Has anyone here actually self-taught themselves Theoretical Physics to the point where they can read current academic articles?
How to self learn physics to a PhD level
Has anyone here actually self-taught themselves Theoretical Physics to the point where they can read current academic articles?
Post the article you don't understand—pdfs work here now.
>Global Rules - Do not upload images containing additional data such as embedded sounds, documents, archives, etc
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A PDF file is not steganography, retard
Newfag you don’t embed it. Literally upload a PDF the same way you upload a picture and it will work on LULZ.
You just read some basic textbookts then you go for monographs and then some proceedings, then you are ready for obscure papers
Depends on what you mean by self-taught. I got a phd in theoretical physics but learned everything by reading and thinking myself. The only thing the school provided was free time to think (since you are on a stipend) and perhaps motivation to keep doing it.
this is true for everyone in university. you ultimately have to learn the stuff yourself. nobody is going to do that for you. they just provide a framework for you to do the thinking and learning.
How does one cultivate a framework for thinking and learning?
For epistemology in the sciences I would recommend reading anything referred to as "analytic philosophy." You can read academics arguing about the validity and structure of formal proofs and mathematical theory, which mighty give more insight than just learning the proof methods themselves
I take what's applicable, leave the rest.
I began doing that and proceeded until quantum field theory. Then I realized math is more interesting and now I'm only reading math books.
>until quantum field theory
You left right at the point where theoretical physics starts to get difficult/interesting
Is it hard to do with crappy math skills? I didn't get past calculus in school but never really tried.
for quantum field theory you need more than just calculus 1-3 knowledge
what do you need?
you get ugrad physics texts and start reading.
How will you conduct experiments to test your theories? You have to be a muli-millionaire if you want to do such a thing in this day an age.
Independent research in Mathematics is far more reasonable.
Can't you perform physics simulations on a regular desktop computer?
Thats retarded. You cant test new theories with computer that relies you put the model there
Yes.
No one actually can read them as they are lies and nonsense
Depends on the type of PhD physics you want to get into. If it's quantum mechanics, you're already qualified: just write a book about how flipping coins creates multiverses and start calling vectors in a Hilbert space "quantum states." If you want to learn something nontrivial like general relativity, pick up a classical book on Riemmanian geometry. I'd probably look up youtube videos on various specializations in physics to get a general feel for what type of physics you want to learn.
You can't.
that's the point they have that their work ain't writable anymore
lol
so we just make the questions
Theorectical physics is bad for you anon
total waste of time bad
If you can do the math you're phd level, that's the only barrier, it's insane how bad the general population and most academics are at math
yeah i did. i got an obscure paper with some not known physics and reproduced an experiment & it worked. taking the rest of the article as truth i integrated physics & chem
Besides basic classes (Neuroscience, astronomy, mechanics, electrician tier electricity, intro metallurgy, geology, intro chem, bio) [I've done 3 years of college in different stuff/dropout] I don't have a science background.
I've moved from physics to biology now
i think humanity has virtually evolved past university. it's faster, easier, cheaper to just teach yourself.
For instance, I was in a statics class and I picked my professor's brain about finite element method.
Saved me 7 years of college
I have the same question as
to you. Please! I am really struggling with this. How did your everyday life look like when you were learning? What could you have done better in hindsight?
it's basically just really random. A cycle of reading, buying, looking up anything you think of, answering questions. And then once you're constructing a theory-you're going through the pieces 1 by one seeing if they fit
this is a copypaste, for more lessons check the pinned thread at the top
Some subjects to pay attention to:
Differential equations and partial differential equations
Any physics involving energy
Pure mathematics/real analysis
Vibrations
Control theory
Continuum mechanics
Those are things to study for a more academic perspective which you will likely miss if you just look at subjects as they are recommended by popsci/internet as a whole.
bump
Yes
You have:
>terms and what they mean
>symbols and what they mean
>a mental picture of these meanings
Wham bam you're done anyone can do it
Leonard Susskind started a program called continuing education to teach physics to anyone who has studied school maths at some point.
The Complete Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpQIg-DEv6guphzVSDZfkzj2vc5kiwSto
(I'm new to this website so I don't actually know how to make comments. I added one before this, i think I entered the link in name feed)
PhD is about doing research. If you want to learn about physics you get a MSc.
There's no such thing as "physics to a PhD level". If you're doing a PhD in physics you'll be working on some obscure problem in a very small segment of a small segment and even if you're working on a well known problem you'll be working on a segment of a segment. Physics is not taught last MSc level.
You can self-teach yourself almost anything nowadays due to the ease of access to everything thanks to the internet. The only thing that is stopping everyone is self-discipline. Especially since distractions are now also much more pervasive. Someone with the self-discipline of a Benedictine monk could probably become advanced in many fields just from their own studying. The main issue is cutting out all of the nonsense of the modern world and focusing solely on the task at hand, and not deviating from that until completion. With a sea of information the temptation is always there to hop from one thing to another, never really getting deep in anything but being surface level in many. It's all what you do with what you have at hand.