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Physics (B.S.)

 Physics is all around us! It explains how light bulbs light, how cars works, how stars shine in the night sky, how rockets lift off, how a baseball player hits a home run, and why we don’t float off into outer space when we get out of bed in the morning. Physics is the science of matter, energy, space, and time. Some of the many fields in physics include mechanics, electricity, heat, sound, light, condensed matter, atomic physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, and particle physics. Physics helps us to understand how things work in the world around us. Physics allows us to engineer new technologies. Physics is constantly changing and evolving.


 A degree in physics opens worlds of possibilities.  Physics students acquire technology-based, problem solving skills in a traditional liberal arts context.  Following graduation, students find these skills in demand for careers in areas such as science teaching, technical management, software and hardware engineering, meteorology, and medical physics, to name a few.


The required courses for a degree in physics include:

University Physics I and II


Modern Physics

Computational Physics


Quantum Mechanics

Advanced Physics Lab


In addition to these courses, students choose 4 electives from a large selection of courses.


The Department of Physics also offers a pre-engineering emphasis.  This degree plan is designed to familiarize students with important concepts to prepare them for graduate study in electrical engineering.

For more information about majoring in physics, contact Rick McDaniel: mcdanir@hsu.edu

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Dr. Anthony P. LyonsBachelor of Science - Physics, 1988
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