I'm currently a high school senior who is going to major in astrophysics, but what are some good fundamental readings/reviews I can take so that I am learning the basics before I enter college? I understand Veeky Forums is probably the worst place to go for this kind of advice, but sadly I don't have anyone to discuss such life preparation skills with, and I assume there are bound to be at least a few helpful minds on this board. What math is most crucial to entering astrophysics? General advice? Insights?
Astrophysics major in undergrad? The more you know. Anyway, you'd want a solid physics and math foundation for that, I guess. To that end, consider the sticky.
Hunter Green
whats the highest math you've taken? Physics?
>> Just graduated with astrophysics degree
Samuel Perry
Well, I meant I plan on majoring in astrophysics after my undergrad of course
Up to Calculus, and I took AP physics
What did you cover during classes? Hardest parts? Sorry for so many questions, I'm just intent on this career
well I did review the sticky, I would just like some discussion from people who have experience in the field before delving into them.
Alexander Carter
Learn to program. It's the best way to get a head start (and no one is going to teach it to you in college). Most undergrad research in astro is datamonkeying and you will benefit from knowing what you're doing with a computer going in.
Hunter Cruz
I was thinking that would be a useful skill. I'm currently learning Java, but I guess the simpler work like that would require other languages.
Zachary Lewis
Never really found it challenging. I went into it without calculus and only the retarded version of ap physics. If you have that stuff under your belt you should be fine.
Freshmen/sophomore were kinda boring getting general courses out of the way.
Junior year is when it gets cool. Once you start really using differential equations/vector calculus to solve problems may be when it gets challenging for some but IMO its when it makes more sense as you are given a better description of the physics through the math. You'll take higher level versions of classical mechanics/electromagnetism, quantum, thermo, etc. These four serve as the foundation for all of the physics you'll apply to space. A couple of the actual astro classes I had were on orbital mechanics, astronomy/observations, methods/instrumentation (most boring 3 credits of my life) stars, cosmology, galaxies, and space plasma.
The worst class I took was on cosmology/galaxies but even that wasn't so bad. My favorites were on stars and plasma.
Graduated 3.5 with an additional degree in aerospace engineering. Going to grad school in the fall to research turbulence associated with the solar wind.
Dominic Diaz
Im this guy I completely forgot this. Best thing you can do at the moment. Go to the website code academy and learn python. Its extremely simple and only takes a few hours total. Java is ass for astrophysics.
Dominic Cook
Sounds pretty damn fun honestly. Did you find internships with ease? And what are some things you wish you had known before going into astrophysics?
Charles Smith
I would recommend various types of programming, solid, solid, solid foundation in math. Mainly trigonometry and calculus. Also obviously science, but I wouldn't worry about biology, and (matter what you plan to do with an astrophysics degree) chemistry.
Christian Rivera
An institute
Julian Davis
>> Fun Yes. Whole lotta nerdgasms if you genuinely love math/physics
>> Internships Yes but that is partially due to the location of my university. Very close to NASA and the town itself is (what ill refer to as) a hub for the military industrial complex. But if your grades/university are decent you won't have a problem.
>> Known Prior
Find something you might even have the slightest interest in (obviously the more the better) and find a professor on your campus who does research in this. Go speak to them and see if you can get involved in undergraduate research. I would've started this much sooner had I known. You'll want to develop research skills in addition to the standard problem solving abilities obtained in class. This will also forge friendships with professors (provided you excel in the work they give you) who will eventually be at your disposal for grad school letters of recommendation. I have a professor that I haven't worked with for awhile who I just go and shoot the shit with for a good hour sometimes. He's the man.
Also the programming thing.
Ethan Perez
Did you find that other people in your classes were far superior in grasping the concepts? I fear I will either be ahead or behind in class.
Awesome advice. When did you start to learn about the different fields you could go into, since it's such an interdisciplinary career?
Cooper Russell
I really don't like to have an ego, but there was only 1 guy I can say was better than me. He was my indian bro, and an absolute genius. I could pull down my pants and shit on the rest of those kids, but indian bra could give me a run for my money.
But in actually grasping whats going on? You just look at the math describing the equation. Everything is very literal and easy to interpret. Simply ask yourself what is being done to relate the LHS and RHS of an equation. What does each term mean? Everything means something, thats the beauty/simplicity of it. I never felt like there was very much involved in grasping physics classes. It all builds on itself. You just learn a couple different games with different sets of rules. If you understand your AP physics class fairly well then you'll be fine. There isn't going to come some day where a professor puts some giant impossible equation on the board. There are stepping stones so to speak.
We had a freshmen class called intro to space sciences. Very basic overview of the majority of the different fields involved that one could work with.
Grayson Taylor
I'm glad to hear the course was designed that way, of course, I can only hope I get such a course
That's perfect. What did your high school education look like? Grades, courses, etc
Also, congrats on graduating! Hope you have a fine career
Ian Nelson
>I'm currently learning Java
What the fuck are you doing? Why the fuck would you EVER learn java?
Tyler Thomas
Fairly unimpressive. Barely graduated in top 10% of my class. Only took math through pre-calc because I was kinda depressed/fucked up in high school and I got off track. Took non-calc based AP physics. Thats about all I remember because none of it mattered once I got to college.
And thanks man. I hope you find the same nerdy love of physics that I did over the last 5 years. Best of luck to you.
Blake Hill
I guess I thought it would serve as a good base to other languages Hey, top 10% isn't bad at all.
Ryan Rivera
>spitting /g/ memes on Veeky Forums wew
John Johnson
Tbh C is probably what you should learn in that case.
Many of the most wildly used languages(including C++ and java) are building upon it and I would guess knowing C will also help you more if you do things in Matlab or similar applications.
Jordan Collins
maybe he wants to actually make a living
Grayson Cruz
Why Python specifically? Why not Matlab?
Jordan Morales
a) Almost nobody in astronomy uses Matlab and hence there are very few modules for it b) Python is free, you may not even get institutional access if you go to grad school.
IDL used to be the big astronomy language but it's dying because it's expensive. Python is taking over.
Luis Thompson
>you may not even get institutional access if you go to grad school. To matlab that is.
Jackson Ward
I'm doing neuro research in about a month and I'll be using Python and Matlab.
In regards to physics specifically I'm interested in studying quantum physics and general relativity. Do researchers in those two fields use mostly python as in astro? Or do they do something more akin to what neuro researchers use (python + matlab)?
