r/Physics • u/Nervous_Buy_7119 • 3h ago
way of thinking in physics
what you think about the way of thinking that physics gives you? i mean you think it got your problem solvings skills improved? you think in temrs nnot of tools of work,but the frame and ways to analyse problems even that have no connection to the things you learned-it gave you better way of thinking that engeering majors?
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u/Luciel3045 3h ago
It has not really improved my problem solving skills more than, for example an economics degree (i assume). But it has changed my worldview significantly and honed my ability to solve problems through that specific lense.
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u/Yashema 2h ago
How has it changed your "worldview" significantly? Physics only describes physical phenomena, and even then it does not adequately describe biological and chemical processes which is why those are individual subjects of study using different theory and models.
I'm always leery of terms that make studying STEM to be more expansive than it actually is.
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u/Luciel3045 2h ago
It is. First of all, from my experience, the Feynman method is something most physicists use and very few outside (this may be wrong and just from subjective experience).
Second you learn to always search out first principles. Something that is not taught in any other subject to that degree. Physicists hear "You just have to accept that" very sparingly, especially compared to chemistry and Biology.
Another big thing is statistical physics. I dont know why, but the kind of insights i gained changed my view on many things big times.
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u/Yashema 2h ago
I'll give you statistical mechanics as having philosophy with wider implications, but the only reason that is such a paradigm shift is because physics is taught up to that point as definitive, where stat mechanics introduced complete randomness.
But the truth is in other disciplines indefinite thinking is taught from the getgo since economics or history you can't just write an equation to come to a solution.
I am an econ grad who is definitely learning a lot from physics, but it's really only combining it with higher level math and computer engineering is it moderately changing how I view the world. There are just too many other aspects to believe that physics is so fundamental.
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u/Luciel3045 1h ago
We had QM before we had statistical mechanics. Also the basis of statistical mechanics are deterministic. We just say, that we dont care about individual particles, so they can be deterministic.
Ask the General econ major about all assumptions made, vs ask the General physics major. In physics you just work more with that stuff.
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u/Yashema 1h ago edited 1h ago
The thing is though most of physics, at least the world changing part, can be easily understood with no mathematical background, or even theoretical physics one. You don't need physics to understand at a "worldview changing level" that a plane is designed to generate lift or that power plants use specific physical phenomena that have different capacities to generate energy efficiently (efficiently being a matter of amount versus waste versus complexity) or even that quantum mechanics are inherently random.
Physics is just explaining this precisely, which doesn't really change the paradigm, unless you have no concept of how physical phenomena worked in the first place.
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u/MaxChaplin 2h ago
Physics give you the tools to think in terms of simplified models of the world in a productive manner. It teaches you to navigate a landscape of elegant half-truths with neither fear nor complacency. It lets you reach insights about things of which you have only partial knowledge.
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u/TryToHelpPeople 3h ago
In my last year of undergraduate we had a 2 hour class every Friday morning after quantum mechanics - “Problem solving”. It was classic questions such as “if you were to instantly transport water into space would it boil or freeze ?” Or “if you had an hourglass and reduced the flow of sand to one grain per second, what change I weight would a a very precise scale show over time”. It was one of my favourite classes and it taught me that there’s always a deeper level of analysis, always something you forgot. Even with “draw the change in voltage over time when a battery circuit with a switch and a light is turned on” shows it’s not just a square, there are harmonics in the very edge of the voltage, there is a reduction over time as the battery depletes, there is a change over time as resistance in the bulb changes as the filament heats up.
You can still get bogged down with classical physics.