Tammy Ng
[BSc (Hons) 2024]
My journey in physics began in secondary school when two pieces of media changed my life forever. The first one was a TED-Ed video on Schrödinger’s cat. A simple video about an unsuspecting cat, but I was intrigued by it and wanted to know more. The second, a documentary about the life of physicist Stephen Hawking called The Theory of Everything. Instead of being turned off by the equations on the board, this movie made me think, “I wish I could do that”. So I did everything I could that would get me to a place where I could learn about quantum mechanics, about black holes and general relativity, and I ended up in NUS Physics.
Entering into university, the biggest struggle I expected to have was reconciling what I would be taught with what I believed. There has, after all, been an ongoing debate about faith versus science. But in all my four years in physics, there was not so much of a struggle as there was a revelation about how real God is. It’s especially evident in that I wound up doing my final year project on black holes under the supervision of Prof Edward Teo. I thought it was fitting that the speaker at our commencement talked about faith; it does take a certain amount of faith to believe that this was no coincidence.
For those who find themselves in the pits of difficulty understanding a concept or solving a problem, may you be encouraged by this quote from The Theory of Everything: “However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. While there is life, there is hope.”
Of course, there were other challenges as well, the most real one being that physics is not an easy subject. Although I might have gotten better at physics with each semester, it wasn’t like the content we learnt got easier. In times like these, I found that it always helped to ask a friend. One thing I learnt from asking for help is that physics majors are more than willing to answer your questions. They may still be students, but they are excellent teachers who will patiently guide you to the solution.
If there is any advice I would give to the juniors at NUS Physics, it would be to make friends with your peers. Not so that they can help you with your assignments, but because your journey would be so much more enjoyable if you didn’t have to go through it alone. For those who find themselves in the pits of difficulty understanding a concept or solving a problem, may you be encouraged by this quote from The Theory of Everything: “However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. While there is life, there is hope.” All the best!