It's always bad when I force myself to write a post but I can't help it! For the first time in a while I've actually got spare time so I need to make the most of it! I'm already wearing my comfy jumper so now it's time to make a post...
I have a list of blog ideas but they are all a bit rubbish... For example, I could write about how a watched 'a beautiful mind' the other day so as to enrich my mathematical education. It was a really brilliant film and I cried practically the whole way through. It was very clever how they did it because I was honestly shocked when it turned out that some of the characters were completely a figment of John Nash's imagination! So although I enjoyed this film and it is almost Physics related, it isn't enough for a post...
That's what this post will be! A complete clear out of my blog to do's! I'm getting pretty good at clear outs actually! I just need to do my computer files and I will be completely organised! Oh the lengths I will go to so as to avoid the dreaded personal statement!
I realised the other day that I never talk about Chemistry. This is odd because I do quite enjoy the subject and it is hard to say exactly what it is that makes me prefer Physics to Chemistry... And today my Chemistry teachers let us play 'articulate' in class and brought in ice-cream, biscuits and home baked brownies! While I was eating a brownie I decided that I really like Chemistry!
I am also about to start driving lessons now that I apparently have so much free time this holiday! of course there is never such a thing as free time! You always manage to fill it and at the moment Zelda is taking a lot of my free time! However, now I am starting to drive I can finally be in on all the driving analogies that seem relevent ALL the time!
Actually I quite like the idea of making more top trumps in a separate post, I just need to find some new favourite scientists! I suppose Brian deserves a top trump, for old times sake...
A final thing is more of just a reminder to myself for when I'm looking for some information or research or somewhere to find a new idea. These are two pretty good websites - one is more for Alevel and this one is slightly more advanced.
Thursday 21 July 2011
Wednesday 20 July 2011
Water Rocket
Today was the last Physics lesson ever with one of my teachers so we had a treat! We got to set off a water rocket which was really great! We had a bottle half filled with water and a foot pump which we (I say we but of course I didn't do any of the hard work!) until the pressure built up high enough for the bottle to go shooting up!
At first the lid was screwed on too tightly and the rocket shot off at an angle... Then it was tied on too tightly and wouldn't shoot off at all... And then we had the most perfect brilliant one just as we were about to give up! it went straight up in the air and I felt about 6 years old (in a good way)! So I'm counting this as a success experiment!
At first the lid was screwed on too tightly and the rocket shot off at an angle... Then it was tied on too tightly and wouldn't shoot off at all... And then we had the most perfect brilliant one just as we were about to give up! it went straight up in the air and I felt about 6 years old (in a good way)! So I'm counting this as a success experiment!
Monday 18 July 2011
Diamond Light
I started planning my personal statement (when I say 'plan' I basically mean a scruffy spider diagram!) and I remembered going to the Diamond Light Accelerator in Oxford on a school trip earlier this year. I suddenly realised I had never blogged about it because it was before all of this started so here is the post about 9 months too late but at least I got it done before my 100th post (which I am super excited about by the way! So excited I have no idea what to say in it to make it absolutely brilliant... SUCH a lot of pressure!!)
Anyway so this was another one of those trips that I loved so much that I was grinning from ear to ear which by now my parents are totally used to but at the time it was quite out of the ordinary. It was really interesting but the only downside was that the accelerator was absolutely massive and we did so much walking I was completely exhausted by the end! The storage ring is 561m in circumference, of course not as big as the CERN accelerator but they have different uses so this doesn't affect the work here.
I learnt quite a lot - for example a switch might look like an ordinary light switch but sometimes it is in fact a switch that could turn off the entire accelerator. The accelerator had an incredibly number of safety features! Another is that to be working in such an amazing place you have to give a lot. That includes extra shifts every time the accelerator shuts down, work very hard at solving problems, working late into the night and making colleagues your new family.
It is my understanding that the accelerator basically shoot electrons so fast they give off a light. This light is used for looking at things better than we normally can. The research facility is non-profit and it is very competitive for researcher to get time with the beams.
I had a look at the kind of Physics that the facility has helped develop but I have to admit I struggled to understand any of it and got a little scared so I can't explain but they do a lot of things which have a lot of practical uses for many industries, here's the link if you want to know more!
Even though this was quite a while ago, the trip has stayed with me! There were a few embarrassing memories form the trip but I wouldn't change anything - it was great! Except I would take pictures, if only I knew I would need them for a post in the future!!
Anyway so this was another one of those trips that I loved so much that I was grinning from ear to ear which by now my parents are totally used to but at the time it was quite out of the ordinary. It was really interesting but the only downside was that the accelerator was absolutely massive and we did so much walking I was completely exhausted by the end! The storage ring is 561m in circumference, of course not as big as the CERN accelerator but they have different uses so this doesn't affect the work here.
I learnt quite a lot - for example a switch might look like an ordinary light switch but sometimes it is in fact a switch that could turn off the entire accelerator. The accelerator had an incredibly number of safety features! Another is that to be working in such an amazing place you have to give a lot. That includes extra shifts every time the accelerator shuts down, work very hard at solving problems, working late into the night and making colleagues your new family.
It is my understanding that the accelerator basically shoot electrons so fast they give off a light. This light is used for looking at things better than we normally can. The research facility is non-profit and it is very competitive for researcher to get time with the beams.
I had a look at the kind of Physics that the facility has helped develop but I have to admit I struggled to understand any of it and got a little scared so I can't explain but they do a lot of things which have a lot of practical uses for many industries, here's the link if you want to know more!
Even though this was quite a while ago, the trip has stayed with me! There were a few embarrassing memories form the trip but I wouldn't change anything - it was great! Except I would take pictures, if only I knew I would need them for a post in the future!!
Saturday 16 July 2011
Recycling an Essay
I was tidying up today and found an essay I wrote for a competition a while back. I never heard anything back from it so I assume I didn't win anything! We had to chose one out of three missions for Cassini which we thought would be the most valuable. After much deliberation I chose Saturns moon Rhea and I just looked at the website and they did actually conduct a flyby which was the closest they had ever got to Rhea! They found fresh craters and further evidence of ice. I remember really enjoying writing it and I thought it was pretty good - at least better than most of my posts - so here it is! I won't be offended if you don't read it all!
We are spoilt for choice with these three fascinating targets but I believe that Rhea has the greatest potential for scientific significance. Although it is Saturn’s second largest moon there is still so much to be discovered about this alien moon. There have been targeted flybys for Rhea previously but the last was over three years ago, in our modern world technology and scientific knowledge are growing at rates unprecedented in any other era. Therefore our capacity for understanding has increased dramatically during these three years so another flyby is long overdue. Rhea has not run out of secrets for us to discover yet.
The fact that Rhea is Saturn’s largest airless moon is surely enough to make a photograph of this moon truly magnificent but its majestic icy complexion must indisputably invoke awe in every viewer. Only this target can give full justice to the sheer power of the Cassini mission and its close range cameras.
We are spoilt for choice with these three fascinating targets but I believe that Rhea has the greatest potential for scientific significance. Although it is Saturn’s second largest moon there is still so much to be discovered about this alien moon. There have been targeted flybys for Rhea previously but the last was over three years ago, in our modern world technology and scientific knowledge are growing at rates unprecedented in any other era. Therefore our capacity for understanding has increased dramatically during these three years so another flyby is long overdue. Rhea has not run out of secrets for us to discover yet.
The fact that Rhea is Saturn’s largest airless moon is surely enough to make a photograph of this moon truly magnificent but its majestic icy complexion must indisputably invoke awe in every viewer. Only this target can give full justice to the sheer power of the Cassini mission and its close range cameras.
One of Cassini’s science goals for Rhea is to determine its characteristics and geological history. This is a perfect opportunity to do so. It is believed that Rhea is composed of three quarters ice and one quarter rock, this is due to its density and its high reflectivity but more evidence is necessary to support these claims. This mission could provide the crucial evidence.
Rhea’s surface is covered in craters, more so than its sister moons Dione and Tethys. The origin of these craters could be due to tectonic activity from Rheas past or it could be due to the fact that Dionne and Tethys reach higher temperatures and so ice melted and refroze over the craters or it could even be due to bombardment of the surface. New photographs of Rhea could undoubtedly provide clues to help solve this mystery. Interestingly, Rhea has two distinctive regions in terms of crater size and photographs taken from a slightly different angle from pictures previously taken could easily complete the picture of this moons terrain.
Finally, there is the possibility that Rhea could have rings made of debris ranging from pebbles to boulders. This idea is due to the area around Rhea showing variation and simulations proving that Rhea’s gravitational field could be capable of such a feat. Unlike anything found on any other moon, the rarity of this would make the discovery all the more special. It could prove the uniqueness of this already fascinating moon or maybe even open up a new field of discovery.
Dwayne Brown and Carolina Martinez, employees of NASA in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, say that ‘These ring findings make Rhea a prime candidate for further study’. I agree with this statement and so in conclusion I believe that Rhea still holds many secrets which we must convince her to share. The prospect of a moon with rings, a moon made of ice is a moon that knows how to tantalise our human thirst for knowledge. I for one am ready!
Hubble Telescoper
Are you ready for some serious Physics? Lets go!
So the Hubble telescope is something I have heard talked about for as long as I can remember but it wasn't until I downloaded the Hubble app and saw some of the pictures that I got really interested!
Here are two of my favourites and I must say it was incredibly difficult picking just two! I chose the Whirlpool Galaxy because the latest Sixty Symbols video was about spiral galaxies. The spiralling arms are where stars are born as they are areas of high gas density.
The second I chose is called 'light echo' and it is so beautiful I couldn't resist! I love the red glow at the centre and the way it is so different from what we encounter in our everyday lives. I also like that in the description it talks about how the star was suddenly brighter for these 2 weeks in 2002 when the picture was taken which revelaved all these hidden structures we hadn't seen before.
So the Hubble telescope is something I have heard talked about for as long as I can remember but it wasn't until I downloaded the Hubble app and saw some of the pictures that I got really interested!
Here are two of my favourites and I must say it was incredibly difficult picking just two! I chose the Whirlpool Galaxy because the latest Sixty Symbols video was about spiral galaxies. The spiralling arms are where stars are born as they are areas of high gas density.
The telescope was launched in 1990 and is positioned above the Earths atmosphere so the light is less distorted and the images can have a much higher clarity. The telescope is in orbit around the Earth with a period (time for one complete orbit) of 97 minuetes. I wrote an essay on satelite orbits the other day for school but it was incredibly ordinary so I won't bore you with the details in this area!
There are 5 different instruments which each collect data of different wavelengths of light. The telescope was designed to be maintained by Astronaunts so it can all be taken apart and replaced which helps keep it up to date. There have been 5 visits to the Hubble telescope so far and I'm hope the mission will continue for many years to come.
And I know I said that I would only chose 2 pictures but this one is too great not to include! It is called celestial fireworks! It is the remants of a supernova around a neutron star and I think it is quite spectacular!!
Friday 15 July 2011
Book Injuries
I was looking back at my posts recently and I saw that they are all so self centered! I decided that I would get back on track and write about something with real Physic substance. And that's the reason I didn't post for a few days... Because writing about myself is easy, I know about myself! Although I realise I need to stretch myself and improve the standard of my blog I will make one more self centered post and then I will try not to bore you anymore!
So today in my Physics lesson my teacher started handing out some books for summer reading and my friends were handed interesting looking books (including Brains second book). However I was stupid enough to mention that I might want to go to Oxford so I was lent this:
Its massive and has 548 pages!! How on Earth am I going to read this?! And I was planning on starting the Harry Potter books (I know, I know its terrible I haven't read it yet...) but that's never going to happen now! I know my teacher means well and this book will be good for me but its so big and heavy that when I dropped it on my foot it hurt SO much!! I'll have to be very careful when I actually start reading it...
So today in my Physics lesson my teacher started handing out some books for summer reading and my friends were handed interesting looking books (including Brains second book). However I was stupid enough to mention that I might want to go to Oxford so I was lent this:
Tuesday 12 July 2011
Sounds like Physics
I volunteered to help on the sound desk for the school production, partly out of guilt as I haven't helped once in 6 years and partly because for some reason I had it in my mind that it would be somewhat Physicsy. I'm not quite sure where this idea came from, maybe because an old Physics teacher used to do it? I don't know!
I guess it kind of involves logic and problem solving skills sometimes which is quite enjoyable but other times it's a nightmare! People are so unpredictable! some people are uncooperative and hard to work with but others are perfectly helpful and brilliant! Sums are a lot easier than people and that is a fact! Except it is technically an opinion I guess...
The first show is tomorrow, I just hope it all goes well!!
I guess it kind of involves logic and problem solving skills sometimes which is quite enjoyable but other times it's a nightmare! People are so unpredictable! some people are uncooperative and hard to work with but others are perfectly helpful and brilliant! Sums are a lot easier than people and that is a fact! Except it is technically an opinion I guess...
The first show is tomorrow, I just hope it all goes well!!
Sunday 10 July 2011
Apps are Back!
I got a new Ipod! And I downloaded a whole lot of new apps!
At the Royal Society Summer Exhibition there was a stall from the Universty of Manchester about Graphene which is basically one molecular layer of Graphine. They have an app which consists of three really addictive games! One is quite like tetrus, another is a balance game and the third is a bit rubbish but maybe I just think that because I'm not very good at it?!
The second app I will talk about is called Sun Viewer from NASA space weather which also has a website that I mentioned previously. It really has everything you could want from a Sun veiwing app such as explanation videos process simulations and of course up to date images of the Sun from various different cameras.
Another one I downloaded for free (I never pay for apps!) is called Moon and I can't quite remember what I expected form this but I definitely got every kind of information you could imagine! Here is an image from today. I'm not exactly sure when it will be useful to know that today the moon is in a Waxing Gibbous phase but when it is I will be ready!
At the Royal Society Summer Exhibition there was a stall from the Universty of Manchester about Graphene which is basically one molecular layer of Graphine. They have an app which consists of three really addictive games! One is quite like tetrus, another is a balance game and the third is a bit rubbish but maybe I just think that because I'm not very good at it?!
The second app I will talk about is called Sun Viewer from NASA space weather which also has a website that I mentioned previously. It really has everything you could want from a Sun veiwing app such as explanation videos process simulations and of course up to date images of the Sun from various different cameras.
Another one I downloaded for free (I never pay for apps!) is called Moon and I can't quite remember what I expected form this but I definitely got every kind of information you could imagine! Here is an image from today. I'm not exactly sure when it will be useful to know that today the moon is in a Waxing Gibbous phase but when it is I will be ready!
The final app I will tell you about is one called SkyVeiw and it looks extremely cool but I haven't had a chance to use it yet. It uses the camera so that I point my Ipod at the sky and the app calibrates itself and then tells me what I can see. I hope this works because I am excited by how clever it would be! Also as someone with absolutely no stargazing skill whatsoever, it would be a great starting place. I just hope it isn't too cloudy/too much pollution tonight!
Saturday 9 July 2011
Wall News
I hadn't noticed how much my wall had grown until I tried to take a picture of it and had to do it in 2 parts! So there it is (to the left)! I managed to get Nikola in there as a last minute add in because the printing went a bit weird to make the top trumps! I think it was fate...At the bottom you can just about see a picture of Saturn I got from Imperial. It is actually entitled 'Saturn and our pale blue orb' but me being the idiot I am I only understood what this meant yesterday when they explained it at Queen Mary! This is it closer:
Can you see the small dot in Saturn's rings? That's the earth!!
It was taken by the Cassini space shuttle which actually only has a camera with 1mega pixel! I find it remarkable that our mobile phones have a better camera than a space shuttle! Its because the shuttle was built in the 80's.
My human genome board has taken a few additions too!There is a penguin magnet I got from the Royal Society Summer Exhibition which is a symbol in particle Physics because a professor lost a bet with some students which meant that he had to fit the word 'penguin' into his next paper! There is also a sign saying 'please stop mutating my DNA' because my genes kept mysteriously rearranging themselves!
Friday 8 July 2011
Too soon for another Tesla post?
If it is too soon for another Nikola Tesla post I do not care! I just liked a facebook page for him and found out that there is a statue of him at Niagara Falls and it is completely beautiful and looks so majestic with him looking over everything! It has been added to my list!
Okay, so while I'm in crazy fangirl mode over a dead inventor and I'm trying desperately hard to avoid the pile of homework I have to catch up from my week off due to all the Physics awesomeness, I decided to make that top trump for Nikola! I isn't very accurate but when I didn't really understand a category or couldn't find the information, I just gave him 10 points! because he is awesome and deserves it! Here it is:
In my search for information I found this website which is not particularly useful but still pretty cool!
Day Five
You might be quite pleased that finally the week is over and I will now stop writing a monotonous daily diary! But I'm feeling quite sentimental and I want to rememeber forever how special this week was!
My zeolite never came back but I honestly was okay with it in the end! My group still managed a great presentation with just 3 zeolites and we genuinely did get some interesting data! They filmed it and are going to put it on youtube at some point so I'll judge how awful it is and maybe show it to some people!
I met some great people and I really proved to mayself that I can make freinds! Or at least trick people into talking to me for a bit!
So I guess thats it until the next time! My tiredness is proof of the greatness of the week I think.
My zeolite never came back but I honestly was okay with it in the end! My group still managed a great presentation with just 3 zeolites and we genuinely did get some interesting data! They filmed it and are going to put it on youtube at some point so I'll judge how awful it is and maybe show it to some people!
I met some great people and I really proved to mayself that I can make freinds! Or at least trick people into talking to me for a bit!
So I guess thats it until the next time! My tiredness is proof of the greatness of the week I think.
Thursday 7 July 2011
Day Four
I feel quite sad knowing that today is day four and I only have one day left! I really have had a brilliant time, I don't want it to end..
Today I went to the academy after mentally preparing myself for my data not to have come back. I was a little disappointed but I had convinced myself that I was fine with it. Then I spoke to a few people and they all told me that everyones' data had run! They had all worked! I was extremely excited and was desperate to get started. I ran to my computer and although they are very fast, the computer seemed to take years to set up! I can barely even describe the crushing disappointment I felt when I found all of my jobs folder void of any output. I checked the queue and sure enough, there are my jobs - waiting in the run column... Our undergraduate ambassador seems to think I might have set up some kind of loop but I'm still in the stage of denial and am still praying my results will come through by tomorrow morning - I won't get my hopes up too high though!
None of the zeolites came back with a negative thermal expansion though (the volume increased with temperature) so maybe mine is contracting and that is why it is taking so long? Possibly? And if that is the case - my data will be the most interesting and brilliant! Fingers crossed?
So now I have to prepare for the presentation tomorrow and we are going to talk without notes which completely terrifies me!
This morning we did a workshop on presentation skills which I was convinced would be a waste of time but it was actually pretty useful! We had a quick go at a presentation but only had half an hour to prepare and were supposed to teach the rest of the group something. At first we struggled to come up with an idea and then I remembered about the origami jumping frogs! We had the best idea by far and I did the demonstration without anything going very wrong so I'm actually feeling quietly confident about public speaking at this precise moment.
However tomorrow the presentation will be in front of strangers (I don't count the group as strangers anymore!) so it will be a bit different! And of course I don't know as much about Physics as I do about origami frogs... Oh and to make it even scarier - I think my teacher is coming! She hasn't told us but I heard from my friends that she has booked the afternoon off!
Today was good, I just hope tomorrow goes well - eek!
Today I went to the academy after mentally preparing myself for my data not to have come back. I was a little disappointed but I had convinced myself that I was fine with it. Then I spoke to a few people and they all told me that everyones' data had run! They had all worked! I was extremely excited and was desperate to get started. I ran to my computer and although they are very fast, the computer seemed to take years to set up! I can barely even describe the crushing disappointment I felt when I found all of my jobs folder void of any output. I checked the queue and sure enough, there are my jobs - waiting in the run column... Our undergraduate ambassador seems to think I might have set up some kind of loop but I'm still in the stage of denial and am still praying my results will come through by tomorrow morning - I won't get my hopes up too high though!
None of the zeolites came back with a negative thermal expansion though (the volume increased with temperature) so maybe mine is contracting and that is why it is taking so long? Possibly? And if that is the case - my data will be the most interesting and brilliant! Fingers crossed?
So now I have to prepare for the presentation tomorrow and we are going to talk without notes which completely terrifies me!
This morning we did a workshop on presentation skills which I was convinced would be a waste of time but it was actually pretty useful! We had a quick go at a presentation but only had half an hour to prepare and were supposed to teach the rest of the group something. At first we struggled to come up with an idea and then I remembered about the origami jumping frogs! We had the best idea by far and I did the demonstration without anything going very wrong so I'm actually feeling quietly confident about public speaking at this precise moment.
However tomorrow the presentation will be in front of strangers (I don't count the group as strangers anymore!) so it will be a bit different! And of course I don't know as much about Physics as I do about origami frogs... Oh and to make it even scarier - I think my teacher is coming! She hasn't told us but I heard from my friends that she has booked the afternoon off!
Today was good, I just hope tomorrow goes well - eek!
Wednesday 6 July 2011
Day In London!!
Since this was our week in London, after the academy my friend and I went to the Royal Society Science Exhibition and it was A-MAAAZZZ-ZING!!! I'm not even exaggerating! It was incredible, I was buzzing when I got home and I still give the biggest smile whenever I remember bits of it!
We got a lot of free things! Including 8 badges (I have to start a collection now!) and a few things to add to my wall which I will post about later. On one of the stands we made Graphene (one layer of graphite) and looked at it under a microscope which in itself was very cool. I haven't really seen such a high tech microscope before so I was impressed anyway but then we were awarded a Nobel price (aka a giant chocolate coin) for our work!
My personal favourite form our collection of freebies were the physicist top trumps! They are extremely cool and I could literally feel myself glowing from the second we got them! There isn't one for Nikola though so I will be making a few extra at some point, even though they are technically supposed to be particle Physicists.
I won't tell you about all the different stands because it was amazing and you really have to go yourself. Everything was so interactive and the exhibition staff were extremely interesting and helpful. I wish I could have spend longer there and I will definitely be returning next year!
However I do have to tell you a couple of things! At school recently we have been doing medical Physics and this has included some work on endoscopes. At the exhibition I got to use an endoscope!! I was moving a gear stick type thing around and I could see on a screen where I was going and next to me I could see a real life endoscope moving inside a plastic heart. And the endoscope has sensors so that it will not allow you to go too far and puncture a hole in the heart - I felt it stop me, this is something you just don't get from a textbook!
I actually really enjoyed the Biology stalls too! Especially one about colour (I never knew flowers have UV to attract Bees) and another about how Bats spread disease.
As a rule of thumb I always feel that any trip that involves almost being hit in the face several times due to over excited hand gesticulation, is a good one! We had particularly enthusiastic speakers at the particle Physics and the Aurora stands. Actually that was another cool thing, I saw an Aurora simulation which involved magnets in a vacuum and I was really impressed by that!
On the way back we stopped of at M and M world which was so big and 'normal people awesome' I was blown away! I bought a box of M and M's which had 22 different flavour (I checked, I definitely have 22!) and they are yummy!
We got a lot of free things! Including 8 badges (I have to start a collection now!) and a few things to add to my wall which I will post about later. On one of the stands we made Graphene (one layer of graphite) and looked at it under a microscope which in itself was very cool. I haven't really seen such a high tech microscope before so I was impressed anyway but then we were awarded a Nobel price (aka a giant chocolate coin) for our work!
However I do have to tell you a couple of things! At school recently we have been doing medical Physics and this has included some work on endoscopes. At the exhibition I got to use an endoscope!! I was moving a gear stick type thing around and I could see on a screen where I was going and next to me I could see a real life endoscope moving inside a plastic heart. And the endoscope has sensors so that it will not allow you to go too far and puncture a hole in the heart - I felt it stop me, this is something you just don't get from a textbook!
I actually really enjoyed the Biology stalls too! Especially one about colour (I never knew flowers have UV to attract Bees) and another about how Bats spread disease.
As a rule of thumb I always feel that any trip that involves almost being hit in the face several times due to over excited hand gesticulation, is a good one! We had particularly enthusiastic speakers at the particle Physics and the Aurora stands. Actually that was another cool thing, I saw an Aurora simulation which involved magnets in a vacuum and I was really impressed by that!
On the way back we stopped of at M and M world which was so big and 'normal people awesome' I was blown away! I bought a box of M and M's which had 22 different flavour (I checked, I definitely have 22!) and they are yummy!
Day Three
Today we spent a whole day on our research project, although it didn't feel like a whole day! I felt like I was just getting the hang of it then I suddenly saw we only had 15 minuetes left and had a mad rush to finish! It turns out that this was the worst part and there were several mistakes in the template and instructions. Luckily with the support of each other our team managed to finish but I'm not convinced the jobs were sent off successfully but I am hoping and praying that at least most of them work!
How it works is that at Queen Mary we are working on virtual computers and then when we have programmed the files we send them off to Cambridge where lots of more powerful computers process the files. In our case processing the files means looking at the parameters set and seeing how the Zeolites change over time at different temperatures. Usually things expand when they are heated but we are looking for Zeolites that contract and this property is called negative thermal expansion.
I managed to get used to using some basic commands, I learnt that this '~' is a tico, I got a little faster and more accurate at typing, I practised working under pressure and I have definietly built upon my team work skills. Actually I only just realised who good today really was! Even if our simualtions do not work, I have taken alot from today.
I got home today and had a nap on the sofa (I had to go to school for a meeting and didn't want to scare everyone with bloodshot eyes and lack of sleep induced mood swings!) and I kept dreaming that I was still using linex! I was a super fast typer and the words just kept filling the screen but it didn't scare me as much as in real life!
How it works is that at Queen Mary we are working on virtual computers and then when we have programmed the files we send them off to Cambridge where lots of more powerful computers process the files. In our case processing the files means looking at the parameters set and seeing how the Zeolites change over time at different temperatures. Usually things expand when they are heated but we are looking for Zeolites that contract and this property is called negative thermal expansion.
I managed to get used to using some basic commands, I learnt that this '~' is a tico, I got a little faster and more accurate at typing, I practised working under pressure and I have definietly built upon my team work skills. Actually I only just realised who good today really was! Even if our simualtions do not work, I have taken alot from today.
I got home today and had a nap on the sofa (I had to go to school for a meeting and didn't want to scare everyone with bloodshot eyes and lack of sleep induced mood swings!) and I kept dreaming that I was still using linex! I was a super fast typer and the words just kept filling the screen but it didn't scare me as much as in real life!
Day Two
The problem with doing amazing Physics things all week is that I spend so much time doing amazing Physics things I have no time to write about it all!
Yesterday at the academy was pretty cool. We had a Maths session all morning but it was nothing like I expected the Maths to be! We tried out a few flexagons and explored some of the incredible characteristics of the mobius loop and they were amazing! The lecturer was very good and I really enjoyed myself! I just have to show everyone the mobius loop tricks!
In the afternoon we went into our research groups and although I got my first choice alot of people in my group didn't, the neutrino research was very popular! We picked out a neutrino each and since they were all labelled with three initials I chose the one called LOV. My friend chose GOO, a girl in my team chose SOS and my new friend (I'm actually talking to people!) chose BSV which sounded boring but then he showed me the structure and then I realised he had chosen the most awesome one in the most sensible way! However my choice did mean that whenever I had to explain a problem to anyone I got to say 'I have no idea what is happening, but I am in LOV(E)'!
We didn't get very far and I was still struggling with using Linex yesterday. It was so strange to use a command interface and took some serious adjustment. I am still not very good at it but yesterday I was still feeling quite useless and a little helpless but still keeping positive for the sake of the team of course.
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| Mobius Loop |
In the afternoon we went into our research groups and although I got my first choice alot of people in my group didn't, the neutrino research was very popular! We picked out a neutrino each and since they were all labelled with three initials I chose the one called LOV. My friend chose GOO, a girl in my team chose SOS and my new friend (I'm actually talking to people!) chose BSV which sounded boring but then he showed me the structure and then I realised he had chosen the most awesome one in the most sensible way! However my choice did mean that whenever I had to explain a problem to anyone I got to say 'I have no idea what is happening, but I am in LOV(E)'!
We didn't get very far and I was still struggling with using Linex yesterday. It was so strange to use a command interface and took some serious adjustment. I am still not very good at it but yesterday I was still feeling quite useless and a little helpless but still keeping positive for the sake of the team of course.
Monday 4 July 2011
Day One
Today was the first day of the Physics Academy!! It was awesome!! I was slightly surprised by how few people there were, only 31, but I suppose that kind of makes it better.
I was right though, the ice breaker was awkward! We had a bingo sheet and had to find a person who was a vegetarian or was left handed or has read a book by Steven Hawkin or owns an unusual pet. So I became known as the Rat Girl... This isn't how I expected to be introduced to everyone! I should just have pretended that I had seen Saturn through a telescope..
And then we had a tour of the university which for me involved all of us squashing into the ladies bathroom to see the Dixon hand dryer and walking past my entire year group at school (they had a trip too) whilst they screamed my name! I'm not going to lie, I told a few people that I was famous!
If I were to treat today as an Open Day I would have to write that I was not immediately impressed by Queen Mary University. Some of the buildings appear quite shabby and I was not blown away by the facilities. However the lecturers were very good and I am extremely grateful for the generosity and hospitality the university has shown as in the form of student ambassadors, free lunch and the general sense of care that they have provided. I also have to say that the food was very reasonably priced and quite tasty. From the outside the accommodation seems nice and there is a pretty canal which came as quite a surprise when we found it!
Then we had a few lectures. One was about 'Condensed Matter Physics' which I knew nothing about before but it was linked to some things were had talked about in Chemistry. Then we had a talk about 'Particle Physics' which was about neutrinos and was completely brilliant! The lecturer told us about all these amazing research facilities accross the world and I will make a post about them later. Finally we had a talk about 'Astrophysics' which was about solar flares and was great as well. The lecturer gave us a list of websites for veiwing the Sun and this one is my favourite.
So then I had to chose a research project for the next week, and it was SUCH a hard decision. In the end I decided to choose the Condensed Matter Physics research becasue it will give me a chance to try out some computer simulations which I have only tried once before, it is a practical I think is likely to work and we will be doing some actual real research! I mean actually finding out things people have never found out before! There are 197 different zeolite structures and they haven't all been studied before so we will be looking at some of them and finding out if they have negative thermal expansion. I can't wait to get started!
I was right though, the ice breaker was awkward! We had a bingo sheet and had to find a person who was a vegetarian or was left handed or has read a book by Steven Hawkin or owns an unusual pet. So I became known as the Rat Girl... This isn't how I expected to be introduced to everyone! I should just have pretended that I had seen Saturn through a telescope..
And then we had a tour of the university which for me involved all of us squashing into the ladies bathroom to see the Dixon hand dryer and walking past my entire year group at school (they had a trip too) whilst they screamed my name! I'm not going to lie, I told a few people that I was famous!
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| It wasn't actually on an extremely steep hill... |
Then we had a few lectures. One was about 'Condensed Matter Physics' which I knew nothing about before but it was linked to some things were had talked about in Chemistry. Then we had a talk about 'Particle Physics' which was about neutrinos and was completely brilliant! The lecturer told us about all these amazing research facilities accross the world and I will make a post about them later. Finally we had a talk about 'Astrophysics' which was about solar flares and was great as well. The lecturer gave us a list of websites for veiwing the Sun and this one is my favourite.
So then I had to chose a research project for the next week, and it was SUCH a hard decision. In the end I decided to choose the Condensed Matter Physics research becasue it will give me a chance to try out some computer simulations which I have only tried once before, it is a practical I think is likely to work and we will be doing some actual real research! I mean actually finding out things people have never found out before! There are 197 different zeolite structures and they haven't all been studied before so we will be looking at some of them and finding out if they have negative thermal expansion. I can't wait to get started!
Saturday 2 July 2011
Dancing Stars and Forceful Gamblers
I finally finished reading my library book! Just in time for me to write this and then get ready for a party! This book has been on trips to open days, optician waiting rooms and up to school a few times so I could read it whenever possible. I'll admit that I have taken so long to read it that I now have a fine of £1.50 to pay.. I wanted to finish before next week so I felt a little more prepared for the PHYSICS ACADEMY! It is pretty much a summary of 'A Brief History of Time' which I desperately needed because it is impossible to know exactly how much went in..
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I am considering buying this book for future reference because it really did describe things beautifully! I have a slightly better understand of virtual particles now but still find the idea of imaginary time slightly mind boggling although it is comforting to see a practical application of the imaginary numbers I learnt in school.
I now have a list of my favourite analogies! For example as proof of black holes, astronomers have been searching for binary star systems (2 stars that rotate in an orbit around each other due to their gravity) in which one of the stars is a black hole. This way we would know a black hole was there by the rotations of the visible star even though we cannot see the black hole. The analogy that this is like turning the lights out in a dancing hall when the male partner is dressed in black and the female is dressed in white. You would only be able to see the lady dancing but you would know the man is there lifting her. I love the idea of dancing stars!
My other favourite is the unification of the four fundamental forces. The idea is like a roulette table in a casino. When the table is spinning the ball is only capable of one position, flying above the table. When the table slows down and stops spinning the ball falls into one of the 36 compartments and is capable of 36 positions. At our current temperatures there are 4 fundamental forces but at higher temperature (higher speeds) there will be just one. Well, two at the moment because gravity is being stubborn... Pretty cool right? I hope to collect a lot more!
I am considering buying this book for future reference because it really did describe things beautifully! I have a slightly better understand of virtual particles now but still find the idea of imaginary time slightly mind boggling although it is comforting to see a practical application of the imaginary numbers I learnt in school.
I now have a list of my favourite analogies! For example as proof of black holes, astronomers have been searching for binary star systems (2 stars that rotate in an orbit around each other due to their gravity) in which one of the stars is a black hole. This way we would know a black hole was there by the rotations of the visible star even though we cannot see the black hole. The analogy that this is like turning the lights out in a dancing hall when the male partner is dressed in black and the female is dressed in white. You would only be able to see the lady dancing but you would know the man is there lifting her. I love the idea of dancing stars!
My other favourite is the unification of the four fundamental forces. The idea is like a roulette table in a casino. When the table is spinning the ball is only capable of one position, flying above the table. When the table slows down and stops spinning the ball falls into one of the 36 compartments and is capable of 36 positions. At our current temperatures there are 4 fundamental forces but at higher temperature (higher speeds) there will be just one. Well, two at the moment because gravity is being stubborn... Pretty cool right? I hope to collect a lot more!
Physics Fail Number Two
It seems strange labelling this as only my second Physics fail since there have been so many. For example some homework I got the other day which was the write up for an experiment I got absolutely everything wrong! I didn't convert from millimetres, I got the speed = distance over time equation wrong (I know how unbelievably stupid that is!) and I went so completely wrong with uncertainty calculations its hard to even summarise my mistakes! But this was too boring to write about so it doesn't count.
My second official Physics fail is particularly bad because I seem to have been stuck with it for quite some time. I was reading a Physics book (which I've almost finished and will write about later) and they talked about how nature seems to prefer neutron stars to black holes. This took me by surprise because I had never thought of nature in space before. When I think of nature I imagine green spaces, baby bear cubs, homegrown potatoes and rainbows. Nature is something that is natural to me, something normal and common place. The methane seas and red skies of Venus is anything but natural to me. And yet, of course it is natural. It is the same laws of nature that govern all the planets, all the stars and all of everything. The whole point of Physics is linking all of these things, I'm quite embarrassed to have missed this point before. The word nature and all its derivations will never mean the same again!
My second official Physics fail is particularly bad because I seem to have been stuck with it for quite some time. I was reading a Physics book (which I've almost finished and will write about later) and they talked about how nature seems to prefer neutron stars to black holes. This took me by surprise because I had never thought of nature in space before. When I think of nature I imagine green spaces, baby bear cubs, homegrown potatoes and rainbows. Nature is something that is natural to me, something normal and common place. The methane seas and red skies of Venus is anything but natural to me. And yet, of course it is natural. It is the same laws of nature that govern all the planets, all the stars and all of everything. The whole point of Physics is linking all of these things, I'm quite embarrassed to have missed this point before. The word nature and all its derivations will never mean the same again!
Maggie Pocock, Flanders and Swann
At the Imperial Open Day they mentioned Maggie Pocock, a BBC scientist consultant, who went to Imperial University and I realised that although I had heard of her I had never got around to google stalking her. So half way through some particularly boring Maths homework (I have decided that I do not like functions very much!) I searched her and ended up listening to a radio 4 interview with her. She really is a perfect Physicist trying to share her love of the subject with a very interesting past making her an even more inspirational figure. She has made it on the list! Though of course Nikola still sits at the top, Maggie shouldn't feel bad because even though she gets extra points for being a space scientist, building her own telescope and having a brilliant personality it is extremely difficult to get more points than a super genius with an amazing moustache...
In the interveiw she mentioned her Physics teacher playing this song by Flanders and Swann to her and I really enjoyed it! This is the best version I could find on Youtube, I wish I had more time to remake my own but unfortunatly that Maths functions homework is waiting...
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