Despite a rather strange schedule today, I pushed through some laziness and finished my studying for the day, so I’ll count it a success! It really was a success, as I actually followed the math today quite easily. Vector calculus > linear algebra. I did the first half of the vector calculus chapter, so I covered just basic integration and differentiation for vectors. It was definitely a relief to understand what was going on in all the examples. Even so, it took a couple tries to get through the sections, but that is because I went to the beach during my “lunch” today and that made me very sleepy for my afternoon studying! It was a lovely day, though, and I want to take advantage of my current schedule to do things like ride my bike to the beach on a Tuesday afternoon. I am, after all, paying for the privilege!
Prior to the beach, I read another chapter in Bob. This one was on light-matter interactions and, once again, was a retread of material I’ve already reviewed. Seeing things multiple times, especially from different authors/perspectives, is definitely helping me feel more comfortable just in the general arena of physics, which is good. That is one of the things I have lost the most in the intervening years. Topics ranged from Compton scattering to the Pauli exclusion principle and a lot in between. A good high-level view of quantum physics, especially as it relates to astrophysics—primarily in the area of spectroscopy.
Feeling energized going into tomorrow, ready to keep crushing and building my physics skills and confidence.
Bonus: Here is the (awful, awful) song that today’s title comes from!