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Post by mashuga31 on Apr 3, 2010 19:47:07 GMT -5
A week ago I was bored and I came up with the notion of Negative Mass. This sparked other interests in mind mind and the entire day, I spent thinking about negative mass and relating it to other theories such as time travel. When I got home i looked it up and found out that what I have been thinking of, scientists spent five years thinking of.
I then went to tell my dad "Hey dad, guess how smart I am" to which he replied "No." and practically disowned me, made jokes, and said i was a nutjob who was going to waste the rest of his life on that and live out of a cereal box in an alley.... is that true???
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Silverrida
Moon
Infinity - So far away yet around us at the same time
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Post by Silverrida on Apr 3, 2010 19:51:01 GMT -5
A week ago I was bored and I came up with the notion of Negative Mass. This sparked other interests in mind mind and the entire day, I spent thinking about negative mass and relating it to other theories such as time travel. When I got home i looked it up and found out that what I have been thinking of, scientists spent five years thinking of. I then went to tell my dad "Hey dad, guess how smart I am" to which he replied "No." and practically disowned me, made jokes, and said i was a nutjob who was going to waste the rest of his life on that and live out of a cereal box in an alley.... is that true??? Your dad's insane. You are speaking of theoretical physics and these are the people who come up with new ideas of how the world work. However you can't just understand stuff like this. Physics uses math. All the reading you did is not as accurate or truly understandable as the actual mathematical equations and evidence supporting things. Also, if you are referring to anti-matter, that has been completely proven. |
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RabbitWho
Star
Rebecca - How 'bout we all put or real names somewhere in our signatures or titles? [SKB:]
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Post by RabbitWho on Apr 3, 2010 19:53:46 GMT -5
Don't be silly, there's loads of rich physicists, if you like it and you're good at it then go for it. Berkley University put lots of their lectures online for people to listen to, you can get a sample of a lot of first year Physics lectures here and get a taste for what you'll be doing: webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php?semesterid=2009-DOh and as previous poster said, coming up with the idea is not a fraction of coming up with the math. I came up with string theory (except my version was better) but I couldn't prove it with maths so no one listened to me. |
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Post by bunnyfulwanderer on Apr 3, 2010 19:55:03 GMT -5
that's bizarre. just watch big bang theory ;D
no but seriously physics is still a huge field of study and it's not a waste of time by any means.
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Post by mashuga31 on Apr 3, 2010 23:59:57 GMT -5
A week ago I was bored and I came up with the notion of Negative Mass. This sparked other interests in mind mind and the entire day, I spent thinking about negative mass and relating it to other theories such as time travel. When I got home i looked it up and found out that what I have been thinking of, scientists spent five years thinking of. I then went to tell my dad "Hey dad, guess how smart I am" to which he replied "No." and practically disowned me, made jokes, and said i was a nutjob who was going to waste the rest of his life on that and live out of a cereal box in an alley.... is that true??? Your dad's insane. You are speaking of theoretical physics and these are the people who come up with new ideas of how the world work. However you can't just understand stuff like this. Physics uses math. All the reading you did is not as accurate or truly understandable as the actual mathematical equations and evidence supporting things. Also, if you are referring to anti-matter, that has been completely proven. who needs to come up with math when you already have the equation? My friend showed me an equation for something that i forget...i think it has something to do with the speed of light. In any case you misjudge my level of comprehension. I judge it as incredible. The math is the easy part. And no, i'm not refering to anti matter, i'm referring to negative matter. Matter that has a negative mass inside of an equation which in turn could lead to phenomenal things if used right. btw, i didn't read crap. I came up with this shirt myself and then read about it later on. |
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Post by stephen5000 on Apr 4, 2010 0:07:46 GMT -5
From my experience in physics, math is never the easy part.
Anyways, from what you say above u seem genuinely interested in physics. Just don't expect introductory physics to be as groundbreaking.
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Post by Ryan on Apr 4, 2010 0:12:15 GMT -5
math is fun, physics is fun, do what you like - that's whats important
anyways, negative matter is an entirely theoretical construct, b/c introducing any negative matter into this universe would possibly destroy it (i kid you not). antimatter is fun and far more useful and it is more prevalently seen in physics, though creating antimatter is difficult - if you wish to go into a physics proffession that deals with alternate forms of matter, I'd suggest looking into the LHC (large hadron collider) some interesting stuff indeed.
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Silverrida
Moon
Infinity - So far away yet around us at the same time
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Post by Silverrida on Apr 4, 2010 0:37:56 GMT -5
Your dad's insane. You are speaking of theoretical physics and these are the people who come up with new ideas of how the world work. However you can't just understand stuff like this. Physics uses math. All the reading you did is not as accurate or truly understandable as the actual mathematical equations and evidence supporting things. Also, if you are referring to anti-matter, that has been completely proven. who needs to come up with math when you already have the equation? My friend showed me an equation for something that i forget...i think it has something to do with the speed of light. In any case you misjudge my level of comprehension. I judge it as incredible. The math is the easy part. And no, i'm not refering to anti matter, i'm referring to negative matter. Matter that has a negative mass inside of an equation which in turn could lead to phenomenal things if used right. btw, i didn't read crap. I came up with this shirt myself and then read about it later on. That type of attitude won't get you very far in physics I'm afraid. Also, the math is much more complicated than you think. Most things involving the speed of light, I am afraid to say, involves very easy math compared to what is used in theoretical physics, and especially quantum mechanics. You can't just come up with ideas and say "yes, this exists" without proof. Proof in the world of physics is math. Regardless, you seem to be interested in physics which is great! I hope you have a chance to take classes while in college. I, myself, plan on doing so as well and possibly minoring in it. EDIT: I see what you're saying now. You don't think the math is important because it is already known. Hate to say it, but you will need to understand not only the math, but how the equations are derived as well. Proofs are essential, especially as everything uilds on itself. |
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Post by zAkAtAk on Apr 4, 2010 0:47:56 GMT -5
not a waste of time.
now sociology there's a waste of time.
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Post by Breepop on Apr 4, 2010 0:53:12 GMT -5
now sociology there's a waste of time. wtf You just lost all the cool points you gained today.  |
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Post by zAkAtAk on Apr 4, 2010 0:55:40 GMT -5
now sociology there's a waste of time. wtf You just lost all the cool points you gained today. I'm just saying (and you'll probably agree with me), that you don't need to go to college for Sociology. Most of the jobs you will get as a sociologist you do not need a degree for. Also, there is nothing that can be learned from the classroom, that you couldn't get from reading a book on ANY of the social topics facing the world today. For most people, Communications and Sociology majors are for people that totally screwed up college and need to pick something in order to graduate in 4 years. Sociology is a good field, just perhaps not the best option for college. |
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Post by Breepop on Apr 4, 2010 1:13:31 GMT -5
wtf You just lost all the cool points you gained today. I'm just saying (and you'll probably agree with me), that you don't need to go to college for Sociology. Most of the jobs you will get as a sociologist you do not need a degree for. Also, there is nothing that can be learned from the classroom, that you couldn't get from reading a book on ANY of the social topics facing the world today. For most people, Communications and Sociology majors are for people that totally screwed up college and need to pick something in order to graduate in 4 years. Sociology is a good field, just perhaps not the best option for college. Fair enough. >_> As a career/degree/whatever, sociology is kind of stupid. But as a concept, you can't deny its awesome. |
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RabbitWho
Star
Rebecca - How 'bout we all put or real names somewhere in our signatures or titles? [SKB:]
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Post by RabbitWho on Apr 4, 2010 4:37:33 GMT -5
I'm just saying (and you'll probably agree with me), that you don't need to go to college for Sociology. Most of the jobs you will get as a sociologist you do not need a degree for. Also, there is nothing that can be learned from the classroom, that you couldn't get from reading a book on ANY of the social topics facing the world today. For most people, Communications and Sociology majors are for people that totally screwed up college and need to pick something in order to graduate in 4 years. Sociology is a good field, just perhaps not the best option for college. Fair enough. >_> As a career/degree/whatever, sociology is kind of stupid. But as a concept, you can't deny its awesome. Hey! Don't just roll over like that! The degree isn't stupid, it makes you read things you wouldn't read otherwise because you would find silly or pointless or you'd have more important things to read and it sets the ball rolling in your head. Even if the lecturer is boring and not detailed enough or two detailed, it sets the ball rolling and you go home and learn 100 other things, like if you saw that video Dan had about astronomy, that's the experience i had in almost every lecture I went to.. "Okay it was crap.. but there was this one idea!!! OH MY GOD!" It makes you write thesises and come up with original ideas of your own, which is the hardest thing you can do. It introduces you to other people with the same interests as you It allows you to have contact and tutorials with experts The degree could be great, like most degrees it already is great but it could be super-great if they jazzed it up a little and applied some of the things they're teaching in the classroom. The other one I don't get is psychology.. I mean all the modern things we know about how the mind acquisitions information and what the best ways to learn and teach are.. they all come form psychology.. and yet it's still 1 teacher talking 100 people listening. Surely the teachers would walk into the room and say, what the hell am I doing... I teach a lecturer on how lecturing is a crap way to teach... OKAY everybody organize yourselves into groups of five and discuss the question "Why do we dream?" which is what we'll be talking about today. I want each group to think of at least five things, and then we'll discuss them and write them up, and I'll maybe add a few, you have 5 minutes! Go! Because I mean seriously, in first year, there is nothing they could teach you that doesn't come up in conversation. But it does need to be developed in more detail. So often they do ask you what you think, but they give no discussion time, and you're sitting there, if you make a mistake the owness is completely on you, so you're afraid to open your mouth, and you're so afraid he'll ask you and you're trying so hard to be clever you can't even think straight. You give people homework, get them to read things, they come in and discuss it, they will remember everything 100% better and they won't even have to study for tests, plus they'll be "networking". Also it's all very geared towards auditory learners. I'm a kinetic learner mostly... so nightmare! Something might be really interesting and I might really want to pay attention but I can't. At least in college they let you draw, in secondary school most teachers wouldn't let you draw and I couldn't concentrate without it. They never believed me! I don't understand how they don't know that, they must not have taken any interest in teaching methods at any point in their lives ever. Off topic... sorry Still, in both Ireland and The Czech Republic which are the only two places I've ever lived College is free, so obviously my idea of what is "worthwhile" is measured in "time" rather than in "money" |
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bleabot
Moon
Set phazors to dance, Mr. Warf.
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Post by bleabot on Apr 4, 2010 8:24:23 GMT -5
Physics certainly isn't a waste of time. You can become an engineer, and they are in huge demand at all times. You're practically guaranteed a job if you go into engineering (depending on the school, of course, but most will have companies jumping at the opportunity to hire fresh engineers). Even outside of the job market though, studying physics is the study of reality. If understanding how the universe works is a waste of time, well...nothing makes sense anymore.
In my experience, the hard part of physics is working the information you're given into useful bits. Most of the time they don't give you enough to plug-and-chug. With that said, it's a lot of fun to figure out a problem after staring at it for an hour. So rewarding =P
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Post by hey light on Apr 4, 2010 8:55:36 GMT -5
A week ago I was bored and I came up with the notion of Negative Mass. This sparked other interests in mind mind and the entire day, I spent thinking about negative mass and relating it to other theories such as time travel. When I got home i looked it up and found out that what I have been thinking of, scientists spent five years thinking of. I then went to tell my dad "Hey dad, guess how smart I am" to which he replied "No." and practically disowned me, made jokes, and said i was a nutjob who was going to waste the rest of his life on that and live out of a cereal box in an alley.... is that true??? Not at all. Physics is probably one of the most important professions in science (and in the world). Also, there are loads of different types of physics. Plasma Physics, Acceorator Physics, just to name a few. Which one would you want to study? |
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Post by speakmouthwords on Apr 4, 2010 10:20:26 GMT -5
If an fundamental particle had negative mass, you wouldn't be able to make atoms since the strong force would become repulsive.
EDIT: I realised that this was, in fact, simply untrue. Forgot about Newton's 2nd.
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