Physics Stuff

I’m am a first year physics grad student in the US. Just here to share some of the smaller joys I encounter along my path

[physyphysybangbang]

[physyphysybangbang]

Nice black board pic for ya. It can get hectic in EM, our prof doesn’t erase everything and instead sometimes crams the next bit into some random space.

[godspeedyoublackemperor]

thinking about eulers number... wow

[post--grad]

here is a list of questions i have already answered about graduate school!! 

please check it before you send me a question about graduate school :) :) i hope it’s useful! xo // updated 02.2020

basic info

what is the PhD and what can you do with it? (+) 

what does a literature PhD entail?

should i do a PhD if i have to pay tuition?

is the degree worth it?

does it look bad to take time off between degrees?

what was your timeline like? 

what’s the difference between a terminal MA and a PhD? (+)

does getting an MA first help you get into a PhD program?

is it okay to just try grad school out? 

application process

how can i prepare for applying early in my undergrad career? (+) (+)

where should i start looking for programs?

should i choose a program based on rank or fit? (+)

how can i find lower-profile programs doing cool stuff?

how many programs should i apply to?

parts of the application

advice on the writing sample

advice on the GRE (+)

how should i ask for letters of recommendation?

how should i write a statement of purpose? (+)

how do i demonstrate my “ability to excel”?

how should i address mental health/family/personal issues that impacted my grades?

should i send in extra materials?

grad school application spreadsheet

how should i email potential advisors? (+) (+)

how can i survive the waiting period? (+)

how should i prepare for an interview or phone call? (+)

what should i ask at open house?

what should i do if i don’t think i can afford my grad school tuition?

what should i do the summer before i start my program?

seminars/coursework

how should i plan for grad seminar presentations? (+)

what should i bring with me to seminars?

what are grad seminars like?

how can i get better at speaking during seminars?

what do you mean grades don’t matter

reading

what should i have read before i start my lit grad program?

how much reading should i expect?

how can i read a lot without getting overwhelmed? (+)

how can i read efficiently? (+) (+)

quals-specific reading advice

how should i take notes on critical articles?

writing

how do i write a lit review?

how do i write an indicative bibliography?

how do i choose a dissertation topic? (+)

how do i plan for a long research paper?

how do i balance all the different kinds of writing i have to do?

money & living

how can i find housing before i move?

how do finances work in grad school?

what is adjuncting and why does it suck?

how can i budget while on a stipend?

should i work while in grad school? (+)

what’s important to a research assistant application?

i’m running out of funding / i’m off normative time

fellowship, postdocs, & job stuff

which websites post US fellowship/postdoc/job ads?

CV writing tips

how do dissertation fellowships work? (+)

tips for grant, award, & fellowship applications

should i share my materials with others?

how does the academic hiring process work?

how do i keep track of all my applications?

how do i think up a second project when i’m not even done with my dissertation?

job materials masterpost

skype interview-specific tips

job talks

negotiating (+)

general tips (+)

what’s up with the professor is in?

how do i stay motivated while getting buried in rejection letters?

misc

will grad school make my mental health issues worse? (+) 

how do i survive conferences (abroad)?

how should i deal with burnout? (+)

secret labor

i think i want to quit

my advisor is ghosting me

how do i work with no structured schedule?

how do i get enough sleep?

how do i balance my work & my teaching?

how can i beat imposter syndrome? (+) (+)

how can i excel in grad school?

[post--grad]

good morning friends, this list has been updated with asks from the past seven months–this is likely the last update that i’ll make to this list.

[nasa]

Black Holes: Seeing the Invisible!

Black holes are some of the most bizarre and fascinating objects in the cosmos. Astronomers want to study lots of them, but there’s one big problem – black holes are invisible! Since they don’t emit any light, it’s pretty tough to find them lurking in the inky void of space. Fortunately there are a few different ways we can “see” black holes indirectly by watching how they affect their surroundings.

Speedy stars

If you’ve spent some time stargazing, you know what a calm, peaceful place our universe can be. But did you know that a monster is hiding right in the heart of our Milky Way galaxy? Astronomers noticed stars zipping superfast around something we can’t see at the center of the galaxy, about 10 million miles per hour! The stars must be circling a supermassive black hole. No other object would have strong enough gravity to keep them from flying off into space.

Two astrophysicists won half of the Nobel Prize in Physics last year for revealing this dark secret. The black hole is truly monstrous, weighing about four million times as much as our Sun! And it seems our home galaxy is no exception – our Hubble Space Telescope has revealed that the hubs of most galaxies contain supermassive black holes.

Shadowy silhouettes

Technology has advanced enough that we’ve been able to spot one of these supermassive black holes in a nearby galaxy. In 2019, astronomers took the first-ever picture of a black hole in a galaxy called M87, which is about 55 million light-years away. They used an international network of radio telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope.

In the image, we can see some light from hot gas surrounding a dark shape. While we still can’t see the black hole itself, we can see the “shadow” it casts on the bright backdrop.

Shattered stars

Black holes can come in a smaller variety, too. When a massive star runs out of the fuel it uses to shine, it collapses in on itself. These lightweight or “stellar-mass” black holes are only about 5-20 times as massive as the Sun. They’re scattered throughout the galaxy in the same places where we find stars, since that’s how they began their lives. Some of them started out with a companion star, and so far that’s been our best clue to find them.

Some black holes steal material from their companion star. As the material falls onto the black hole, it gets superhot and lights up in X-rays. The first confirmed black hole astronomers discovered, called Cygnus X-1, was found this way.

If a star comes too close to a supermassive black hole, the effect is even more dramatic! Instead of just siphoning material from the star like a smaller black hole would do, a supermassive black hole will completely tear the star apart into a stream of gas. This is called a tidal disruption event.

Making waves

But what if two companion stars both turn into black holes? They may eventually collide with each other to form a larger black hole, sending ripples through space-time – the fabric of the cosmos!

These ripples, called gravitational waves, travel across space at the speed of light. The waves that reach us are extremely weak because space-time is really stiff.

Three scientists received the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for using LIGO to observe gravitational waves that were sent out from colliding stellar-mass black holes. Though gravitational waves are hard to detect, they offer a way to find black holes without having to see any light.

We’re teaming up with the European Space Agency for a mission called LISA, which stands for Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. When it launches in the 2030s, it will detect gravitational waves from merging supermassive black holes – a likely sign of colliding galaxies!

Rogue black holes

So we have a few ways to find black holes by seeing stuff that’s close to them. But astronomers think there could be 100 million black holes roaming the galaxy solo. Fortunately, our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will provide a way to “see” these isolated black holes, too.

Roman will find solitary black holes when they pass in front of more distant stars from our vantage point. The black hole’s gravity will warp the starlight in ways that reveal its presence. In some cases we can figure out a black hole’s mass and distance this way, and even estimate how fast it’s moving through the galaxy.

For more about black holes, check out these Tumblr posts!

⚫ Gobble Up These Black (Hole) Friday Deals!

⚫ Hubble’s 5 Weirdest Black Hole Discoveries

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

[physyphysybangbang]

[physyphysybangbang]

We outchere lol. Glad I don’t have any follwers to see how terrible this is but I’m done now.

[physyphysybangbang]

Very confused

[blackirishweab]

According to my uncle, I “should be outside balancing rocks in a stream somewhere.”

[physyphysybangbang]

One time I unironicly said bazinga after solving a calc 3 problem

[physyphysybangbang]

Our unit vectors are orthonormal. We are not the same

[physyphysybangbang]

Right hand rule number one: take everything out of your right hand before you start using the right hand rule

[physyphysybangbang]

Love my cooky profs