• morrowind@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    115
    ·
    1 year ago

    physics majors when they’re asked to apply their knowledge (they’ve never been outside of the lab)

  • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    82
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    If you ask a scientist what pi is, they will tell you it equals 3.14159. If you ask a mathematician, they will tell you pi equals the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter. If you ask an engineer, they will say “about 3, but let’s round it up to 5 to be safe.”

    • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’d replace scientist to something more precise like physicist because usually people consider mathematicians as scientists even if it depends on definitions.

      • milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        usually people consider mathematicians as scientists

        Yikes!

        … Wait, does this mean I can call a historian an artist? Then I’m game.

      • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Feel free! I actually just googled it because I couldn’t exactly remember it. I’d use contractions too and make it less formal sounding.

  • Skybreaker@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    70
    ·
    1 year ago

    As someone with a degree in physics who ended up in an engineering role, I approve of this meme.

    • beneeney@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Fr, what can you do with a physics degree except teach people physics

      • Troy@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        1 year ago

        Applied physics is a thing. Lots of jobs there. Geophysics, biophysics, engineering physics (yes, that’s a thing…)

        • milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          I used my particle physics and knowledge of quantum topology to hybridise a new species of drought-resistant pineapple just the other day. It’s that easy!

            • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              Well, we did have plenty of engineered items before having the proper physics theory to explain what was happening. Physics does a whole lot more than simply enabling engineering to do more. It’s the basis of our understanding of the universe.

            • milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              Oh, I do my plumbing based on political science. But that’s not especially modern. The real genius is using music theory to run my email server. I’m setting self-hosted jazz on a saxophone next weekend.

  • NeuronautML@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    49
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    What’s the first indicator a scientist tried to build their own experiment using the soldering station ?

    The smell of burnt fingers.

    What’s the scientist waiting for sitting in front of their own experiment ?

    Waiting for the infinite loop they coded to finish after they claimed they didn’t need the engineer’s help to write the code in their experiment.

    How many scientists do you need to change a light bulb ?

    Theoretically just one, but it can take several until one of them can call an engineer and admit they only know how to change light bulbs theoretically.

    What does a scientist call an electrolytic capacitor ?

    Acid distribution subsystem.

  • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Ask a physician physicist to build a bridge, it collapse but he knows exactly how and why it collapsed.

    Ask an engineer to do it, it holds but he has no idea how it’s holding together.

    • Zacryon@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Depends on the specific engineering branch. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes nothing at all. But all engineering branches share one thing with physics: math.

      • AFallingAnvil@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        25
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I think the joke is you don’t understand enough physics to make that your gig, so you go engineering as the backup plan. Source: am IT, we’re everyone’s backup plan when their initial goals fall through

          • Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            ·
            1 year ago

            About to graduate in physics and I’ve definitely scrolled through IT job postings when anxious about not getting a PhD position

            • AFallingAnvil@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              8
              ·
              1 year ago

              Don’t worry, when IT students get those moments they look at construction ads. It’s turtles all the way down.

              • A7thStone@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                And when us constructing workers get those moments we say fuck!, but at least we don’t have student loans to pay off.

            • Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              i didn’t get a degree until I was almost thirty, from an online college at that. I’m a complete idiot and somehow earning a bit over $200k a year in the Midwest at forty years old. Sometimes I have to meet with people and I’m like man, just let me back in my hole, wtf am I doing here, I can barely understand what these people are talking about let alone process any of the shit they are saying. I talk, ask questions, sometimes get answers I can understand but always make an idiot out of myself but I keep talking. Everyone says it’s better to keep your mouth shut and be assumed to be an idiot instead of opening your mouth and removing all doubt but I swear I’ve made a career out of being an idiot. If it wasn’t for IT I would be cleaning shit off guys dicks in a brothel somewhere to feed myself.

              • AFallingAnvil@lemmy.ca
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                In my experience so far asking the question instead of just fucking everything up by guessing is a huge reason why you get paid what you get paid.

          • AFallingAnvil@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Just graduated from college in IT, I know a thing or two because I’ve seen a thing or two. I originally wanted to do creative communications but couldn’t get past the entrance exam.

        • pigup@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          1 year ago

          I have worked with guys who got physics undergrad and mech E masters. They are both awful engineers who don’t really get it. I take this joke too personally because I know it’s bs from experience.

          • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            1 year ago

            The absolute worst is when those kinds of engineers graduate but are incapable of thinking about the problems they are designing solutions for.

    • Cowbee@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Engineering is just the economical application of applied physics, without Physicists Engineers work off faulty knowledge, without Engineers nothing gets designed.

      The level of understanding an Engineer needs, however, is purely within the practical and economical, while Physicists understandably have more in-depth knowledge.

  • Darkonion@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Engineering is more like accounting, but for objects instead of money. Tables, rule books, and lobbyists.