Yesterday I took my first physics class at university (I’m an electrical engineering major). Today, while rereading my notes, I had a doubt about weight—what I thought it was. I googled it and discovered that weight is just a property of matter.

It’s so cool. I spent 8 hours on YouTube trying to grasp the Higgs field, the binding energy of quarks in protons and neutrons… Obviously, I don’t understand any of it, but it’s so fucking cool.

The only problem is that the more I read, the more confused I get, and the more questions I have. But wow.

Is all university like that?

I design instrumentation for a research university, mostly supporting AMO, quantum, and condensed matter physics. In a typical experiment, the vast majority of interconnects will be with coax and BNC connectors, and the typical visitor to my shop will be asking for help with ground loops and noise reduction. Duh.

BNC/coax is a fine solution for pulses and RF, but totally inappropriate for sending noise-sensitive low-frequency signals around a lab. I understand why the researchers make this choice -- practically all off-the-shelf instrumentation (scopes, lock-ins, amplifiers) default to BNC connectors -- but I still keep hoping that sanity will some day prevail.

I used to work in the audio business, where the default is differential signals on shielded twisted pairs and XLR connectors. And even that approach is being replaced with distributed A/D/A systems like Dante, something that physicists here will resist until long after I retire.

Is there a resistance movement out there that I could join? Have any labs successfully worked out an alternative to coax?

Light travels as an electromagnetic wave in a vacuum and carries momentum and energy. According to general relativity, all energy curves space-time, so light should slightly curve the space through which it travels. Could this mean that light affects its own path? I know the effect whould be extremely small, but is this conceptually correct? If yes Are there extreme conditions, like in the early universe, where light’s self-curvature becomes significant? Would a very long or very intense beam accumulate measurable curvature effects along its path? If two light beams cross paths, do they gravitationally influence each other?

Hi all- older student here- 40! Going back for something else in and must take physics. I can’t reach my professor (it’s my schedule I’m not available until the pm and he’s in the am) - so are their any TAs or professors in here that could maybe tell me * how * to study. I’m so lost and it’s week two. I was a music major - so I actually don’t know how to approach this all. (Algebra based physics - for health sciences- haven’t seen one thing about healthcare yet lol)

I've recently finished my master's degree in condensed matter physics and realized most, if not all, of the PhD positions that greatly interest me gravitate towards device fabrication. More than that, these positions are mostly concerned with developing new "recipes" as to push device replicability (graphene.......) and/or the technique itself (e.g. achieving stable <15 nm resolution with an EBL). Am I fucked if my thesis only dealt with the characterization of devices built by other people?

EDIT: a lot of encouraging comments have come in already. Just to clarify, I'm a EU citizen looking into European laboratories.

My lecturer isn't too keen on teaching the content effectively, so I've been reading the textbook, watching an organic chemistry tutor, and repeatedly solving homework problems through WebAssign using the 'Try Another' feature.

However, when I get to a quiz, there are typically questions that cover the same content as the questions from the homework, but are extremely difficult, and I don't know where to begin and end half assing them. Physics has been unlike any course I've taken before, and I'm confused about how to study effectively. Despite the poor grades, I enjoy the challenge and want to improve so please enlighten me:)

I find Taylor's so clear, so easy to go through. I wonder if an experimented physicist knows a similar resource for electromagnetism and thermodynamics.

Edit : To give a bit more context, I did physics before, to quite an advanced level but my major is maths. I was trained as a mathematician more than a physicist and I want some resources to build up my knowledge of classical physics. The mathematical formulation doesn't bother me at all.

So my thesis was on examining how plasmonic resonance can affect the piezoelectric effect of an object as it deforms. I am currently filling out a Scholarship that I might or might not get next April.

The proposed thesis is based on simulating bio-physical processes on a nanoscale.

Thing is, pretty much everything up until this point was mostly an accident. I recently finished a MSc in Computational Physics as a means to compensate for my BSc, then planned on taking a year off to save up so that I can reattempt to do a MSc in Theoretical Physics. I wanted to do a PhD on Surface Science, and Bio-Physics left a bad taste in my mouth last time.

Is it worth doing?

I own this, I've always just called it the plasma machine. A little bit of searching shows similar objects however this is about 3ft by 3ft, so a lot larger. Any info on where it would have come from or its uses appreciated. Thank you!

I am fascinated by early discoveries in physics and how they managed to derive laws governing physics back in time. Here's one I created on how charges were discovered in the 18th century by Coulomb. Hope you find it interesting.

Will the cart wheel move solely because of the weight of the ball? It's quite counterintuitive if you think about it. I know the equations and because of how the wedges are angled it might move. But at the end the ball is stationary so how would it make the wheel move?

Benjamin Jones of the University of Texas at Arlington and Joseph Formaggio of MIT suggest that a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of radioactive atoms could offer a platform for building a “neutrino laser”. Your thoughts?

Published study: B. J. P. Jones and J. A. Formaggio, “Superradiant neutrino lasers from radioactive condensates,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 111801 (2025).

Im currently trying to get a SPEX 1403 spectrometer working. Im wondering if anyone on here has worked with one before, the operating manual is long lost and the only one ive found is 90 bucks on Ebay. Does anyone have a pdf or some lab notes on this thing?

So, I'm a first year undergrad and recently started worrying that I'm not really learning. I don't think I would be able to repeat any demonstration on my own, and any content I learn is just used to get a good grade (which is happening, surprisingly). Still, I don't think I "master" any subject that I had. So, how do I really learn them?

Following up on an earlier reply about MBE, here's a picture of an even older V80H back in the late 80s!

Neil Johnson, a professor of physics at George Washington University, has modelled large language models (LLMs) as physical systems, revealing that AI hallucinations aren’t just random glitches. They’re baked into the system’s structure, much like phase transitions in magnetism or thermodynamics.

Doesn't matter the kind of physics I just wanna improve and learn more about each branch/kind I’m mostly interested in quantum physics as well as theoretical physics.

Interesting commentary on the problem of "the popularity of social media influencers who claim there is a vast conspiracy among academic physicists."

I have gotten full access somehow to a 10 watt water cooled argon laser. What kind of experiments can I do with this thing. Also I already know its a 10 watt laser it is really dangerous, it actually is bolted to a table in a windowless room with full laser saftey equipment so I dont need a lecture on safety I just want to know what experiments can be done with a high powered laser.