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Phys(ics)Geek
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"I slipped the surly bonds of Earth... put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
Today was a pretty lazy day for me... I did a little work in the afternoon, but most of the day I sat around reading (hey... reading Quantum Mechanics textbooks might as well be work) and thinking. I have, in the past, questioned whether or not I made the right decision in choosing to pursue physics. I think that I can comfortably say now, after experiencing research on the cutting edge of high energy theoretical physics, that I am happy with my choice. Sure, I would have made a good IT professional, but I don't think that would satiate my desire for understanding things (though it would make my wallet thicker), and I think that I'd also have made a pretty good congressman... but nevertheless, physics is my calling. I can say this now, for sure. Two years ago when I started my pursuit, I was daunted by the idea of spending four years in the most intense undergraduate study one can pursue, and then being challenged with another 5-10 years of graduate work in that field. Now, I look forward to graduate school. I can't wait to get to the point where I know quantum mechanics so well I can do problems in my head that, today, take me five hours and fifteen sheets of paper to do. The idea that I, a humble little geek from Ohio - a humble little state - can make an impression on the very nature of our existence: how well we understand the way the universe works... that thought is mindblowing. Today, I was engrossed in material covering the Delta-Function Potential and the Finite Square Well... and I was thinking, "Egad man, I want MORE!" I mean, to think: we can describe the motion of a particle in a given system with a single equation (and depending on the system, i.e. open or closed or ..., sometimes the equation is simple...) that tells me that if I work hard enough, maybe I'll find some simple equation runs the universe, and everything in it is just approximated with a Taylor Expansion out to some (near-infinite?) degree... The universe works via an equation. Maxwells Equations, Newton's Second, the Time-Independent Schroedinger Equation, Non-Perturbative Lattice Gauge Theory... IT'S ALL JUST AN APPROXIMATION TO A SINGLE EQUATION. I want to know this master equation... and damnit, nothing is going to keep me from finding it. (I do realize, of course, that some don't quite like or understand my somewhat epiphanic and usually mathematics-induced ramblings...) Feeling:
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