In The Trenches

June 11, 2019 jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Multimedia, Physics and Astronomy

I got the idea for this after visiting a university for their graduate program in physics. The professor said that while undergraduate studies are like seeing the best cathedrals and architecture, graduate studies are like having to build these from scratch with no prior knowledge.

Notation and Beginners

June 9, 2019 jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy

You’re interested in learning a new mathematical topic. After reading some popular articles that speak in broad terms about the subject, you are energized to go on a deeper dive and learn the details. You open up a textbook, pencil in hand and ready to expand your horizons. You start going through the introductory chapter, motivated with the dream of working through the whole textbook. You make a little progress, but you find yourself pausing…

Legibility

June 9, 2019 jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Multimedia, Physics and Astronomy

“Professor, why do we use this symbol? It’s so difficult to write.” “Oh, you’ll get used to it after writing it a thousand times!”

No Distractions

June 6, 2019 jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Multimedia, Physics and Astronomy

It feels so strange to think that you used to go to a library to search for these papers instead of having easy(-ish) access online.

Discounting

June 6, 2019 jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy

I am very good at finding the bad aspects of any given idea or thing. I wouldn’t call myself cynical. Rather, I have a tendency to find ways to justify not doing something. This has to do with my reluctance to try new things, and I suspect I’m not the only one who does this. Imagine the following scenario. You’re presented with an amazing opportunity, but there is something you have to do. Maybe you…

Foundations

June 4, 2019 jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Multimedia, Physics and Astronomy

“Do we need to know this for the test, Professor?” “Nah, I barely remember them!”

Control of the Future

June 2, 2019 jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy

It’s tempting as a student to think that nothing is in your control. We often feel like our whole lives revolve around the whims of professors and their decisions for assignments and tests. It can be easy to retreat into “reactive” mode, making sure that everything which is thrown at you gets done. When we operate like this, we tend to be exhausted, since we can never look further than a week. The issue with…

Experiment Public Relations

June 2, 2019 jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Multimedia, Physics and Astronomy

“There weren’t any difficult aspects?” “Nope, everything was amazing!”

Slick Versus Pedagogical Proofs

May 30, 2019 jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy

In mathematics, there’s almost always an opportunity to make proofs more concise. For example, when you first learn a concept, it might take a while to prove a result using the definitions that were developed. The reason it’s longer to do is because the definitions require you to spell out ideas explicitly. As a result, you might get to the end of the proof, but it takes a bunch of little intermediate steps to do…

Excited

May 30, 2019 jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Multimedia, Physics and Astronomy

This might sound like a rare problem, but it happens more than you might think. In particular, I see it when professors start rattling off long theorems that they know by heart.

Author: jeremy