Hi guys, I’m 24 years old, and I’ve completed my Master’s degree in Physics. But if you ask me whether I actually learned much during those years, my honest answer would be no. I failed to develop the knowledge, analytical thinking, and problem-solving skills that I should have gained.

I was distracted, misdirected, and wasted so much of my precious time watching porn, scrolling through Instagram and YouTube Shorts, and getting lost in daydreams. Before I realized it, the days had passed, and I had lost valuable years that I could have spent learning and improving myself.

Now, I’ve landed a job that is somewhat related to physics, but I’m struggling to perform well because of my knowledge gaps and lack of problem-solving skills. I know I need to change. I need to rebuild myself, regain my confidence, and develop the skills I should have developed years ago. But realizing how much I’ve missed makes me feel depressed and left behind.

I genuinely want to rewire my brain and recover my ability to think deeply, reason logically, and solve problems independently. However, I don’t know where to begin. Should I start from scratch with basic mathematics, revisit 10th- and 12th-grade physics, and then gradually work my way through B.Sc. and M.Sc. Physics? Or is there a better, more effective way to rebuild my knowledge and analytical skills?

One of my biggest struggles is that I can understand a solution when I see it, but I struggle to solve the same problem independently. I understand the concepts and can follow the steps once they’re explained, but when I have to figure things out on my own, my mind goes blank. I also feel an overwhelming urge to solve problems quickly. When I try to slow down and think deeply, I sometimes experience a headache and struggle to concentrate.

I don’t want to keep repeating the same mistakes. I want to break this cycle, rebuild my fundamentals, improve my concentration, and become someone who can genuinely understand physics and solve problems independently.

For those who have experienced something similar or have expertise in learning and cognitive recovery, please guide me. Where should I start? How can I systematically rebuild my mathematical foundations, analytical thinking, and problem-solving abilities without wasting more time? Is starting from the very basics the right approach, or should I follow a different strategy?

I know I cannot recover the time I’ve lost, but I want to make the best possible use of the time I have left. I’m ready to put in the effort. I just need to know where to begin and how to move forward.

Force is going to be applied by pulling this chain until the metal lip of this SUV bends, which is made of steel. The lip is about 1.5 inches thick at its base. Force is going to be pulled in the direction of the anchor connector, but perhaps a bit shallower such as a 15 degree angel.

The question is:

Will the lip bend uniformly outward or will the lip bend as a curve with a sharp angel when pulling outward or is it even possible the anchor will leave a large indentation on the metal instead of bending evenly at all?

Any input is appreciated, thanks!

I am doing a project for school and I really would like to interview a physicist in the industry. There are plenty already that work in education but I don't want to go that path so I would like to hear from someone in the R&D field how it's like working for a company or a country.

If anyone of you for this please respond and I'll send you my school email so that we can set up a teams call or zoom.

Thank You!

There are a lot of of physics research questions, perhaps some overhyped. Which physics topics/questions would one consider to have the most significant importance/applications in the next say 10-20 years?

Maybe not the right subreddit, but I figured there might be some brainy people here who could give me some recommendations! :)

My boyfriend is turning 19 soon, and he's really interested in the technical side of physics, especially when it comes to cars, trains, and mechanics in general. He already owns a few books on these topics.

Do you know of any books that are technically challenging without being too dense or boring?

For context, we're both in our final year of high school on a science-focused track, and my boyfriend is particularly talented in these subjects. So, something that goes a bit beyond the basics would be great, but I'm not looking for hardcore university-level textbooks or anything too academic.

Thanks in advance!

This is my slayer exciter tesla coil . According to Faraday's law of induction: the larger the magnetic flux, the larger the current. I assume my magnetic flux looks something like in the drawn image.

This should mean that when I position the LED coil parallel to the ground, it should light up the brightest and when it is positioned perpendicular to the ground, it shouldn't light up or with very low brightness.

But the video completely contradict this assumption. Can someone explain this please? Are there any flaws to my reasoning?

Here's the video I recorded: https://streamable.com/r54l6s

Thanks

Edit: Thanks for the awesome answers guys, I will read them after I am done with school

Also, I am very new to electromagnetism so my knowledge is very limited so please excuse me for the replies if I happen to understand your explanations

Currently in quantum mechanics. A pure state is a vector, but a mixed state can only be described by a matrix. Why? My lecturer can't really explain it in any further detail than ”the state is unknown”. But then you should be able to write it as pure states with probabilities? Can someone give a thorough explanation as to why mixed states can't be expressed with pure states?