• Question: Do you think modern technology is the best way to do your work or do you use old methods?

    Asked by jellyman to Amy, Grant, Martin, Shawn, Usman on 13 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Martin Archer

      Martin Archer answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      Modern technology is great and it allows us to do lots of things…. but sometimes to really understand something you can’t beat a good pen and paper or a whiteboard. I draw a lot of pictures to try and work out what I’m seeing in the data, or what I’d expect to see given how I think the Universe is working. That’s what Physics is all about, not just taking the measurements with fancy equipment but trying to understand what it’s telling you.

    • Photo: Grant Kennedy

      Grant Kennedy answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      Mostly I use modern technology (i.e. a computer) since a lot of the time I’m working with images and large tables of data. However, I always have pens and scrap paper on my desk, so that when I need to figure something out, maybe by drawing a diagram or doing a bit of maths, I can do it the old fashioned way. This is really important for picturing what’s really happening, a computer can do a lot of things, but it won’t do the understanding for you!
      g

    • Photo: Amy Tyndall

      Amy Tyndall answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      As the other two said, both are necessary! We need the computers nowadays to cope with the large amounts of data we work with… Yet I still have a pencil, ruler and calculator on my desk to do ‘back-to-basics’ maths and physics to work some things out! I always find it incredible how people managed to figure out anything without our technology back in the day…

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