So... I was sitting in quantum chem today and we were talking about blackbody radiation (my favourite subject... haha!). As we were going through the notes and drawing our little diagrams and writing over-simplified equations without going through derivations, I realized something. I miss not being able to make the assumptions that we make in chemistry class in order to change the math from calculus to what would be required of a high school algebra student. I actually miss thermo class.
Call me a masochist, but it's true. Despite the fact that I didn't understand about a third of what was going on in that class (at least as far as math was concerned), I enjoyed seeing where the equations came from and actually going and walking through the plethora of derivations we did in class. I think the moment I was most proud of myself was when I figured out how to derive the integral of the Gaussian without looking down at my notes (and no, I didn't memorize it!).
Sitting in chemistry class with people who have only had through calculus two and don't even understand or remember that (hey, at least I don't stare at you stupidly when we're discussing when we can and cannot change a summation into an integral!) is a completely different world than sitting in physics class where people have had 400-level (that's senior year and the highest level of undergrad mathmatics) classes and where the instructor operates under the assumption that everyone in the class has had at least three semesters of calculus already. Sad thing is... I miss it.
Yeah, I know I should be grateful that I've taken more physics classes than most of the people in my quantum class, but it's just one of those things that happens when you've been doing something really hard (and you've come to have a love-hate relationship with it) for so long and it's over... and all of a sudden, you're back in the world of mediocrity with nothing to challenge you in the way that what you've previously done has.
Maybe that's why I do it... take up so many hobbies, I mean. Each one is learning some new skill and once I'm done with learning it and getting decent at it (ie, calligraphy), I get bored and want to move on, learning another new thing. It doesn't satisfy me to create numerous objects of work if I'm not learning new skills while doing so. Like there were at least eight distinct calligraphy styles I've learned, but I stopped doing calligraphy because there really aren't very many other ones (other than Script, which is a killer... because I've tried!) to learn and master. There's also knitting, which I've only been doing for a little over a year now. I've learned most of the techniques needed for various projects and once I learn how to successfully make a pair of socks, I don't know what I'll do next. Maybe knit lace or something. I have already even written my own patterns.
I guess I've said all of that to say this. I get bored easily. And I wish chemistry was a little more math-intensive (though I think most people in the class would disagree with me, considering that we have so many biochem majors!) because I really miss having the math-intensive physics course. This always seems to happen... I hate something at the time I'm doing it, but when I look back afterwards, I realize how much I miss it and how much I really did enjoy it and learn from it. Like high school physics. As much as I complained about the class, the teacher and anything and everything related, now that I think about it, I did learn a lot and I did actually enjoy it more than I thought I did at the time.
Last semester, I got so used to doing more math than application and constantly being challenged to think things through, rather than to just accept things as they are and move on. I miss that.
Call me a masochist, but it's true. Despite the fact that I didn't understand about a third of what was going on in that class (at least as far as math was concerned), I enjoyed seeing where the equations came from and actually going and walking through the plethora of derivations we did in class. I think the moment I was most proud of myself was when I figured out how to derive the integral of the Gaussian without looking down at my notes (and no, I didn't memorize it!).
Sitting in chemistry class with people who have only had through calculus two and don't even understand or remember that (hey, at least I don't stare at you stupidly when we're discussing when we can and cannot change a summation into an integral!) is a completely different world than sitting in physics class where people have had 400-level (that's senior year and the highest level of undergrad mathmatics) classes and where the instructor operates under the assumption that everyone in the class has had at least three semesters of calculus already. Sad thing is... I miss it.
Yeah, I know I should be grateful that I've taken more physics classes than most of the people in my quantum class, but it's just one of those things that happens when you've been doing something really hard (and you've come to have a love-hate relationship with it) for so long and it's over... and all of a sudden, you're back in the world of mediocrity with nothing to challenge you in the way that what you've previously done has.
Maybe that's why I do it... take up so many hobbies, I mean. Each one is learning some new skill and once I'm done with learning it and getting decent at it (ie, calligraphy), I get bored and want to move on, learning another new thing. It doesn't satisfy me to create numerous objects of work if I'm not learning new skills while doing so. Like there were at least eight distinct calligraphy styles I've learned, but I stopped doing calligraphy because there really aren't very many other ones (other than Script, which is a killer... because I've tried!) to learn and master. There's also knitting, which I've only been doing for a little over a year now. I've learned most of the techniques needed for various projects and once I learn how to successfully make a pair of socks, I don't know what I'll do next. Maybe knit lace or something. I have already even written my own patterns.
I guess I've said all of that to say this. I get bored easily. And I wish chemistry was a little more math-intensive (though I think most people in the class would disagree with me, considering that we have so many biochem majors!) because I really miss having the math-intensive physics course. This always seems to happen... I hate something at the time I'm doing it, but when I look back afterwards, I realize how much I miss it and how much I really did enjoy it and learn from it. Like high school physics. As much as I complained about the class, the teacher and anything and everything related, now that I think about it, I did learn a lot and I did actually enjoy it more than I thought I did at the time.
Last semester, I got so used to doing more math than application and constantly being challenged to think things through, rather than to just accept things as they are and move on. I miss that.
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