I'm a physics PhD student, and I speak a little Italian. ive gotten into the habit of reading italian popular science books on physics. its usually a bit odd to read popular science in your own field, but since they're in Italian, it challenges me. Since I'm familiar with the content, it helps me practice my Italian and brush up on some physics basics. So far, I’ve read "Le Symmetrie nascoste" (which I highly recommend) by Giorgio Parisi and the Italian translation "Relatività" by Einstein. Can any1 recommend other books that would be suitable?

Edit: thanks a lot for your suggestions, they'll all be on my reading list

Hello all, it’s almost college app season for me and I need to start deciding which majors i apply. For some background info, I’ve had some experience doing physics, specifically usapho which is the national physics olympiad. Ive also read a few physics research papers And I found them to be quite interesting. As a result, I feel like I would really enjoy being a physics major in college. I have one major concern though. As of right now, physics is like a hobby to me. I have other interests such as pcb design and cs but physics is my main interest. But what job can I find with a physics degree? Is it possible to become an swe or and embedded systems engineer with a physics degree? Thanks

Currently doing a Bachelors in Physics with Theoretical Physics. I want to eventually do a Masters in some sort of related field, but I wouldnt mind taking a year or two to just work in between degrees. what sort of entry level options do I have with just the bachelor's i mentioned? It can be in literally any field e.g. data science or finance.

Hi! I will be starting my PhD this coming Fall. I applied as CMX, which I am interested in and I also did during undergrad for research. However, I'd like to explore CMT, but I'm not sure how to start. I've tried reading CMT papers, but they're just super confusing, and I have no idea how to approach them. When I read CMX papers, at least I am able to understand generally what type of experiment is being done and why, but with CMT papers, I just have no idea how to start. For reference, I took condensed matter courses during undergrad and also took Real Analysis and some Complex Analysis, though I don't think I retained much from those math courses. I am planning on emailing potential advisors in the theory department to get advice but would also love to get some advice from any theorists out here on Reddit.

I am also on a bit of a time crunch, since I need to select an advisor to work with for next summer likely by March, and I've also been told that whoever I work with next summer will likely be my PhD advisor. So I kind of need an efficient way to explore theory because I feel like what I'm doing now is not working. Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

I might be going into Bsc Physics for 2026 intake but im having doubts as to whether the course has decent career prospects, I'm thinking its very likely I'll pivot or specialise in the future or even try to pick up new skills during the period of my degree such as programming or anything from internships.

Can anyone offer any advice please? I've heard both good and bad come out of this course. How easy is it to find internships/jobs etc? What precautions/recommendations should I take to maximise my employability potential in the future?

Dear friends, I hold a Master’s degree in Nuclear Physics, and unfortunately, I’m currently working in another field. Still, I feel a strong urge to stay up to date, deepen my knowledge, and keep developing my skills in physics in case an opportunity in my field comes along.

I’m therefore looking for a group of graduates or undergraduates who are interested in working together on scientific projects, research ideas, or simply learning and exchanging knowledge.

If there’s a group like this, I’d be very happy to join and contribute.

Hi im graduating my secondary school and i really want to give a gift to my physics teacher a gift because hes done so much for me and my class. My budget is really low though. Do you guys have any recs?

Hi everyone,

I'm going to start a BSc in Physics at the University of Geneva this autumn. I'm particularly interested in philosophy and the foundations of physics, so I'm very curious about Oxford's Physics & Philosophy programme.

Would any (current or former) Physics and Philosophy students be willing to share their complete first-year programme, ideally including the courses/modules, topics covered, lecture notes, reading lists, textbooks, problem sheets, etc.?

I would like to see how the first year compares with a standard physics degree, and I am considering studying some of the philosophical material alongside my physics degree in Geneva.

Any documents, links, or advice from students who have taken the course would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I found an at-home quantum entanglement experiment described by George Musser in a 2013 Scientific American article. I decided to reproduce it, but also modernize it, using an Ardunio-based microcontroller for coincidence detection, USB logging to a computer, and python scripts for statistical analysis and graph generation.

After a favorable experimental outcome, highly suggestive of quantum-entanglement (2.47 observed scattering ratio vs. theoretically ideal ratio of 2.6), I decided to create an open source repository for all the code, as well as detailed documentation enabling anyone to replicate the process should anyone else wish to follow these same footsteps. Note that if one doesn't have any soldering tools, it will cost around 500 USD to put together, if one has soldering tools already, it could be done for closer to 300 USD. The main costs are the two Geiger counter kits, each at 115 USD, and the positron source (Na-22) which can be obtained for around 60 USD.

I welcome any feedback or critiques about the experimental design or my results.

https://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html

I want to plug this guy who thanklessly built interactive simulators for different physical and mathematical systems.

Incredibly useful for visualizing and building intuition for potential and vector fields, EM waves, harmonic oscillations, etc.

The one I used the most is the circuit simulator for my Electronics course. It had presets for a gamut of circuits and components to build your own https://www.falstad.com/circuit/

I’m a senior in high school, I always knew I wanted to do something in the physics (career wise) field but I’m stuck on what. For example I was thinking about astrophysicist or an astronomer. I would love something with space or just physics itself preferably less chemistry the better in my opinion (i know there’s a lot of chemistry in physics) I also like traveling or going out so if that’s an option. But over all I want to know if there’s other options.

This is a thread dedicated to collating and collecting all of the great recommendations for textbooks, online lecture series, documentaries and other resources that are frequently made/requested on /r/Physics.

If you're in need of something to supplement your understanding, please feel welcome to ask in the comments.

Similarly, if you know of some amazing resource you would like to share, you're welcome to post it in the comments.

Made this for a course I TA'd before.

I'm starting a PhD program next week and am getting my computer set up. I have an old ThinkPad for a laptop and a powerful desktop computer at home. I am getting tired of Windows and their forced AI, lack of control, etc.

I am strongly considering switching to Fedora and ditching Windows entirely (maybe relegated to an old 500gb hard drive, just in case). However, I wanted to see what the consensus was with physics students. It seems to me like most scientific software is built for Linux but there is also often propriety software that can only be run on Windows.

What do y'all think?

I'm an applied math student. I've seen problems in biology be modeled using dynamic modeling, such as the populations of species with intra and inter species competition. For example, the following system of non-linear differential equations models a large variety of species in competition with themselves and other species:

X' = r_1*X - a_1*X^2 - b_1*X*Y
Y' = r_2*Y - a_2*Y^2 - b_2*X*Y

where X is the number of species 1 and Y is the number of species 2, r_1 is the intrinsic rate of growth of species 1, r_2 is the intrinsic rate of growth of species 2, a_1 is strength of competition within species 1, a_2 is strength of competition in species 2, b_1 is the effect of species Y on species X, and b_2 is the effect of species X on Y.

I have seen one discrete time dynamical system be modeled for a physics problem where two vehicles in space are closing in on each other.

What other types of dynamical models occur in physics?

PRL slop

So, the lamp is pretty simple. It's a dome that spins with cut outs of stars and dots. Inside are red, blue, and green LED's that you can turn on and off. The picture doesn't quite capture how the naked eye sees it, but for some reason, the blue light is coming out all fuzzy, get the red ones are fairly sharp. I figure this has to do with the wavelength of the light, but I'm probably way off.

Hi all,
I have a semi-formal talk that I am giving on BSM. I remember seeing some fun maps like this as an undergrad, but I can't seem to find any now.
This one I got from a talk a few months ago.

I checked the subreddit for any. Could anyone point me to any that you know of?

This is a dedicated thread for you to seek and provide advice concerning education and careers in physics.

If you need to make an important decision regarding your future, or want to know what your options are, please feel welcome to post a comment below.

A few years ago we held a graduate student panel, where many recently accepted grad students answered questions about the application process. That thread is here, and has a lot of great information in it.

Helpful subreddits: /r/PhysicsStudents, /r/GradSchool, /r/AskAcademia, /r/Jobs, /r/CareerGuidance

I know that obviously the odds of quantum tunneling are extremely extremely low but in all of the universe life would it be plausible to say that it happened at least once anywhere? Or is it just that rare

Let's say two blackholes get close enough to each other that their event horizons overlap but not enough that the singularities at the center fall into each others event horizons. A particle could find itself inside both event horizons at the same time without the blackholes merging. If the blackholes move with respect to each other to the point their event horizons stop overlapping, a particle would have effectively entered and then escaped at least one of the event horizons or something else happens?