• Question: How often do you think about physics when you are not at work?

    Asked by amelie to Chris, Dave, David, Fiona, Jack on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Dave Farmer

      Dave Farmer answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Hi amelie,

      Short answer – far too often i’m sure!

      The thing is, that when you have an understanding of how the world works, you are constantly noticing it, and you can’t really switch that off.

      Possibly a good analogy, is if you became accomplished at analysing English literature for example, when you are reading a book, you will be noticing how the author has achieved certain things. For example, how he makes you sympathise with a character by introducing them in a certain way. You can’t stop noticing that, but it does add an extra layer to the book, which is great.

      I like to think that physics is like that, but with the whole world. I might get interested in how the waves on my coffee cup form as I’m walking along for example, and equally interested in how the coffee diffuses through my shirt after I’ve spilt it on myself. It’s great, you’re never bored! It makes the world more beautiful.

      Be interested to know whether the other guys agree?

    • Photo: Fiona Coomer

      Fiona Coomer answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      I think if you have an inquisitive mind, you are always trying to work out why things happen the way they do. This may not be trying to work out the equation for something, but thinking about general scientific principles seems to go on in my head quite a lot (though I certainly enjoy relaxing in front of trashy tv too!).
      I really enjoy cooking, and I certainly think about the chemistry of the different ingredients and how they work together – I’d like to think that this makes me a better cook, but I probably shouldn’t be the judge of that!

    • Photo: Chris Mansell

      Chris Mansell answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      I have spent lots of time with physics at the front of my mind, both studying it and researching it. When I am not deliberately thinking about physics, the back of my mind keeps working away (without me really asking it to).

      At university, there questions that I couldn’t do. I would hand in the answers to the ones I could and get on with something else. Before the class where we were supposed to go through the questions and answers, I would realise – whilst doing things completely unrelated to physics – the answer to a few of the questions I couldn’t do!

      Only a week or so ago, I met an important physicist. I was really nervous but I introduced myself and I explained what I was researching. Shortly afterwards, I had a dream in which I was talking to this physicist but I was explaining a different aspect of my research. When I woke up, I wondered what on Earth I had been saying in my dream and I realised that it was actually a fairly good way of thinking about things. This lead me to have an idea for a future experiment we could do. I told my supervisor the idea for the future experiment and she liked it and was quite impressed.

      So, the short answer is I do think about physics when I am not working on it but I don’t always mean to!

    • Photo: David Freeborn

      David Freeborn answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Hi amelie,

      Good question! As with the others, I spend a lot of the time thinking about physics. I work in physics, because it’s something I really love, so it’s no surprise I spend a lot of time thinking about it.

      Sometimes, when I’m working on a really difficult problem, I’ll spend all day thinking about it. Then I’ll go to sleep, tired at the end of the day, and when I wake up, the answer is there, inside my head! That’s a really great feeling!

    • Photo: Jack Miller

      Jack Miller answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Hi Amelie,

      Just like the others, physics gets in my mind a lot too — it’s really nice wanting to do something, and just being able to think your way to a way of doing it. If I have a hard problem that requires a lot of thought, I’ll often find myself thinking a lot about it at odd times — when I’m trying to get to sleep, or in the shower. It’s reassuring to know I’m not alone!

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