As of this writing the New Horizons probe, en route to Pluto, has "gone dark". It has ceased communications to use all possible effort to take data as it comes within 8000 km of the dwarf planet. A very historic event. We have now made it past all of the planets in our solar system. I remember when Pluto was a planet. When there was no data. I expect that will all change quite a bit in the coming months. It is one of those things that really gives you perspective about what we could be achieving as a species, and that we are in fact achieving. There are unbelievable things out there, and the people who are doing most of those unbelievable things at this stage are scientists who have a passionate intelligence and curiosity about our universe. I think you'd be hard pressed to find people who aren't at least passively interested in these sorts of reports like a probe to Pluto.
Take a look at the picture at the top of this page. It was taken with the Hubble Telescope, one of the most powerful telescopes ever built, orbiting our planet. We are able to get crystal clear pictures of our universe with this tool. Yet look how hazy the picture our best earthbound technology is able to give us. In contrast, take a look at any of the recent pictures posted by NASA taken by New Horizons. The contrast is very exciting.
If this is something that is of interest to you let me tell you that to be a part of this is wildly achievable. You can work on these types of projects. But it takes a lot of work, and the first step is to do great in your introductory physics classes, and tools like this podcast are certainly going to help you out. For this episode, I wanted to give you three more tools in your quiver that I think are essential to PWNing your physics classes.
1) Example Problems- Taken from in-class notes, (do you kids use Evernote now?), textbook problems, or *achem* ...::checks to see if the cops are around::.. the solutions manual.
2) Mathematica/Maple/Matlab/Python/LABVIEW- Take your pick. We are tool using mammals. This is our advantage. In physics, the tools of the trade are certainly computer based now. Calculators opened the world up to making us better and more accurate, but also slightly lazier in terms of raw computing. Fortunately or unfortunately, computers are way better at it. We can use this to focus on the bleeding edge of science instead of iterations and calcuations. You can build incredible models and even solve equations algebraically. They are seriously impressive tools. In general it looks like this: Hardcore physicists and theoretical guys use Mathematica. Experimental guys use LABVIEW and Python. Engineers use MATLAB, and Mathematicians seem to like Maple. Of course this is not a hard rule but that was my trending experience and also where I was able to use each of those softwares.
Below is a piece of code from mathematica that is now called Wolfram Alpha and is internet embeddable code. It allows you to graph a line inputting any numbers you desire. Check it out below.
3) LaTeX- I may be one of the few on this, but I think it's essential for good homework practices. I am of the computer generation. I grew up with good penmanship but now it's barely legible. I also go down a lot of different paths when not constrained to typeset. My paper does not follow the lines. My work is everywhere. Also, you can't really type out physics homework with something like Microsoft Word. LaTeX is made for this sort of thing. Long equations. Tons of math. Any symbol you could ever want. LaTeX is what most people use to publish scientific papers. Starting now will make this a lot more approachable when you're working on your paper and the deadline is nigh. It will also impress your professors and make their life very easy. It also lets you box your answers which they will love you forever for
Now that we're in the summer months, you have a great opportunity to go mining for example problems, load and play with LaTeX, and also mess around with the other aforementioned softwares and pick which one you like the best. It's going to help you a lot come crunch time!
