Physics
Physics is a science which sticks its nose into almost everybody’s business, be they a subatomic particle so tiny as to have no measurable size or the Universe, so large as to be impossible to measure the size of. It is very difficult.Statto studies physics at Christ Church, University of Oxford, because it sounded like a good idea at the time.
Disciplines
Physics, since it encompasses the entire observable Universe on all scales from sub-microscopic to cosmological, is too large a subject to study all at once. Thus, physicists divide themselves into sparring factions, a small number of which are listed here:
- Classical mechanics
- Quantum mechanics
- Thermodynamics
Physics the academic subject
While some people study physics for the love and eventually plan to spend their life researching the minutae of atomic transitions in technetium, most physics students are cynical bastards out for a nice degree and a quick buck.
Most graduates end up being employed in the city, selling corporations money for slightly more than it’s worth or such, and those who don’t end up either being teachers or unemployed.
Luckily, though not an essential criterion, knowledge of the time-independent Schrödinger equation for a quantum simple harmonic oscillator is no barrier to stacking shelves in Safeway.
Distinction from maths
Physics is not to be confused with maths, which a lot of the time it can closely resemble. However, a physicist, having slogged his way through solving a vast differential equation is allowed to discard one solution as “physically unreasonable”, where a mathematician is not.
Other people who study physics
- Joe Armstrong
- Ed Stock
- Tim Parker
People who used to study physics
- Ruth Varley