This is a series of articles I've playing around with for a while. It strikes me that for all the publicity science might get at random times, its rare that anyone describes what doing the science is like, rather than why you do it. So why not give a little taster as to what yonder scientists do to do science? If you think about, there's three big areas that most research scientists/engineers work in to discover stuff;
Theoretical Models - Deriving equations from either other equations/first principles to derive a relationship between a number factors using mathematical functions. Ultimately this is the model thats being tested whenever you do computational work or experiments. Not this isn't just for fundamental discoveries, often this is necessary to derive an experimental methodology or even a way to implement computer code See Numerical Methods
Computational Simulations - The newest comer to the field. This wonderful, wonderful new tool has only been with us for 65 years (Babbage's engines never really being used for research, only gunnery tables. Boo!), but in that time has probably been the most profound step in speeding up the progress of research since the discovery of calculus. It makes it possible to solve things that can't be solved with analytical mathematics, allows us to quickly extract predictions from new theories, and is even used to design experiments to design experiments. Yes that's a double. This is crazy shit dude.
Experimental Measurements - The grand daddy of them all. And still, ultimately the final decider of the truth/accuracy of science. And somewhat annoyingly still the most annoying to do. Because often the universe has so many phenomena happening on top of one another, you just have to sift through that much data to get an answer beyond kinda. And, from my experiences, still the most fun.
So, ready to explore?
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