Career Ambitions: Importance of Material Covered - Research Paper Example

Career Ambitions: Importance of Material Covered As contrasted to ical physics, modern physics provides a wider and more accurate picture of the universe. It gives the theoretical basis for real life applications. In his fourth edition of the textbook Physics, James S. Walker gives skills needed to solve quantitative physics problems. Whereas Walker covers a wide variety of topics, chapters 19 to 32 shape my career prospect as an Electrical and Electronics engineer. In light of the topics in these fourteen chapters, this paper seeks to evaluate how my career ambitions get shaped. Introduction My career ambitions incline towards being an Electrical and Electronics Engineer. This is a technical career that will place me in charge of designing, developing, testing and supervising of electrical equipment which includes power generation equipment, communication systems, radar and navigation systems and electric motors as cited by the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, BLS. The work primarily involves employment in research and development, electric power generation firms, manufacturing firms and engineering services firms. Of these, I look forward to securing employment in an electricity generating firm. Out of the practising Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 10% work in industries dealing with generating, transmitting and distributing electric power, which is where I belong. Though this work generally involves being indoors, site visits would be undertaken as need be so as to solve problems in complex equipment. The textbook, Physics, by James Walker provides an appropriate guideline into facts about energy from the perspective of physics. But the fourteen case chapters, starting from chapter 19 through to chapter 32 concern electricity, basically giving in-depth discussion into electric charges and forces, gradually developing on this to subsequent chapters. Being an interrelated topic, the author appreciates its relationship with magnetism. Chapter 22 explains how electric charges cause the creation of electric fields which result in magnetic flux, the basis of magnetism. This also informs the introduction of electromagnetic waves in chapter 25 that mandates the discussion on optics in subsequent chapters. Since electricity has varied sources, Walker (2420) introduces atomic physics in chapter 31 that culminates with a discussion on nuclear physics in the last chapter. Therefore, as a prospective Electrical and Electronics Engineer, I get all-round knowledge on electricity and its relation to other fields in physics. As indicated by BLS, designing and developing electrical equipment partly constitutes the task of an Electrical and Electronics Engineer. Therefore, it would be paramount to know how electricity is sourced, generated, measured and distributed so as to determine the design of these equipments. The basis of this understanding lies in the knowledge of action of electric charges covered in chapter 19 so as to understand how their electromagnetic interaction would affect equipment assembly. For instance, since Walker (2076) appreciates that friction causes electrification, then, such action should be considered when designing electrical equipment. When designing electricity measurement instruments, I now know that what in essence would be measured would be the electric charges, whose SI unit is the coulomb, C, though Serway and Jewett (768) observe that a majority of electrical engineering instruments would use the ampere-hour, Ah units. Similarly, the knowledge on charges will play a critical role when testing electrical equipment and when supervising, these being other core responsibilities of an Electrical and Electronics Engineer. The static electricity that exists when objects of different equilibriums are brought close to each other according to Walker (2089) should guide in choosing which objects should come into contact with each other. Tribolectric effect, which describes the electrical charging of materials as a result of coming into contact with each other through friction, would also be a point to consider, particularly when dealing with glass and silk, wool and amber and fur and hard rubber. Furthermore, chapter 24 gives insights on proper circuitry so as to achieve the desired measurements. Quantum physics in chapter 30 gives further details on energy, appreciating it in terms of discrete, indivisible units referred to as quanta (Walker 2359). As such, even the electromagnetic waves as studied in chapter 25 possess energy measured in quanta. Geometrical optics in chapter 26 gives insights into light and its characteristics. From the perspective of electromagnetic waves, light is a form of energy, referred to as visible energy. Though it has low energy in the spectrum, its counterparts higher in the spectrum, notably gamma and X-rays are of high energies that they even penetrate objects. This brings into perspective the fact that light waves have particulate properties, hence the optical and mechanical properties like electrons (Scheck 3). The last two chapters on atomic physics and nuclear radiation introduce another concept into electricity, appreciating that electricity could be generated from the decay of certain elements, notably the radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium. Though nuclear physics provides knowledge that could be applied in various fields, including magnetic resonance imaging in medicine, radiocarbon dating in archaeology and ion implanting in materials engineering, its application in nuclear power generation elicited much interested from me. Alpha and gamma decays describe the release of protons and neutrons as elements seek to achieve stability without transmutation. Gamma decay, for instance, leads to emission of gamma rays, studied in the chapter on electromagnetic waves. In electricity generation, nuclear fusion and fission would be of more interest. While the former involves the combination of low mass nuclei, the latter involves the breaking apart of heavy nuclei, both process accompanied by release of energy. This could be used to generate electricity. Conclusion In summary, chapters 19 to 32 of Walker’s Physics textbook equip me with quantum and relativist physics skills which are core skills for an Electrical and Electronics Engineer. It provides essential knowledge in electricity and electronics, and other interrelated topics, wholly covering ways in which electricity could be produced and giving important insights that would determine the design and development of electrical and electronic equipment and measurement of electricity. As such, these fourteen chapters do not only give insights into the nature of electricity, but further into considerations for designs of electrical and electricity assemblies and its interrelation with other physics topics, thus making it an important textbook for an aspiring Electrical and Electronics Engineer like me. Works Cited Scheck, F. Quantum Physics. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2007. Serway, Raymond A. And John W. Jewett. Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Volume 2. 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education, 2008. U. S. Bureau of Labour Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook. 2012 – 13 ed. U. S. Department of Labour. 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 23 April 2013. Walker, James S. Physics. 4th ed. Boston: Addison Wesley Publishing. 2009. Read More