year at uni. Physics has always been my passion with different branches of it interesting me at different points in my life, currently I’m a huge fan of the mechanical side of physics as opposed to my previous obsession with astrophysics currently and with the thought of a career path playing heavy on my mind at the moment I was just wondering how easy is it to branch into an engineering career after getting my physics degree?
I am a high school student and our teacher asked us this question. It is not a homework but he wanted to see if anybody could solve it. The question asks the acceleration of block K with respect to block L. The coefficient of friction is 0, the rope and pulleys are massless. I tried to do an f=ma analysis and then thought that F should be equal to T+ma of block k. However, I am not certain about my last step and I feel like it is wrong. I also tried to provide a constraint condition, taking the second order derivative of the string length, but that made everything worse.
Hello, I am applying to a physics summer school that is competitive and needs reference letters from professors. I am looking on some advice on how to approach this properly. I have talked to my professors many times but have no research experience under one and need to ask for letters of reference. Does anyone have any advice on how I can ask them for one? Thanks in advance!
Hello Everyone,
I am currently in my final year of undergrad in Computer science. Throughout my undergrad, I found mathematics and physics more interesting and this eventually led to my interest in Quantum computing. I want to shift to the field of mathematics and physics and become a researcher. But as an undergrad in CS, I feel I wasted my time and now it's too late for studying phy and math and I fear this might effect my career. So I wanted to ask people here for their advice on what should I do.
Is the total resistence for this circuit 18.18181818?
In my physics lab we did an experiment with elastic, gravitational, and kinetic energy conversion. The experiment was an ice pluck sliding down a ramp into a spring which compressed then pushed back the pluck up the ramp
In my calculations for energy there was loss of energy at every stage of the experiment however at the start when the pluck was let go (from a string that was cut) calculating the gravitational energy from the start to the point it slides down the energy went up. I don't understand why, if it's expected that there would be energy loss? Is there something else adding energy to the pluck besides the initial gravity ? The string somehow? Or my calculations are wrong? I used 1/2(m)(v)2 for kinetic and mgh for gravitational.
My calculus 3 class was during covid, so it was basically a free pass kinda deal. I’m about to get back into school for the spring semester (took a few years off), I reviewed calc 1 and 2 and feel very confident in those, but I don’t have much time to completely go through the calc 3 parts of a textbook.
Can anyone tell me the most used/important parts of calc 3 used in upper level undergrad physics? What are MUST KNOW topics and good to know? I will be taking math methods this spring, but want to do this before. Thanks
Hi everyone! My entire department had a meeting, and we were trying to figure out how to advertise ourselves and create involvement on campus through astronomy and physics. What are some suggestions you have for us? Does your school have an active physics department? What would you like to see as a physics student on campus?
Hey guys, not asking how to do this but rather why is it the way it is? The measured V3 and I3 are the only negative values and is there a specific reason? Thanks in advance.
Hello, I have been struggling for hours on this problem if anyone could help me understand.
An infinite non-conducting plate has a surface density of sigma on each face. It is parallel to an analogous plate of surface density of -sigma. Determine the modulus of the electric field in the region between the plates.
I have shown a picture of the answers up there but I don’t know how to get to them. If someone could visually show me how to solve something like this I would appreciate it. Thanks