# If I had an advanced knowledge of physics, what cool stuff could I do?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-an-advanced-knowledge-of-physics-what-cool-stuff-could-i-do/208750
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 21, 2003, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-an-advanced-knowledge-of-physics-what-cool-stuff-could-i-do/208750 "2003-10-21T18:47:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-an-advanced-knowledge-of-physics-what-cool-stuff-could-i-do/208750/21 "2003-10-22T09:37:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Angua \*
> **In my case, you get to say “Hey, I’m a female astrophysicist”… You get to go on cool observing trips and conferences to far flung locations like Australia, Hawaii, Chille, and New Mexico, _without having to pay for any of it_**
Not even for your own drinks, I bet. 😉
Conferences can be miserable though. Imagine being in Hawaii cooped up in a conference room from 8:30 to 5pm every day.
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### Author:  [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-an-advanced-knowledge-of-physics-what-cool-stuff-could-i-do/208750/22 "2003-10-22T09:38:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Shade \*
> \*\*To paraphrase a conversation I had recently:
>
> Marisa: How many 9.00 lectures do you have?
> Me: Nine O’clock lectures? What are these of which you speak?
> Marisa: I hate you.
> \*\*
Allow me to join Marisa in “I hate you”. I used to have general relativity lectures at 9am on a Monday morning.
> [@](#):
>
> **OTOH, part IIIis really fucking hard! And I miss lunch every day as I have 12.00s.**
Er, yeah. That’s why its Part III, didn’t they tell you that before you started? Besides, missing Hall lunch isn’t really that much of an issue now is it?
Anyway, lets stop hijacking this thread. And get thee to thine lectures! Bad mathmo!
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### Author:  [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-an-advanced-knowledge-of-physics-what-cool-stuff-could-i-do/208750/23 "2003-10-22T09:40:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by scr4 \*
> \*\*Not even for your own drinks, I bet. 😉
> \*\*
Funnily enough, you’re right there. 😉
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*Conferences can be miserable though. Imagine being in Hawaii cooped up in a conference room from 8:30 to 5pm every day. \*\*
I know, the horror. Having to fly all that way out, at the University’s expense, and then being able to take a week out _after_ the conference, and only having to pay for hotels. 😉
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-an-advanced-knowledge-of-physics-what-cool-stuff-could-i-do/208750/24 "2003-10-22T12:35:04Z")
Based on observations I have made of people I have known with an advanced knowledge of physics, it mainly allows you to spend lot of time cramped up in a small office writing grant proposals until 2AM in the moring, constructing dynamic computer models that you hope are correctly coded so you don’t look like a buffoon, and realizing that your ability to do a dynamic analysis on why that cute girls’ breasts are so bouncy is still not going to get you any.
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### Author:  [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-an-advanced-knowledge-of-physics-what-cool-stuff-could-i-do/208750/25 "2003-10-22T14:00:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Kakofonous \*
> \*\*This is how we clean our lab - once a year whether it needs it or not. A year is enough time to build man-eating sized dust bunnies then we bring 'em to life with the LN2. Good stuff. \*\*
So it my brother is not a freak - all physicists do this?
[Do you also do the thing where you take a dewar flask into McDonalds and register an unusual customer complaint about one of their hamburgers - namely, that it is brittle and shatters when tapped on the counter? 😃]
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### Author:  [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-an-advanced-knowledge-of-physics-what-cool-stuff-could-i-do/208750/26 "2003-10-22T14:26:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by astro \*
> \*\*Based on observations I have made of people I have known with an advanced knowledge of physics, it mainly allows you to spend lot of time cramped up in a small office writing grant proposals until 2AM in the moring, constructing dynamic computer models that you hope are correctly coded so you don’t look like a buffoon, and realizing that your ability to do a dynamic analysis on why that cute girls’ breasts are so bouncy is still not going to get you any. \*\*
Well, that’s what happens if you let on to anyone about your knowledge 😃
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### Author:  [@Capt\_B.Phart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_B.Phart)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-an-advanced-knowledge-of-physics-what-cool-stuff-could-i-do/208750/27 "2003-10-22T16:50:57Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Shade \*
> \*\*Does pouring liquid oxygen on things and watching them burn like catherine wheels count? \*\*
Access to pure oxygen is groovy when you’ve got a hangover too…
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### Author:  [@Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xavier)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2003, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-an-advanced-knowledge-of-physics-what-cool-stuff-could-i-do/208750/28 "2003-10-24T15:26:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> **Shade** : Is that hot enough for the lava to boil? Or was ‘hotter boiling water’ meant?
No I’m 100% sure it was lava. I just can’t remember the exact temparature she recited.
I always thought you could do other cool stuff with physics, like improve your running technique (by making a few basic assumptions) and playing better at billiards for instance.
Also, if you could readily buy the materials, how difficult is it to make a laser (this would be _sooooooooo_ cool)?
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-an-advanced-knowledge-of-physics-what-cool-stuff-could-i-do/208750/29 "2003-10-24T19:30:30Z")
You sure it was lava, and not just hot coals?
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-an-advanced-knowledge-of-physics-what-cool-stuff-could-i-do/208750/30 "2003-10-24T21:53:54Z")
If you have a _super_-advanced knowledge of physics, you can quantum tunnel yourself instantaneously from your present location to any other point in the universe.
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