My birthday came and went on the 26th of September and I am now officially two decades old. When I think that I am 20 it seems like I am older, but I know I'm still really young and I feel young. Still, one more year and I am an adult in society. How many more decades will I live? 5 or 6, maybe 7? I guess to celebrate my 20th birthday I have three exams this week, one in my modern physics class.
It was an exam over special relativity, hence the pun in the title. It's a very interesting topic/class and from what I can gather from the exam review session today in class I did really well on it. Side note: if you can't guess what my avatar is it has to do with relativity and space-time diagrams. Short of giving a lecture on relativity, it's a graph of "x" versus "t", or a "space-time" graph. The two lines are x' and t', read "x prime, t prime." This "primed graph" is basically the graph of some object that is moving relative to the "x" versus "t" graph. They're usually referred to as "frames" with the "x, t" graph being the "Home frame" and the "x', t'" graph being the "Other frame." We learn some really interesting things in that class, a lot of it counter-intuitive, and it trains your brain to think more critically. It is kind of hand wavey, but you get the foundation required to go on to higher learning. After this we begin quantum physics which should be fun.
Staying on the topic of physics I'll be doing research with a professor starting (hopefully) next week. We were supposed to meet today to discuss possible research opportunities I could do. When I went to his office he left a note telling me to call him and had written down two numbers. I called the first one and a girl picked up and I think I thoroughly confused her. Here's how the conversation went:
Me: "Hi this is Michael, is professor *** there?"
Girl: "Whaaat?"
Me: "I'm calling for professor ***, we were supposed to meet but he left a note for me to call him at this number."
Girl: "*silence* Who were you calling for again?"
Me: "Professor ***?"
*click*
So I figured it was the wrong number, which was slightly disheartening. Nevertheless I called the second number he left, only to be immediately patched to Tire Barn. I didn't really know what to do at this point but luckily I realized I didn't dial the area code. I have no idea what the area code is for the university I am at, but thankfully a campus phone called me recently and the number was still saved on my phone. So, I recalled the first number and got some answering machine at the nuclear radiation lab, which made me realize I was on the right track. I called the second number, which happened to be his cell, and we discussed where I was supposed to meet him. The conversation was something like this:
Prof. "Hello?"
Me: "Hi this is Michael, is this professor ***?"
Prof: "Yes it is hold on let me ask a question. *background noise* Can I bring- I need to talk with a student is it OK if I bring him in here?"
I don't remember the conversation so much after that but he basically gave me directions to the nuclear radiation lab. It was two buildings over on campus from where I was. The door to the lab was down a short flight of stairs with a keypad, a camera on the keypad, and another camera in the upper corner of the doorway. Once he let me in a whole lot of stuff happened at once. He took me to the end of a hallway with a small writing area in the wall where I had to sign in. At the same time they handed me a dosimeter and two more people showed up who I recognized from my math methods in physics class. They started talking a lot and the professor kept saying, "It's like a party in here." I felt like a rookie on the job when I had to ask where to put the dosimeter, which I attached to my belt buckle. We walked into a room buzzing with noise from a lot of nuclear engineering majors talking and machines whirring. He showed me a giant pool of water which was their ionizing tank. It was a pretty casual atmosphere with a lot of people talking. We started discussing what I might be doing which was a little hard to focus on with all the background noise and people constantly interrupting. Basically, he said, they just finished a big experiment and need a bunch of data analyzed by Christmas and he needs "all hands on deck" as he put it. He asked for my relevant background info and classes I had taken or am taking and told me to read up on as much nuclear decay as I can in my modern physics textbook and that he would get back to me in a week. From what I recall he said that I would eventually get private lectures to bring me up to speed on higher level content and I would eventually work with other undergrads. After that they gave me some postcards and sent me on my way.
Changing gears into Japanese, the class I am in is really enjoyable, especially on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays when we have our grad TA. She is pretty laid back and we usually have fun with learning the language, playing silly games and giving obviously inappropriate answers in Japanese. The girl who sits next to me on most days is South Korean and pretty cute. I'm not sure why but a quarter of the class is Korean. Caucasians are actually a very small minority in the class. Anyways, today we had to do conversation practice with the に、で、and を particles as well as verbs in the polite infinitive form. She was my partner and we had a few corny, silly laughs most people share when trying to learn a new language. She asked me what I do on weekends in Japanese which threw me off balance a little, granted the vocabulary is relevant to what we are learning right now. I believe the phrase was, しゅうまつ、よく なにを しますか。To which I replied, フットボールを みます。It was a pretty corny reply, I know, and I apologize for the lack of Kanji; we haven't learned any yet. Maybe if I work up the courage and Japanese ability one day I'll ask her to go out with me in Japanese. That would REALLY throw her off balance.
So, all in all, it's been a pretty busy week but I'm happy with how it has gone so far. I've had three quizzes in Japanese which I have all aced, my physics exam which I did well on, and my math methods in physics exam today which I'm pretty sure I got damn close to a 100% on. Tomorrow I have another Japanese quiz and my linear algebra exam, both of which should be really easy. I just can't wait until the weekend gets here.
It was an exam over special relativity, hence the pun in the title. It's a very interesting topic/class and from what I can gather from the exam review session today in class I did really well on it. Side note: if you can't guess what my avatar is it has to do with relativity and space-time diagrams. Short of giving a lecture on relativity, it's a graph of "x" versus "t", or a "space-time" graph. The two lines are x' and t', read "x prime, t prime." This "primed graph" is basically the graph of some object that is moving relative to the "x" versus "t" graph. They're usually referred to as "frames" with the "x, t" graph being the "Home frame" and the "x', t'" graph being the "Other frame." We learn some really interesting things in that class, a lot of it counter-intuitive, and it trains your brain to think more critically. It is kind of hand wavey, but you get the foundation required to go on to higher learning. After this we begin quantum physics which should be fun.
Staying on the topic of physics I'll be doing research with a professor starting (hopefully) next week. We were supposed to meet today to discuss possible research opportunities I could do. When I went to his office he left a note telling me to call him and had written down two numbers. I called the first one and a girl picked up and I think I thoroughly confused her. Here's how the conversation went:
Me: "Hi this is Michael, is professor *** there?"
Girl: "Whaaat?"
Me: "I'm calling for professor ***, we were supposed to meet but he left a note for me to call him at this number."
Girl: "*silence* Who were you calling for again?"
Me: "Professor ***?"
*click*
So I figured it was the wrong number, which was slightly disheartening. Nevertheless I called the second number he left, only to be immediately patched to Tire Barn. I didn't really know what to do at this point but luckily I realized I didn't dial the area code. I have no idea what the area code is for the university I am at, but thankfully a campus phone called me recently and the number was still saved on my phone. So, I recalled the first number and got some answering machine at the nuclear radiation lab, which made me realize I was on the right track. I called the second number, which happened to be his cell, and we discussed where I was supposed to meet him. The conversation was something like this:
Prof. "Hello?"
Me: "Hi this is Michael, is this professor ***?"
Prof: "Yes it is hold on let me ask a question. *background noise* Can I bring- I need to talk with a student is it OK if I bring him in here?"
I don't remember the conversation so much after that but he basically gave me directions to the nuclear radiation lab. It was two buildings over on campus from where I was. The door to the lab was down a short flight of stairs with a keypad, a camera on the keypad, and another camera in the upper corner of the doorway. Once he let me in a whole lot of stuff happened at once. He took me to the end of a hallway with a small writing area in the wall where I had to sign in. At the same time they handed me a dosimeter and two more people showed up who I recognized from my math methods in physics class. They started talking a lot and the professor kept saying, "It's like a party in here." I felt like a rookie on the job when I had to ask where to put the dosimeter, which I attached to my belt buckle. We walked into a room buzzing with noise from a lot of nuclear engineering majors talking and machines whirring. He showed me a giant pool of water which was their ionizing tank. It was a pretty casual atmosphere with a lot of people talking. We started discussing what I might be doing which was a little hard to focus on with all the background noise and people constantly interrupting. Basically, he said, they just finished a big experiment and need a bunch of data analyzed by Christmas and he needs "all hands on deck" as he put it. He asked for my relevant background info and classes I had taken or am taking and told me to read up on as much nuclear decay as I can in my modern physics textbook and that he would get back to me in a week. From what I recall he said that I would eventually get private lectures to bring me up to speed on higher level content and I would eventually work with other undergrads. After that they gave me some postcards and sent me on my way.
Changing gears into Japanese, the class I am in is really enjoyable, especially on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays when we have our grad TA. She is pretty laid back and we usually have fun with learning the language, playing silly games and giving obviously inappropriate answers in Japanese. The girl who sits next to me on most days is South Korean and pretty cute. I'm not sure why but a quarter of the class is Korean. Caucasians are actually a very small minority in the class. Anyways, today we had to do conversation practice with the に、で、and を particles as well as verbs in the polite infinitive form. She was my partner and we had a few corny, silly laughs most people share when trying to learn a new language. She asked me what I do on weekends in Japanese which threw me off balance a little, granted the vocabulary is relevant to what we are learning right now. I believe the phrase was, しゅうまつ、よく なにを しますか。To which I replied, フットボールを みます。It was a pretty corny reply, I know, and I apologize for the lack of Kanji; we haven't learned any yet. Maybe if I work up the courage and Japanese ability one day I'll ask her to go out with me in Japanese. That would REALLY throw her off balance.
So, all in all, it's been a pretty busy week but I'm happy with how it has gone so far. I've had three quizzes in Japanese which I have all aced, my physics exam which I did well on, and my math methods in physics exam today which I'm pretty sure I got damn close to a 100% on. Tomorrow I have another Japanese quiz and my linear algebra exam, both of which should be really easy. I just can't wait until the weekend gets here.
