I cannot believe it, I really have an hour to myself? Guess I’ll write a post. This semester is truly bonkers! Am I tired? Yes. Am I frustrated? No. Why? Because this is my last semester of studying at BITS and what a way to go out! :D

Why am I ranting about this semester, you may think, I don’t even have 8 courses like my last semester. Well, take a seat, because I am going to tell you all about it.

I have two labs this semester. The first one is the Modern Physics lab and the second one is the Advanced Physics lab. Modern Physics Lab is on Tuesdays, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Advanced Physics Lab is on Mondays and Wednesdays, yes, BOTH DAYS, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. All this for 2 credits and 3 credits respectively, are you kidding me?! You put in all that work week in and week out and what do you get? Only 60%-70% of the total marks for the course. So, having done all this, you grade still depends on that one final exam, meaning, no matter how hard you worked for the entire semester in the lab, if you screw up that one day of the final exam, you are done. Gone. Done for. I am spending 9 hours a week for 70% of 5 units, that is 9 hours a week for 3.5 credits, how is this legal?! The saving grace is the experiments in the Advanced Physics Lab. For once, the equipment works well, we are acquainted with the theory beforehand and it is an absolute joy to conduct those experiments. That sure takes the load off a bit. But wait, there is more to this semester than just labs.

I am taking Atomic and Molecular Physics this semester. The course utilises our knowledge in quantum mechanics to probe the atom, no, not just the single electron one, any atom! Our instructor has done well to highlight the pains taken by physicists to calculate the energy transitions of different atoms to higher and higher accuracy. You might feel why that is important. In short, if the theoretical value varies from the experimentally measured value, that means the theorists are still missing out on some phenomena that are playing a role in creating the above-mentioned deviation. Thus, calculating the values to higher accuracy and making sure they match the experimentally obtained values helps us validate our theories. This is exactly what I loke about physics! You don’t stop at a theory just because it looks good, you stop at it if it is validated by the experiments, no matter how ugly it might look.

I also have two other courses: Solid State Physics and Nuclear and Particle Physics, both of which are relatively easy. As the instructors in both these subjects take regular quizzes and assignments, I am usually up-to-date with whatever has been done in class, which certainly helps. There is nothing too new, too out-of-the-box in either of them which makes them easy to follow and retain. It is good to finally have two main courses in which I can get a bit laid-back and not compromise with my academic performance.

Finally, I am also doing a project under Dr Kinjal Banerjee on differential geometry. I started with Arnold’s book to understand the role of differential geometry in physics. At present, I am doing differential forms. On the side, I am also working on updating my dynamic viscosity of spacetime theory. I cannot say much about it at present, but, what I can tell you is that this time we are trying to use the general relativistic formalism to show that spacetime can be seen as made up of a viscous fluid. More on this later, if I make any considerable progress.

Not to forget, I am teaching a C.T.E. (Centre for Technical Education) sponsored course this semester. So, YAAY! The course I am teaching with two friends of mine is called Quantum Information and Applications. I am responsible for teaching the ‘quantum’ part, to familiarize students with quantum mechanics: the theory, the formalism and the notations. I have taken about six lectures till now and it has been so much fun. I have received some very positive feedback and I guess I am just happy that the students enjoyed studying it as much as I did teaching them.

So, all-in-all a rather eventful semester this one is proving to be. It is a busy one, sure, but I am having so much fun as well. One thing I do feel is that after juggling so many courses together and still managing to do well in them (hopefully), I have gained expertise in managing workload and stress. No matter how much work comes my way, I just remember that I was able to manage two degrees simultaneously while doing well in both, so there is nothing that I can’t do. This, believe it or not, is a real confidence booster when you really need one!