• Question: How do you seperate your work life with your social life?

    Asked by lilmisspeak to Mae on 11 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Mae Woods

      Mae Woods answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      This is a good question. I try and split my time.

      Work time: 9am-5pm answering e-mails running code directly related to my PhD, writing reports etc

      5pm onwards and weekends: Try to think about science but take breaks, for example play music, go ice skating, watch a movie or do some cooking

      Most of all though I often combine free time with science. Sometimes I go out with fellow students and we have heated discussions about things we are working on. It may sound odd but this can be quite fun because in a social atmosphere you are free to throw wild comments around and get a good argument going.

      For example once I was in a conversation with a student about what a tensor was. We were sat at a rectangular coffee table. I was sat opposite the longest side and my friend was sat opposite the shortest side. The the table looked different to me than it did to my friend although we knew for sure that we were looking at the same object. This idea relates to what a tensor is used for and the discussion helped our understanding that some things used to measure objects change depending on where you view the object from.

      I plan holidays and take breaks, however because I enjoy science it can crop up in my social life as well!!

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