It's a bit sad to see so many comments here saying that biology sucks or is boring or whatever. I major in genetic engineering and minor in materials science so I study all three in sense. It has made me realize that everything is so closely related and it's quite ridiculous to say that one field is better than the other. I know many physicists who make fun of biologists but have no understanding of how the science of their own bodies works. Its honestly pretty damn amazing how life is just a big pile of unconscious molecules working together and keeping a conscious structure going. All that said, we should make fun of political science majors instead.
ei teadnudki et materjaliteadust võtad... edu siis, neid on niigi vähe hetkel TÜ's :) I minored in cs and majored in bio. The docs Andrew suggested inspired me to learn biology instead of physics and this comment sums up why. Still, it is a rather big step to take, but anything is possible, especially if you can't stop talking about it :D
As a microbiology major, I can say that the more you get into the field, the more you realize further down the line that, although there is a fair amount of memorization, it comes down to problem solving and application of concepts. Biology (especially micro) is fast evolving and I think it is only after delving deep into the material that you realize how fascinating and complex the structures that govern life truly are. Knowing that this holds true with the other sciences, I sometimes wish I had more than one life to live so that I could perhaps learn a little of each.
I didn’t like lower division biology classes because i did think they were all about memorization, however the farther you get in biology the more it becomes about understanding concepts and application
This is the main thing that a lot of people who think that biology is all rote memorization don't understand. In physics, once you have the four major forces of the universe, you can slowly build up and learn applications little by little, and then add on other smaller topics like friction, buoyancy, etc. You don't need a mountain of information before you can see the general tiles behind how things work, and how you can use those to think of new solutions. Biology is intrinsically more macroscopic and had tons of components, so you need to get those understood before you can learn how to manipulate them and how to think of creative solutions to problems. CRISPR is a great example. It's anything but boring memorization of how things work.
Aerociviz Nicholas Biology can come off as too vague sometimes... at first I didn't like the lower division classes either, but once I started taking genetics and molecular biology, I found my true interest. Now, genetics and epigenetics are my favorite things to learn and research
Yeah I find that too.Or maybe memorization just becomes second nature and I'm not noticing the difference. Or I'm steeped in the language-game of biology.
Barack Hussein O'Toole You just become a part of the field. You no longer focus on studying, memorizing, or the classic ways of studying; instead, you learn because you want to. Like sometimes I'll be reading a paper that I'm genuinely interested, I can practically recite it from memory without reviewing it multiple times.
I switched from Bio to Astrophysics to Physics because 1. I suck at memorization and 2. I wanted to learn the fundamentals. Becoming a physicist was the best thing I’ve ever done! P.S. I absolutely love your videos! You’re hilarious and tell it like it is! Please keep making more :)
I switched from a music composition major to physics. I originally didn't think I had the mathematical skills developed to do well in the major despite the love for astrophysics I found through Carl Sagan, Hawking, and Feynman. I am halfway through my degree as a physics major with Sci.Ed/Math minor and I am so glad I made the change. Thanks for making great videos on your experience through your own career, they have really helped me find my footing along the way.
That is good you can hack calculus and physics. Do you use online sources for self study or udemy? It because I felt perplexed in calculus 2 lot. Good luck in physics degree and you will see it as fun reward.
@@vampirefey I think it the student's agency or inspiration motivation to keep active. It was bizarre lot to know one former film major switch to engineering and he pass physics 1 and calc 2.
I did the opposite: wanted to become a physics major, ended up in biology through maths, geology and environmental classes. Found out that what I called "biology" was actually a dent in a very large field and that what I loved most was actually ALSO biology lol! I had to come to terms with that, but I still love physics very much, but more as a hobby :) Respect!
thank you so much for uploading these videos. You are doing exactly what you’re trying to do with these videos and honestly i’m really i glad discovered your channel
I'm a non-trad student and also recently switched from Bio (Pre-med) to Physics. I was struggling to put Physics texts down in order to study the Bio courses I was actually enrolled in. Glad I found your channel.
Oh great so could you just like tell me what kind of stuff you were learning in pre med I'm 15 so I was thinking about going into the field of medicine so it would help to know what kind of stuff I'll be learning
@J Kang Indeed you do, Professor! The very mentor to advise my transition! As an update for everyone else, I finished that Physics degree, and am now applying to Ph.D programs!!
lol im in bio and cellular respiration is very interesting. the fact that all of this is going on at a molecular level makes it all the more intriguing. I find myself thanking my body, alot more, simply for keeping me alive. God forbid one of those electrons didn't carry over and you would be all in on the citric acid cycle.
DaYungGxD DBLVZX for me photosynthesis seems interesting the fact that water has the ability to strip away electrons from electro negativity oxygen is crazy because our cells just waste it due to the energy required to take it away from oxygen and plants can just easily do it. Like wow, plants are cool :p
@@GRBtutorials not only chlorophyll, there are also types of pigments chlorophylls (mainly I and II) and carotenoids and also different color of a plant suggests the presence of a different type of pigment varied by the center atom of the pigment molecule. Chlorophyll has magnesium in its center per se and is really similar to a heme with the exception of the central atom. Also it doesn't quite literally provide energy, it excites electrons.
That's an awesome story, I can relate to a lot of it. I was originally an engineering major because of the pay, but then I started reading books like The Greatest Show on Earth by Dawkins and very quickly became fascinated with biology. I wanted to learn more and knew that popular science books could only take me so far, so I switched majors to Cell and Molecular Biology, and now I am starting my PhD in biomedical sciences in August. I have really fallen in love with biology and chemistry, and I'm even a undergraduate TA for a physics class this semester because, well, physics is awesome too lol.
I'm changing from CS to Physics right now, that's sounds a lot like my experince with CS. Love the videos! You're one of the reasons I decided to change my major!
Biology is what got me into chemistry. Chemistry is what got me interested in physics. They are all connected with one another and they're all hella fun when it comes to figuring out solutions. While I do really enjoy chemistry and the topics of physics probably more than biology, the solutions created out of biology are really abundant. Abundant in a sense that we apply it more to our lives. If I want to figure out autism, our understanding of neurology and perhaps an understanding of physics, I can go back to animal biology and study simpler life forms like nematodes because they too have cephalization like we do. Study these creatures as a "lab rat," introduce them to things that may affect their nervous system and apply that to a larger scale like a human. We can even manipulate their prenatal development. That is why biology is fascinating in its own sense. It's only boring if you aren't creative with it and that goes for all sciences.
Does your school not require Physics as part of the degree? I'm a Biology major on the environment/ecology/organism track and am required to have 2 5-credit physic classes. Enjoyed the classes. Just wish I had not taken them with a 3 other science classes with labs.
@@ezri8315I think he means switch to the major and take actual physics courses, not just take the standard 2 course intro mechanics and intro electricity and magnetism that all science majors take.
Richard Feynman's lectures inspired me so much that I nearly withdrew from Engineering (it was too late since im already turning 21 and almost on honours year now), but if i had a chance I would've done similar to what you did :(
Young Mind I was in my third year in electrical engineering, turning 22 and I stopped to start physics. Now I am 25 and Im doing my master in theoretical physics and it was the best decision that I ever made in my life. It is never too late
I am 21 and i quit my chemical engineering study. Next year im going to study computer science hopefuly :D BEst decision of my life, i have never been so fucking relaxed. It is never too late. Money are kind of an issue here since ive already spent 3 years studying but hey, you only live once.
Man..Last year I started with Urban & Regional Planning. but I always wanted to study physics. so couldn't continue with urp and ended up dropping a year. and now even if I get a chance to study physics, my family is against it! :(
I'm in this exact situation, Biomedicine major and just switched to Physics. It's really reassuring to see that someone who is so passionate and successful in physics did it all too.
Hey Andrew! I just wanted to say thank you for uploading this video. As a freshman premed bio major who's been wondering about switching to physics for a long time, it really showed me how to approach things. I've been scrutinizing how I perform in all my classes, whether it's Calc 3 or Organismal Bio or Chemistry, to see what I would truly like doing in the future, but your video shows me that that's not the way to approach things. I just need to see what I'm passionate about. I don't know what I'm going to do for the next few years, but I do know to pursue what I find myself interested in. So thank you. PS- Cosmos is actually one of the best documentaries on astrophysics I have seen and I can't help but think of Neil deGrasse Tyson as a modern day Carl Sagan!
I work at a biology lab, we synthesize fluorescent dyes out of phycobiliproteins found in various algae. But I really want to study physics, because it's so fundamental and so incredibly interesting; oh and I love math.
I think bio is just hard science at the most macro level, physics is cool but for me knowing specifically what is working is more interesting than specifically how it works if that makes any sense. Like how myosins use the alternating charges of microtubules to move around is more interesting than why those charges make it move. But every science is important, and I'm glad you found your passion!
Hey! The same thing happened to me, did bio for a 2 years, it was fun. But I didn't like talking about (or thinking about) the citric acid cycle, and the like. The nail in the coffin came for me when I did a 6 week lab placement. I realised I didnt care enough about proteins to deal with those little s**ts every day. So I went into physics, tried that, and realized (finally) it was maths I enjoyed the most. Now Im in my final year of that. Loving it too.
R u talking to me? I assume u r as you responded to my post. Yes and no. Firstly I didn't do high school maths, but as I decided i wanted to do physics I had to teach myself a certain level preq knowledge. I did this over my 3 month summer break. That was quite hard. But I think the few years of mental maturity I developed during my bio years REALLY helped and I was far better at logical thinking then your average high school graduate. Hence after my initial summer struggle I breezed through my first year maths courses scoring two 97s, and a 95. So I do think time away from maths help in a weird way.
@@Jamony1 hi dave! I'm not very good in high school math, but I'm very interested in physics and understanding the universe. How can I go about learning the math before college? I'm currently a high school senior
During my senior year of high school, I was trying to decide what major I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do medicine, but while I enjoyed anatomy, biology did not overall interest me and I love being engaged and passionate about what I wanted to learn. So then I started looking at chemistry or physics. Chemistry, while interesting, again did not have that spark(although I did enjoy learning about molecular movement and what the atoms were made of and how elements originated). Then came Physics, a class which was not offered at my high school. Now, I enjoy books, and one series of educational books I bought quite abit at this time was "The blank book" big ideas explained simply series by DK. And I started flipping through the pages and every single idea in that book was fascinating to me. And I realized that the things I was interested in with biology and chemistry had to do with the way things function and where things originated from. I was always interested in the WHY and HOW things happened, which is what physics describes. While I did change from pre-medical, my physics classes have been the one consistent subject where I never felt like "ugh, you mean I have to do this assignment?". I loved the satisfaction of finding the answers after staring down a problem for extended periods of time. Trying out different things to figure out how to learn. Also I started seeing physics in all my other interests. I wondered how audio and light worked in film, cameras, and microphones. I wondered about thermal expansion in engineering(which I could finally talk to my dad about because I understood why things he did in his construction job needed to happen). So while I do love quite a few subjects, it feels like Physics is part of all these parts of my life and understanding those topics on a deeper level feels so enlightening.
Hey Andrew (I'm an Andrew too, a younger one), I became interested in physics in the same way from the science communicators that influnced my path. Interestingly I first was interested in psychology because I was going out of my mind trying to figure out why I'm out of my mind. But it didn't cut it, those classes seemed too philosophical to actually answer why. So I came across physics from those communicators and Wa-lah! Im a first year physics major undergrad. Love your videos man its helping me overcome my biases in a cemedical sense
BRO!!!! NEVER.....NEVER!!!!! TAKE FOR GRANTED THIS AMAZING GIFT... PARENTS WHO CARE. I have tried countless times over the years to explain physics concepts to my parents to start a discussion on anything science, really anything other than useless small talk, safe space pleasantries, meaningless bullshit, and every single time I get shot down. They flat out dont care and dont want to talk about it. It "isnt important" cue my head exploding. They'd rather discuss their day at work or who is going where for some dumb ass vacation or stupid useless info about unimportant people. Realize how lucky you are to have parents intelligent and/or curious enough to enjoy or at least tolerate discussing science of any kind with you.
i feel this i bought a book and my mum asked about it and i was explaining to her about quarks and stuff and she just went "sounds boring" ok why'd you ask then
I had managed to finish my pre-med degree (yep, with that chem minor) before starting a second undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering. I never got into med school, but my GPA was only like a 3.15 and my MCAT was like 60th percentile, so no surprises there. I ended up doing some lab work and research for a while before making the jump. Two things that inspired me were the fascination with the wind turbines I was doing research around (we were studying ultrasonic “canons” that kept bats away from them) and reading A Brief History of Time every night under the stars. I enjoy aerospace engineering a lot, and the pre-med and chemistry work actually gives me a huge edge over other engineering students when it comes to topics like human factors and rocket propellant chemistry. P.S. My math methods prof is an old Ukrainian man with a thick accent that just today pulled the “Proofs are a waste of lecture time. Here, I’ll just add that to your homework.”
Pop science and those exact same shows were also the reason I am going to be majoring in physics after 2 weeks ... Those shows were truly amazing and inspiring. Your videos are really cool Andrew I hope to meet you someday
Dude, when I was in highschool, I’d watch hours and hours of astro documentaries afterschool, everyday, and I absolutely loved them. Those documentaries are really conceptual but they provide great PR for the sciences haha. I’m a 2nd year student and still debating about Mechanical Eng or Physics.
Mechanical Eng sounds cool. Well, do you see yourself trying to explain why something works/ what something is for career? Or would you rather apply established science to creating something new? I'm sure that's the question you've already been asking yourself, though haha!
You are not alone dude.I am secound year electrical engineering and faces the same dilema. What I think is taking a break afther the third year (which means B.S level). And then take Physics.
Andrew Dotson Yeah it’s a tough choice for me. I see myself creating the “something new” and better optimized. The pathways I’d take for physics and mechE would be entirely different so that’s what makes this a bit difficult. Either way I know I’ll enjoy a career I’m able to establish. I transfer out of my college next year into university so this fall when I’m applying to schools, I select “majors” I’d like to get accepted into.
Btw, whats the difference between the 2? MechE still learn physics isnt it? I need an answer. Im still in 1st senior high school and have planned to take mechE degree if i graduate from high school.
I'm at least 2 generations ahead of you, and got into physics by a different route. I was in high school during the glory days of the Space Race, and was blown away by the exploits of Project Gemini - spacewalking, rendezvous, marathon space flights.... Our school had a teletype connection to the GE635 computer up at Dartmouth College (a smokin' 300 baud....), and with a pal of mine decided to try programming a simulation of two spacecraft coming together in orbit. We didn't get too far because we had no idea of the physical processes involved - so when I went off to college myself, I majored in physics. I did my senior thesis in orbital mechanics, and finally wrote the program (though it was just a list of numbers simulating the readout from rendezvous radar measuring the range & azimuth of the target vehicle). My subsequent career path didn't quite follow that arc, though I actually got to use OM at one point, recognizing that the equations of motion were the same whether the central force was attractive or repulsive.
Andrew, Hats off to you for making the brave decision to switch to Physics from Biology. I ahve seen your other videos and was pretty impressed with your advice and passion for physics. I am about to be a freshman at UT Dallas to pursue a bachelors of Science in Chemistry and hopefully Physics as well. My interest in science began with Biology, and I realized that as much as I enjoyed studying the subject in class I really did not enjoy doing the labs when I worked in medical research laboratories. On the other hand, I loved doing chemistry labs in AP Chemistry, deriving equations in calculus, and solving tough physics problems on the whiteboard in AP Physics C.
I’m a neuroscience major because of philosophical interest...always thinking of switching but the fact that neuroscience is a such a new field makes it hard to tell what the best path for me is
But I’ve always loved the pop science stuff. Cosmos in particular really inspired me, and I’ve considered physics. Always been strong in math, philosophy, and psychology. Not really that good with memorization but that’s probably due to complacency. I can actually remember pretty well if I try. The fact that I put in almost no effort in high school makes it hard too, because I don’t realllly know my strengths. I just know I really like learning about things in general philosophy especially. But as far as the technical matters of each class go it’s hard to say what my cup of tea is. Stay in school kids, and don’t just stay in, stay with school, be one with school, because there’s most likely no getting away from it! No matter what you do, even if it’s entertainment, it will be valuable to get an education up until the point where you know for sure you don’t need it, and it’s much easier to drop that habit than to form it. But if u wanna half ass just to get a degree u only kinda need bc ur not that into living a successful (career-wise) life, that’s another story. Then you do you, but if you wanna be successful, then get with the time(s)
I had the same experience with a philosophy professor. I asked him why he changed his interest with biology to phil. He quickly said "Because biology only gives you the how, And I wanted to know the why". It really twisted my head around. Since I was really interested in What in hell does anything mean, I got to thinking about the six blind men and the elephant. From then on, I took intense inter- est in several different subjects. 'several' is an understatement. I very soon learned that a single lifetime wasn't gonna make it. Physical sciences was only one side of the polygon. If your passion runs along these ideas, forget about a degree, or prestige, or the big bucks, or making your family or society happy, self worth, or anything. I started back to school when I was 19. I'm now about 1000 years old, And I've pulled almost all my hair out. There more of the island you learn, the bigger it gets.
im an electrical engineering major but I decided to minor in physics for the exact same reason.... i love talking about it and all the articles i read are about fundamental and applied physics breakthroughs haha
I completed my Matric (High school) in Biology as major subject. Then , I did FSc (Pre Medical) So, biology again was a major. But, during this whole journey, my love for Physics increased a lot and now , I am passionate about pursuing my Bachelors (Hons) in PHYSICS❤❤❤
So glad I found your channel! I totally agree about how pop science can be super impactful. Only a couple of years ago I remember wishing I could major in physics, and now here I am! Struggling but still loving it :)
I’m not in collage yet but I’m a junior in high school this year and for probably about 1/2 of my life I thought I was going to be a doctor. I was always interested in physics and it’s concepts but never had a physics class before. This year I took AP physics because I have a good understanding of math and an ok understanding of physics and I have completely changed course. I no longer have any desire to do anything involving the medical field and now want to pursue physics through collage! I think my teacher Mr. Cultman has a lot to do with that seeing as how he is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. I think it’s cool to see some one else original interested in the medical field but switch to physics even if I’m only a junior and you where already in collage. I love your videos and they only make me want to learn more and more about physics please keep it up!
I see what you (and others) mean when claiming that Richard Feynman was a great communicator. I had never up till now (I know, I know) experienced or bother to search for one of his lectures or presentations (I mean a filmed one). It's fascinating to watch his choice of language -just at the right level- his continually shifting interplay between speech, gestures and facial expressions. He's totally captivating. His gestures are so vivid for a moment I thought he'd light up a fire with his knuckles. The glimmer of excitement in his eyes clearly shows there's a super wound up old clock in there hidden well inside that's about to explode at any second. I find that your lecturing style is right on the spot, as accurate as needed and no more and very captivating - at least for me. Many times I find that American university professors deliver a kind of verbose presentation, that goes off in tangents, full of errs.. and uhhs..., let me do that again and so on, lacking succinctness and brevity in a way that puts me to sleep in about 15 sec - which is marvelous in itself but not quite the reason why I chose to watch them in the first place. Europeans on the other hand, and not just them, many others too -it's just the teaching style I refer to, not really the provenance-, deliver a rather terse presentation (just the facts), sometimes without sufficient intuition or good examples chosen or skipping whole or part of the snaggy stuff where a student can have a hard time digesting on their own later.
6:26 Oh definitely yes! Similarly for me, periodic table of videos, Veritasium and some of sixty symbols got me so hooked on chemistry and physics that I have gone from not really liking it in HS to doing my PhD in chemistry now. It's crazy to think about but I'm glad they did influence me in such a huge way.
Molecular biology major here. My fave thing about being a bio student is that it requires you to understand chem, which means you gotta know physics which means you gotta know calc. I really enjoy the variety of classes I get to take, but I’ll admit that most of my physics knowledge is pretty “hand-wavy” 😂
You don’t need to know physics to know chem to know bio. What are you talking about. You need to know bio to know bio. Trust me I’ve taken every bio class and switched to mechanical engineering so I would know.
@@wolfsburggti4476 can you explain what you mean by "you just need to know bio to know bio".. whereas when i was biological sciences department in IIT Bombay they teach maths, Physics and chemistry and many professor keep on repeating - if you want to know biology understand chemistry and if you want to know chemistry understand Physics... What are you saying?...
Yeah, I ddon't pretend to remmeber much from my bioloy master, nor that it would represent all biology studies everywhere, but let be honnest, you need to get at most the baby version of elementary chemistery wich needs you to understand some token physics which sometime ,sometime, need you to look at some /very: basic math equations and stats. But hey, compared to what I found after reconverting in psychology.... I swear to god, no wonder there's a replicaton crisis. The way they butcher statistics... "EVERYTHING IS A GAUSSIAN CURVE !"
@@wolfsburggti4476 it depends on the type of biology. I study how cells and specific molecules respond to gravity and radiation. I work with physics chemistry and biology all together to get a better picture of how biology actually works. I also spend a lot of time with ecologist who couldn’t care less and never use physics. Biology is incredible broad.
Best to use flash cards, a biology coloring book, recall them, drawing a diagram and active study methods. It because biology requires memorization and deep concept tricks.
I know this is an old video, but it’s so interesting that I found your channel (and specifically this video) right after I starting thinking about going into physics. The only thing that was stopping me were the two years I had already spent doing my bio degree, but when you said you were also in second year when you realized you wanted to do physics, it was like a light bulb moment for me.
Are you going to switch to physics now? It’s pretty interesting tho how much of an effect 1 dude making yt videos can have. I’m a first year CS student and now considering doing a double major with either physics (cuz of Andrew) or math (cuz of 3blue1brown).
Hey man cool videos, Ive only just seen them recently. I started out as a premed at a community college and then decided to do physics as my undergrad major. I had a similar experience with watching Feynman, Sagan, and symphony of science (I also really dug calculus). I'm currently in my first year of med school and pretty satisfied with the tool kit and way of thinking the physics degree left me with. Power to you man!
I can relate to this. I started college as a neuroscience major but I’d never talked about the human brain or anything related. I watch “How The Universe Works” and “Mega Machines” religiously. One day I decided I wanted to fully understand what I was watching, so I switched my school and switched my major. Now I double major in Physics and Mech. E. and I couldn’t be happier.
I had a basically reverse experience lol I began university as a math major and ended up transitioning to biochemistry (minor in math). I’m now pursuing my PhD in organic chemistry
I wish I encountered this video when I switched from Biology to Maths, best decision I made in life so far as the latter is much more fascinating for me. However, I had a very hard time catching up and doubted many times whether I was being stupid to quit and start over.
im glad you got the courage to switch and didn't let fear take over. i wish i had encountered this video when I was looking to shift and was scared. I am fascinated by Earth Sciences / Physical Sciences much much much more than Biological Sciences as I hate Bio. But I was scared if I'll be able to understand earth/physical sciences as easily as I do Biology. And when I gathered the courage, it is late
I started doing physics, and switched later to geology and geophysics. I think I found the maths and concepts in physics past first year too hard, and was more interested in rocks. I really enjoyed first year astronomy though, and so now I'm doing a PhD in planetary science, applying geophysics to asteroids.
fascinating, that's exactly what id like to do in the future. thank you for the comment, inspired me. would love if you could give insights on your journey :)
@@chemicalnamesargon Wow what a blast from the past. That's nice to hear, and of course! Between my undergrad and my PhD, I spent two years working as a geophysicist at an energy company. I finished my PhD in 2022 and now am a senior policy associate at an energy body in Australia. So I've kind of gone full circle, but it's a very different side of the energy industry. I don't know if I have many insights but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. I will just say that finding a supervisor you get on with and a project that you are passionate about are, in my opinion, the minimum requirements for doing a PhD. And that means the research topic itself, not just being interested in astronomy and doing a PhD in astronomy.
First of all, thank you for sharing your experience with us all. It probably wasn't as easy as you make it seem like. Also, your father looks like a very nice person, I'm in a similar situation where I would give up a supposedly lucrative degree, and my father is opposing me in every way possible
I went from chemistry to physics. Was more interested in the quantum and thermodynamics of chemistry to begin with but chemistry was my greatest passion. Now I'm passionate about physics because it helps with the theory and math of why I began my passion with chemistry. Regardless, they intersect so there really is no point in assuming one clear/pure path in any science. Everything we study should be interdisciplinary anyway.
I'm a biology student and I used to hate languages in school, but now I appreciate and love them. I speak 3 languages and my aim is to raise every one of them to the highest level
I’m a first year med student and I have never related to sth or someone as strongly as I related to you in that video , I wish I could have the courage and enough support to switch majors as you did and go on to achieve my dream of studying physics
Bro, do it. You are in year one, which means you haven't lost too much time. It's something you are choosing for the rest of your life. Also, there are plenty of great job opportunities for phycisist. Just do it
Great channel, I've been following it for some days and it's awesome! I'm kind of in the same situation. I started out as a physics major (which is my passion and my dream to study). I did one semester, but decided I had to at least try and experiment the medical program (which I also enjoyed and liked, although not nearly as much as physics). Two and a half years later, I'm seriously considering switching back to physics again, because I believe people should really pursue their passions. Kinda scared to make the final decision, but your channel is helping me a lot!
I’m currently a biology major, and I’m thinking of switching to math major, I’m currently a junior and I feel like the last two years have been such a waste of time. The good thing for me though is that I’m 18 years old so it wouldn’t set me back that far! If I did switch my major
@@jaffarzaidizaidi7970 from my experience it's just hard because of the quantity of work required, not because it's hard to wrap your head around. I had to take tests every week to get accepted for the math exam, those where meant to be done by a team of 3 people, however, both of my study buddies dropped out so i had to do those on my own. I still made it but had to put in like 10 hours a day. So yeah the difficulty definitely draws from the amount of work, not it's complexity. However, in the end i decided to drop out of university alltogether. I still love physics but the idea of sitting in a lab all day for a 9 to 5 and being required to speak math as a second language didn't appeal to me.
I always enjoyed Chemistry and Biology however being in prehospital care, many Bio majors frighten me because once they hit med school; human life becomes a project or an experiment. When most physicians have pre hospital or a nursing background they tend to make better physicians. This is what I’ve noticed from experience. I’m glad you took the step toward physics; I’ve always loved physics but the math I’ve struggled with severely but I hope yourself and many others take the time to seal the gap between quantum and relativity. Thank you for your videos! I wish you the best!
I feel you. I'm a psychology major in my 2nd year, but since I wanna study either cognitive or computational neuroscience in gradschool I'm trying to squeeze in either a ba in mathematics or a BS in statistics.
As a researcher of polar backgrounds with bachelor in biotechnology engineering and master's in engineering physics in bioengineering, still it is an anticipated pathway for my career I say the most promising and prominent research of today's world basically on the interdisciplinary studies, which makes it the shift necessary but the shift should be well planned depending upon your career goals in future.
I am a doctor, physician, post graduate in MD Physiology , Assistant Professor in Physiology and from child hood onwards love physics and want to be a physicist still now..Now trying to explain physiology with physics ..Because physiology is the physics of modern medicine
"There became a point where I realized their explanations [referring to pop-science shows] weren't enough for me anymore." yuuup same. it was only after years of binging on pop-science videos, documentaries and books about astronomy that I realized I was always bumping up against the same lay-man's explanations, the same in-a-nutshell summaries, the same frankly unsatisfying answers to the questions they try to answer in the limited time they have to explain these things to the uneducated masses of which I am a part of. I bought a book about understanding General Relativity because I find that so fascinating but reading it without an education in physics was like... reading GR without an education in physics. I made the decision that I want to actually actually understand and study physics and that I no longer want my fear of maths to dominate my life. unfortunately, I'm 30 and my math skills have regressed to almost zero. I've got quite a bit of catching up to do but goddamnit whatever it takes.
I like learning the concepts and ideas in physics and never get intimidated by the math (in fact I even like abstract math), but the problem is that I don't like solving problems. I want to understand things at a deeper level but I get bored with the details involved in problem-solving. I just like the theory but not the practice. I'm still thinking whether I should go into physics or stick with something else like philosophy...
Since like seventh grade I dreamed of being a research psychologist and I applied to a university (my now current one) as a psych major. I taught myself a little calc before senior year because I was genuinely interested, but I stopped because...well...school. I never thought I could be good at math, but watching calc videos and doing practice problems on car rides made it easier. Though, the school system failed me and always told me (along w some of my friends) that I would never make it in college mathematics. I was in my FST class one day (basically junior algebra...I was one of two seniors) and I was thinking about my future career in psych (I was bored) and realized I didn't want to do statistics all day as a research psychologist. I wanted to do calculus. I did a lot of contemplation and I decided to be a math major. I thought I could do it with the little knowledge and confidence I had in my math ability. I kept thinking about it for about a week or two and I researched different paths to take and eventually realized how much I love physics! My family obviously had their doubts since I was never the best at math...we did soon realize that it was the way it was being taught didn't mix well with the way my brain worked. I soon did more research and feel in love with (E&M was first since I loved magnets and Nikola Tesla...I read roughly a third of his autobiography) theoretical physics and now I'm planning on getting a PhD in theoretical particle physics. I have to start with math 109 (pre calc) since I didn't test into calc right away...for obvious reasons that I mentioned before, but I'm doing a trig course over the winter so I can do calc in the spring. Your channel, Andrew, helped me spark that interest in physics even more, so I truly thank you for that. You're doing what you wanted your channel to do perfectly. I'm so excited to start my college physics experience in the fall :)
Good luck in your journey and get the schaums and demystified books of them; including with the physics too. Physics for engineering, calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations. I got calc based physics from chris mcullen books, engineering for physics schaum, schaum calculus, schaum linear algebra, schaum differential equations. Udemy is best friends to everyone.
From what you told, about not really want to talk about biology but always talking about physics, I can see myself a bit in this. Basically physics dawned on you, and you realized you were passionate about it. Fun to see in that sense! I doubt you'll see that comment but if you do, I'd be curious to know where you're at (masters degree? PhD? what specialty?) and the ambitions you're going for, other than physics for physics (becoming a teacher/researcher?) :)
This reminds me of what happened to me. I was an Electrical Engineering major because I loved circuits and was interested in Robotics. However looking back, I was like you and I loved Pop. Sci. stuff like VSauce and SciShow. I was really interested in the reason why things worked. I remember thinking in my Statics class "This is just a bunch of Physics! Literally all of this is Physics!" I really didn't like that class and kinda drifted my attention from it. I was more enthusiastic about my second General Physics class. I remember about my second year of Engineering and General Education Classes at NVCC that I had a friend named Jimmy saying "You know, you seem more interested in Physics than Engineering. Why not switch to Physics?" (He's also a Physics Postgraduate) I was slightly hesitant for about a day and then quickly switched, but reflecting on it it was the best decision I ever made with my career. I love everyday being a Physics major. I'm even on track to be a High School Physics teacher!
Environmental Science major here. We need courses in all disciplines (heavy in Biology (Zoology and Botany), Ecology, Chemistry and Geosciences, with light coursework in Physics and Mathematics). I love the broad spectrum of topics learned, versus a degree program focused on one thing.
im lucky my two passions in the sciences can come together, as someone who has talked equally about how cool strain wave gears are and the intricacies of the citric acid cycle to my parents, biomedical engineering is the best.
I really enjoyed all the sciences in high school. But physics was my worst course, BUT I really enjoyed the TH-cam physics videos trivia. Went to university, biology bored me to death, but I found physics really cool! I wasn’t bold enough to go into pure physics, luckily my school has a biophysics program! Hence, I major in physics and take a bunch of life science courses on the side LOL. P.S. I still suck at physics. But it’s such a fun challenge. :)
So, you can say the same for me. I thought I had passion for medicine, only to find out that Physics is my passion, as I do enjoy astronomy and have been wanting to become an astronaut since fourth grade (that was after reading an article about the Apollo 11 mission). I only thought of becoming a physician in grade 11 and now I'm in 12th grade. After getting accepted to study Physics and Mathematics, I realized that I basically don't have any passion for medicine. I would tell you this (whispering) 'I think I was doing it for the cash' 😌😅. I'm glad I was saved though 😎. I'm pretty sure I would have hated that job.
I am reading about Physics, not enough to get a degree because it would be a waste of time, but there are a lot of the subject to study and actually learn to put to work right away.
I’m a sophomore at high school and for pretty much most of my life I’ve wanted to study medicine but now I am pretty sure I want to study physics because I have always been very curious and how physics explain all this phenomena is just awesome however I really like medicine too and if I can fuse the two in my field of work it would be really cool
I always thought that I would like Biology more, but I enjoyed my high school physics class more than it. The only thing that worries me about physics is the math requirements. I'm in college pre-Calc right now and it's not terribly difficult to understand yet I do terribly on tests. Once I can't look at my notes I instantly forget how to do things. One thing that gives me hope is that I took the enriched physics class and was able to learn trigonometry a year before learning it in math class. It was as if the physics made the math easier to understand. Maybe I should go into applied Mathematics instead.
Figuring out what you want to do is the most difficult part of college. I got an electrical engineering degree, and did well and enjoyed school, but after school, life was pretty stressful and miserable for 10 years until I decided to give up engineering.
Wow! What a coincidence! I'm glad you shared this story because I was pretty unsure about wtf I am doing now studying physics/maths. I also started out as a medical science major, went on to do nursing, with the intention of becoming a doctor later, but always remembered my fascination with maths and physics from high-school, and for some wierd reason, an obsession with holes and vortexes (cue anus/vagina jokes). Now I have come back to studying physics and aim to learn as much as I possibly can about the fascinating, astounding, awe-inspiring holes, the anomaly known as black-holes.
Speaking to a physics community:
Andrew: If any of you are familiar with Richard Feynman...
I am also not
@@dbgsdc3913 then you're not part of the physics community or were
It's a bit sad to see so many comments here saying that biology sucks or is boring or whatever. I major in genetic engineering and minor in materials science so I study all three in sense. It has made me realize that everything is so closely related and it's quite ridiculous to say that one field is better than the other. I know many physicists who make fun of biologists but have no understanding of how the science of their own bodies works. Its honestly pretty damn amazing how life is just a big pile of unconscious molecules working together and keeping a conscious structure going.
All that said, we should make fun of political science majors instead.
Hahahahhahaha the ending 😂😂
Haha I’m on board with that, it’s not like poli-sci is even real science
Marilin Kuusk nah, business majors
@@mvxsr Both?
ei teadnudki et materjaliteadust võtad... edu siis, neid on niigi vähe hetkel TÜ's :)
I minored in cs and majored in bio. The docs Andrew suggested inspired me to learn biology instead of physics and this comment sums up why. Still, it is a rather big step to take, but anything is possible, especially if you can't stop talking about it :D
As a microbiology major, I can say that the more you get into the field, the more you realize further down the line that, although there is a fair amount of memorization, it comes down to problem solving and application of concepts. Biology (especially micro) is fast evolving and I think it is only after delving deep into the material that you realize how fascinating and complex the structures that govern life truly are. Knowing that this holds true with the other sciences, I sometimes wish I had more than one life to live so that I could perhaps learn a little of each.
I didn’t like lower division biology classes because i did think they were all about memorization, however the farther you get in biology the more it becomes about understanding concepts and application
This is the main thing that a lot of people who think that biology is all rote memorization don't understand.
In physics, once you have the four major forces of the universe, you can slowly build up and learn applications little by little, and then add on other smaller topics like friction, buoyancy, etc. You don't need a mountain of information before you can see the general tiles behind how things work, and how you can use those to think of new solutions.
Biology is intrinsically more macroscopic and had tons of components, so you need to get those understood before you can learn how to manipulate them and how to think of creative solutions to problems. CRISPR is a great example. It's anything but boring memorization of how things work.
Aerociviz Nicholas
Biology can come off as too vague sometimes... at first I didn't like the lower division classes either, but once I started taking genetics and molecular biology, I found my true interest.
Now, genetics and epigenetics are my favorite things to learn and research
Yeah I find that too.Or maybe memorization just becomes second nature and I'm not noticing the difference. Or I'm steeped in the language-game of biology.
Barack Hussein O'Toole
You just become a part of the field. You no longer focus on studying, memorizing, or the classic ways of studying; instead, you learn because you want to.
Like sometimes I'll be reading a paper that I'm genuinely interested, I can practically recite it from memory without reviewing it multiple times.
That's exactly why I dropped out of biology to study math. I can't memorize anything for the life of me so biology isn't a good fit.
I switched from Bio to Astrophysics to Physics because 1. I suck at memorization and 2. I wanted to learn the fundamentals. Becoming a physicist was the best thing I’ve ever done!
P.S. I absolutely love your videos! You’re hilarious and tell it like it is! Please keep making more :)
Really?👍👍👍👍🏿
You can’t get your way through med school trough memorization
@@lm2668hence why most of em find biochem hard. It is purely conceptual.
I switched from a music composition major to physics. I originally didn't think I had the mathematical skills developed to do well in the major despite the love for astrophysics I found through Carl Sagan, Hawking, and Feynman. I am halfway through my degree as a physics major with Sci.Ed/Math minor and I am so glad I made the change. Thanks for making great videos on your experience through your own career, they have really helped me find my footing along the way.
That is good you can hack calculus and physics. Do you use online sources for self study or udemy? It because I felt perplexed in calculus 2 lot. Good luck in physics degree and you will see it as fun reward.
omg does that work? because im not awesome at math either
@@vampirefey I think it the student's agency or inspiration motivation to keep active. It was bizarre lot to know one former film major switch to engineering and he pass physics 1 and calc 2.
I did the opposite: wanted to become a physics major, ended up in biology through maths, geology and environmental classes. Found out that what I called "biology" was actually a dent in a very large field and that what I loved most was actually ALSO biology lol! I had to come to terms with that, but I still love physics very much, but more as a hobby :) Respect!
i'm going through the same phase where i enjoy physics as a hobby and i want to switch majors to biology
thank you so much for uploading these videos. You are doing exactly what you’re trying to do with these videos and honestly i’m really i glad discovered your channel
Thanks for the nice words!
I'm a non-trad student and also recently switched from Bio (Pre-med) to Physics. I was struggling to put Physics texts down in order to study the Bio courses I was actually enrolled in. Glad I found your channel.
Oh great so could you just like tell me what kind of stuff you were learning in pre med
I'm 15 so I was thinking about going into the field of medicine so it would help to know what kind of stuff I'll be learning
Joshua Fasua Chemistry 1 years of chemistry 1 year of bio 1 year of physics 1 year of math
Joshua Fasua Chemistry and bio in particulary
I know who you are Andrew!
@J Kang Indeed you do, Professor! The very mentor to advise my transition! As an update for everyone else, I finished that Physics degree, and am now applying to Ph.D programs!!
yay! I'm a biology major at clemson university and I love it! I'm glad you are pursuing your passion
Andrew, you make me feel more confident about my decision to pursue the physical sciences and I appreciate that.
I switched from philosophy to history...oh wait wrong video
why tho?
StefArts 4Us beacose he's talking about science...
@@Christopher-vi3vf
Bro, why did you switch?
StefArts 4Us I can't do anything at all whit a philosophy major...and I like more history lol but I still read philosophy books
That's aweful
lol im in bio and cellular respiration is very interesting. the fact that all of this is going on at a molecular level makes it all the more intriguing. I find myself thanking my body, alot more, simply for keeping me alive. God forbid one of those electrons didn't carry over and you would be all in on the citric acid cycle.
DaYungGxD DBLVZX for me photosynthesis seems interesting the fact that water has the ability to strip away electrons from electro negativity oxygen is crazy because our cells just waste it due to the energy required to take it away from oxygen and plants can just easily do it. Like wow, plants are cool :p
@@TheGamerz_Hub Well, to be fair, that requires a specialized molecule (chlorophyll) and light (which provides the energy required).
@@GRBtutorials not only chlorophyll, there are also types of pigments chlorophylls (mainly I and II) and carotenoids and also different color of a plant suggests the presence of a different type of pigment varied by the center atom of the pigment molecule. Chlorophyll has magnesium in its center per se and is really similar to a heme with the exception of the central atom.
Also it doesn't quite literally provide energy, it excites electrons.
Cytochromes which carry electrons and Manganese and Chlorine which act as cofactors for LHC(PS-II).
That's an awesome story, I can relate to a lot of it. I was originally an engineering major because of the pay, but then I started reading books like The Greatest Show on Earth by Dawkins and very quickly became fascinated with biology. I wanted to learn more and knew that popular science books could only take me so far, so I switched majors to Cell and Molecular Biology, and now I am starting my PhD in biomedical sciences in August. I have really fallen in love with biology and chemistry, and I'm even a undergraduate TA for a physics class this semester because, well, physics is awesome too lol.
I'm changing from CS to Physics right now, that's sounds a lot like my experince with CS. Love the videos! You're one of the reasons I decided to change my major!
One of us!
Biology is what got me into chemistry. Chemistry is what got me interested in physics. They are all connected with one another and they're all hella fun when it comes to figuring out solutions. While I do really enjoy chemistry and the topics of physics probably more than biology, the solutions created out of biology are really abundant. Abundant in a sense that we apply it more to our lives. If I want to figure out autism, our understanding of neurology and perhaps an understanding of physics, I can go back to animal biology and study simpler life forms like nematodes because they too have cephalization like we do. Study these creatures as a "lab rat," introduce them to things that may affect their nervous system and apply that to a larger scale like a human. We can even manipulate their prenatal development. That is why biology is fascinating in its own sense. It's only boring if you aren't creative with it and that goes for all sciences.
I never understood liking biology, geology, hydrology, and earth science in general like the earth is so boring
The same, I was Biochem, then added Chem as a Major and double chem, and plan on doing a masters in physics (may or may not)
I'm a Bio major who's thinking about changing to Physics lol but damn calc 3 looks scary lol
Calc 3 was fun! You got dis
Andrew Dotson Thanks for the motivation man! I love your videos. Keep up the great work
Does your school not require Physics as part of the degree? I'm a Biology major on the environment/ecology/organism track and am required to have 2 5-credit physic classes.
Enjoyed the classes. Just wish I had not taken them with a 3 other science classes with labs.
@@ezri8315I think he means switch to the major and take actual physics courses, not just take the standard 2 course intro mechanics and intro electricity and magnetism that all science majors take.
There is nothing difficult about calc 3. You should be worried about the actual math people need to know in grad school.
That short clip was refreshing as helllll. Thank you for including it as part of your vid!
Richard Feynman's lectures inspired me so much that I nearly withdrew from Engineering (it was too late since im already turning 21 and almost on honours year now), but if i had a chance I would've done similar to what you did :(
Young Mind I was in my third year in electrical engineering, turning 22 and I stopped to start physics. Now I am 25 and Im doing my master in theoretical physics and it was the best decision that I ever made in my life. It is never too late
I am 21 and i quit my chemical engineering study. Next year im going to study computer science hopefuly :D BEst decision of my life, i have never been so fucking relaxed. It is never too late. Money are kind of an issue here since ive already spent 3 years studying but hey, you only live once.
ooga booga e=π=2
Man..Last year I started with Urban & Regional Planning. but I always wanted to study physics. so couldn't continue with urp and ended up dropping a year. and now even if I get a chance to study physics, my family is against it! :(
Boy I'm 21 and just changed majors! I feel like it's never too late if you're gonna do something you truly love💞
I'm in this exact situation, Biomedicine major and just switched to Physics. It's really reassuring to see that someone who is so passionate and successful in physics did it all too.
Hey Andrew! I just wanted to say thank you for uploading this video. As a freshman premed bio major who's been wondering about switching to physics for a long time, it really showed me how to approach things. I've been scrutinizing how I perform in all my classes, whether it's Calc 3 or Organismal Bio or Chemistry, to see what I would truly like doing in the future, but your video shows me that that's not the way to approach things. I just need to see what I'm passionate about. I don't know what I'm going to do for the next few years, but I do know to pursue what I find myself interested in. So thank you.
PS- Cosmos is actually one of the best documentaries on astrophysics I have seen and I can't help but think of Neil deGrasse Tyson as a modern day Carl Sagan!
I work at a biology lab, we synthesize fluorescent dyes out of phycobiliproteins found in various algae. But I really want to study physics, because it's so fundamental and so incredibly interesting; oh and I love math.
I think bio is just hard science at the most macro level, physics is cool but for me knowing specifically what is working is more interesting than specifically how it works if that makes any sense. Like how myosins use the alternating charges of microtubules to move around is more interesting than why those charges make it move. But every science is important, and I'm glad you found your passion!
Hey! The same thing happened to me, did bio for a 2 years, it was fun. But I didn't like talking about (or thinking about) the citric acid cycle, and the like. The nail in the coffin came for me when I did a 6 week lab placement. I realised I didnt care enough about proteins to deal with those little s**ts every day. So I went into physics, tried that, and realized (finally) it was maths I enjoyed the most. Now Im in my final year of that. Loving it too.
If I could do it all again, I'd double major in math and physics. Glad you found what you like!
Did you find it difficult going into maths courses after 2 years of doing a major not related to maths at all?
R u talking to me? I assume u r as you responded to my post.
Yes and no. Firstly I didn't do high school maths, but as I decided i wanted to do physics I had to teach myself a certain level preq knowledge. I did this over my 3 month summer break. That was quite hard. But I think the few years of mental maturity I developed during my bio years REALLY helped and I was far better at logical thinking then your average high school graduate. Hence after my initial summer struggle I breezed through my first year maths courses scoring two 97s, and a 95. So I do think time away from maths help in a weird way.
@@Jamony1 hi dave! I'm not very good in high school math, but I'm very interested in physics and understanding the universe. How can I go about learning the math before college? I'm currently a high school senior
During my senior year of high school, I was trying to decide what major I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do medicine, but while I enjoyed anatomy, biology did not overall interest me and I love being engaged and passionate about what I wanted to learn. So then I started looking at chemistry or physics. Chemistry, while interesting, again did not have that spark(although I did enjoy learning about molecular movement and what the atoms were made of and how elements originated). Then came Physics, a class which was not offered at my high school. Now, I enjoy books, and one series of educational books I bought quite abit at this time was "The blank book" big ideas explained simply series by DK. And I started flipping through the pages and every single idea in that book was fascinating to me. And I realized that the things I was interested in with biology and chemistry had to do with the way things function and where things originated from. I was always interested in the WHY and HOW things happened, which is what physics describes.
While I did change from pre-medical, my physics classes have been the one consistent subject where I never felt like "ugh, you mean I have to do this assignment?". I loved the satisfaction of finding the answers after staring down a problem for extended periods of time. Trying out different things to figure out how to learn. Also I started seeing physics in all my other interests. I wondered how audio and light worked in film, cameras, and microphones. I wondered about thermal expansion in engineering(which I could finally talk to my dad about because I understood why things he did in his construction job needed to happen). So while I do love quite a few subjects, it feels like Physics is part of all these parts of my life and understanding those topics on a deeper level feels so enlightening.
I'm also a former bio major who switch to physics for almost the same exact reasons! Richard Feynman is the man.
Hey Andrew (I'm an Andrew too, a younger one), I became interested in physics in the same way from the science communicators that influnced my path. Interestingly I first was interested in psychology because I was going out of my mind trying to figure out why I'm out of my mind. But it didn't cut it, those classes seemed too philosophical to actually answer why. So I came across physics from those communicators and Wa-lah! Im a first year physics major undergrad. Love your videos man its helping me overcome my biases in a cemedical sense
_Did you mean_ voila? 😝
Nice to see you're getting more viewers now. you deserve it man!
Thank you!
BRO!!!! NEVER.....NEVER!!!!! TAKE FOR GRANTED THIS AMAZING GIFT... PARENTS WHO CARE. I have tried countless times over the years to explain physics concepts to my parents to start a discussion on anything science, really anything other than useless small talk, safe space pleasantries, meaningless bullshit, and every single time I get shot down. They flat out dont care and dont want to talk about it. It "isnt important" cue my head exploding. They'd rather discuss their day at work or who is going where for some dumb ass vacation or stupid useless info about unimportant people. Realize how lucky you are to have parents intelligent and/or curious enough to enjoy or at least tolerate discussing science of any kind with you.
David H. Facts
i feel this i bought a book and my mum asked about it and i was explaining to her about quarks and stuff and she just went "sounds boring" ok why'd you ask then
Uhg, feel this in my bones! My whole family is so uninteresting and live for small talk and then get aggravated because I DONT do small talk lOl
I'm a first year physics student and it's so good to see your videos !
Thanks
Feynman is best scientist and teacher (collectively)
I had managed to finish my pre-med degree (yep, with that chem minor) before starting a second undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering.
I never got into med school, but my GPA was only like a 3.15 and my MCAT was like 60th percentile, so no surprises there. I ended up doing some lab work and research for a while before making the jump. Two things that inspired me were the fascination with the wind turbines I was doing research around (we were studying ultrasonic “canons” that kept bats away from them) and reading A Brief History of Time every night under the stars.
I enjoy aerospace engineering a lot, and the pre-med and chemistry work actually gives me a huge edge over other engineering students when it comes to topics like human factors and rocket propellant chemistry.
P.S. My math methods prof is an old Ukrainian man with a thick accent that just today pulled the “Proofs are a waste of lecture time. Here, I’ll just add that to your homework.”
Pop science and those exact same shows were also the reason I am going to be majoring in physics after 2 weeks ... Those shows were truly amazing and inspiring. Your videos are really cool Andrew I hope to meet you someday
Dude, when I was in highschool, I’d watch hours and hours of astro documentaries afterschool, everyday, and I absolutely loved them. Those documentaries are really conceptual but they provide great PR for the sciences haha. I’m a 2nd year student and still debating about Mechanical Eng or Physics.
Mechanical Eng sounds cool. Well, do you see yourself trying to explain why something works/ what something is for career? Or would you rather apply established science to creating something new? I'm sure that's the question you've already been asking yourself, though haha!
You are not alone dude.I am secound year electrical engineering and faces the same dilema. What I think is taking a break afther the third year (which means B.S level). And then take Physics.
Andrew Dotson Yeah it’s a tough choice for me. I see myself creating the “something new” and better optimized. The pathways I’d take for physics and mechE would be entirely different so that’s what makes this a bit difficult. Either way I know I’ll enjoy a career I’m able to establish. I transfer out of my college next year into university so this fall when I’m applying to schools, I select “majors” I’d like to get accepted into.
What if I Wanna do both explain and Apply science D: :(?
Btw, whats the difference between the 2? MechE still learn physics isnt it?
I need an answer. Im still in 1st senior high school and have planned to take mechE degree if i graduate from high school.
I'm at least 2 generations ahead of you, and got into physics by a different route. I was in high school during the glory days of the Space Race, and was blown away by the exploits of Project Gemini - spacewalking, rendezvous, marathon space flights.... Our school had a teletype connection to the GE635 computer up at Dartmouth College (a smokin' 300 baud....), and with a pal of mine decided to try programming a simulation of two spacecraft coming together in orbit. We didn't get too far because we had no idea of the physical processes involved - so when I went off to college myself, I majored in physics. I did my senior thesis in orbital mechanics, and finally wrote the program (though it was just a list of numbers simulating the readout from rendezvous radar measuring the range & azimuth of the target vehicle). My subsequent career path didn't quite follow that arc, though I actually got to use OM at one point, recognizing that the equations of motion were the same whether the central force was attractive or repulsive.
Andrew, Hats off to you for making the brave decision to switch to Physics from Biology. I ahve seen your other videos and was pretty impressed with your advice and passion for physics. I am about to be a freshman at UT Dallas to pursue a bachelors of Science in Chemistry and hopefully Physics as well. My interest in science began with Biology, and I realized that as much as I enjoyed studying the subject in class I really did not enjoy doing the labs when I worked in medical research laboratories. On the other hand, I loved doing chemistry labs in AP Chemistry, deriving equations in calculus, and solving tough physics problems on the whiteboard in AP Physics C.
These videos are so interesting since i'm interested in a physics major. Love them!
Thank you for posting this! I am hoping it will help my son decide between the two!
I’m a neuroscience major because of philosophical interest...always thinking of switching but the fact that neuroscience is a such a new field makes it hard to tell what the best path for me is
But I’ve always loved the pop science stuff. Cosmos in particular really inspired me, and I’ve considered physics. Always been strong in math, philosophy, and psychology. Not really that good with memorization but that’s probably due to complacency. I can actually remember pretty well if I try. The fact that I put in almost no effort in high school makes it hard too, because I don’t realllly know my strengths. I just know I really like learning about things in general philosophy especially. But as far as the technical matters of each class go it’s hard to say what my cup of tea is. Stay in school kids, and don’t just stay in, stay with school, be one with school, because there’s most likely no getting away from it! No matter what you do, even if it’s entertainment, it will be valuable to get an education up until the point where you know for sure you don’t need it, and it’s much easier to drop that habit than to form it. But if u wanna half ass just to get a degree u only kinda need bc ur not that into living a successful (career-wise) life, that’s another story. Then you do you, but if you wanna be successful, then get with the time(s)
Have you thought of doing AI?
I'm studying neuroscience as well, but I'm switching for my master. I miss the math :D
I switched from biology to physics too and didn't ever regret. I'm doing PhD now
@Gerel Len For jobs it depends on where you live and the field of physics you specialize in. Engineering is based.
@Gerel Len As in "based and redpilled" of course.
I had the same experience with a
philosophy professor.
I asked him why he changed his
interest with biology to phil.
He quickly said "Because biology
only gives you the how,
And I wanted to know the why".
It really twisted my head around.
Since I was really interested in
What in hell does anything mean,
I got to thinking about the six blind
men and the elephant.
From then on, I took intense inter-
est in several different subjects.
'several' is an understatement.
I very soon learned that a single
lifetime wasn't gonna make it.
Physical sciences was only one
side of the polygon.
If your passion runs along these ideas, forget about a degree, or
prestige, or the big bucks, or
making your family or society
happy, self worth, or anything.
I started back to school when I
was 19.
I'm now about 1000 years old,
And I've pulled almost all my hair
out.
There more of the island you learn,
the bigger it gets.
Julie Crawford
Deep
Why did you format your text like that?
im an electrical engineering major but I decided to minor in physics for the exact same reason.... i love talking about it and all the articles i read are about fundamental and applied physics breakthroughs haha
Woah you can do that? That's awesome.
I completed my Matric (High school) in Biology as major subject.
Then , I did FSc (Pre Medical) So, biology again was a major.
But, during this whole journey, my love for Physics increased a lot and now , I am passionate about pursuing my Bachelors (Hons) in PHYSICS❤❤❤
So glad I found your channel! I totally agree about how pop science can be super impactful. Only a couple of years ago I remember wishing I could major in physics, and now here I am! Struggling but still loving it :)
Awesome! PS we're all struggling
Moral of video: are you passionate about it? Are you happy learning it? Do you enjoy learning it?
I’m not in collage yet but I’m a junior in high school this year and for probably about 1/2 of my life I thought I was going to be a doctor. I was always interested in physics and it’s concepts but never had a physics class before. This year I took AP physics because I have a good understanding of math and an ok understanding of physics and I have completely changed course. I no longer have any desire to do anything involving the medical field and now want to pursue physics through collage! I think my teacher Mr. Cultman has a lot to do with that seeing as how he is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. I think it’s cool to see some one else original interested in the medical field but switch to physics even if I’m only a junior and you where already in collage. I love your videos and they only make me want to learn more and more about physics please keep it up!
I see what you (and others) mean when claiming that Richard Feynman was a great communicator. I had never up till now (I know, I know) experienced or bother to search for one of his lectures or presentations (I mean a filmed one). It's fascinating to watch his choice of language -just at the right level- his continually shifting interplay between speech, gestures and facial expressions. He's totally captivating. His gestures are so vivid for a moment I thought he'd light up a fire with his knuckles. The glimmer of excitement in his eyes clearly shows there's a super wound up old clock in there hidden well inside that's about to explode at any second.
I find that your lecturing style is right on the spot, as accurate as needed and no more and very captivating - at least for me. Many times I find that American university professors deliver a kind of verbose presentation, that goes off in tangents, full of errs.. and uhhs..., let me do that again and so on, lacking succinctness and brevity in a way that puts me to sleep in about 15 sec - which is marvelous in itself but not quite the reason why I chose to watch them in the first place. Europeans on the other hand, and not just them, many others too -it's just the teaching style I refer to, not really the provenance-, deliver a rather terse presentation (just the facts), sometimes without sufficient intuition or good examples chosen or skipping whole or part of the snaggy stuff where a student can have a hard time digesting on their own later.
6:26 Oh definitely yes! Similarly for me, periodic table of videos, Veritasium and some of sixty symbols got me so hooked on chemistry and physics that I have gone from not really liking it in HS to doing my PhD in chemistry now. It's crazy to think about but I'm glad they did influence me in such a huge way.
Molecular biology major here. My fave thing about being a bio student is that it requires you to understand chem, which means you gotta know physics which means you gotta know calc. I really enjoy the variety of classes I get to take, but I’ll admit that most of my physics knowledge is pretty “hand-wavy” 😂
You don’t need to know physics to know chem to know bio. What are you talking about. You need to know bio to know bio. Trust me I’ve taken every bio class and switched to mechanical engineering so I would know.
@@yukijames1321 it is required... Bicohemistry involves chemistry, physiology involves biophysics, molecular biology involves chemistry etc...
@@wolfsburggti4476 can you explain what you mean by "you just need to know bio to know bio".. whereas when i was biological sciences department in IIT Bombay they teach maths, Physics and chemistry and many professor keep on repeating - if you want to know biology understand chemistry and if you want to know chemistry understand Physics... What are you saying?...
Yeah, I ddon't pretend to remmeber much from my bioloy master, nor that it would represent all biology studies everywhere, but let be honnest, you need to get at most the baby version of elementary chemistery wich needs you to understand some token physics which sometime ,sometime, need you to look at some /very: basic math equations and stats.
But hey, compared to what I found after reconverting in psychology.... I swear to god, no wonder there's a replicaton crisis. The way they butcher statistics... "EVERYTHING IS A GAUSSIAN CURVE !"
@@wolfsburggti4476 it depends on the type of biology. I study how cells and specific molecules respond to gravity and radiation. I work with physics chemistry and biology all together to get a better picture of how biology actually works. I also spend a lot of time with ecologist who couldn’t care less and never use physics. Biology is incredible broad.
I like physics, but I enjoy studying biology more.
I'm 13 and I want to become a biologist I put a lot of time to it and I hope u will be good at it
Best to use flash cards, a biology coloring book, recall them, drawing a diagram and active study methods. It because biology requires memorization and deep concept tricks.
I know this is an old video, but it’s so interesting that I found your channel (and specifically this video) right after I starting thinking about going into physics. The only thing that was stopping me were the two years I had already spent doing my bio degree, but when you said you were also in second year when you realized you wanted to do physics, it was like a light bulb moment for me.
Are you going to switch to physics now?
It’s pretty interesting tho how much of an effect 1 dude making yt videos can have. I’m a first year CS student and now considering doing a double major with either physics (cuz of Andrew) or math (cuz of 3blue1brown).
Hey man cool videos, Ive only just seen them recently. I started out as a premed at a community college and then decided to do physics as my undergrad major. I had a similar experience with watching Feynman, Sagan, and symphony of science (I also really dug calculus). I'm currently in my first year of med school and pretty satisfied with the tool kit and way of thinking the physics degree left me with. Power to you man!
Wow good luck with med school!
I was actually a Neuroscience major who had awesome physics teachers in college and now I want to study it too!
You should do a video called Why I Switched from Close-up to Medium Close-up and Back Again With No Real Reason :)
I can relate to this. I started college as a neuroscience major but I’d never talked about the human brain or anything related. I watch “How The Universe Works” and “Mega Machines” religiously. One day I decided I wanted to fully understand what I was watching, so I switched my school and switched my major. Now I double major in Physics and Mech. E. and I couldn’t be happier.
I had a basically reverse experience lol I began university as a math major and ended up transitioning to biochemistry (minor in math). I’m now pursuing my PhD in organic chemistry
Beautiful , just beautiful.
A lot of appreciation from a tunisian physics student 🙂
I wish I encountered this video when I switched from Biology to Maths, best decision I made in life so far as the latter is much more fascinating for me. However, I had a very hard time catching up and doubted many times whether I was being stupid to quit and start over.
im glad you got the courage to switch and didn't let fear take over. i wish i had encountered this video when I was looking to shift and was scared. I am fascinated by Earth Sciences / Physical Sciences much much much more than Biological Sciences as I hate Bio. But I was scared if I'll be able to understand earth/physical sciences as easily as I do Biology. And when I gathered the courage, it is late
I started doing physics, and switched later to geology and geophysics. I think I found the maths and concepts in physics past first year too hard, and was more interested in rocks. I really enjoyed first year astronomy though, and so now I'm doing a PhD in planetary science, applying geophysics to asteroids.
fascinating, that's exactly what id like to do in the future. thank you for the comment, inspired me. would love if you could give insights on your journey :)
@@chemicalnamesargon Wow what a blast from the past. That's nice to hear, and of course!
Between my undergrad and my PhD, I spent two years working as a geophysicist at an energy company. I finished my PhD in 2022 and now am a senior policy associate at an energy body in Australia. So I've kind of gone full circle, but it's a very different side of the energy industry.
I don't know if I have many insights but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
I will just say that finding a supervisor you get on with and a project that you are passionate about are, in my opinion, the minimum requirements for doing a PhD. And that means the research topic itself, not just being interested in astronomy and doing a PhD in astronomy.
First of all, thank you for sharing your experience with us all. It probably wasn't as easy as you make it seem like.
Also, your father looks like a very nice person, I'm in a similar situation where I would give up a supposedly lucrative degree, and my father is opposing me in every way possible
I went from chemistry to physics. Was more interested in the quantum and thermodynamics of chemistry to begin with but chemistry was my greatest passion. Now I'm passionate about physics because it helps with the theory and math of why I began my passion with chemistry. Regardless, they intersect so there really is no point in assuming one clear/pure path in any science. Everything we study should be interdisciplinary anyway.
I'm a biology student and I used to hate languages in school, but now I appreciate and love them. I speak 3 languages and my aim is to raise every one of them to the highest level
I’m a first year med student and I have never related to sth or someone as strongly as I related to you in that video , I wish I could have the courage and enough support to switch majors as you did and go on to achieve my dream of studying physics
Bro, do it. You are in year one, which means you haven't lost too much time. It's something you are choosing for the rest of your life. Also, there are plenty of great job opportunities for phycisist. Just do it
Did you switch?
Great channel, I've been following it for some days and it's awesome! I'm kind of in the same situation. I started out as a physics major (which is my passion and my dream to study). I did one semester, but decided I had to at least try and experiment the medical program (which I also enjoyed and liked, although not nearly as much as physics). Two and a half years later, I'm seriously considering switching back to physics again, because I believe people should really pursue their passions. Kinda scared to make the final decision, but your channel is helping me a lot!
That clip was actually awesome
I’m currently a biology major, and I’m thinking of switching to math major, I’m currently a junior and I feel like the last two years have been such a waste of time. The good thing for me though is that I’m 18 years old so it wouldn’t set me back that far! If I did switch my major
ppl here talk about shifting from bio to physics while me wanting to transfer from physics to bio LOL.
Have you done it yet???
Is physics hard kindly tell by your experience
I kinda went and did just that...........
If ur maths is utter weak and ur dumb in it then physics also would be tough both are lost brothers
@@jaffarzaidizaidi7970 from my experience it's just hard because of the quantity of work required, not because it's hard to wrap your head around. I had to take tests every week to get accepted for the math exam, those where meant to be done by a team of 3 people, however, both of my study buddies dropped out so i had to do those on my own. I still made it but had to put in like 10 hours a day. So yeah the difficulty definitely draws from the amount of work, not it's complexity. However, in the end i decided to drop out of university alltogether. I still love physics but the idea of sitting in a lab all day for a 9 to 5 and being required to speak math as a second language didn't appeal to me.
I always enjoyed Chemistry and Biology however being in prehospital care, many Bio majors frighten me because once they hit med school; human life becomes a project or an experiment. When most physicians have pre hospital or a nursing background they tend to make better physicians. This is what I’ve noticed from experience. I’m glad you took the step toward physics; I’ve always loved physics but the math I’ve struggled with severely but I hope yourself and many others take the time to seal the gap between quantum and relativity. Thank you for your videos! I wish you the best!
I feel you. I'm a psychology major in my 2nd year, but since I wanna study either cognitive or computational neuroscience in gradschool I'm trying to squeeze in either a ba in mathematics or a BS in statistics.
As a researcher of polar backgrounds with bachelor in biotechnology engineering and master's in engineering physics in bioengineering, still it is an anticipated pathway for my career I say the most promising and prominent research of today's world basically on the interdisciplinary studies, which makes it the shift necessary but the shift should be well planned depending upon your career goals in future.
thank you for the link to that great video!
I am a doctor, physician, post graduate in MD Physiology , Assistant Professor in Physiology and from child hood onwards love physics and want to be a physicist still now..Now trying to explain physiology with physics ..Because physiology is the physics of modern medicine
I started with an automation engineering major and switched to biomedical engineering. Biophysics has been one of my favourite courses.
"There became a point where I realized their explanations [referring to pop-science shows] weren't enough for me anymore."
yuuup same.
it was only after years of binging on pop-science videos, documentaries and books about astronomy that I realized I was always bumping up against the same lay-man's explanations, the same in-a-nutshell summaries, the same frankly unsatisfying answers to the questions they try to answer in the limited time they have to explain these things to the uneducated masses of which I am a part of.
I bought a book about understanding General Relativity because I find that so fascinating but reading it without an education in physics was like... reading GR without an education in physics.
I made the decision that I want to actually actually understand and study physics and that I no longer want my fear of maths to dominate my life.
unfortunately, I'm 30 and my math skills have regressed to almost zero. I've got quite a bit of catching up to do but goddamnit whatever it takes.
Keep going! I'm in the same boat, not been easy by any stretch but certainly very rewarding and totally worth it!
how has ur math journey been?
I appreciate the beauty of math, just not how it is taught.
I grew up loving pop science shows. can't wait to start my physics degree in the fall
I like learning the concepts and ideas in physics and never get intimidated by the math (in fact I even like abstract math), but the problem is that I don't like solving problems. I want to understand things at a deeper level but I get bored with the details involved in problem-solving. I just like the theory but not the practice. I'm still thinking whether I should go into physics or stick with something else like philosophy...
when you feel like this, i think you should just start learning more, and you'll know
Thanks for sharing) Physics is inspiring and exciting) I'm glad there are people who think the same))
Since like seventh grade I dreamed of being a research psychologist and I applied to a university (my now current one) as a psych major. I taught myself a little calc before senior year because I was genuinely interested, but I stopped because...well...school. I never thought I could be good at math, but watching calc videos and doing practice problems on car rides made it easier. Though, the school system failed me and always told me (along w some of my friends) that I would never make it in college mathematics. I was in my FST class one day (basically junior algebra...I was one of two seniors) and I was thinking about my future career in psych (I was bored) and realized I didn't want to do statistics all day as a research psychologist. I wanted to do calculus. I did a lot of contemplation and I decided to be a math major. I thought I could do it with the little knowledge and confidence I had in my math ability. I kept thinking about it for about a week or two and I researched different paths to take and eventually realized how much I love physics! My family obviously had their doubts since I was never the best at math...we did soon realize that it was the way it was being taught didn't mix well with the way my brain worked. I soon did more research and feel in love with (E&M was first since I loved magnets and Nikola Tesla...I read roughly a third of his autobiography) theoretical physics and now I'm planning on getting a PhD in theoretical particle physics. I have to start with math 109 (pre calc) since I didn't test into calc right away...for obvious reasons that I mentioned before, but I'm doing a trig course over the winter so I can do calc in the spring. Your channel, Andrew, helped me spark that interest in physics even more, so I truly thank you for that. You're doing what you wanted your channel to do perfectly. I'm so excited to start my college physics experience in the fall :)
Good luck in your journey and get the schaums and demystified books of them; including with the physics too. Physics for engineering, calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations.
I got calc based physics from chris mcullen books, engineering for physics schaum, schaum calculus, schaum linear algebra, schaum differential equations. Udemy is best friends to everyone.
How’s it going?
From what you told, about not really want to talk about biology but always talking about physics, I can see myself a bit in this. Basically physics dawned on you, and you realized you were passionate about it. Fun to see in that sense! I doubt you'll see that comment but if you do, I'd be curious to know where you're at (masters degree? PhD? what specialty?) and the ambitions you're going for, other than physics for physics (becoming a teacher/researcher?) :)
i switched from engineering to physics, and now there is one year till i get my Bsc.
MovieBuff Im thinking of doing the same
Is it worth it?
@@egeerdem8272 if you love it, it sure worth it. It worked miraculously well for me.
It's the pop science shows and listening to the likes of Tyson, Feynman, and Sagan that got me into studying physics as well.
My son is studying physics, hes really excited about that, he left engineering school, he said it was boring.
This reminds me of what happened to me. I was an Electrical Engineering major because I loved circuits and was interested in Robotics. However looking back, I was like you and I loved Pop. Sci. stuff like VSauce and SciShow. I was really interested in the reason why things worked. I remember thinking in my Statics class "This is just a bunch of Physics! Literally all of this is Physics!" I really didn't like that class and kinda drifted my attention from it. I was more enthusiastic about my second General Physics class. I remember about my second year of Engineering and General Education Classes at NVCC that I had a friend named Jimmy saying "You know, you seem more interested in Physics than Engineering. Why not switch to Physics?" (He's also a Physics Postgraduate) I was slightly hesitant for about a day and then quickly switched, but reflecting on it it was the best decision I ever made with my career. I love everyday being a Physics major. I'm even on track to be a High School Physics teacher!
Environmental Science major here. We need courses in all disciplines (heavy in Biology (Zoology and Botany), Ecology, Chemistry and Geosciences, with light coursework in Physics and Mathematics). I love the broad spectrum of topics learned, versus a degree program focused on one thing.
im lucky my two passions in the sciences can come together, as someone who has talked equally about how cool strain wave gears are and the intricacies of the citric acid cycle to my parents, biomedical engineering is the best.
I’m a university student and I think I have realised that I’m not in my dream major 😟 woah
I really enjoyed all the sciences in high school. But physics was my worst course, BUT I really enjoyed the TH-cam physics videos trivia. Went to university, biology bored me to death, but I found physics really cool!
I wasn’t bold enough to go into pure physics, luckily my school has a biophysics program! Hence, I major in physics and take a bunch of life science courses on the side LOL.
P.S. I still suck at physics. But it’s such a fun challenge. :)
I'm biochem with a Biophysics concentration myself :)
So, you can say the same for me. I thought I had passion for medicine, only to find out that Physics is my passion, as I do enjoy astronomy and have been wanting to become an astronaut since fourth grade (that was after reading an article about the Apollo 11 mission). I only thought of becoming a physician in grade 11 and now I'm in 12th grade. After getting accepted to study Physics and Mathematics, I realized that I basically don't have any passion for medicine. I would tell you this (whispering) 'I think I was doing it for the cash' 😌😅. I'm glad I was saved though 😎. I'm pretty sure I would have hated that job.
yeah, Cosmos and How the Universe Works sealed the deal for me and began the journey so I definitely understand.
You're awesome. Keep it up🥳
I am reading about Physics, not enough to get a degree because it would be a waste of time, but there are a lot of the subject to study and actually learn to put to work right away.
All credits and love to your dad
I’m a sophomore at high school and for pretty much most of my life I’ve wanted to study medicine but now I am pretty sure I want to study physics because I have always been very curious and how physics explain all this phenomena is just awesome however I really like medicine too and if I can fuse the two in my field of work it would be really cool
Make sure you watch more Richard Feynman, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Carl Sagan.
I always thought that I would like Biology more, but I enjoyed my high school physics class more than it. The only thing that worries me about physics is the math requirements. I'm in college pre-Calc right now and it's not terribly difficult to understand yet I do terribly on tests. Once I can't look at my notes I instantly forget how to do things. One thing that gives me hope is that I took the enriched physics class and was able to learn trigonometry a year before learning it in math class. It was as if the physics made the math easier to understand.
Maybe I should go into applied Mathematics instead.
Figuring out what you want to do is the most difficult part of college. I got an electrical engineering degree, and did well and enjoyed school, but after school, life was pretty stressful and miserable for 10 years until I decided to give up engineering.
Wow! What a coincidence! I'm glad you shared this story because I was pretty unsure about wtf I am doing now studying physics/maths.
I also started out as a medical science major, went on to do nursing, with the intention of becoming a doctor later, but always remembered my fascination with maths and physics from high-school, and for some wierd reason, an obsession with holes and vortexes (cue anus/vagina jokes).
Now I have come back to studying physics and aim to learn as much as I possibly can about the fascinating, astounding, awe-inspiring holes, the anomaly known as black-holes.
I love biology and physics, ergo biophysics.
You should make a video called "I switched to physics major, change my mind"
This was very helpful