Authorization To Reproduce Physical Likeness: Fill & Download for Free

Having clarity about a path within physics that you want to pursue is a beautiful thing. Congratulations!Short Answer:1) Do research with a strong theorist2) Publish your research as first or second authorMedium Length Answer:You will likely find that to accomplish 1), you might need to3) Study Quantum Field Theory (take the graduate course and get an A)4) Study group theory, topology, functional analysis, and as much math as you can handle5) Get good at Numerical simulations with any framework, language of your choice (Mathematica/Python/C++/C...whatever really). You might want to play with this book: Numerical Recipes 3rd Edition: The Art of Scientific Computing: William H. Press, Saul A. Teukolsky, William T. Vetterling, Brian P. Flannery: 9780521880688: Amazon.com: BooksKnow your linear algebra well. You shouldn't need more than a couple intro CS courses but feel free to take the more algorithms/theory oriented ones on top of the intro classes.6) Know your core physics extremely well (QM/EM/Mechanics/StatMech/Thermo).7) Know abstract mathematics/ geometrical concepts8) Know solid state physics9) Know advanced solid state physics (quasiparticles, second quantization treatment of standard problems, green's functions, quantum phase transitions)10) Know advanced statistical mechanics (renormalization/scaling, etc)Tests:1) You should try taking the physics qualifying exams at Princeton or MIT or some other top school to test out where you currently stand.These test undergraduate knowledge. You should be able to pass these "comfortably" as soon as possible.2) If you are able to pass the condensed matter track on the advanced qualifying exams at those programs, you are probably a strong candidate.3) If you are able to reproduce the results of classic papers (e.g. BCS) comfortably, you are probably strong. Specifically can you understand and reproduce this one? http://beta.sciencewise.info/media/upload/users/Laughlin.pdfHowever, the best thing you can do so early in your career is to have an open mind. You should be intellectually curious. The tools that the finest condensed matter theorists wield are so deadly that they make you (very) useful in essentially any field that requires the application of logic. With that said, I will give a longer answer within the context of your gaining a broad set of skills that should elicit your inner Feynman and ofcourse with my personal biases peppered throughout.Long Answer1) Learn MathYou should know as much math as a really good math major at a top university (Caltech/MIT/Stanford)This means: don't find out about tensors for the first time when learning GR and think you know tensors. Don't learn probability by following along in griffiths and thinking that's all there is to it. Don't do your "math methods" course and think you are ready for primetime. Warning: there be sharks in this here pool.(You say you are interested in the quantum hall effect, QFT, QFT etc.Subir Sachdev (a pretty prominent name in this space) got an honorary mention in the Putnam)A simple test for how much math you know might be how well you can apply geometrical/group theoretic arguments in classical and quantum physics.Maybe take an introductory string theory course. Maybe an advanced one? Make sure you know your math.2) Learn basic physics extremely wellUse French for Mechanics/Relativity and Purcell/Griffiths for Electrodynamics.Learn Thermodynamics and statistical physics(Reif is great and so is Landau)Do all the problems or as many as you can. Read Feynman's lectures.Do not skimp on the basics. I have seen many great physicists get insights about the most advanced things via some simple picture they have in their minds about pendula or coupled strings.3) Study solid state physicsI don't really like any of the standard books here but Ashcroft and Mermin/Kittel are the standard books here. I prefer Ashcroft. Working through it before you are done with school is a pretty good thing to do.For the cool stuff you can read Advanced Solid State Physics: Philip Phillips: 9780521194907: Amazon.com: Booksas well as: Condensed Matter Physics: Michael P. Marder: 9780470617984: Amazon.com: Books4) Learn Quantum Mechanics and Stat MechFor QM: Read Griffiths then Shankar or Sakurai (and then Landau).For stat mech: read Reif and then Landau.For the cool Stat Mech stuff, I can't recommend this book enough:Lectures On Phase Transitions And The Renormalization Group (Frontiers in Physics): Nigel Goldenfeld: 9780201554090: Amazon.com: Books5) Read great papersYou should get in the habit of "reading the source code". Know how to reproduce the great results. In condensed matter these would be things like Anderson Localization, B.C.S theory, Feynman and Landau superfluidity theories, etcFor quantum hall you should definitely be able to reproduce Laughlin's arguments in this paper: Quantized Hall conductivity in two dimensions6) Read current papersYou should know what's going on at the edge of knowledge. You can pick things up through class projects or by doing proper research.Follow Physics Review Letters, Nature, Nature Physics, Science, Phys. Rev B. Watch videos and read slides from conferences/talks.7) Pick up interests slightly outside of condensed mattere.g. quantum computing, biology, economics, finance, astrophysics, computer science, sociology.You could end up like this guy:So assuming you got to the end of this, I am saying: be the equivalent of a (top) math/physics double major (from say Caltech) who's up on what's going on in the field and what has happened in the field, knows how to run some (non-trivial quantum) simulations on a computer, and has enough orthogonal interests that allow for making interesting contributions in young fields and a transition into multi-billionaire status if needed.

Question: “I recently asked a question about the pricing of hand carved crafts and was told CNC had something to do with lowering the price. Can a CNC machine work to the same quality as a skilled carver?”Short answer: NO. At the present state of the art a multi-axis CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) router cannot begin to equal the quality or artistry of a skilled carver. And the decision of American furniture manufacturers in the 1970s to replace skilled well paid craftsmen with CNC machinery and lesser paid machine operators both changed the appearance of furniture and created a problem for those few American furniture companies who desired to continue selling at the high end of the market.Let me illustrate this. This is an example of a hand carved (I watched it being made.) Chippendale Lace Back Dining Chair. It is part of a set that surrounds my dining table.The company that made it sent a man to a decorative arts museum in London, England where he was authorized to measure and draw and photograph the 18th century original in the museum’s collection. My dining room chairs are, as near as is physically possible, exact copies of the original. And the carving on them was done by skilled artisans using the same tools and methods as those in Thomas Chippendale’s workshops.These, for comparison, are CNC Machine Made versions of Chippendale Lace Back Chairs.Note that in the CNC made copies all of the fine detail seen in the hand carved chairs is missing. There are no fine lines. There is little detail. There is no undercutting. Why? Should not a CNC machine be able to operate 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, with no lunch or coffee or restroom breaks or sleep and no holidays, and do this consistently and faster without tiring for a small fraction of the costs of employing a skilled craftsman? Yes, it will do this. But there is a problem.You see, the chair you desire to buy and own is made out of wood. And wood is not a uniform material. Any piece of wood has areas of different hardness and density. Every piece fractures easily along its long grain but is very strong against its grain. And that grain, especially in the most beautiful examples of the species, swirls and curves and changes direction. Some areas are much harder to cut than others. Carving along the grain the cut must be stopped preventing it from going too far. Short grain can easily fracture. Carving any curve takes one from long grain to short grain—from areas that cut too easily to areas that require more pressure but that can easily fracture.The skilled carver knows all this. He “reads” the wood as he applies his tools to it and he chooses the tool and adjusts both the angle of the tool and the pressure he applies in accordance with the ever changing and challenging grain and features of the wood.The CNC machine, at the present state of the art, cannot do this. The CNC machine is fine for working materials that are uniform, say metals or plastics. But a Chippendale Lace Back Chair made of plastic or aluminum would look hideous. CNC routers are basically unsuited for the fine working of wood.This has had two consequences:To make a chair (or any other carved wood object) using a CNC machine one must first simplify the design. But that presents a problem if one desires to reproduce fine designs from the past. For Thomas Chippendale’s designs were drawn to show off the skills of the craftsmen who made them. By comparison to those craftsmen the CNC machine is an unskilled worker, albeit it a very fast one. Thus, if one wants to reproduce something like a Chippendale chair with a CNC one has to substantially simplify the design. As a consequence, a machine made Chippendale Lace Back Chair, for example, looks more like a small child’s drawing of such a chair rather than the real thing. The CNC made product is, at best, a crude cheap copy of the real thing.Although the change from employing skilled craftsmen to using modern machinery operated by lower paid machine operators saved the furniture manufacturers money it cost them the profitable high end portion of their market. The buyers who liked and could afford to nicely furnish their homes did not want the furniture that could be built without skilled labor. They did not want furniture that “looked cheap”. And complicating the issue was the problem that, having gotten rid of their skilled craftsmen, the companies no longer employed anyone who could train younger workers. An art was lost.How did the companies who still wanted to sell at he high end of the American market resolve this? They subcontracted out the carving of components, or whole lines of high end furniture, to furniture companies in other countries, And those foreign companies, often in Asia, did the work by hand using highly skilled craftsmen.I was there. I worked in Asian factories in the 1980s teaching techniques and methods.

Such a great question! It asks for scientific achievements, not how to earn money or influence per se. In particular, much of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology taught in middle and high schools today summarize scientific inventions of the past several hundreds of years.Solving quadratic or cubic equations? - these were significant achievements at the time (with useful applications), but would be easy for a competent student today. Logarithms, trigonometry, differential and integral calculus, Newtonian physics - none of this requires special materials or technology.Darwin's theory of evolution was an idea in its own right, and was substantiated with pure observation, which required some travel, but if you start breeding fruit flies and small rodents, you could probably avoid travel. Basic chemical reactions with common substances can be described using the Periodic table of elements - you don't need to go through the steps necessary to invent the Periodic table. The Periodic table can explain all reactions known in the Middle ages, and I suspect there wasn't another theory that could explain them all.To restate, a decent understanding of high-school topics would allow you to reproduce the results from scratch, but you don't have to invent the ideas from scratch - you already know what to look, and just need to confirm the results to convince others - that is a huge advantage over the scientists of the time. Just don't be a jerk, listen to what people tell you, try to reason like they do, and you won't be burned at the stake.Basic cryptography and cryptanalysis would be of great value to the rich and the powerful. Basic hygiene and knowing which of medieval beliefs were wrong can be very useful (if you don't start challenging religious authorities). Even more useful is the knowledge of science and technology history - reproducing Volta's and Galvani's experiments should have been relatively easy many centuries before them (unless you don't like killing frogs). With some help and persistence, you could build primitive radios, which would be phenomenal for trade. If you remember what goes into gunpower and dynamite, you could become at least as rich as Alfred Nobel (allowing you to do more science and pay for more science), and would wield much more influence. While you may not remember how to extract penicillin, understanding the general idea would direct your search and you may be able to figure this out in a few months.Of course, some of the trappings of the modern civilization will be off the limits for medieval technologies. No airplanes, nuclear weapons, plastics, flu vaccines, or television.Anyway, A person going back in time would be most useful as an advisor to a team of well-funded science and technology experts. While such a person wouldn't be able to single-handedly build a steam engine, he or she could guide the efforts of capable people to build it a few hundred years ahead of time.Clearly, going back in time can be dangerous, but also note that many of the modern people have immunity or at least resistance to some of the worst historical infectious diseases (people who didn't have resistance died in higher numbers and didn't leave as many offspring).. In any case, we know now what causes diseases, how they are transmitted and what their symptoms look like, so we can improve our chances in an epidemic.