The Crazy Cornellian

Here’s a quick rundown of the classes I’m taking this semester.  I kind of feel as though I just started them, but they end in only two weeks. (eeek!)

Science in Western Civilization:
For my one non-science class this semester I’m taking the history of science.  Oh wait, I guess this is still science.  Anyway, it’s still a nice break from math and physics all day.  The class is about science from Newton to about the beginning of the 20th century.  I’m getting a lot out of this class.  It’s cool matching people to the equations I use all the time and learning how concepts of reality changed over time.  I now have much more appreciation for the work scientists did in the 19th century.  Although the 20th century had more technological advancement, so much of it’s foundation was made in the 19th century.  Like other history classes I’ve taken, grading is based on the regurgitation of facts (well, how else are you going to grade people?), so I’m just taking it pass/fail.

Intermediate Quantum Mechanics:
QM is very different from all the other physics I’ve taken.  Equations aren’t always commutative, things like position, velocity, and energy become operators rather than absolute values.  Also, QM notation is baffling to anyone not already familiar with it.  I find the work conceptually very difficult as I have to approach problems differently.  Often the problems are of simple models that have nice elegant solutions, but when QM tries to solve more realistic situations, things get nasty fast.  QM is crucial in any field of physics I go into; I hope I can finish with a good grasp of this strange material.

Intermediate Electrodynamics:
Conceptually this class isn’t that hard, but it is rather heavy on equations.  There are a lot of different equations for different situations, although they all can be derived in theory from the four Maxwell equations.  The math can also get pretty hard with its heavy use of vector calc and complex numbers.  There are a lot of useful real world applications to what I’m learning and now I can talk to my peers in Electrical Engineering and have some idea what they are talking about.

CS 2800 Discrete Structures:
In this class I’m finally properly learning lots of different little subjects in math that I should already know well.  “Simple” problems often appear very easy, but contain subtleties you haven’t thought of.  This is primarily a sophomore class, so it’s composed mostly of people younger than me, something I’m not used to.  Yet another sign that I’m getting old and that my days here at Cornell are numbered.

Introduction to Astrophysics and Space Sciences II:
This is in the same style as last semester’s part I of the class but with different material.  The first half was on the Interstellar medium, lots of differential equations involving different states of matter.  The second half is about cosmology, lots of crazy cool ideas about the universe that really bends your mind.  Astro is a strange science in that you can’t really do anything practical with what you learn, but what greater knowledge is there than that of the vast universe?

Towards the begging of my sophomore year I kept track of my time for a week.  I wanted to see how things have change in my work habits since then so I did it again.  This week that I recorded turned out to be kinda average: there have been some weeks lately where I worked a good deal more, others a good deal less.  I had a prelim Thursday night, after which I kinda crapped out and couldn’t bring myself to do anymore work.

I recorded how much time I spent sleeping, going to class, eating, and working outside of class.  Time spent doing none of these things I consider “other.”

My total class time was 16 hrs, my total time working was 31:15 hrs, so together they make up a standard work week, which is rather respectable.  But compared to how much I should be working it isn’t quite enough.  I have on average 3 problem sets a week.  To get them mostly finished I probably need a good 8 hours on each.  There is also research that I do that I should spend 10+ hrs on.  Then there is time I need to spend actually learning my material, say 10+hrs for all my classes combined, although I learn a lot of it by doing problem sets.  This comes to 44+hrs, so I should be working about 50% more than I do.

This is perhaps not the best way of determining how hard I actually work.   Time spent “working” can sometimes be intense mind-bending learning, and sometimes it can be staring idly at a question and daydreaming.  It’s highly dependent on how I’m feeling, and often even though I have time to work, I’m just lacking the mental energy to be productive.

Something people are often surprised by me is that I’ve never pulled an all nighter.  I’ve gotten pretty close say, work -> 4hrs sleep -> class, but never have I done zero sleep.  Sometimes when I am hopelessly behind in work late at night I try to push on, but when it reaches about 2:30 my work begins to actually be detrimental so I give up and go to bed.

Compared to sophomore year, I’m now sleeping over an hour less than I used to.  It’s really starting to take it’s toll on me.  Waking up can be very painful and some days are just wasted from being too sleep deprived.  I can probably increase the time I spend working if I sleep more.  Speaking of which, time to go to bed goodnight.

I remember how in my freshman year I was very curious as to how it would be focusing so much on physics.  Now I have a much better idea since I’m in my second semester Junior year and well into my upper level engineering physics courses.  So here are some of my general thoughts of what’s it like to spend most of your time working on physics problems.

One of the surprising things of higher level physics for me was the overarching interconnectedness of certain concepts.  Every subject seems to have influence on every other; topics I’ve learned in one class will always come up sooner or later in another.  In that sense everything I learn builds on itself and the more I learn, the more things come together and make sense.  It gives me a sense of progress like I’m actually going somewhere that I find very satisfying.

Being good at physics is largely being good at problem solving.  There is no grand methodology to just regurgitate everything into; you have to carefully think about how to approach the problem.  Solving a physics problem for me goes like this:  My problem gives me a certain situation and I want to find the value or more generally the relationships of a certain parameters.  I need to ask myself, what equations are valid in this situation?  Which ones are useful and relevant?  Do I then have enough information to find what I’m looking for?  Then I try to figure out how to use everything to solve the problem.  Problems can require a lot of creativity to solve at times and have not so obvious solutions.  Sometimes there are problems that just completely stump me and I stare at them for hours without making any progress.  But I try to not let this discourage me, and do the best I can.

I like how in my classes there is little emphasis on memorization and number crunching.  The way I figure it, computers are way better at memorizing and computing things than I am, so let them do it.  Yes, understanding math is crucial in physics, but the really complicated things can just be thrown into a computer and solved numerically.  I’ve never been expected to know how to do every integration under the sun, just the very basic ones.  What’s important and difficult is how to set up that integral, not how to evaluate it.  That work is conceptually very easy; what is conceptually very hard is finding the instructions you should tell the computer.  There are, however, a certain few equations that are so basic and fundamental that you have to know them by heart.  If you really know what you’re doing you should in principle be able to derive any other complicated equation you may need from these few basic fundamental ones.

I’ve gotten so overloaded with cool science work lately that I now call what I study super-science.  Also, I’ve developed the problem of considering the word science to mean just physics.  All other science seems to me to just be the application of physics on a specific subject.  As Rutherford once said, “All science is either physics or stamp collecting.”  I don’t want to belittle the awesomeness of other sciences, but that quote rather captures my biased view.

So despite all the pain and struggling of homework and all the stressing out about tests, I think that it’s worth it.  What I walk away with from most of my classes is really cool and useful and I can’t picture myself in majors other than Physics or Engineering Physics (well, maybe CS too).  Everything else seems like it’s either too arbitrary, too boring, too much grunt work, or not useful enough for me.  I genuinely enjoy my work; I just hope I am able to be diligent enough to make it through all the way.

Picture is completely unrelated – it’s the zoomed out version of my current header image for anyone who’s interested.

Last semester I turned 21 and got interested in what was with the whole drinking thing.  I can’t say turning 21 was what really got me try out drinking as I don’t have any serious qualms with underage drinking, but it did make me feel as though it was time for me to find out why so many people enjoy it so much. There is always so much talk about it, I wanted to see for myself.  I suppose I didn’t try it out earlier because far too often freshman year I would see the “results” of parties.  There was just too much overindulgence and loss of control; it by no means inspired me to check out what was going on.

So I tried out some frat parties to see what they are like.  Well, they were pretty much what I expected; many people in small spaces, darkness and blaring music, the smell of alcohol, bad perfume and sweat.  As you descend towards a crowded dance floor the temperature drastically increases.  Needless to say, it really isn’t my thing, but I can now kinda understand the draw it has for some people.  A sort of mass hypnosis and blinding of the senses, a way to forget what’s going on.

But frat parties aren’t the only places to drink at Cornell (although perhaps the main ones for those underage), there are also a lot of bars in Ithaca.  I haven’t been to many of them, but the ones I have been to are pretty cool.  They’re often dark, crowded, and loud, but not nearly as gross as a frat parties.  I go into a bar and I’m like “Wow, everyone in here is old, I wonder why that is.  It’s as if everyone here is 21 or older.”  It’s definitely a very different, more relaxed environment.  It can be pretty expensive, but whatever, it’s worth it.

So I’ve learned that in moderation, drinking can actually be kinda fun in a strange sort of mind-numbing way.  It is disappointing though that many of my friends are still under 21 and can’t go to bars yet.  There is growing support for reducing the drinking age, which I am in favor of.  President Skorton isn’t though.

Yay!  It’s about that time again, time to plan out my schedule and pre-enroll for classes next semester.  This one’s particularly special as it’s the first time my class gets first pick since seniors graduate this semester.  It’s a big glaring sign saying, “You’re getting old, what are you planning to do with your life?”  I don’t really have to figure out my schedule until classes start in August, but planning ahead is fun.  Even then I’ll shop around a couple weeks until I settle on what to take.

Since I’m looking at courses from various departments, scheduling conflicts are inevitable.  Getting conflicts this time is especially frustrating as this will be my last chance at fall classes.  Most higher level courses are offered spring or fall only, some even only once every two years.  So it’s my last chance at taking certain classes.  I only have two semesters left and I want to get as much out of it as possible.  It’s nice that my major only has one required class next semester, it gives me room for lots of other classes I’m interested in taking:

So here are some of the classes I’m looking at:

And then there are lots of classes I’m interested in taking that aren’t required:

PHYS 4445 Introduction to General Relativity. Finally I’ve taken enough physics to take a try at learning the insanity known as GR.  With my interest in astrophysics it’s kinda natural for me to learn GR.  I expect this to be really hard as it deals with a lot of advanced math physics that I don’t know as well as I should.  Well at least it isn’t the year long graduate level GR class.

CS 4210 Numerical Analysis and Differential Equations. I would like to know some numerical analysis as I figure it would always be useful down the road.  Likely to bore me death though, as it’s only about solving hard math equations and not about awesome physics.  Conflicts with GR, GR wins.

AEP 3300 Modern Experimental Optics. This is a lab based class and I really could use more lab experience.  Also, optics is a huge area of research now.

AEP 4500 Introduction Solid State Physics. This one isn’t really that high on my list, but it’s also a big area of research and has tons of useful applications.

MAE 4570 (457) Space Systems and National Security.  I’ve been getting more interested in space technology and this course sounds really cool.  Seems like it’s more about politics than engineering.  Sadly, this conflicts with my one required class and graduating would be nice.

ECE 4300 Lasers and Optical Electronics. This class is intended for senior Electrical Engineers.  While I am taking electrodynamics this semester, it might not be enough to keep up.  I took an intro lasers class my first semester at Cornell and I think lasers are so awesome that I should try out this class.

ASTRO 4410 Experimental Astronomy. This is a small lab class that does some really neat Astronomy experiments.  Among other things they use the Hartung-Boothroyd Observatory and a radio telescope on the top of the Space Sciences Building (awesome!).  This is some serious stuff and I should only take this if I’m really serious about astro.

ASTRO 2280 Space Exploration. This doesn’t sound very heavy on engineering or science, but nevertheless very interesting.  A not too serious type class could be a nice break in my day.

Even though it will be my last year, I’m still trying to narrow down what I want to focus on.  There is just too many cool things to try out.  Too bad I can’t simply absorb the knowledge of all these classes without doing all of the extremely challenging work associated with them.