General > General Technical Chat
Why are physicists the electronics experts?
Nominal Animal:
--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on August 21, 2020, 04:29:22 pm ---Seriously, if you can't find places online where EEs would usually not be able to answer EE questions, but physicists would, then you're probably looking in the wrong places.
--- End quote ---
I was referring to willingness, definitely not ability, though.
I don't think that professionals like to volunteer on the net on things they do at their day job. For example, although I was quite active on Stack Exchange for a few years, I never went to the matter modeling (materials.stackexchange.com) site at all. Math, electronics, and POSIX C programming are basically just my hobbies, and I kinda like to help with those.
So, if I had to guess, I'd say that the overwhelming majority of people answering questions online do so on topics they have as a hobby, not as a day job. If indeed physicists do answer electronics questions often (which I'm not sure about, it could be just a coincidence in OP's topics), I would guess it is because many physicists like doing electronics as a hobby, and also like to answer questions.
Like they say: Those that can, do; those that can't, teach. :P
fourfathom:
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on August 21, 2020, 06:56:41 pm ---I don't think that professionals like to volunteer on the net on things they do at their day job.
--- End quote ---
I think you're probably wrong about that.
I don't think Stack Exchange even existed when I retired from my engineering career (almost 20 years ago), but I was trying to help out on-line in my areas of expertise as far back as the USENET days. I'm definitely a practical hands-on engineer, not a deep theory guy, so I'm happy that the physicists and physicist-engineers are here to answer those deeper questions. I do try to help when I think I know what I'm talking about, and would certainly have done so when I was working full-time (assuming I could have found the free time).
SiliconWizard:
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on August 21, 2020, 06:56:41 pm ---I don't think that professionals like to volunteer on the net on things they do at their day job. For example, although I was quite active on Stack Exchange for a few years, I never went to the matter modeling (materials.stackexchange.com) site at all. Math, electronics, and POSIX C programming are basically just my hobbies, and I kinda like to help with those.
So, if I had to guess, I'd say that the overwhelming majority of people answering questions online do so on topics they have as a hobby, not as a day job. If indeed physicists do answer electronics questions often (which I'm not sure about, it could be just a coincidence in OP's topics), I would guess it is because many physicists like doing electronics as a hobby, and also like to answer questions.
--- End quote ---
Whereas there may be some truth to that, you can't generalize. Again, this forum is a counter-example. Sure there are some retired people and hobbyists on here, but there also are MANY active professionals that do help on a regular basis.
To elaborate a bit, I think professionals actually attract professionals. The fact Dave (Jones) was an active professional for many years before starting EEVBlog was a big part of it. That did attract a lot of other professionals, and not just hobbyists. OTOH, there are many other forums out there that are not created/run by professionals and will mainly attract hobbyists.
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on August 21, 2020, 06:56:41 pm ---Like they say: Those that can, do; those that can't, teach. :P
--- End quote ---
Whereas that's kind of true when people choose a career path, that's not an absolute truth in general. Many professionals will teach/share their knowledge and experience, especially as they get more advanced in their career. So getting back to EEVBlog's forum, your statement is even kind of insulting. There are again a lot of people on here that have done a lot (and many that still do) and help or teach when they get a chance.
As to what motivates professionals: yes many experienced engineers actually like to help/share (as fourfathom said.) But many also do this for expanding their network/get some exposure, and that's fine too.
TimFox:
My examplar is the Clerk from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales:
"Sownynge in moral vertu was his speche,
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche."
tszaboo:
Well, thats normal. If you ask an " I=U/R" question, you are not going to get an answer online from an engineer, because he will be busy navigating to a different webpage that is actually interesting. Its not that we dont know the answer, but it is probably just to elementary.
Now, ask the physicist, to recommend an opamp with low offset voltage for battery powered electronics. Or with the previous example, I=U/R is interesting, if you need to do Monte Carlo on the resistor values, the U changes based on the battery voltage, the resistance has to be from the E24 table, cheaper than cent, and the current has to be kept below the safety limits of a harmonized standard.
Besides, engineering is all about problem solving. If you can google your question, and solve the problem that way, do that.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version