With a clear confusion on why I want to study what I want to study for my academic journey ahead, I started looking at The Feynman Lectures on Physics as an inspiration for what I am about to explain. Since by now I have done some computer vision stuffs (to a degree that puts me not unrealistically far from writing some decent code on computer vision or some sort of research work (that would be a benchmark for satisfaction from the couple of years at job)) and I really find myself eligible to pursue my further education on Computer Vision if I really want to, I thought about looking into some other fields that I am really interested in, but with a clear confusion as I already said.

When I started studying physics, the reason was to understand more about nature. That was my only conscious goal. And growing up, that goal fine tuned itself; probably; to a difficult one, that is , to understand the true nature of reality. The method of scientific enquiry never promises that physics is the study of true nature of reality, but rather a process of finetuning that understanding by observation, modeling and a way to validate the understanding. I believe that many of physics scholars might even aim to fully understand nature through physics, though that’s not the precise domain or method of physics.

Now that I know physics isn’t the ultimate way to get what I ultimately seek for, the reasons I would still want to do could be boiled down as below:

  • Because physics is REALLY interesting
  • Because physics is still a search of truth about nature
  • Because physics involves a lot of mathematics
  • Because physics is challenging (I lately find myself not so good at problem solving, so personally I want to push myself harder on it)

I also would like to point out what is demotivating me regarding going for physics. I somehow don’t want to feel like just doing some job as a physicist (just like any other job) after studying physics. I don’t know if it’s even possible in any field. I probably might not be clear on what exactly I mean here, but, as a physicist, what I want is to have an adventurous journey. I do realize that extraordinary result seeks extraordinary efforts and as an ordinary human, sometimes I could willingly and unwillingly not be able to get that. In such case, my investment on physics wouldn’t produce much, that could probably produce something had I been involved somewhere else owing to the challenge physics is and the effort it demands. Not that I mean to say anything else easier but from my experience on computer vision, it is a little easier to reach to the cutting edge of technologies (as a developer) than on physics. Could be because physics is really much mature. So, again, coming back to my point, I might be caught up wit the idea that there’s no much satisfaction in ending up as a below average or an average physics scholar.

On the bright side though, no matter what kind of physicist I end up being, that’s not the end. I can always be better, I can always move on. I could ;if I really would want; still be a monk or a school teacher, or a farmer or a politician, a gardener or a cook. I could be an average nobody and it wouldn’t matter much. However a probable dark side to this bright side is that keeping options could be a bad idea, but who knows, if it(the amalgamation of options) is probable brightest part of bright side.

Or I could just die tomorrow. Everyone born (and dead) have died.

So, with that clear kind of confusion, I started looking at The Feynman Lectures on Physics and after reading a couple of paragraphs, I didn’t find it as interesting I had found it on the first few years of undergraduate in physics, and for a probably good reason. I wanted to make sure I am following mathematics. Feynman was brilliant at mathematics and that’s why it suits on him to go with words. He has mathematics in the back of his head backing up every words he’s speaking and his way of teaching probably isn’t the best for someone like me who’s not so good at solving problems and getting things done correctly at this stage of learning physics. And also, at many occasions, I found that I do have fundamental concepts of physics and interesting implications that Feynman beautifully explains about. I also found through my work experience that to do good at something, it’s good to play around at the cutting edge and fail than to successfully repeat too old and too naive things. So, I started looking for things of intermediate difficulty which I am really interested at and which I haven’t really had the real “Oh, yes!” moment with. It wasn’t difficult to notice Special Relativity as a candidate.

After reading a coupe of paragraphs, I found Maxwell’s Equations there. So, that was it, I decided to go for Maxwell’s equation. This was / is something I have an approximate understanding of. But I want to refine it now. And then, I will come back to special relativity.

So, I found this decent guide on Maxwell’s equation. The title of the guide is A Student’s Guide to Maxwell’s Equations and I completed the first chapter, which is on the Gauss’s law for electric field. Will go with the problem set tomorrow.

Equations and problems to follow.

Good night, peace.

Last Updated: Wednesday, Jan 15, 2020, 02:37 (+0545) NPT Author: Madhav Humagain (scimad)