if they have left the country, they cant be counted as malaysia's workforce, can they?

Hi ,

I'm interested in Physic study , yet my knowledge about what physicist do is

very shallow , not because nobody ever tell but also infomation in the internet

shows very complicate defination about their job .

Also i heard that physicist will have hard time finding job , in my mind

except working for government or be a lecturer i can't think about any

other career that a physicist can be in Malaysia.

Hey fellow physicist, im interested in physics when i join an aerospace club when I was 13 years old (now im 18). I even joined the ISSDC competition that time.

My enthusiasm was further boosted by my physics tuition teacher. He made physics so clear to me and much more interesting. And the fact that I actually idolizes Einstein. I even tried to read up and understanding special and general relativity despite my limited knowledge. It was difficult but at the same time interesting.

Currently, my knowledge of physics is up to SPM level only.. Thats sad but I hope it can be expanded by studying engineering. Ive wanted to study astrophysics but its very hard to find this course even in US..

Source (UM's Dept. of Physics)
also: examples of successful physicists
not forgetting: Physics forums one the best sources of Physics related discussions on the net.


I believe astrophysics is a more advanced course, so you have complete your undergraduate Degree in Physics first. Good luck.

edit: various typos

This post has been edited by mgjg: Jan 16 2011, 05:46 PM

free bump since im a physics student here.

Physics is a broad field really. but try not to focus yourself on einstein and schrodinger (except you're great at math). Notice in malaysia, physics can appear more practical/experiemntal then theoretical. (due to funding!)

i'm neither physicist nor a scientist, but i do have interest in cosmology. i'm majoring in computer science as my SPM doesn't qualified me to pursue in physics course

Unfortunately cosmology is one of the higher levels of the physics branches. You need to understand Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity and Electromagnetics and Astronomy and calculus and geometry and algebra so that the physics make sense.
But, hey, if there's a will...

Does anyone know of any decent books to study Lie Algebra, Lie Groups or Differential Geometry?

What background are you coming from, a more mathematical background or a physics background? What kinds of applications are you interested in? I could recommend some but knowing this would make it much easier for me to recommend books

Edit: Are you in grad school or doing an undergrad thesis? If so, where are you? Am just interested. PM me if you don't want this to be known to the public

This post has been edited by bgeh: Mar 6 2011, 12:41 AM

As far as I know, natural frequency is the frequency of an object when it is in its natural position, e.g. unforced excitation. The equation governing it is , w(omega)=sqrt*(k/m) where w(omega) is the natural frequency, k is the coefficient of material stiffness and m is the mass of the object.

I had just started doing phd in advance material engineering and piezoelectricity. Its somehow related with some physic knowledge but I am not sure the gravity of it.

Hey Khinfai. Is it free to hold a website (one like your own webpage)?

You could message him if you wanted to know = =


Anyhow, previously I've been studying physics by myself for quite sometime with Feynman lecture's. Other than that, was hoping that there are other good books pertaining to electricity and magnetism.

Hi all,

I'm currently an Honours Physics major from NUS. Let me share a little bit about majoring in Physics, and what do Physics majors end up doing.

First off, Physics degree, unlike engineering has less focus on one particular field or subject but rather place more emphasis a more comprehensive and in-depth study of the fundamental physics that has been around since Newton. The engineering subject that perhaps has the closest relation to Physics could be electrical engineering or material science engineering. Then again, the way a Physics major is trained differs much from the way of an engineer or computer scientist.

Although everybody is taught in different ways, the ultimate goal of the education is to teach you to be a competent person in this global economy and impart you with a strong problem solving skill. So what specifically is problem solving? For instance, we foresee the possible realization of a quantum computer, which is less prone to intrusion and has massive fast speed computational ability. However, there are some practical and theoretical constraints to which how we can build the computer today. This is where problem solving comes in, whether its in theory or application, Phycisists try to solve the problems by maybe, developing a better framework of theory in order to understand the issue better. That is part of research and development.

Today, like many other fields, Physicists adopt theoretical, computational and experimental method to solve problems or try to understand certain issue better. Some research such as astronomy, string theory and so on are still very remote from our daily lives. However, most of the research are at the frontier of science and technology, be it developing more efficient electronic chips or realization of invisible cloaking device, so on and so forth.

So, what do you learn as a Physics major? Tons of mathematics and physics theories, and some industrial knowledge in semiconductor if you choose to specialize in more applied fields. Unlike engineers, Physics majors are trained to solve problems from the most fundamental approach, by modeling the nature in mathematical terms. It starts by trying to understand the nature by describing them in mathematics, and then try to understand and solve the mathematics. If the problem is fully understood, you have achieved a lot in Physics!! There is actually a handful of very complete theories in Physics, most of what you learn at advanced levels are mostly theories to solve theories!

Although learning Physics is seemingly fun at elementary level, you do need to be very resilient and mathematically inclined. The physical picture of nature is always very simple and elegant, its just writing down the mathematics complicates the whole picture.

For career wise, undoubtedly Physics majors are less attractive in job market mainly because that they lack a specialization. However, the type of rigorous thinking process you go through really does help you to become a better decision maker. But at the same time, what led Physics major to study Physics sometimes also make them suffer because their love of subject blinded them from what other skills they need to pick up. I suggest that if you wish to study Physics, you must expose yourself more to business or other subjects because what you learn in Physics can hardly connect you with what's happening in this world.

With that being said, different people like different things. Personally I'm only interested in condensed matter physics, quantum mechanics. I never really want to learn general relativity, or string theory or so on. Its my personal preference. Although being a physics lover, I have taken many courses in economics and computer science.

In general, physics majors go into either of the three main industries; Education, Research , Finance. For education, its teaching or other administrative roles. Research wise, a bachelor degree can land you some entry job but 95% of the jobs require Master or PhD. There are some attributes of Physics majors that are sought after by financial companies but note that normally only if you are highly intelligent and top of your cohort. But i never believe in confining yourself to certain jobs just because you are a Physics majors.

1) Research engineer
2) Semiconductor engineer
3) Investment bank analyst
4) Quantitative finance analyst
5) Teacher
6) Researcher/Professor
7) Weather forecast scientist

---

Added on September 11, 2011, 3:47 amI would like to clarify the concern with the difficulty of Quantum Physics, or Quantum Mechanics.

What is Quantum Mechanics?

You heard of F=ma right? Classical Mechanics describes what happens at macroscopic level, meaning big stuff. However when the size shrinks, the physical law appears to be different and thus follows a different framework called Quantum Mechanics. That is just how the nature works.

There are two distinct characteristics of Quantum Mechanics which I would like to point out when people talk about how difficult it is to "understand" quantum mechanics. I prefer to use the word "interpret" of quantum mechanics is difficult but understanding the framework is not impossible.

Part A)
Dynamics/Theoretical Framework/Mathematics

This part mainly has to do with the construction of the quantum mechanics theory. What are the ways you use to describe quantum mechanics? The language of Quantum Mechanics is linear algebra and everyone who has gone thru 4 years of physics can understand them fairly well. THis part is universally understood.

Part B)
Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

This part is about how people deduce the logic of Quantum Mechanics, why are things random in nature and who the act of measurement actually determines the outcome of measurement and so on so fort. This is still largely in debate and different people have different ways of viewing Quantum Mechanics.

Most of the people who have not learnt QM will be confused by the interpretation of QM, often thinking how the heck do people do research in QM. This is normal. We too are confused but there many interesting problems in QM you can solve or apply. We just put the interpretation part aside sometimes.

This post has been edited by songhan89: Sep 11 2011, 03:50 AM

hey there guys. i'm doing my bsc in aussie atm, NOT majoring in physics but doing shitloads of physics tho, thanks to the specialization i'm looking to finish. Mechanics, Thermal Physics, Biophysics, QM, Solid-state Physics with the last 2 being the ones i focus more on. sad to say this but the way physics was taught in high school wasn't exactly great. in physics, we solve problems and UNDERSTAND things rather than memorising them (i.e. formulaes or whatsoever). most of my lectures aka researchers can come up with pages worth of derivation without refering to what we call 'eqn sheets' and when we ask them how they do it, they'll reply with 'simple, cause we understand the physics behind it'. i really don't know why i'm writing this but i just felt like. if you're thinking of majoring in physics, make sure you start by learning how to understand how everything works. oh and another thing, make sure you have a strong foundation in mathematics cause it'll definitely come in handy!

This post has been edited by bibg: Oct 8 2011, 09:13 PM

Well said. SPM is mainly about memorising power anyway. About time you noticed that.

Of course when someone talks about an engineer, we would think about applied physics and applied knowledge only comes by when you understand it.

Higher levels of physics like quantum physics are best explained through mathematical models, which is open to various interpretations. In other words, physics is applied mathematics!

^gotta agree

anyway, does anyone have a good reference site on solid state physics? really struggling with my course cause i have a bad lecturer!

hey really glad that i found dis topic! i'm interested in quantum mechanics and astrophysics.. any opinions or advice on careers regarding these?? =)

Well a degree in physics is equivalent to an engineering degree (but less pay! )-so it's no surprise that you can find quite a few of physics degree holders in that area and R&D, other than that some will go for RA-masters-doctorate and take teaching/academic research positions; a physics degree helps too in applying for positions in a career that emphasize technical/maths/logic skills e.g programming/software development and analysts; other than that physics training helps scientific writers, businessmen even stock brokers (there's a theory that the main reason US technology sector is seen lagging behind the competitors was because the Wall Street regime poached their best scientists and engineers to work in the financial sector)

Anyways, the path will be tedious and very challenging:
QM: theoretical works -Sheldon Cooper -jk, obviously research and teaching
Astrophysics: NASA!

Woah thanks for ur reply!
i was pleasantly surprised when i heard dat a lot of physics graduates r working at financial sector since i'm not really sure whether i could cope with R&D for a long period of time and i;m quite into business too..
btw, r u studying phy or studied phy b4??

They were sought after mainly because of their skills in maths (advanced calculus, algebra, statistical mechanics and applied/engineering maths) and programming (C/C++). And these are not your simple half-page SPM calculus, I've seen a first-year physics student solution to Schrodinger's equation (pretty basic physicist skill, apparently!) that took >2 pages -you can imagine how complex it will become when they're in their final year or Masters or PhD!

BTW the job you'll do in financial engineering is as boring (or as fun) as the one you'll do in R&D(!), and yes you will have the option (and opportunity) to branch out of academic research into commercial research/business/consultation/whatnot
haha, no, just someone with an interest in physics and luckily have worked in the education and research sector with physicists and mathematicians, and count a number of them as good friends