Physics interests me, what are my options?

An acquaintance called me from Connecticut, USA to know if I would be able to guide his son in his pursuit of a career in physics. I have had this opportunity of streamlining people’s thoughts of physics since more than a decade when unexpected and unknown sources of enquiries befell on my auricula and I promptly yielded. So, I said ask your son to give me a brief write up about what he is passionate about in physics and we will see how we go on from there.

The write up came and I’m glad to post it here along with my response that follows it.

Hi, I am Rithwik Mohanty and I currently go to Shelton High School. I possess a profound passion for the field of physics. More specifically I am interested in the modern aspects of physics. For example, some things that interest me are the search for dark matter and particle physics. I like to keep up to date with particle accelerator experiments.

Another thing I really enjoy is aerospace physics, as I hope to improve rocket ships. I am curious to continue learning about particle physics since there is still so much to be explored in that field. Beyond the realms of particle physics, another area of interest to me is aerospace physics. I am captivated by the challenges of designing and improving rocket ships, which serve as gateways to exploring the cosmos. Understanding the intricate interplay of forces, propulsion systems, and the physics of flight fuels my enthusiasm to contribute to advancements in aerospace technology. I aspire to be part of the next generation of scientists and engineers who will shape the future of space exploration.

My Response

So Rithwik has two diverse interests: Aerospace Physics on one hand and Dark matter search or particle physics on the other hand. Aerospace physics is more like engineering, (almost) completely known aspects of physics go into explorations in this field. But dark matter and particle physics searches lie partly on the known and partly on unknown sides of physics. Actually, dark matter lies on the unknown side of physics mostly.

The various fields of physics research usually have two divisions of approach and involvement which are mostly exclusive of each other. E.g. particle physics is divisible into either theoretical particle physics or experimental particle physics. Similarly, dark matter as a field is divisible into theoretical or experimental. But aerospace has only one direction, viz. industrial or applied.

The experimental studies of dark matter and particle physics are very similar. The same kind of instrumentation skills and data analysis skills go into solving problems in these fields. The theoretical studies in these fields involve much fewer number of people than experiments as theory involves solving mathematical questions and computational modelling without the complicated details of each and every aspect of experimental procedures.   

You need to determine what interests you the most first: fundamental physics like particle physics or applied physics like aerospace physics. Then you need to decide in fundamental physics you are more passionate about theory or experiments? Once we know this, we can delve deeper into what you should be poised to know first.