"The only noise now was the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans."
Sherwood Smith
for days of hauling books
Hi there, your aesthetics are amazing. I was wondering if you could tell me what my aesthetic is. I'm a big coffee drinker, I like rum in the evenings, I stay up late, but am always up early to see the sun rise. I love writing novels and poetry, will occasionally attempt composing but it's not my forte. I also speak, French, Spanish, Japanese and Swedish (as well as native English). đ
Hii and Thank you !!đđ¸ Wowww , you sound so talented to me đľ. I am pretty sure , you're scholarly academia and a bit of dark academia.
"i would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light."
hellen keller
Instagram:Â danielapardor
I actually cannot believe how much I used to hate Physics until last year, but then I actually took the time and effort to understand it and?? itâs so cool and fun and easy?? unreal.
It literally seemed impossible for me and I legit thought I wouldnât be able to graduate because I was never gonna pass Physics (Iâm a Math major so we actually have 4 required Physics courses). I donât know what the point of this is but, donât be afraid of Physics guys!! (or any other subject!!) yes itâs frustrating as hell and you feel dumb for not having a clue about what is happening or how to work out the problems but I swear once it clicks for you (and it will) itâs gonna be great.
So if anyone needs a step by step (for college/uni), hereâs one:
Google is your best friend, the internet has plenty of videos/papers/worked out problems for you to check out. The most important thing to look for is drawings and videos that help you visualize whatâs going on. In most of general physics, the key is to see what forces are acting, and from that follows everything else.
Know your core equations. Honestly itâs always the same ones in the end.
For mechanics: you absolutely gotta know Newtonâs Laws, Work and its relation to Kinetic/Potential Energy. Momentum is also important.
For thermodynamics: First and Second Law of Thermodynamics; pV = nRT, Boyle/Gay Lussac etc (note that theyâre all connected), Carnotâs Cycle.
For electromagnetism: Maxwellâs equations. This is as far as Iâve gotten in my studies.
Understand where the formulas come from, rather than learning them by heart. For me, this was necessary because my memory is absolutely shit so there was no way I could remember every variation. But most of the formulas actually do make sense, and once youâve drawn out a diagram of whatâs happening, you can work them out yourself.
For the previous point, I suggest you watch and rewatch your professorâs explanation until you get the gist. Donât get discouraged if itâs not immediately crystal clear, seek out other explanations if you need to. Then try to do it yourself.
ASK. FOR. HELP. I cannot stress this enough, do not feel ashamed about asking questions in class or during office hours. There are no stupid questions, and youâre paying thousands every year for people to teach you. Also physics is hard, so youâre pretty much expected to not understand immediately. Moreover, I can guarantee thereâs at least one other person in the room with the same question whoâs too afraid to ask. I was that person, and I failed the class because of it. Donât be me.
Practice until youâre able to do most variations of standard problems. Once youâre able to do a certain problem, try to change it and see what happens. You donât have to crunch the numbers all over again, go with your intuition first. Then you can calculate everything and see if you were correct.
This is all Iâve got at the moment. It applies to General Physics because Iâm still pretty shit at Mathematical Physics (Rational Mechanics?) lmao, which is why I donât talk about Lagrangians and such here.
If anyone has any other tips (for Mathematical Physics as well!) , please feel free to add them. Note that Iâm from Italy, and this is what it was like for me. Other countries might have different ways of testing or focus on some formulas that I havenât included. Do what works for you, obviously.
Good luck STEM students, I know itâs hard, but hopefully worth it in the long run :)
drink more water instead of more coffee.
weekly goals are bullshit. set yourself 3-day goals. youâll be less laid-back.
donât just mindlessly stare at words. before you start studying, know your approach to it. have a plan.
summarizing the concept in your own words is the key part of taking notes. donât just copy things down, convert them into your own way of talking, your own vocabulary, no matter how dumb and unprofessional it sounds.
donât let the âstudyblr aestheticâ fool you. studying doesnât have to be pretty. summaries and notes can be messy as long as theyâre comprehensible. you can always rewrite and reorganize them later. (honestly, you better do. and you better keep them.)
donât throw away the papers youâve solved your problems in. staple them to the fucking textbook. you need to see them constantly. cause youâll need reminders of how far youâve came, when youâre feeling discouraged.
donât be an armchair analyst for your issues. if you have an idea then act on it.
remember: the exact point where it becomes difficult, is where your growth begins. take a deep breath, and try to focus on the paragraph in front of you.
get off your high horse and understand that if youâre a zero, you wonât go to 100 in a couple of days. first, youâll need to reach 30, then from 30 to 60, and then from 60 to 90. nobody is 100 everyday. that happens very rarely.
you need to have fun everyday. you need to have peaceful time every single day. even on exam night. especially on exam night, actually. so make sure youâve studied enough so you can have some time to yourself.
once youâre on a roll and in need of some challenge to stay on track, start writing down your studying hours. tell yourself youâre not allowed to do less than 80% of what you did yesterday. whatever the hell it was, even just one hour. so if yesterday you really studied for like, say 8 hours, today your goal is to study for at least 6 and a half hours. if you canât keep up with that, make it 70%, or 60%.Â
be forgiving of yourself. be kind to yourself. even if you bounced back and lost your streak. start again. as slowly as you did before. take your time. itâs okay, you were there once you can get there again.
red on white
What a beautiful book. The afterword of made me cry after a long emotional journey of small glimpses of his life:
"...the coffin had been covered with yellow flowers, 'his favorite color [...] a symbol of the light of which he dreamed both in his heart and in his work.'"
â Van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
"If forever does exist, please let it be you...." - a.r.asher