How to look at physics

As undergraduates, students use to think, what physics is all about and how to look at it? Is it all about the equations, mathematical techniques or about the problems that appear at the end of every chapter in any standard undergraduate physics text? If not very common these questions bug at least the mind of half the undergraduates. After some time either they give up to the well set notions or they plan not to carry physics any further. As to them, it is all about derivations.

What many of the persons teaching or pursuing physics at a higher level feel is that; it is not all about equations or mathematics. It is about relating these to our day to day observations or common sense. Now as we know, “Beauty lies in the beholder’s eyes.” To these people physics is amazingly beautiful and moreover it has an inbuilt elegance. So, just a careful look can put forward the physics in a mathematical equation.

If a question is asked in the class, “What do you infer, if two parameters x and y are related in a way xy=constant” Many a geeks would blissfully say, “It’s a rectangular hyperbola”; some will say, “The graph will lie in first and third quadrants”. Now here is the point, where is the physics after all? The physics is here, increment in either of the variables will ensure decrement in the other. And that’s how physics works. It is not about equations or diagrams or solving problems but its all about understanding, how all these are manifested in the world in and around us. So, just a change in the perspective may change the whole thought process and the physics may mesmerize the one doing it at undergraduate level.