On a rare occasion I was PMed by this friend to talk about physics. I figured out this might help some others so i decided to post it here instead. His PM:


A little on me: I'm currently a final year in physics, ukm. Some background about physics:

Physics can be divided to two parts of study: 'theoretical' and 'applied'.

'theoretical': primarily concerned on the fundamental theories (eg maxwell eqn, relativity, schrodinger, dirac notation etc etc). So you'll have quite much exposure on mathematical methods (ie how to solve equations) and to fundamental physics. But these are of no industrial value. Real world issues are too complex to be solved by these fundamental equations. And no one will pay you to calculate the magnetic field around a wire. To grow in this area, make sure you are capable to handle the math and the 'only' place you'll end up is a university. However if you really can treasure the beauty, ending yourself in a university wasn't the worse choice to be, considering that most university don't even have a theoretical physicist. Of course there are theoreitcal people using their brilliant math power on finance and become a quant (see book by derman, my life as a quant).

So on the other half of physics course, we're being exposed to applied physics field. Here is where all the exciting physics like nanophysics and material physics come into the picture. (here i dropped a few for some reasons, which will be made clear later) Now these field will involve a lot of lab work. you'll be working in the lab, making new nanodevices and measure it's resistivity, etc etc. This is quite 'popular' relative to theoretical (at least in UKM) mostly due to the fact that these 'new' fields can easily get grant ($$) to fund their research. Working in this field again require a masters/phd and you'll usually end up in university as researcher. To be frank I cant name any private funded institution which work in these field. Note that these physics need 'toys' (like Scanning electorn microscope, Atomic force microscope) so usually only gov uni will enjoy these 'toys'.

Of course most people would hope to do something like particle physics, high energy physics, astrophysics, etc etc etc. Too bad these projects involve big toys (CERN, Hubble, Chandra x ray observatory, z machine.. just to name a few). and wait. none of these toys are located in malaysia. except your dream is straight towards studying masters in MIT and then work in CERN, well... becoming an observer wasn't that bad.

an undergraduate will be exposed to some degree of both theoretical and applied. so now you should start by thinking what u meant by 'theory'. For me, I do hope to study theoretical physics previously but after 3 years, I still have to admit that money factor comes in. Without money, there's no real motivation for me. Anyway I think you should think twice before concluding that ' that dont mind being stuck in a lab and collecing data, research research and research.' 30 years is a long time if you hate repeataneously do something.

As covered, the primary job of physics student are universities & schools, while some go into bursa malaysia, and some into engineering. It's not a 'professional degree' like doctor where u get a degree and work as doctor. It's a general degree. So you'll have to accept to work anywhere as anything (when u need $$). Anyway, just fyi I got an intern as a process engineer (no, it's unrelated to physics).

"Isit possible for engineering students to take up physics lecures in UTM? "

I'm not in UTM. however in UKM, we are not allowed to take subjects from other faculty. You can, however, either:
1. read some book yourself
2. talk to lecturer so he/she allow you to enter class
3. slip into the class (heck! lecturers wont kill you. they hardly remmeber you)

but to do this, you'll need more than just guts. You won't want to imagine how hard it is to actually make yourself up to work more than required.

General advices
-----------------

1. it boils down to what you like.
2. Physics in malaysia is.. er...er...er...
3. world is spherical. when there's no job, you'll work something out.
4. there's nothing such as a definitive 'best subject'. When I was working in a bank, my direct supervisor was a chem eng student (his salary probably 11k?), my department manager was a doctor (not phd, the md). no one fixed you to work in your field although it's an edge if you work in your field, of course.
5. you might had heard that 'what i study was never really applied in work'. it's true even in eng field. (any eng student can support this?)

Any EE student can produce a counterpart about prospect of EE here? i think it'll be helpful for our dear friend. Anyway good luck

This post has been edited by empirekhoo: Apr 2 2011, 08:11 PM