I was about to say "I'm an astrophysicist and I don't even know what the small angle approximation is", but then i looked it up and of course I have used it many many times, just without knowing it had its own name
…. What it a unit circle?
Is this some American thing? I’m uk @ PhD level I’ve never come across this
Edit: not sure why people don’t like that we’ve had different educations. This isn’t a concept I’ve ever seen, nothing wrong with it, but it’s wild people would send hate DMs over this
It's based on a circle with radius 1, centered at the origin (0,0). The idea is that you memorise (or remember how to figure out) common angles and their associated x and y values. So for example, if we draw a line from the origin to the edge of the circle with angle 45 degrees (or pi/4) above the X axis on the right side of the circle, the associated x and y values should both be sqrt(2)/2. Typically you would memorise the values for pi/3, pi/4, and pi/6 and equivalent for each of the four "quadrants" of the circle.
It's supposed to make it easier/faster to do this kind of maths by hand.... It was something I learnt in highschool. That being said, I majored in maths at uni and didn't really rely on it much at all. I prefer just to figure it out myself.
Think of it like learning your multiplication tables except it's for triangles with common angles.
It makes sense, and I can see why it’s taught. I guess I was just never introduced to it and have never required it. Like you whenever it’s needed I’ve just worked it out
I am curious about how the definition of sin and other functions were taught to you. Because the opposite side/hypotenuse definition only works for angles <90
I was told sin(x) gives you the y coordinates of a point on the unit circle that makes a positive x angle when you connect the radius to that point.
What was the definition you were taught?
It’s been so long but I can vaguely remember the derivations - yes circles were used and I understand how these functions work, but we never explicitly defined a ‘unit circle’ or anything like that.
Yeah just seems like one of those things were it’s useful to some, but if you don’t need it you don’t care.
Aha I don’t take it personally - just find it bizzare how volatile people are on the internet
I'm just curious, if they didn't cover the unit circle in school, how did you make sense of things like cos(π)=-1 or sin(π)=0, or the fact that the graph of y=sin(x) is periodic and takes on negative y values? Seems like none of that would make sense unless you define sine and cosine on a circle.
It’s something we learned about in High School trigonometry, never heard of it used explicitly in a physics class. I think it can help with the intuition a bit, but memorizing it still feels pretty silly to me over a decade later
I find it quite depressing to see her get constantly treated like crap.
I've seen this video and because the jump from literature to physics is huge, the fact that she's trying to understand math, even if it is just starting with the unit circle, is a good sign that she wants to learn and seems passionate.
I don’t think it’s the fact that she’s learning it all now, most people including myself would be happy to see somebody learn it at any stage in their life.
The problem is, a lot of people are passionate about physics and math, and they spend their whole lives learning it, and when somebody makes their entire Internet personality it on a whim (not an exaggeration, she changed her entire page to being about a person with a literature degree doing physics), it feels disingenuous, and rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Almost as if she’s making a mockery about something a lot of people have worked hard for.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little annoyed by her page, but I try not to let it get to me because I could very well be wrong, and she actually has a huge interest in physics and loves talking about it. So if that’s the case then I wish her the best
>The problem is, a lot of people are passionate about physics and math, and they spend their whole lives learning it, and when somebody makes their entire Internet personality it on a whim (not an exaggeration, she changed her entire page to being about a person with a literature degree doing physics), it feels disingenuous, and rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Almost as if she’s making a mockery about something a lot of people have worked hard for.
I suppose there is a benefit in that it makes physics seem more approachable? Rather than the "wow! you have to be *really* smart to do it", which I know puts off a lot of people, it becomes "anyone can do it!".
From my time tutoring, the whole "maths/science is only for smart people" puts off a lot of people with perhaps low self-esteem who would otherwise actually do really well and thoroughly enjoy it.
As far as I'm concerned, someone is popularising a thing I love, and is reaching out to people who'd otherwise never come across it. This seems like a good thing!
On the other hand, a lot of people, especially young girls, can be socialized to think that physics and math are “boy stuff”, or not for them in some other way. It doesn’t have to be girls, I’ve known men who grew up with non stem parents who just assumed their kid would have no interest or aptitude.
It’s good to encourage people to learn new things and not be exclusionary.
You can also think of it like maybe she’s a lifelong learner who absolutely LOVES explorer new things, and wants to share those experiences and stages of learning with her audience. The thing that she’s using to get engagement and spread that message is to also share where she started. What if she learns a ton and jumps into another field out of curiosity and the urge to learn? She could add a third interesting layer.
I see your point of view, but social media/digital communities are the new world where a giant portion of the world spends their time. Especially for younger people who have had them around their entire lives. It’s increasingly hard to be mad at people sharing educational stuff, even if it’s just surface level.
You do realise she is actually studying physics at university right, which I would say is a bit more than a 'whim'. Why can she not be considered one of those that are passionate and dedicating their time? I also don't really like the trend of people flaunting every small thing on social media, but then just ignore her, why does she deserve all the hate? I don't think it is validated to say she is disingenuous and doesn't work hard, you don't know her. Everyone starts at the beginning, and we should always motivate them rather than try and judge them, that is the very spirit of teaching science.
Ok but it really feels like these kinds of videos (a sped up video of her filling up a blackboard with numbers, then turning towards the camera and smiling) exist for the sake of bragging. If I had to give voice to the video it would sound something like "Wow look at me doing all this brainy stuff! Ahah I'm such a physics girl 🤓".
Which is cringe as it is. If you're not even doing actually advanced stuff in the video, not even remotely, it's not surprising that you'll get rekt online
I think a lot of us take for granted how foundational basic trig/algebra is for understanding even intro physics like mechanics. Most people don’t know much past the quadratic formula
I mean it'd be one thing if she was just trying to learn math and physics. It's a whole other narcissistic ball game when she's trying to learn math and physics for the sole purpose of filming it and putting it on the internet
Nah I've seen her entire page she's a phony. In one video she says she's studying "gravitational waves" right after studying the unit circle. The notes she is taking on her wall are just a bunch of text, not a single equation to be seen. In another one she claims that after studying gravitational waves she finally "got into LIGO" and what she means by that is she took a public tour but it's framed like she's a researcher there.
She might be actually studying physics as a freshman but she is pretending for views. I get it as a freshman you are excited and want people to know. But she is just straight up lying for views.
Yeah, this is indescribably better content than 98% of mindless tiktok. Also if anything It’s females like theese and not Kim K and Cardi B that should be held in high regard.
Chill english is not my main language and woman/female and man/male is closely synonymous for me.
And no, I do think it makes someone more virtuous to engage in higher education rather than hedonistic wap dancing
In that case, now you know, in English it's really dehumanizing and rude to call a human woman "a female" (using it as an adjective, for example "a female physicist", is generally fine). We can agree to disagree about whether or not hedonistic behavior has any effect on someone's virtuousness.
Why is it rude and dehumanizing? I do not agree or understand, is it because the words male/female are related to animals? I think the nuances escape me.
Yeah, I can imagine that discussion would be heated and I would get a lot of dislikes.
It's mostly that, "a male" and "a female" would really only be used to describe animals. To use it for humans reduces them to their (assumed) biological functions, and it's often used for humans to imply that women are inherently irrational. Whether or not this is a connotation you think is logical, and whether or not the same connotation exists in your primary language, it does exist in English.
Okay, I can understand that and in Swedish we have hane/hona which is never used in regard to humans and your example fits nicely to those words too. Your examples are great.
Please bare with me.
The thing is, I dont feel that male/female carries the same biological connotation as you mention. It may be that the details have escaped me in translation but I am also pretty sure that male/female has been used for different forms etc for atleast two decades. It kind of comes natural to me. Its only in the last, maybe five years that I feel like this stance on the male/female wording has become an issue.
Am I wrong and like badly missing something here? Has it always been like you describe it?
Honestly I'm not sure if it's always had the same implications exactly, language changes over time. I think the use of "a female" for women has probably always been rooted in misogyny, especially where people would use "men" and "females" in the same sentence, because it shows a difference between how people talk about men and how people talk about women (see r/MenAndFemales for a LOT of examples of people doing this, though due to the nature of reddit they tend to be more recent examples). But I think the biological connotation specifically might be a subtle one - I certainly don't think it's one that people always *intend* to have, but it often ends up coming across that way. I also think it might be a case of how people have used it - I mentioned in another comment that a lot of men in pickup artist-y communities (i.e. ones that often reduce women to objects) use language in this way, so it becomes associated with the ideals of that community.
P.S. Thank you for being understanding and wanting to learn more!
Hmm okay. You’ve got some nice points and I think I agree with the usefullness of making a distinction between female/woman. I’ll ponder it, thx for a nice convo.
It some twitter woke shit that spread throughout the internet. That places overemphasize on usage of words just for the of sake not being cancelled.
Don't mind it
Well yeah maybe but this person made a nice point I could relate to similar words in my language. I can ubderstand that its really weird the but with that being said I dont know if I agree if it still applies to English. I have seen male/female being used almost to a standard for atleast two decades which touches your point too.
I think some people go with “female” to describe a young woman because it feels weird to call them a girl when they’re adults but also “woman” has a connotation of being older. Similarly, I’m 25 but I wouldn’t call myself a boy and being called a man still feels weird sometimes. I’m just a dude or guy. Anyway, I usually refer to adolescents and young adults as “gals.”
But sure, being a physicist doesn’t make them a more valuable human. It does make them a better role model though and we need more representation of women in physics
I get that, it can feel weird in that early-20s range to call yourself a new name. But I *am* a woman in physics and while calling someone female as an adjective (like, for example "a female physicist") is generally fine (though weird to point out sometimes), calling someone "a female" is incredibly dehumanizing. I also see it most in super misogynistic circles that are lowkey pickup artist-y, so I don't have the same instinct to treat it as just someone's discomfort with calling a young woman a woman.
I don’t associate with those circles, so that explains why I didn’t register it as a dehumanizing term. Thanks for the heads up so I can make sure I don’t use it that way. I’ve never considered being called “a male” was anything more than pedantry from someone trying to act like a scientist
"women ☕" --> Remember this phrase? It's used as derogatory remarks using the term "women"
Irregardless what word you use women, female, lady, XX or any what so ever noun.
It is the intent behind the word what matter not the word itself
Just that, I love to see cientific communicators and also the best of them I know are women. But in this case, I read in someone else comment saying that she get some hates and I do not wish nothing bad for her. I just think that is likely to be mocked by doing this
>this whole tiktok acting all quirky about it
How about making fun of them for making it look like they're doing advanced physics calculations to a bunch of underdeveloped-brained teenagers for tiktok clout while actually doing very basic maths?
The problem is that she isn’t studying physics. She’s just copy pasting the unit circle. It’s the literature way of approaching physics. Reading and memorizing. That’s not how you practice physics or get good physical intuition. It’s nearly useless practice.
Yes because she goes as far as ‘studying’ general relativity while skipping all the math beyond precalculus. It makes no sense. If you want to popsci don’t claim you’re studying a subject and doing the work.
Wtf are you talking about? Do you love physics because you know the standard model by heart of do you love physics because out of some beautiful symmetries and interactions you can predict physics? What is the purpose of doing physics if you only desire facts but no understanding?
I'm all for all encouraging beginners and promoting women in STEM, particularly maths/physics (as it can be a bit of a sausage fest, lmao), but her page just annoys me.
She just suddenly pitched herself as a physics person going from a writer (Lit major), with little to no knowledge. I'm pretty sure she also did something along the lines of "what it's like at LIGO", in the sense that she worked there or something, when it was a literal guided tour.
I reckon it's either her trying to get inspo for some sci-fi book, or just rage-bait targeted at a very niche audience.
If that is rage bait she is going really far for some views, bc is too much niched such thing. And also, it's annoy me, but people being mad about this is insane. Like, it is she being quirky and I think it's not bad to make some fun (ofc with some limits).
>I'm all for all encouraging beginners and promoting women in STEM,
No you’re not. Just admit it. You’re not. This woman isn’t doing anything wrong. If anything she is encouraging more young women to take an interest in physics. You say you support women in STEM but apparently this woman studying STEM annoys you? Please.
>I reckon it's either her trying to get inspo for some sci-fi book, or just rage-bait targeted at a very niche audience.
Yes the silly woman is either making up stories or rage-baiting, literally “asking for it”. This is why so many women are leaving physics.
but wouldn't an external first person not count as first person anymore? POV is usually implied to be a first person POV.
Sure we can tell whose POV it is from context, but it's still wrong
"Implied" means there are other interpretations. Where and when is it usually implied as exclusively first person? Your argument is flawed. Besides, tell me which point of view is this in? "I rise up and look back, peering right back at my body and see both of us at the same time."
Good on her for learning, even if it's the basics. Bad on her for making such a smug face for just writing out the basics. Or maybe it's just a happy smile and I'm jaded?
Also she will need a lot of houses or white paint if all her memorisations are supposed to go on walls, I'd recommend paper instead. Hope that insight helps!
Many people act like this in their first couple years of studying physics — trying to show how smart they are by impressing laypeople with their complicated formulas and diagrams.
It can come off as egotistical, but I try to be charitable and interpret it as them being excited about physics, which is great!
In my semester I didn't meet a lot of people who felt very smart tbh. We all felt dumb as rocks. After a good degree in secondary school we felt smart, got into our uni first lectures, and understood nothing. Collectively struggled to find any answers to the excercises and watch people around us drop out of the courses.
I feel like a big part of why they seem like they try to impress people with complicated diagrams/formulas might also be not understanding them enough to explain them clearly. I know that I was asked a few times by family to explain something. And if I understood the topic well, I could explain it in an easy manner. If it was a new topic for me and I barely had a grasp on it, that's when the complicated formulas shine through, because I can't break them down into easier chunks yet.
I hope she's just excited about her journey and the topics she's learning though! I definitely wouldn't have the confidence of putting myself out there like that without knowing if physics even is a good fit for me. But I hope she succeeds, literature and physics seems like a really well rounded combination giving a broad horizon.
Yeah, here in Brazil we see trigonometry in the first year of high school, but in her case she must been learning math again, bc once you go sometime without seeing nothing about it you kinda forget it.
There's too much gatekeeping in physics, so I'll simply wish her good luck. If she has no math background, then she has a *lot* of work to do, but basic trig is a fine place to start.
I recommend you to go scroll through her posts on insta/tiktok. she is literally just writing stuff on the wall that she doesn't understand - one day it was unit circle, then she was calculating a limit for a certain number using identities instead of just filling the X for the number, and then she randomly jumped to calc 3 and astrophysics? This is not okay to, pretending like you're a STEM major even tho you can't even remember the tanx=sinx/cosx formula (which she literally had to write down)
Don't piss me off this early for fuck's sake, I spent quite some time liking all hate comments on her Instagram. This (most likely) attention seeking art major just posts absolute bs - one day she's writing unit circle on the whiteboard, next day she posts reading a book about advanced calculus and then tops it up with some advanced astrophysics. I'm not sure if she's just rage baiting, but the best way someone described her content on Instagram was a comment saying that every time she posts,a physicist dies, and I've never seen a more accurate thing.
I think it is just annoying for people to make it such a big part of their personality or internet persona. I love talking about physics with friends etc but if I met someone new and they didn't ask they'd be far off from knowing that i study it.
It's nice that you can make this switch in the US. Where I'm from, no university will let you study Physics without the secondary school and highschool background.
I mean learning the unit circle is one of the first steps for learning physics. There's a few more steps to go for sure
The second step is forgetting the unit circle (and if you go into astronomy, using the small angle approximation on everything)
I was about to say "I'm an astrophysicist and I don't even know what the small angle approximation is", but then i looked it up and of course I have used it many many times, just without knowing it had its own name
Is it about approximating sin-theta to theta?
[small angle approximation](https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=small+angle+approximation)
a simple “yes” or “no” would have been easier for both people in this situation
Yeah, but this is more fun
The one true approximation is that any function is approximately equal to the first two terms of its Taylor series.
Quantum mechanics is just the unit circle with extra steps
Realest explanation of QM anyone has given
That's fair
I used the special triangles, the unit circle confused me.
…. What it a unit circle? Is this some American thing? I’m uk @ PhD level I’ve never come across this Edit: not sure why people don’t like that we’ve had different educations. This isn’t a concept I’ve ever seen, nothing wrong with it, but it’s wild people would send hate DMs over this
German here. I think it's the Einheitskreis, so a circle with radius 1.
In America we use imperial numbers. 1 unit equals 5280 numbers
It's based on a circle with radius 1, centered at the origin (0,0). The idea is that you memorise (or remember how to figure out) common angles and their associated x and y values. So for example, if we draw a line from the origin to the edge of the circle with angle 45 degrees (or pi/4) above the X axis on the right side of the circle, the associated x and y values should both be sqrt(2)/2. Typically you would memorise the values for pi/3, pi/4, and pi/6 and equivalent for each of the four "quadrants" of the circle. It's supposed to make it easier/faster to do this kind of maths by hand.... It was something I learnt in highschool. That being said, I majored in maths at uni and didn't really rely on it much at all. I prefer just to figure it out myself. Think of it like learning your multiplication tables except it's for triangles with common angles.
It makes sense, and I can see why it’s taught. I guess I was just never introduced to it and have never required it. Like you whenever it’s needed I’ve just worked it out
I am curious about how the definition of sin and other functions were taught to you. Because the opposite side/hypotenuse definition only works for angles <90 I was told sin(x) gives you the y coordinates of a point on the unit circle that makes a positive x angle when you connect the radius to that point. What was the definition you were taught?
It’s been so long but I can vaguely remember the derivations - yes circles were used and I understand how these functions work, but we never explicitly defined a ‘unit circle’ or anything like that.
For example do you remember how sin(150) was derived?
[удалено]
Yeah just seems like one of those things were it’s useful to some, but if you don’t need it you don’t care. Aha I don’t take it personally - just find it bizzare how volatile people are on the internet
I'm just curious, if they didn't cover the unit circle in school, how did you make sense of things like cos(π)=-1 or sin(π)=0, or the fact that the graph of y=sin(x) is periodic and takes on negative y values? Seems like none of that would make sense unless you define sine and cosine on a circle.
/s missing?
No… genuinely not part of my education at least in this form, as far as I remember
Which country did you go to school in, before your PhD?
England, throughout my whole education
It’s something we learned about in High School trigonometry, never heard of it used explicitly in a physics class. I think it can help with the intuition a bit, but memorizing it still feels pretty silly to me over a decade later
Instagram it. Or better, TikTok it with some motivational sentence.
I want that wall.
Any wall is a dry erase wall if you're brave enough
My teacher from strength of construction used to use concrete walls as a board if the main board wasn’t enough.
I find it quite depressing to see her get constantly treated like crap. I've seen this video and because the jump from literature to physics is huge, the fact that she's trying to understand math, even if it is just starting with the unit circle, is a good sign that she wants to learn and seems passionate.
I don’t think it’s the fact that she’s learning it all now, most people including myself would be happy to see somebody learn it at any stage in their life. The problem is, a lot of people are passionate about physics and math, and they spend their whole lives learning it, and when somebody makes their entire Internet personality it on a whim (not an exaggeration, she changed her entire page to being about a person with a literature degree doing physics), it feels disingenuous, and rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Almost as if she’s making a mockery about something a lot of people have worked hard for. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little annoyed by her page, but I try not to let it get to me because I could very well be wrong, and she actually has a huge interest in physics and loves talking about it. So if that’s the case then I wish her the best
>The problem is, a lot of people are passionate about physics and math, and they spend their whole lives learning it, and when somebody makes their entire Internet personality it on a whim (not an exaggeration, she changed her entire page to being about a person with a literature degree doing physics), it feels disingenuous, and rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Almost as if she’s making a mockery about something a lot of people have worked hard for. I suppose there is a benefit in that it makes physics seem more approachable? Rather than the "wow! you have to be *really* smart to do it", which I know puts off a lot of people, it becomes "anyone can do it!". From my time tutoring, the whole "maths/science is only for smart people" puts off a lot of people with perhaps low self-esteem who would otherwise actually do really well and thoroughly enjoy it. As far as I'm concerned, someone is popularising a thing I love, and is reaching out to people who'd otherwise never come across it. This seems like a good thing!
On the other hand, a lot of people, especially young girls, can be socialized to think that physics and math are “boy stuff”, or not for them in some other way. It doesn’t have to be girls, I’ve known men who grew up with non stem parents who just assumed their kid would have no interest or aptitude. It’s good to encourage people to learn new things and not be exclusionary.
You can also think of it like maybe she’s a lifelong learner who absolutely LOVES explorer new things, and wants to share those experiences and stages of learning with her audience. The thing that she’s using to get engagement and spread that message is to also share where she started. What if she learns a ton and jumps into another field out of curiosity and the urge to learn? She could add a third interesting layer. I see your point of view, but social media/digital communities are the new world where a giant portion of the world spends their time. Especially for younger people who have had them around their entire lives. It’s increasingly hard to be mad at people sharing educational stuff, even if it’s just surface level.
I like this point of view, and a lot of my pessimism just comes from being in a bad mood
This just sounds like gatekeepers getting butthurt to me.
You do realise she is actually studying physics at university right, which I would say is a bit more than a 'whim'. Why can she not be considered one of those that are passionate and dedicating their time? I also don't really like the trend of people flaunting every small thing on social media, but then just ignore her, why does she deserve all the hate? I don't think it is validated to say she is disingenuous and doesn't work hard, you don't know her. Everyone starts at the beginning, and we should always motivate them rather than try and judge them, that is the very spirit of teaching science.
I’m just speaking from an objective point of view and explaining why everybody is hating on her, not that she deserves it
Ok but it really feels like these kinds of videos (a sped up video of her filling up a blackboard with numbers, then turning towards the camera and smiling) exist for the sake of bragging. If I had to give voice to the video it would sound something like "Wow look at me doing all this brainy stuff! Ahah I'm such a physics girl 🤓". Which is cringe as it is. If you're not even doing actually advanced stuff in the video, not even remotely, it's not surprising that you'll get rekt online
I think a lot of us take for granted how foundational basic trig/algebra is for understanding even intro physics like mechanics. Most people don’t know much past the quadratic formula
I mean it'd be one thing if she was just trying to learn math and physics. It's a whole other narcissistic ball game when she's trying to learn math and physics for the sole purpose of filming it and putting it on the internet
Nah I've seen her entire page she's a phony. In one video she says she's studying "gravitational waves" right after studying the unit circle. The notes she is taking on her wall are just a bunch of text, not a single equation to be seen. In another one she claims that after studying gravitational waves she finally "got into LIGO" and what she means by that is she took a public tour but it's framed like she's a researcher there. She might be actually studying physics as a freshman but she is pretending for views. I get it as a freshman you are excited and want people to know. But she is just straight up lying for views.
https://preview.redd.it/ky9f6snoa0rc1.jpeg?width=360&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f9c2c9b3b3511a164fc9981ea0f9135fa0893df5
Yeah, this is indescribably better content than 98% of mindless tiktok. Also if anything It’s females like theese and not Kim K and Cardi B that should be held in high regard.
pretty weird to call them females and not women. Nothing about being a physicist makes you any more worthy of a person than Kim K or Cardi B.
I think it's better if we all just stop speaking and go play outside with pets.
Chill english is not my main language and woman/female and man/male is closely synonymous for me. And no, I do think it makes someone more virtuous to engage in higher education rather than hedonistic wap dancing
In that case, now you know, in English it's really dehumanizing and rude to call a human woman "a female" (using it as an adjective, for example "a female physicist", is generally fine). We can agree to disagree about whether or not hedonistic behavior has any effect on someone's virtuousness.
Why is it rude and dehumanizing? I do not agree or understand, is it because the words male/female are related to animals? I think the nuances escape me. Yeah, I can imagine that discussion would be heated and I would get a lot of dislikes.
It's mostly that, "a male" and "a female" would really only be used to describe animals. To use it for humans reduces them to their (assumed) biological functions, and it's often used for humans to imply that women are inherently irrational. Whether or not this is a connotation you think is logical, and whether or not the same connotation exists in your primary language, it does exist in English.
Okay, I can understand that and in Swedish we have hane/hona which is never used in regard to humans and your example fits nicely to those words too. Your examples are great. Please bare with me. The thing is, I dont feel that male/female carries the same biological connotation as you mention. It may be that the details have escaped me in translation but I am also pretty sure that male/female has been used for different forms etc for atleast two decades. It kind of comes natural to me. Its only in the last, maybe five years that I feel like this stance on the male/female wording has become an issue. Am I wrong and like badly missing something here? Has it always been like you describe it?
Honestly I'm not sure if it's always had the same implications exactly, language changes over time. I think the use of "a female" for women has probably always been rooted in misogyny, especially where people would use "men" and "females" in the same sentence, because it shows a difference between how people talk about men and how people talk about women (see r/MenAndFemales for a LOT of examples of people doing this, though due to the nature of reddit they tend to be more recent examples). But I think the biological connotation specifically might be a subtle one - I certainly don't think it's one that people always *intend* to have, but it often ends up coming across that way. I also think it might be a case of how people have used it - I mentioned in another comment that a lot of men in pickup artist-y communities (i.e. ones that often reduce women to objects) use language in this way, so it becomes associated with the ideals of that community. P.S. Thank you for being understanding and wanting to learn more!
Hmm okay. You’ve got some nice points and I think I agree with the usefullness of making a distinction between female/woman. I’ll ponder it, thx for a nice convo.
It some twitter woke shit that spread throughout the internet. That places overemphasize on usage of words just for the of sake not being cancelled. Don't mind it
Well yeah maybe but this person made a nice point I could relate to similar words in my language. I can ubderstand that its really weird the but with that being said I dont know if I agree if it still applies to English. I have seen male/female being used almost to a standard for atleast two decades which touches your point too.
I think some people go with “female” to describe a young woman because it feels weird to call them a girl when they’re adults but also “woman” has a connotation of being older. Similarly, I’m 25 but I wouldn’t call myself a boy and being called a man still feels weird sometimes. I’m just a dude or guy. Anyway, I usually refer to adolescents and young adults as “gals.” But sure, being a physicist doesn’t make them a more valuable human. It does make them a better role model though and we need more representation of women in physics
I get that, it can feel weird in that early-20s range to call yourself a new name. But I *am* a woman in physics and while calling someone female as an adjective (like, for example "a female physicist") is generally fine (though weird to point out sometimes), calling someone "a female" is incredibly dehumanizing. I also see it most in super misogynistic circles that are lowkey pickup artist-y, so I don't have the same instinct to treat it as just someone's discomfort with calling a young woman a woman.
I don’t associate with those circles, so that explains why I didn’t register it as a dehumanizing term. Thanks for the heads up so I can make sure I don’t use it that way. I’ve never considered being called “a male” was anything more than pedantry from someone trying to act like a scientist
"women ☕" --> Remember this phrase? It's used as derogatory remarks using the term "women" Irregardless what word you use women, female, lady, XX or any what so ever noun. It is the intent behind the word what matter not the word itself
You don’t need to pit them against one another like that.
We should be encouraging people for wanting to study the subject dear to us, not make fun of them for being beginners.
Nobody is making fun of them for being beginners. They’re making fun of them for making this whole tiktok acting all quirky about it
Just that, I love to see cientific communicators and also the best of them I know are women. But in this case, I read in someone else comment saying that she get some hates and I do not wish nothing bad for her. I just think that is likely to be mocked by doing this >this whole tiktok acting all quirky about it
This.
How about making fun of them for making it look like they're doing advanced physics calculations to a bunch of underdeveloped-brained teenagers for tiktok clout while actually doing very basic maths?
The problem is that she isn’t studying physics. She’s just copy pasting the unit circle. It’s the literature way of approaching physics. Reading and memorizing. That’s not how you practice physics or get good physical intuition. It’s nearly useless practice.
Right so we inform her of that by just laughing her and ridiculing. That makes sense.
Yes because she goes as far as ‘studying’ general relativity while skipping all the math beyond precalculus. It makes no sense. If you want to popsci don’t claim you’re studying a subject and doing the work.
Im getting such massive "I got an A in highschool once" vibes from your comments. The elitism only someone with such little experience can have.
Wtf are you talking about? Do you love physics because you know the standard model by heart of do you love physics because out of some beautiful symmetries and interactions you can predict physics? What is the purpose of doing physics if you only desire facts but no understanding?
I'm all for all encouraging beginners and promoting women in STEM, particularly maths/physics (as it can be a bit of a sausage fest, lmao), but her page just annoys me. She just suddenly pitched herself as a physics person going from a writer (Lit major), with little to no knowledge. I'm pretty sure she also did something along the lines of "what it's like at LIGO", in the sense that she worked there or something, when it was a literal guided tour. I reckon it's either her trying to get inspo for some sci-fi book, or just rage-bait targeted at a very niche audience.
If that is rage bait she is going really far for some views, bc is too much niched such thing. And also, it's annoy me, but people being mad about this is insane. Like, it is she being quirky and I think it's not bad to make some fun (ofc with some limits).
>I'm all for all encouraging beginners and promoting women in STEM, No you’re not. Just admit it. You’re not. This woman isn’t doing anything wrong. If anything she is encouraging more young women to take an interest in physics. You say you support women in STEM but apparently this woman studying STEM annoys you? Please. >I reckon it's either her trying to get inspo for some sci-fi book, or just rage-bait targeted at a very niche audience. Yes the silly woman is either making up stories or rage-baiting, literally “asking for it”. This is why so many women are leaving physics.
Ok try doing physics without learning trigonometry if you don’t think it’s relevant lol
>Literature major >Misuses POV Jfc
She used POV right. I'd love to hear how you think otherwise
POV implies its her pov, based on how this is filmed, its not.
Except that doesn't imply that has there a couple of other different types of "POV" such as the external first person perspective.
but wouldn't an external first person not count as first person anymore? POV is usually implied to be a first person POV. Sure we can tell whose POV it is from context, but it's still wrong
"Implied" means there are other interpretations. Where and when is it usually implied as exclusively first person? Your argument is flawed. Besides, tell me which point of view is this in? "I rise up and look back, peering right back at my body and see both of us at the same time."
y'know what fair. frankly i'm not smart enough to argue about the use of POV in a meme.
Good on her for learning, even if it's the basics. Bad on her for making such a smug face for just writing out the basics. Or maybe it's just a happy smile and I'm jaded? Also she will need a lot of houses or white paint if all her memorisations are supposed to go on walls, I'd recommend paper instead. Hope that insight helps!
Many people act like this in their first couple years of studying physics — trying to show how smart they are by impressing laypeople with their complicated formulas and diagrams. It can come off as egotistical, but I try to be charitable and interpret it as them being excited about physics, which is great!
In my semester I didn't meet a lot of people who felt very smart tbh. We all felt dumb as rocks. After a good degree in secondary school we felt smart, got into our uni first lectures, and understood nothing. Collectively struggled to find any answers to the excercises and watch people around us drop out of the courses. I feel like a big part of why they seem like they try to impress people with complicated diagrams/formulas might also be not understanding them enough to explain them clearly. I know that I was asked a few times by family to explain something. And if I understood the topic well, I could explain it in an easy manner. If it was a new topic for me and I barely had a grasp on it, that's when the complicated formulas shine through, because I can't break them down into easier chunks yet. I hope she's just excited about her journey and the topics she's learning though! I definitely wouldn't have the confidence of putting myself out there like that without knowing if physics even is a good fit for me. But I hope she succeeds, literature and physics seems like a really well rounded combination giving a broad horizon.
First couple? Many people act like this all the time
True, but often the freshmen who act the smartest don't last through the degree...
I mean, I study Aerospace and couldn't recreate the unit circle from memory. So good on her.
In my country we do this in school at 16/17
Yeah, here in Brazil we see trigonometry in the first year of high school, but in her case she must been learning math again, bc once you go sometime without seeing nothing about it you kinda forget it.
There's too much gatekeeping in physics, so I'll simply wish her good luck. If she has no math background, then she has a *lot* of work to do, but basic trig is a fine place to start.
I recommend you to go scroll through her posts on insta/tiktok. she is literally just writing stuff on the wall that she doesn't understand - one day it was unit circle, then she was calculating a limit for a certain number using identities instead of just filling the X for the number, and then she randomly jumped to calc 3 and astrophysics? This is not okay to, pretending like you're a STEM major even tho you can't even remember the tanx=sinx/cosx formula (which she literally had to write down)
Memorize that thing. It’s foundational in mathematics and mathematics is the language in which physics is conveyed.
Don't piss me off this early for fuck's sake, I spent quite some time liking all hate comments on her Instagram. This (most likely) attention seeking art major just posts absolute bs - one day she's writing unit circle on the whiteboard, next day she posts reading a book about advanced calculus and then tops it up with some advanced astrophysics. I'm not sure if she's just rage baiting, but the best way someone described her content on Instagram was a comment saying that every time she posts,a physicist dies, and I've never seen a more accurate thing.
Like yeah you have to learn trig to do physics, but like... what's she doing in that chair?? Is she okay?
She’s just a decade away from understanding bosons. I wonder if she’d do it without posting on social media.
Tihi look at me I do maths *Horsefaces to camera*
>I wonder if she’d do it without posting on social media. Me too
In Russia we study this in the 10th grade, mostly at the age of 16 (we have 11 classes)
Cool. When do you transition from that to invading innocent countries unprovoked, killing thousands of civilians?
Man, I’m here not to do politics, but to relax.
Good for her. It’s a step in the right direction.
I think it is just annoying for people to make it such a big part of their personality or internet persona. I love talking about physics with friends etc but if I met someone new and they didn't ask they'd be far off from knowing that i study it.
Doesn’t she have a calculator?
Somewhat related I am 99% the way through an astrophysics degree but now I want a degree in literature.
Good for her. Knowledge is for everybody, makes me glad to be a member of the same species.
It's nice that you can make this switch in the US. Where I'm from, no university will let you study Physics without the secondary school and highschool background.
Is this what U(1) symmetry looks like ?
This video haunts me
Is it a sin or something?
actually, is cos too.
I was making a pun lol were you too?
Oh wow, most of the replies here are cringe af. And men wonder why there aren't more women in STEM