ashernm

" Physics has so many variables it can only go so far." Quite the pearl of wisdom there, ain't it?

1. Physics - An older friend told me he majored in physics to learn how the universe worked. He ended up in the aerospace industry, after getting a B.A. and a master's.

2. I don't know, but I can tell you with certainty, do not major in regular chemistry unless you plan to get a Phd in it.

3.Physics.

Patclaus

I know you guys have dicussing this suject to death... But this is my 2 bit cents on this subject.

And it is academic, Physics is a precise science...(I.e. you can put it on paper with maths... Chemestry is alway and shall be changing.. for good reasons...) this is why physics will always rule, because it is able to prove itself (and pardon my french). I am not dissing Chemistry in any way, it is after all who and what we are (But the table keeps on changing). Physics, well, aside from quantum and Chaos (ooooh big words) it is still a precise (And I do repeat myself) science.

Please no arguments, everybody knows this fact. I just had to put it in...

Patclaus

Sorry Cherry,

But, physical chemestry... It is actualy a field? I can understand that I am a pleeb but still...

Question...: What is it based on?

If you can pass the fact that the table of elements is in evolution... pass the math... How can you prove you're mathematics (long term of course). Sorry I just need to understand.

everlasting13

I think it's a mistake to say that "physicists are the smartest people in the world.....hands down." There are people who would make brilliant physicists, but they're in love with something different, say, biology. So they chose to go into biology rather than physics. Does this make them any less brilliant? No.

hinmanCEO

physical chemistry is a field. i know because my father got a PhD in it from UMich.

P Chem as they call it, it using physics to understand the physical properties of chemicals (aka everything in the world)

cherrybarry

Patclaus,

I didn't quite understand the last part of your post, but yes, physical chemistry is a HUGE field.

Chemistry isn't just a table of elements. It can be as mathematically rigorous as physics. Anyone doing electronic structure calculations can attest to this fact. The s, p, d orbitals you learn about in HS aren't just pretty pictures in intro textbooks; there is a whole mathematical basis (ignore the pun) for these wave functions that only about 100 people in the world truly grasp.

In the academic literature, hundreds of pchem papers are being published every week. There are several top journals (J. Phys. Chem A/B/C, J. Chem. Phys., Mol. Phys.) that deal with this area. In fact, the top physics journal Physical Review Letters is largely composed of pchem papers.

The real problem with this discussion is that we seem to think physics and chemistry are separated from each other. In fact, there is considerable overlap, and the question of which field is more useful really relies on which subarea of each field you want to explore. Everything these days is blurred.

A better categorization of the hard sciences IMHO would be 1. quantum mechanics, 2. general relativity, and 3. statistical mechanics. They are more distinct at the postulational level (fundamental assumptions are different).

Shackleford

Perhaps to oversimplify, chemistry is derived from the very fundamental laws of physics, namely the characteristics of the electron, atom, molecule, and so forth. The life sciences are also governed by the laws of physics. In a nutshell, physics is the study of how the universe works, the very basic laws that can be applied to life sciences, physical sciences, etc. Each branch extends almost ad infinitum it seems like. Could we qualify or quantify on a whole which one(s) is the most difficult? Maybe. Any doctoral/advanced level sciences require incredibly intelligent minds, but it seems to be especially the case for mathematics and physics, not to take away from the life sciences. I just don't have much of an interest in them, though.

0mar21

definitely physics...all the main laws on which chemistry stands were established through physics...physics is by far the mother of all sciences..

Dk-blue_Falcon

"physicists are the smartest people in the world."

theoretical physicist=physicist?

also, astrophycisist=phycisist?

quicksilver40133

Well, it depends more on what you're interested in than which is harder/easier. IMHO, physics is more math-based than chemistry, whereas chemistry requires learning lots of related but disparate things. I've always done better with math, as my memory for facts isn't that great - and biology was the bane of my high school existence, as it required extensive knowledge of names of organs, processes, etc. I would say that physics is to chemistry what math is to biology, but to a lesser extent... in fact, you could think of chemistry as the arithmetic mean of physics and biology.
And yes, physics does explain chemistry, but then again, physics explains everything. Both are useful, and, in my estimation, very interesting.