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Italy12246 Posts
So i'm writing this blog to vent some rage because i am fucking pissed right now. I am a 3rd year physics student, a touch behind in exams because our format fucking sucks but that's normal, but i do have good grades (i averagte 27/30 in exams). Until now.
I am seriously in the mood to fucking smash some shit and give up. I have a quantum mechanics exam coming up soon (first try is in two days but no way in hell i'm passing that), and it's beyond ridicolous. It's not that i don't know how to solve the excercises, I DONT FUCKING UNDERSTAND THE SOLUTION WHEN I READ IT. It's ridicolous. Plenty of completely insane math steps that NONE has ever taught me, in ANY class i have taken so far, wierd assumptions and tricks that you NEED to know to keep any kind of mental sanity...it's like, every problem is it's own insane shitstorm with a random trick to avoid insane shit, and every time the trick is different, makes no sense, and assumes math i don't know. I have studied for this exam for one year now, trying different books, asking plenty of classmates for help and studying with them....nothing. Fucking none of us gets it, or for the 3/4 complete geniouses it's just obvious.
During the "partial" test we took in September, out of 20 people, only 5 decided to actually hand in the test at the end. One fucking genious got a 30, 3 of us got a 20, one didn't pass. Fucking insane.
Seriously, fuck this shit. I have wasted one year and will be even more behind in exams because theoretical physics is batshit insane.
 
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youre not supposed to be able to understand it
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welcome to the world of uncertainty, may it one day die a long and painful death in the infinite void.
Quantum physics certainly will break your spirit, the mathematics is beyond insane and there is so much to know and remember. Just worry about passing, don't worry about passing well. The quantum world is obviously not the world for you (or 99% of everyone else on the planet) so take the exam, focus on scraping a pass and move on.
I'm sure you must have known going in to your degree that Quantum physics is just about the most difficult area of any science known to humans, definitely the most difficult to grasp and understand. Smarter men and women than you have put up their hands and said "Okay, I will never understand this". Every physicist I know or have met who works in the field have said something similar to "If you think you've understood it and you aren't completely baffled that the world can actually work like this, then you haven't understood it"
I wish you good luck with your exam and seriously.... don't stress too much. Even Einstein had trouble with quantum stuff.
p.s most people on the planet have trouble understanding E=MC2.... so don't feel bad if you haven't quite got your head around the equations for much more complex ideas like Dirac and Uncertainty. I know I haven't lol
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2. year physics student myself so I can't quite comment on your issue. Did you try the Feynman books? I'm sure he has a book out there on quantum mechanics. He focuses a lot on explaining all the steps while solving a problem and in general he trys to make the reader understand what's going on rather than going "DATS WAT I DID TO SOLVE EZPZ" like in many other books on math/physics.
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Is it multiple choice? If so, just mark the questions with a superposition of all possible answers.
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On January 24 2012 22:15 emythrel wrote:
welcome to the world of uncertainty, may it one day die a long and painful death in the infinite void.
Quantum physics certainly will break your spirit, the mathematics is beyond insane and there is so much to know and remember. Just worry about passing, don't worry about passing well. The quantum world is obviously not the world for you (or 99% of everyone else on the planet) so take the exam, focus on scraping a pass and move on.
I'm sure you must have known going in to your degree that Quantum physics is just about the most difficult area of any science known to humans, definitely the most difficult to grasp and understand. Smarter men and women than you have put up their hands and said "Okay, I will never understand this". Every physicist I know or have met who works in the field have said something similar to "If you think you've understood it and you aren't completely baffled that the world can actually work like this, then you haven't understood it"
I wish you good luck with your exam and seriously.... don't stress too much. Even Einstein had trouble with quantum stuff.
I think that might be an unintentional paraphrase of Richard Feynman there.
"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics."
From Wikiquote.
There's another one that's closer to your exact words, but I can't find it.
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Italy12246 Posts
On January 24 2012 22:23 AmericanUmlaut wrote:
Is it multiple choice? If so, just mark the questions with a superposition of all possible answers.
Hell no man. I fucking wish.
Honestly i am not trying to have some deep insight in quantum physics. All i am asking for is, it would be nice if i could understand a problem when i have the fucking solution written there. At least the math used, if not the reasoning. Nop, none of that shit. Goddamn it.
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On January 24 2012 22:23 SeaSwift wrote:Show nested quote +On January 24 2012 22:15 emythrel wrote:
welcome to the world of uncertainty, may it one day die a long and painful death in the infinite void.
Quantum physics certainly will break your spirit, the mathematics is beyond insane and there is so much to know and remember. Just worry about passing, don't worry about passing well. The quantum world is obviously not the world for you (or 99% of everyone else on the planet) so take the exam, focus on scraping a pass and move on.
I'm sure you must have known going in to your degree that Quantum physics is just about the most difficult area of any science known to humans, definitely the most difficult to grasp and understand. Smarter men and women than you have put up their hands and said "Okay, I will never understand this". Every physicist I know or have met who works in the field have said something similar to "If you think you've understood it and you aren't completely baffled that the world can actually work like this, then you haven't understood it"
I wish you good luck with your exam and seriously.... don't stress too much. Even Einstein had trouble with quantum stuff. I think that might be an unintentional paraphrase of Richard Feynman there. "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." From Wikiquote.
it is actually a paraphrase of a very famous quote from John Wheeler or Neils Bohr (spelling?) if memory serves. Its something parroted by many many physicists, usually not in its original form, as a way of saying "Don't feel bad if you don't understand it".
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Didnt Feynman also say "Shut up and calculate" Because if you try to understand it or whatever you are more into philosphy than physics
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On January 24 2012 22:27 Slakkoo wrote:
Didnt Feynman also say "Shut up and calculate" Because if you try to understand it or whatever you are more into philosphy than physics
not sure if it was Feynman, but yes..... you are correct
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Here we go, thanks emythrel:
"If anybody says he can think about quantum physics without getting giddy, that only shows he has not understood the first thing about them.
Niels Bohr
If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet.
Niels Bohr"
From brainyquote.
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On January 24 2012 22:30 SeaSwift wrote:Here we go, thanks emythrel: "If anybody says he can think about quantum physics without getting giddy, that only shows he has not understood the first thing about them. Niels Bohr If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet. Niels Bohr" From brainyquote.
No worries, its a great quote and I can never remember it exactly lol. I assume most physics students/professors have the same issue because I've never heard it quoted right in my entire adult life lol.
My first day of A-Level physics I remember my teacher writing it up on the board and saying in a very thick Scottish accent "remember that, you will need it in the future. Now lets talk about William Wallace" and then he preceded to teach us about forces using a stick man of William Wallace being tortured by the English lol
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
lol I remember feeling the same way  my univ decided that it would be a good idea to have the mathematics in physics papers equivalent to one level above that in math. Hence, when doing my stage 3 quantum physics paper the math required was essentially a primer for a graduate paper in functional analysis t.t;
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Write down... " We have box , and a cat in it "
Then Pray.
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On January 24 2012 22:41 Plexa wrote:lol I remember feeling the same way my univ decided that it would be a good idea to have the mathematics in physics papers equivalent to one level above that in math. Hence, when doing my stage 3 quantum physics paper the math required was essentially a primer for a graduate paper in functional analysis t.t;
Was there any logic behind this or was it just stupidity?
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Italy12246 Posts
On January 24 2012 22:50 SeaSwift wrote:Show nested quote +On January 24 2012 22:41 Plexa wrote:lol I remember feeling the same way my univ decided that it would be a good idea to have the mathematics in physics papers equivalent to one level above that in math. Hence, when doing my stage 3 quantum physics paper the math required was essentially a primer for a graduate paper in functional analysis t.t; Was there any logic behind this or was it just stupidity?
Sheer stupidity in my case. They tried making the physics department more "modern" in Italy lately, by adopting the 3+2 model that is used in every other university across europe, with the result that the classes are completely fucked up. One now does quantum mechanics while doing classical mechanics (seriously for the first 2 months none told me wtf a Hamiltonian was) and complex analysis/hilbert spaces.
They also teach us quantum mechanics and structure of matter (essentially applied quantum mechanics) before chemistry, so you spend one year and a half solving shroedinger's equation and calculatin weave functions, and then somebody starts telling you that electrons are kind of like clouds around the nucleus lol.
Plus, in my particular college the mandatory math classes aren't structured too well, the calculus 3 exam has a bunch of useless shit in it when they could do more stuff that is actually used in physics, but nop. Damn it.
Also theoretical physicists assume you know a bunch of math that you have probably never heard about by default, just because yes.
ps i like how every time i try to type a quick answer it's turning into a rant lol. Back to studying and swearing. Thanks for the replies 
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Holy shit and I thought the American universities could be bad. That's just completely retarded.
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Italy12246 Posts
Honestly, my university is good. The teachers are mostly competent (except 2 "special' cases i have met), the labs are good...it's just that a few years ago there was this one political reform of university which was completely idiotic and essentially forced the department to make some compromises that don't make sense. They imposed the 3+2 model when you realistically can NOT learn all the stuff you need for physics in 3 years.
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WTF i want to see some of these shit storm, Give us and example so we can all feel stupid together.
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On January 24 2012 23:15 EternaLLegacy wrote:
Holy shit and I thought the American universities could be bad. That's just completely retarded.
America is probably the best in the world when it comes to universities.
The rest of our school system may suck, but as a whole, universities do not.
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EPT
