[eesmith]

A physics education requires a lot of mathematics, or rather, a lot of certain types of mathematics. I think thermodynamics as covered in physics is more statistical mechanics.

You said you are interested in thermodynamics and mechanical engineering. How does that draw you to physics? I think mechanical engineering would be a better field.

My suggestion is to look for evening/night classes taught at (say) a local community college.

[itchynosedev]

Thanks! I should mention that my interest is in workings of everyday things: cars, engines, fridges, etc.

I assumed that most of these are some sort of combination of electrial, mechanical engineering and thermodynamics being a small part of it, but all of them requiring a subset of physics.

[eesmith]

Your interests are much more aligned with engineering than with physics.

Pick a school and compare the physics program with the engineering ones to see which are more aligned with your interests.

I picked Iowa semi-arbitrarily. Here are recent undergraduate physics projects - https://physics.uiowa.edu/undergraduate-program/recent-under... . None of them deal with everyday things, that I could tell. Most deal with space science or astrophysics. (Other schools might be more focused on, say, solid state physics or particle physics.)

Then take a look at the mechanical engineering program, at https://me.engineering.uiowa.edu/undergraduate-program and the student outcomes at https://me.engineering.uiowa.edu/about/mechanical-engineerin... .

If there is a college nearby, visit and talk to an admissions councilor.