Question: What is the job of a physict?

Hayley Smith answered on 16 Nov 2011:

Good question!

They job title “physicist” is really quite vague…there are so many options!

I would say a physicist is a person who works trying to understand the fundamental reasons why things work the way they do, and make predictions and theories on physical things.

There are so many branches of physics.
Astrophysics: the stars, planets, the universe, cosmology, space science etc etc
Particle physics: understanding the constituents of the atoms we’re made of and discovering new ones!
Medical physics: working out how much radiation people require to treat tumours, understanding and developing x-ray machines etc
Thermo-dynamics: looking at heat transfers in materials
Electronics: understanding some circuits and trying to use these wisely
Nuclear physics: what’s in the nucleus, how does it work? how does it interact? Should we use nuclear power? Can we do nuclear fusion power instead?
Quantum physics: look at some really weird properties of nature (this area always confuses my brain, I don’t get it!)
Laser physics: using powerful lasers to understand the world around us on large and tiny scales

I”ve no doubt missed some incredibly important areas of physics there…so my apologies…

The main point you should take is that physicists try to understand the world around them, conduct experiments to find stuff out, analyse results, create predictions, make theories – all sorts!

In my job I try to simulate physical things to see if we understand them – can we repeat it properly in a model? I also do experiments – to see what happens – does it fit existing models? Or do we need to think about new ideas?

There’s often maths involved, but that does depend on different areas, some are more mathsy than others. I also have to write up my work into papers and reports – we then present these and discuss these with other physicists and engineers at conferences – this is a great part about being a physicist.

Hope that helps, in some way…. if there’s anything you’d like further info on please comment to ask me again!
Hayley 🙂