About

Why did I write this blog?

I wanted to start this blog because I've long felt that there was something missing from my physics education. In both high school and university, we would learn the physical principals and the relevant equations, and we would sometimes apply our knowledge to guided experiments. We would analyze the data and the deviations and we would find relevant coefficients and determine the accuracy of models and etc. But I don't remember ever performing an experiment simply to see what would happen and try to explain it. Unless we participated in research with one of our professors, there was never an opportunity for independent discovery. For myself, I felt that this harmed me when it came to doing actual, modern research. It was difficult to figure out how to work independently, difficult to figure out what directions to explore. I felt that I needed more exploratory intuition.

To try to help future generations of students, I am writing this blog in such a way that we begin with our basic intuitions and data to figure out the correct physics. Instead of data analysis simply being something we do to compute the validity of our model, I want to use data to drive our discovery process, much like may happen in real research. But as opposed to real research, we will instead use this process to explore more fundamental concepts, such as those taught in an introductory physics class. This will not be entirely altruistic. I've long found that the best way for me to learn and understand things is to be able to teach those things to other people, to break ideas down in a way that most people could understand. So, in the process of writing this blog, it is my hope that I will strengthen my own discovery abilities.

Who is this for?

I want this blog to be accessible to anybody, but for brevity there is some background that people will need to have until I have the time to write blog posts to fill in the background material. I do not assume any familiarity with physics, but it will be necessary to know some basic calculus and programming to understand everything completely. A lot of schools may advertise an algebra-based physics class. I think this is horrible for anyone who wants to learn physics. Calculus is imperative to a full understanding. Calculus was literally written down in order to describe physics. Calculus is beautiful. Because of these reasons, I will not shy away from the calculus in this blog. If there is any math I need to use that most appropriate people may not know, I will explain it.

How do I run the programs?

All programs will be written in Python and conform to Python 3.x standards. I will likely use libraries such as NumPy and matplotlib. In order to make full use of the programs I've written, I recommend you use a modern IDE such as PyCharm that provides support for optional (but useful) functionality such as type hinting.

Who am I?

When I was an undergraduate, I majored in math and physics. When I began school, I thought that I wanted to study number theory. I later sidelined that to a hobby because I was worried about employment later in life. I entered my freshman year of undergraduate already taking senior level classes, and throughout the rest of undergrad I took graduate level math classes. 

I began seriously considering physics during my sophomore year, after I took a class called Modern Physics. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to work in an area where I could apply my mathematical knowledge and skills. I began working on a biophysics project under the only mathematical physicist in the department (it may seem strange that he was working on a biophysics project; at that time, our department didn't have a biophysicist, and this professor had partnered with a research team at the associated medical school). We studied vesicle formation on the Golgi apparatus from a computational point of view. At this time, we wrote a sophisticated program for modeling chemical reactions in a bounded fluid, taking into account all the possible collisions.

I became tired of that kind of work. By this point I had taken my first class in quantum mechanics, and I was becoming interested in fundamental issues in quantum. With the same professor, I began research in open quantum thermodynamics and the problem of quantum measurement. We mainly focused on a qubit which was coupled to a heat reservoir with an infinite heat capacity, and we produced some interesting results.

I continued that work when I began a masters degree in physics. At this time, I was thrown into complete independence, and I wasn't ready for it. I struggled for months on problems, and I feel like I never lived up to my advisors expectations. After I finished my masters, I left the school. I was not a successful researcher.

At the moment, this blog is my most interesting project (at least to me). I am taking some time off from school to try to figure out what I really want to do, and to learn the things I would like to learn that I felt I never had the time for. If I decide to go back to physics, I would possibly like to work in quantum information and computing. But, I am also considering other career paths. I am currently taking courses and working on projects in data science, finance, and engineering.

Hopefully it will not take me long to find out what I want to do.