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Jennifer · 13 Dec 2003, 22:47

Do you have ANY conception of how much stuff in your life needed a physicist to bring it into existence?

True, what you learn in a physics degree isn't needed in day to day life. I have 'common sense' and 'intuition' to tell me how to open a can of beans (and if they should fail me, I can always ask my mother). I don't intend to spend my life pottering about living out my 'everyday life' existence. I'll be working with the rest of the physicists discovering aspects of physics with applications in the real world.

Quantum mechanics seems like something completely useless, until you find yourself in need of an MRI scanner.

People who do a degree in something like physics with no intention of ever using it (ie: doing a degree 'to get a degree') should be shot, but no one who uses it in their career has done a 'worthless' degree.

A major factor in determining what is 'wrothless' or 'worthwhile' is whether or not you're going to use it. For subjects like media studies, it's fine for the people who actually get jobs in the media, but there just aren't as many jobs as there are graduates - not even close.

13 Dec 2003, 22:47	#69
Jennifer Destroyer of Worlds Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 552	Re: The new University fees. Do you have ANY conception of how much stuff in your life needed a physicist to bring it into existence? True, what you learn in a physics degree isn't needed in day to day life. I have 'common sense' and 'intuition' to tell me how to open a can of beans (and if they should fail me, I can always ask my mother). I don't intend to spend my life pottering about living out my 'everyday life' existence. I'll be working with the rest of the physicists discovering aspects of physics with applications in the real world. Quantum mechanics seems like something completely useless, until you find yourself in need of an MRI scanner. People who do a degree in something like physics with no intention of ever using it (ie: doing a degree 'to get a degree') should be shot, but no one who uses it in their career has done a 'worthless' degree. A major factor in determining what is 'wrothless' or 'worthwhile' is whether or not you're going to use it. For subjects like media studies, it's fine for the people who actually get jobs in the media, but there just aren't as many jobs as there are graduates - not even close. __________________ “In spite of the roaring of the young lions at the Union, and the screaming of the rabbits in the home of the vivisect, in spite of Keble College, and the tramways, and the sporting prints, Oxford still remains the most beautiful thing in England, and nowhere else are life and art so exquisitely blended, so perfectly made one.”