I will answer this question, “Can an average person become a self-taught physicist?” in two ways: the short and the long answer.
The short answer is YES. With enough passion, hard work, and determination you CAN challenge yourself to become a self-taught physicist. In fact, there are household names in physics with relatively minimal formal education.
The long answer though, is unlikely. I’ll spend the rest of the article explaining why.
Setting up the plot
First things first, we need to get specific. For example, what do you mean by “an average self-taught physicist”?
For the sake of this article, let’s say that you are a highly motivated high school dropout who now works as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston. You have loads of free time on your hands and access to plenty of educational resources on campus at your disposal.
If this plot sounds familiar – yes, I am taking inspiration from the critically acclaimed movie, Good Will Hunting.
Starting your journey
Physics is a hugely broad subject and where you start is very important. This will determine the appropriate educational materials that you will need: books, journals, and lectures. You don’t want to be starting on the wrong foot with this one!
I would strongly recommend this advice from Gerard’ t Hooft, a Nobel Laureate.
Given that you are likely on a solo journey, you will need to be very careful to grade and pace yourself effectively.
Since you are likely to be skipping college and grad school, you need to master the core elements of foundational physics and mathematical preliminaries. This will include topics such as Classical Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Wave motion, Electromagnetism, Calculus, and so on.
This doesn’t mean skimming through the topics. It would require you to actually understand the subject matter, do questions and problems at the end of every topic, think of system constraints, and derive formulas and principles to your own satisfaction.
Play with what you get, make small changes, see how it affects the problems, and explain your results. If you are really passionate about becoming a physicist, then this is where the fun is.
No longer average
If you are able to do all these, you are no longer an “average learner” now are you? You will have the equivalent of a physics undergraduate degree. You could sit for and score well in a Physics GRE exam.
Reality Check
That, however, is much easier said than done. Remember, it takes around three years to complete an undergraduate physics degree. And there is a good reason for that. Also, physics is a highly cooperative subject. “Group exercises” are actually meant for groups and you are definitely going to need help from time to time over the course of your journey.
Final words
I don’t want to spend the rest of the article weighing you down with details of how difficult it is being a self-taught physicist. Get started immediately with well-recommended books and educational materials. There is also a complete set of books that you will need for each level.
From there onwards, just follow the same formula through graduate and post-graduate physics. Good luck! Hopefully, you also turn out to be another “Good Will Hunting” inspiration.