✰Update: 16/09✰What is this?! AN UPDATE? What sorcery is going on over here?🤣
HI EVERYONE I'M BACKKKKK!!
Since the last post, so much has happened that you guys all deserve an update (and also because mid sem break is next week). So, lets begin this update with the one and only, 'Song of the Update'.
First of all, my subjects for this semester is different from the previous update. At the start of this semester, I was doing:
Calculus 2
Physics 2
From the Solar Systems to the Cosmos
Chinese 2However, on the day of the census date, I dropped Chinese 2 and now I'm only doing 3 subjects. The week prior to the census date, I have a group meeting with my academic adviser who did his undergrad in Physics then his postgrad in computer science. We were talking about physics and all that and then he mentioned something about quantum computing (which I didn't know much about). Straight after the meeting, I started considering taking some computer science subjects, especially with what he said and a lot of the Master/PhD kids have mentioned. Some of the Physics subjects that I will be taking later in the course will require some higher coding experience, yet it isn't said as a prerequisite. I thought about the whole situation for a bit and I then decided that I wanted to take some CS subjects, especially after hearing about some quantum computing subjects offered in the higher physics levels.
But there was one problem... Unimelb's limit of level 1 subjects being restricted to 10. Since I'm doing Linear Algebra in the summer term, I realised that I would only have one slot left for level 1 (which I wanted to use as a breadth) and then the other problem was that I wanted to take Foundation of Computing and Foundation of Algorithms, which is 2 level 1 subjects...
After being thrown around on Stop 1's call system to a course planner ON THE CENSUS DATE, I decided it would be best to say goodbye to Chinese 2🤣😭. Let me tell you, that day was a whole ride! So now I'm just doing 3 subjects and just thinking about what I want to do next.
I am seriously considering doing a Diploma of Computing to improve on this area, not just for physics but also as a tool to help with further research if that is something I'm up to doing. The course planner also said I could sneakily get around it by doing Engineering Computation (Level 2 subject) and still be eligible for the diploma without FoC which was quite interesting. Either way, since I'm only doing 3 subjects now, I'm using it as an opportunity to learn and improve on programming in general (and also cook better food haha). I might likely will do some CS subjects and if I feel up to doing a diploma, I would cross-credit them into it.
Also for a subject's update!
Calculus 2: Much easier than Calculus 1. I absolutely love this subject and everything is so well planned out by the Maths department. Assignments have been pretty good and this mid-semester break is going to be spent revising all the content and moving on some practise exams. I feel confident about this subject and for once, I think I'm getting some positive vibes from it. The assignments have been great and I love studying it. Highly recommend it!
Physics 2: Oh man at this rate, I'm going to start falling in love with the MAST department over the physics one🤣. Physics this semester is much better organised and the live lectures they have on Friday are really beneficial as it goes through demos. Since the whole semester has been online, my lab marks are much better online than in person? I get more 20/20 online than I did in person (mainly because of a different rubric which I am loving) so that's a bonus! I've started doing a few past exams here and there for this subject but I must say, some of it can get confusing at times, but it's physics and it's meant to be like that haha. I don't feel as confident with this subject as I do with Calc 2, however, after the insane scaling of the physics department, I probably will do better in this than Calc 2. The new lecturer has forgotten to post the lectures for this week till a few hours ago which wasn't the best but it is what it is.
From the Solar Systems to the Cosmos: I picked up this subject last minute after realising it existed, but it is SO MUCH FUN! Content is so engaging and if you have done year 12 physics, half of it is a piece of cake.
(*shhhhh and a WAM booster*).
We had an MST today and I was honestly panicking for nothing. For me, I found it much easier than expected as half of it could be done with Year 12 Physics, however, this subject caters to those that haven't studied physics after year 10, which they may have found hard (especially for the special relativity question). I love how this subject is structured and how they have been able to integrate astronomy so well without the maths, it is heavenly. The labs are fantastic this semester too and consist of short answer questions which makes it super accessible as a breadth subject to those that don't do science. I love how interactive the labs are, and even being able to get something to take a photo for you on the other side of the world is AMAZING!! We learned how to program a telescope to take a picture automatically for us (and we could chose which telescope e.g. in Mexico) and for my lab, I chose to do the Running Chicken Nebula, IC 2944. We also studied HR Diagrams of star clusters and learn to edit photos we take and coming to these labs brighten up my day. Best subject I have picked up so far. A few photos that I have taken for my lab are below.
This is the Running Chicken Nebula IC 2944 I was able to take a picture of after figuring out how to program the telescope!
This one was taken from the Hubble telescope and it is called Messier 16 NGC 6611. In this lab, we focused on learning to edit pictures and this is what mine turned out in the end!
Anyway, that is it for today's update and see you guys around 😁