Blog 2: Topic Choice

The late, great discoverer of quantum theory Max Planck once told a renowned physics professor that he wished to pursue the subject to "understand." Is this not true of all of us? We all desire understanding. It is, in part, what makes us human. It has allowed us to improve ourselves as we further our knowledge. I, like all people, am interested in understanding. I am also driven to contibute my own knowledge to that pool. This is why I have such an interest in theoretical physics and is why I have chosen it as my senior project.

People have often seemed to have a problem with my interest in and knowledge of the hard sciences. I attribute this to the fact that there are precious few women in physics, and that being an intelligent woman is often not considered (by girls and boys) to be an attractive quality. With my senior project, I plan on improving as an iPoly "citizen" by improving the iPoly community and the attitude toward science (especially amongst girls) as a whole. I would like that to be my footprint, since right now I'm just the girl who argues with the teachers.

Unfortunately, physics is often extremely difficult for laypeople to understand, and very difficult for physicists to explain it in a way that is not intimidating and does not involve a lot of seemingly arbitrary math. I think I intimidate people sometimes because I use big words and talk about a lot of broad subjects. I used to think it was funny that people were intimidated by me, but now I don't think it's so funny. With my senior project I aim to learn a way to truly help people understand. We need more laypeople who are scientifically literate (especially if they choose to go into politics or law) and I believe I could then apply the technique to helping people learn about a variety of topics I consider important.

I need to learn too though. Science is an excellent vehicle to bulk up confidence in variety of subjects, especially math, which I am not too confident in because I never had a really good teacher. My project is something I am interested but I feel will also allow me to gain more confidence in my math abilities going into college.

Finally, while my interest is in theoretical physics, not experimental physics (people are almost always exclusively one or the other) I do plan on using this as a vehicle to help me understand the technological side of physics, such as in early-Universe computer simulations or large particle detectors. I think with a respectable knowledge in experimental physics I will become a much better theorist and a more practical one.