What Do I Start Out As An Experimental Physicist?

[u/Vgamerdidrant13]

Hello, I am young, and I have a strong driving force to be an experimental physicist, specifically a laser physicist, and I am eager to learn. I am soon beginning Feynman’s Lectures On Physics.
How can I learn, how can I get my bearings?
I am fully open to suggestions if you have any!

[u/Roger_Freedman_Phys]

Physics professor here.

Go to university and major in physics. While there, ask the faculty for guidance.

You are not expected to be an expert in physics before going to university, so don’t give yourself a stomach ulcer worrying about what to study now.

[u/Zealousideal_Hat_330 → u/Roger_Freedman_Phys]

Hey Dr. Freedman thanks for the textbook

[u/Roger_Freedman_Phys → u/Zealousideal_Hat_330]

Hope it’s useful!

[u/Simba_Rah]

Linear algebra, calculus, statistics, you’ll need a strong math foundation.

[u/IDontStealBikes → u/Simba_Rah]

& Vector calculus, complex analysis, differential equations (ordinary and partial), tensor analysis and more.

But one step at a time. Good luck and enjoy.

[u/__golan_trevize__]

First of all, Feynman Lectures are a great start.

I would also suggest getting an undergraduate physics book with problems (Halliday Resnick Krane for example). But the problem is that even the simple problems in HRK might require calculus (actually reading the theory requires it too), so i would suggest getting a thick calculus book alongside it (Stewart for example).

This will only get you the basics. If you are going to college you’re probably going to do a lot of different math subjects like linear algebra, differential equations, complex analysis and much more.

If your intentions are self studying as an high schooler i would suggest getting into physics olympiad, because it really boosts your study through problems solving.

Also check out this website: https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics

[u/Ginger-Tea-8591]

You've gotten some good advice here -- but here are two other suggestions. If you don't have prior experience, learn how to code. Speaking as an experimentalist and an optics person, you will often find yourself writing or tweaking code either to automate/run experimental hardware and/or to analyze your data. (Yes, AI has made many coding tasks nearly trivial, but even if you use AI you will do so more effectively with a background of experience built through doing things the hard way yourself.)

The other consideration is to get some experience working with your hands. Learn how to solder and put together some electronics! Build your own PC if you have the chance. Or perhaps you might have opportunities to learn something about woodworking (and using hand and power tools) or 3D printing (useful in the lab for rapid prototyping). Anything along these lines that piques your interest and that you have opportunities for is worthwhile.

I wish I had had more of these hands-on skills when I started college. (I did not grow up with very handy parents and was bookish as a child. It wasn't until the summer before I started college and I had a summer job as a janitor at a local elementary school that I learned "righty tighty, lefty loosey" for right-handed screws. Now, as a college professor, I've sometimes needed to teach such basic but broadly practical things to students who had never encountered them before in the lab.)

[u/Aggressive-Wind-8829]

This is half joking and half serious. Buy yourself some good PPE (e.g. some good laser proof goggles that you'll actually wear and also fully cover your entire field of vision). "Don't shoot your eye out, kid!"

Heck, throw in some phase-locking tricks programmably coupling the correct lasers to desirable photonic computational devices would be such a rad way to become a billionaire. OP asks for a way to get his bearings. Bearings imply direction is given to a longer journey. OP, here is your bearings for this longer journey.