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(PhD, 1996 in general relativity) Embedded graphics drivers for real-time systems. I keep the physics part of my brain alive by developing physics based Unity
by musgravepeter 8y ago
(PhD, 1996 in general relativity)
Embedded graphics drivers for real-time systems.
I keep the physics part of my brain alive by developing physics based Unity assets (nbodyphysics.com) and supporting a package for GR on github (grtensor).
I still buy WAY too many physics books. Current aspiration is to work through "Modern Classical Physics" Thorne/Blandford.
- campallison 8y agoI bought Modern Classical Physics last summer as a birthday gift to myself and I am also slowly going through it.
- vijayshankarv 8y agoOh wow! This looks like the physics book that I always wanted to read. Phd 2016 in condensed matter physics - now working in a mid-size (~600 people) software company as a data scientist.
- tMcGrath 8y agoModern Classical Physics is a great book - I've recently started working through it (just about to move on to chapter 2). I'd be interested in chatting about it with others/cross-checking solutions. Anyone who's interested, drop me an email (address in my profile). If you're thinking of getting it but want to check it out, there's a 2012 draft version that the authors have previously taught from here: http://www.pmaweb.caltech.edu/Courses/ph136/yr2012/ http://www.pmaweb.caltech.edu/Courses/ph136/yr2012/. It's not the same as the book, of course, but from a skim it seems quite similar.
- vijayshankarv 8y agoThanks! This looks like what I will start with. Can't find your email in your profile, though.
- hyperjeff 8y agoEx-PhD student in general relativity here, also slowly going thru that book. If anyone wants to start a reading (slack?) group together, I’d be interested. I have no one to talk to about this stuff IRL.
- ambicapter 8y agoDoes Slack let you write LaTeX?
- vijayshankarv 8y agoI would love to join a reading group (on slack or another messaging platform) on this book.
- jason_slack 8y agoAnd is this book a good read for someone re-learning math having only taken high school physics?
- musgravepeter 8y agoDepends on what the math re-learning covers. You'd need differential equations and 2nd year calculus. A good choice for less math might be "Gravity from the ground up" by Schutz.
- vanderZwan 8y agoHave you ever considered working on some low-hanging fruit problem in a non-physics field?
- musgravepeter 8y agoSome of the Unity asset work might fit that description e.g. provide a library of chaotic attractors packaged for use in a game. My grad work had no connection to data/stats and I have not bumped into any low hanging fruit where Riemannian geometry might be the answer!
- SiempreViernes 8y agoI don't know that differential geometry ever made anything simple, so I don't know if there is any obvious fruit to be had. But there might be some, weird, unexpected fruit in the back; for instance, there exists a formulation of thermodynamics in terms of differential geometry: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/#abs/arXiv:physics%2F0604164 https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/#abs/arXiv:physics%2F0604164
- tMcGrath 8y agoAs far as I know, a good differential-geometric understanding of nonequilibrium thermodynamics still hasn't been achieved. The central issue is understanding how changes in control parameters (for instance concentrations of catalysts in a chemical system, or local fields in a spin system) affect the evolution of the probability distribution over states. Some work has been done in close to steady state (for instance [1,2,3]) but it's far from resolved. This has some nice applications - designing efficient protocols for microscale devices, for instance. [1] https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.07758 https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.07758 [2] https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.06269v1 https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.06269v1 [3] https://arxiv.org/abs/1201.4166 https://arxiv.org/abs/1201.4166
- hpcjoe 8y agoI know what you mean on keeping the physics part alive. I've written a bunch of code for doing simple molecular dynamics and varying the interaction types. I've also gone off and discovered I like number theory. None of this pays the bills, right now I help build clouds, and I used to build supercomputers, and high performance storage systems.
- uberswe 8y agoLove your website, when I get home I am going to boot up my PC and play around with some of your code :)
- jtms 8y agoI’d imagine there could be some really interestingly massive simulation possibilities integrating nbody with unity’s new ECS system
- musgravepeter 8y agoMind reader! Yeah, I'm keen to give that a go. Interestingly it is not a problem that is very easy to parallelize, since every mass will affect every other mass. There may still be some cool ways to use ECS though.
- jtms 8y agoYeah I can see that... at least all the other non-rigidbody stuff is (theoretically) much more efficient.
- scottlocklin 8y agoI was actually at Pitt when Rovelli and Newman were still team teaching GR and always regretted not taking this course. Would Modern Classical Physics be enough in the GR section to get the basics down? It looks decent for the stuff I know about (optics and so on).
- wrycoder 8y agohttp://nbodyphysics.com/blog/2017/06/12/on-being-the-dumbest-guy-at-a-relativity-conference/ http://nbodyphysics.com/blog/2017/06/12/on-being-the-dumbest... Somehow I doubt it! In any case, you are like me - doing engineering and software, while doing my physics as a hobby and loving it. I'm working on Physics from Symmetry. Definitely a 21st century book - not at all like the traditional development of the subject.
- musgravepeter 8y agoPhysics from symmetry looks really fun. Another book for the pile! (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku)