Subtitle: A novice theoretical researcher's perspective
I swear, I will soon get around to the 'food' portions of physics and food, but rewatching a couple of episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" sparked the idea for this post. I thinking specifically of the few episodes where they show Sheldon working on his research. Having hung around theoretical researchers as an undergrad, I had an idea that they portrayal was a little exaggerated. From doing experimental physics for a few years, I knew the experimental labs they show are far too tidy, with too few boxes of old equipment in the corners and not enough of the apparatus held together with office supplies and duct tape. I knew Sheldon's white boards were too small, and oriented the wrong way to hold the kind of equations that he would be working on, for example.
Now that I have done theoretical research for about 6 months, and had closer contact with theoretical researchers, watching the episodes made me want to shake the producers or writers or whoever decided that doing theoretical physics research looked like this:
Just standing around, staring at a handful of short equations on a white board for a couple of hours until you have an epiphany and write down the answer.
At least for me, the episode where Sheldon stays up for a couple of days and starts using small round objects to represent carbon atoms comes closer to the state of mind I usually end up in, but still misses the point.
From my (admittedly limited experience), doing theoretical research looks a lot more like a cross between a kid doing his math homework and a college kid writing a paper.
First of all, there is paper involved. Lots of paper. Reams of paper. Some people prefer notebooks that force all the paper to stay in order. Some people prefer loose scrap paper. I knew a guy who liked to use old school printer paper, the kind that was perforated but connected so he could write out really long equations all on one line. I have come to love the yellow legal pad that keeps all my stuff in order while I"m doing it but lets me rip it all out when its wrong to use on my grill or to staple together with other correct calculations for easier reading. Chalk boards/white boards are great for testing out a direction, but they can easily be erased and lost forever. Anything that you think might be good, you want on paper. Possibly with scanned back up copies. *
There is a lot of referencing other people's work. Precursors to your own work. Finding out how to solve this particular form of equation. How to interpret your results. Huge bookmark folders of references. Binders full of them.
Thirdly, there is a lot of frustration, at least if you aren't one of those mathematical geniuses who can keep track of everything in their head. There is a lot of losing minus signs, plus signs, and constants. There is a lot of doing the same calculation over and over and over because you missed something at the beginning. Just recently I had to redo over 50 pages worth of calculations because I missed copying a plus sign on page 1 and turned an addition into a multiplication (and make the problem hugely longer in the process). I nearly wanted to tear my hair, but having done experimental physics for a while I at least had the consolation that the cost was a couple of weeks and some paper, not a couple of weeks and thousands of dollars worth of supplies.
Maybe there are some researchers out there who can use Richard Feynman's method of "Write down the problem, stare at it, write down the answer". Maybe if you do something like this long enough all the math is internalized. I certainly have gotten a lot faster at Fourier Transforms and integrating gaussians. But I doubt I will ever just look at a problem and know the answer. And I seriously doubt my equations will ever been that short in the middle of the solution.
At least for me, the episode where Sheldon stays up for a couple of days and starts using small round objects to represent carbon atoms comes closer to the state of mind I usually end up in, but still misses the point.
From my (admittedly limited experience), doing theoretical research looks a lot more like a cross between a kid doing his math homework and a college kid writing a paper.
First of all, there is paper involved. Lots of paper. Reams of paper. Some people prefer notebooks that force all the paper to stay in order. Some people prefer loose scrap paper. I knew a guy who liked to use old school printer paper, the kind that was perforated but connected so he could write out really long equations all on one line. I have come to love the yellow legal pad that keeps all my stuff in order while I"m doing it but lets me rip it all out when its wrong to use on my grill or to staple together with other correct calculations for easier reading. Chalk boards/white boards are great for testing out a direction, but they can easily be erased and lost forever. Anything that you think might be good, you want on paper. Possibly with scanned back up copies. *
There is a lot of referencing other people's work. Precursors to your own work. Finding out how to solve this particular form of equation. How to interpret your results. Huge bookmark folders of references. Binders full of them.
Thirdly, there is a lot of frustration, at least if you aren't one of those mathematical geniuses who can keep track of everything in their head. There is a lot of losing minus signs, plus signs, and constants. There is a lot of doing the same calculation over and over and over because you missed something at the beginning. Just recently I had to redo over 50 pages worth of calculations because I missed copying a plus sign on page 1 and turned an addition into a multiplication (and make the problem hugely longer in the process). I nearly wanted to tear my hair, but having done experimental physics for a while I at least had the consolation that the cost was a couple of weeks and some paper, not a couple of weeks and thousands of dollars worth of supplies.
Maybe there are some researchers out there who can use Richard Feynman's method of "Write down the problem, stare at it, write down the answer". Maybe if you do something like this long enough all the math is internalized. I certainly have gotten a lot faster at Fourier Transforms and integrating gaussians. But I doubt I will ever just look at a problem and know the answer. And I seriously doubt my equations will ever been that short in the middle of the solution.
*All that being said, if I had an entire room full of movable chalkboards like they have in some older schools like Princeton, I would totally being doing my calculations on them. Taking lots of pictures with my phone.
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