Wednesday 30 March 2011

Things happen. Yes really.

A long time ago, when I was in school, there were subjects I did like better than physics. Or mathematics.

And then, after finishing school, I started studying medieval archaeology. Hey, that's something where you don't need maths or physics for, right? That's what I thought.

This does not hold true, though, if you do heritage conservation as your "side study" course. Because once you go out and start measuring up the building, you need to lay a basic grid to start with. And that basic grid has to be right - so there's maths to calculate the angles and, even more importantly, to calculate the accuracy of your work. (Not accurate enough, you do it again.)

And you don't need physics only if you don't want to do experiments with spindles. (Or other things, probably.) So now I'm reading up on spinning physics for spinning tops and getting tutoring from the Most Patient Husband.

Which proves, again, two points that I did learn some good way back: Physics can be totally fascinating, and there's nothing that won't come in handy somewhere for doing archaeology.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is how I ended up with a PhD in Engineering but no A Levels in Maths or Physics! Straight through from GCSEs, A Levels, Degree and then PhD. Caused a few upsets along the way!

Archaeology involves every science, every humanity, every art, as every part involves understanding an aspect of people's interaction with the world around them. I enjoy finding that everything I've seen or learned comes in useful eventually as it all combines to open up a different angle to see things from.

Heather