Paean

Apr 27, 2009 05:23

I am majoring in physics. Why on earth would a person do that? I'm not sure how many of my friends actually have any idea why the subject appeals to me, since I don't talk about it much around people who aren't also physics majors. Here is an attempt at explanation.

A story of adults and children )

Leave a comment

nightspoken April 28 2009, 22:57:10 UTC

Well put. I know what you mean, because you are fluent in language as well as math. (Thus demonstrating my own bias towards written English, which I have this exact feeling about, except that I have horrible stage fright about showing my lovingly arranged puzzles to anyone else. You can prove that a theorem is correct, or at least as close to absolutely correct as you can get, but you can't prove that a perfectly worded sentence is as perfectly worded as you think it is. Someone else will always miss the resonance.)

Most people I met in school who have an instinctive grasp of mathematics, or at least find it easy and fun, rather than boring and difficult, to snap the Lego pieces of an equation together, can't spell the word "through" or comprehend the sharp, lingering symmetry of a properly dissected phrase or paragraph. To me, it's as if a blind person had developed some kind of stunning power, like telekinesis, to compensate for the complete inability to see. To continue the metaphor, I'm sighted, but I can't move things without touching them, so I'm much less talented. Having both abilities would seem like an embarrassment of riches.

I think you're lucky, and I hope you're enjoying your physics classes.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up