June

June has been a busy month for me. Earlier in the year, probably May, I had a look at an MIT general physics exam. I'll have to sit this exam as soon as I arrive at MIT. It's a requirement for the award of a doctorate, but it is given so early in the program (in fact, before it begins) to ascertain whether our undergraduate preparation has been sufficient. If not, they recommend final year undergraduate courses before beginning graduate courses.

I'd prefer not to have to go through that, so I wanted to be prepared. I had a look at the questions, and they were fairly challenging. They weren't as difficult as olympiad questions, when taken relative to the study I've done, but they're the most difficult I've done since then - and the first five hour exam as well. I decided I needed to revise some of my undergraduate work, especially quantum mechanics.

On 1 July, I set myself a study schedule, based around getting up to speed on my quantum mechanics and then doing the past exams that are available. I basically reread (ok, I'll be honest: read - there may be a reason why my 2013 mark was the second lowest of my undergraduate career) Zettili. I don't think it's a particularly great textbook. The information is there, but it made much more sense to me, someone who's learned these things before, than it would to a student actually taking a quantum mechanics course.

It did feel good to read through it, though, and really understand what was going on. I now feel that I understand quantum mechanics, at least in a general sense of what's going on, in a way I haven't (except briefly during Joe Hope's lecture course). I do have one question, though, which I throw open to any posters who are experienced with quantum mechanics. What's so important about finding energy eigenstates? I mean, I know they're the stationary states, but why does a system sit in them? I don't mean, given that it sits somewhere, why there, because it obviously can't sit anywhere other than a stationary state, but why do systems just sit there? Is it because energy is frequently being implicitly measured, so states are collapsed into stationary states and can't get out? I'd be very grateful for quick explanation.

I've also been busy on weekends. The first weekend in June was a long weekend, so I went home. I enjoyed a concert by Evgeny Ukhanov, especially the second half: I felt the first half was a little bland and familiar. Perhaps he thought the audience would appreciate it, but I felt the Moonlight Sonata was a waste of his talents, for example. I remember being displeased when Yu Heng mentioned he was playing Rondo Alla Turca at a recital. It's not that these are bad things to play, by any means, but when you have the skills of these two, you should be showing your audience how wide the world of music really is.

I should compliment Tom on his Scrabble-playing skills, demonstrated during this trip. Admittedly, I beat him by 96 points, but I twice used all seven tiles - HAIRNET and ELEGANT - so he would have won without these bonuses. Thanks to Patrick for introducing me to the joy of this game: it had been years since I played before I began with him last year.

In fact, I was also out of Canberra during the week preceding that weekend, but mentioning that first would have precluded the smooth segue at the beginning of the second last paragraph. I visited Sydney to apply for a US student visa, and to catch up with friends from near (Sydney) and far (Berkeley / Hong Kong). It was a very nice couple of days, and I was reminded why I had such a great time in Berkeley. I hope there are as lovely people at MIT.

The second weekend of the month was the occasion of our farewell photo shoot. I'm not sure if the entire immediate family will be together again before I go, so it was even better as an occasion to celebrate together than as one to create some decorative memory aids. May I recommend Holy Cow, an Indian restaurant on Cleveland Street, to anyone in the Surry Hills area. It's possible that it will be much better if you're there with the people you love most, but I thought the food lived up to the company. Also have a chat to the waiter (I'm actually not sure if you could avoid that).

The third weekend was the time for a trip to Adelaide. It was lovely to meet my youngest cousins for the first time. I never knew that it was so much fun to be pushed over (repeatedly) on a trampoline, especially after counting to 16, but Campbell seemed to enjoy it. Also, anyone who has a three to ten year-old in range, watch Lightning McQueen with them. I found it very funny.

After all those travels, the most recent weekend was fairly quiet. I did sit my last practice exam, at least for the moment. I'll be busy with the physics olympiad for most of July, and I want to have a bit of a look at Prof. Kardar's statistical physics books during the time I have free (Kardar is top of my list of preferred supervisors at this stage), so I won't have much time between now and the exam. Time wasn't my problem, although it was getting difficult to concentrate around the two hour mark (and that's not even halfway). I ended up not coming back to the second half until the next day. I was happy with how I went, and if all goes according to plan I should be on track to get straight into things when I arrive at MIT in two months or so.