The Bane of Every Student's Existence: Physics by Patrick

The Bane of Every Student's Existence: Physics by Patrick - August 2017 Scholarship Essay

"Physics" -- the mere utterance of this word is enough to send shivers of fear and repulsion down a student's spine. For some reason, things like electromagnetism, kinematics, sound, and optics seem to elude our intuitions, thereby causing immense anxiety and hindering the brain’s ability to process new information.

I once was one of those students. Coming into college, I knew I wanted to study Biomedical Engineering and ultimately attend medical school. However, I knew this also meant I would have to experience the woes of physics class. I suffered through Physics 1 and 2, memorizing equations and sweating through exams. Like most people, the sheer immensity and wealth of complex information contained within physics hindered not only my understanding of the material, but also eradicated any sort of pleasure I could have derived from it.

Then, in the fall of my sophomore year, a singular professor caused my mindset to change. It was the first day of a new class – Bioinstrumentation (a fancy word for circuits with a biological twist) – and I was not looking forward to it. It was applied physics, after all. The hour began, and our professor, Dr. Stetten, took his place at the podium. He looked out at all of us, and the first words he said were: “How many of you hate physics?” Looking around the room, I saw the majority of hands raised. He then asked, “How many of you fear physics?” Again, the majority of hands rose. He sighed, and said the following words (which I still remember perfectly), “You fear physics because you do not understand it. Today, I shall teach you to understand, and in doing so, show you its true beauty”.

He then embarked with us on an hour and a half journey, through the worlds of kinematics, sound, optics, electromagnetism, and quantum physics. He used no equations, and instead explained from the ground up how the various natural laws arise and create the systems we observe and study in physics. His words painted pictures in our minds of real-life applications of these laws, like how the heart uses electrical conductivity to pump the blood through our bodies. In a mere hour and a half, he made physics comprehensible and beautiful.

Physics is the code of the natural world. It describes how we exist, how the stars above us move, how atoms interact with one another, and how the computer keys I am pressing as I type this translate the motion of my fingers into readable text. One professor was able to unlock my mind to the infinite mysteries that physics allows us to explain. He made me realize that once you approach physics from a place of inquisitiveness and curiosity, the fear is replaced with wonder and the anxiety becomes a desire to understand. So, to answer the prompt: I would choose to teach physics. I would want to instill the same awe and curiosity my professor awoke in me into the minds of those students yet to come. Physics without fear is the raw, unadulterated beauty of the natural world, and every single person should be able to experience that.

Patrick Haggerty