Quantum Tic-Tac-Toe

So I'm just sitting here watching paint dry and I thought 'Hey, I haven't written a blog post in a while!' because of course I have I have the difficulties of over usage of exclamation marks in my inner monologue too. I suppose I could write a post about how paint drys and about colour etc, but that'd be boring so instead I'll talk about being bored. Project 'I love geography' has been a partial success but I'm so sick of it I've treated myself to a bit of maths revision today! But I have discovered a new game to break up the geography revision. Previously my only entertainment was doodling in the margin but now I have a bit of intellectual stimulation!

Its called Quantum Tic Tac Toe! I originally found the app for this but then it moved so fast I had no idea what was happening so I tried it out on paper for a while to get to grips with it. I'm still developing a winning strategy but its quite tricky and when I let my dad play too it was too complicated! Its better when I play on my own at the moment! Basically it is the normal grid and the same aim as noughts and crosses but because it is quantum the noughts and crosses have the abilities of superposition. Cool right? So for each turn you get 2 shadow particles and you subscript the turn number this is. Then when a loop is closed (ie. X1 is in the same square as O6whos shadow pair is in the same square as O4 whose shadow pair is with X1) then you pick one of the particles in the square to be definitely there which then means the other possibilities must be in other positions. It sounds complicated but once you get playing it isn't so bad! Except having more than just 2 particles in one box threw me for a while. Here is a link to the proper rules that will probably be clearer!

Movie Physics

Relativity by M.C. Escher

My favourite film is called labyrinth. I really like it because it is such an imaginative film and is all about being lovely and making friends - whats not to like?! And also because there are some truly beautiful scenes. For example, one of the last scenes there is this room. The Goblin King puts the main characters baby bother in this room that has several staircases however the normal laws of gravity do not apply. She is stuck in one plane whilst her brother is in another. It is based on a picture by M.C Escher which is also a really interesting exploration of dimension. I printed out a copy for my wall!

Heres a video of the scene, on reflection it looks a little bit crazy in isolation but in the film it seems pretty normal... Don't judge!

Ah little me was too cute...

When I was little I used to use a wonderful thing to help me to learn the things that I found really hard or just really boring. I just made it my favourite thing. For example I could never remember that 3 times 7 is 21 and so to this day that is my favourite times table - of course I just found this particular sum hard, no sum could ever be boring! So I decided to try this trick again now. And so for this week Geography is my favourite subject and I completely love revising for it! I really really really love geography. Yup, I really do... (in this case I need to use the trick because it is really boring)

Actually while I'm talking about when I was younger my mum reminded me of something I had completely forgotten about. When I was younger, about 6 years old, in the summer my mum pointed out to me some steam coming out of the fence in our garden. She explained that this was evaporation and that it went back into clouds to come back as rain. A while later in science at school we started learning about the water cycle. The teacher must have asked some kind of question about where water came from and imagine my excitement when I put my hand in the air because I knew the answer! I went home and explained to my mum that water doesn't come from fences...

The Mock

So you know I had that mock exam? I got 55%... But that was actually a B! But I'm supposed to get an A star and there is only a month until the exam... But its the best grade I have got this year! But my teacher wasn't happy... But it's more than half? I have mixed feelings about this grade...

All I want for Christmas is you

So it is Christmas and Brian is everywhere again! I missed it but apparently he was on the One Show, I mean I don't watch that show because it is totally uncool... But it would have been cooler if Brian was on it!

Then I've fallen behind the Infinite Monkey Cage episodes. The most recent one is called, I'm a chemist get me out of here which isn't what I thought. I thought it would involve torturing chemists with van de graaff generators and quantum mechanics until they caved and said that physics was the best science. It was however a lot more informative and funny than that where they debated which was the best and why. To be honest it ended with a tie where the best point in favour of chemistry was that in chemistry you can't just pretend that a theory works by throwing the word dark in!

Then finally and most amazingly was Brian's 'a night with the stars'. They had a celebrity audience in a really beautiful room at the royal institute. It was all about quantum theory and I think they touched upon entanglement but I still found it slightly confusing. It was a nice introduction I suppose but I needed to know a bit more because I'm finding the whole thing a bit frustrating now! I'm back to hating wave particle duality again... Saying that however it made a wonderful show! The demonstrations were really good and I felt thoroughly entertained afterwards

Return of the Higs

Remember when I decided to make a post about the Higs Boson, realised I had no idea what it was really and then posted it anyway? Well I decided to be a little bit less lazy when I read this article and thought I should at least know a tiny bit more than this journalist!

Found this video by sixty symbols plus a lovely article from the institute of physics. I still don't really understand why this particle has to exist. I mean I thought you were allowed to assume that mass was just a property of certain particles. A property of me is that I have brown eyes, although of course that is due to my genes so is the Higs particle like a gene? Anyway, back to what I do know! The Higs particle creates a field and this field is what makes particles experience a mass but the field is even harder to detect so they are looking for the particle instead. But the particle decays super fast and they can't detect it so they are trying to find the things that it decays into such as z bosons and photons of certain frequencies. I'm slightly happier though of course can't be content till I really understand!

Secret Santa!!

Secret Santa this year was the best!

I have to admit that when giving my physics present I experienced a microsecond of reluctance to give the Brian mask away. However within one second of her opening the present I totally knew it was a brilliant idea! Thankfully everybody found it very funny and the mask was then worn almost all day! I honestly never stopped seeing Brian around the place!

It turned out that my teacher was my Secret Santa! She bought me this really cool steady hand game where you can change the shape of the wire. I'm shockingly bad at this but I am getting better! Clearly in this case the wire has been bent to look like a Christmas tree, clearly...

And then in a non related physics Secret Santa my friend bought me this t-shirt! She's pretty amazing right?? I know its rude but its too funny not to wear, I even wore it to my grandmas house! Its true, even if I didn't take off my jumper at all...

This would have been a picture of Brian wearing the t-shirt except I gave the mask away... Never mind, Finn is always a pretty model!

The trip that happened

We went for a day of lectures about a week ago and I really really enjoyed it! The plan was to write about it straight away but I was too tired! I wrote this before I went and I can conclude that it wasn't a disappointment!
They shuffled the order though so I was totally unprepared for Simon to be first! His talk was all about the big bang which I already knew most of but there is no doubt about it, he is a brilliant speaker. he had this funny mathematical proof that proves that the teletubies must be evil. Making the teletubies takes time and money so:

Teletubies = Time x Money

It is often said that time is money so if Time = Money when you substitute you get

Teletubies = Money squared

It is also said that money is the root of all evil so when you substitute the square root of evil into the equation you get that

Teletubies = Evil

This was to demonstrate that without experiments then you get some very strange theories...

Next was a talk all about plastic electronics and its potential with screens to have flexible phones and all sorts. This wasn't the best presentation but it was a very interesting topic with a lot of practical applications such as messages on police jacket and skin replacements (like a plaster with a skin image on) and electronic wallpaper (which would be incredible because you could change it every day, it could have a scene from your holiday or play a video of your favourite band like an actual concert!)

Then came a talk called 'Newton at the Olympics' and was all about the physics of sport which involves looking at the way the body works (in a mechanical way) and developing techniques and equipment to allow the best performance - although a lot of these developments are then banned from competitions.... I have to be honest , I am not a sporty person so I wasn't expecting much from this talk but it was really interesting and I learnt a lot of things I wouldn't have ordinarily have thought about.

Next was a senior examiners talk all about exam technique and mostly it was the usual thing about highlighters and writing out the data you know. But he also spoke about closing the loop which is a technique I will try next test (basically read the question before and after answering). He also spoke about how a test is a 'walk in the garden of physics' and although it seems a slightly eccentric idea I quite like it!

Next was the DJ physics and when I spoke before about looking forward to seeing sound set on fire I wasn't disappointed! There was a tube of gas with holes in so there were lots of little flames when it was set alight. Then he played a song down the tube and the sound waves created a pressure difference in the tube which displayed a standing wave pattern with the flames! Actual amazing!! And now when I hear a song I can't help but listen for the beats and imagine the pattern in frequency space... Although I've probably get it wrong in my head because he tested us on a few and I was rubbish!

Finally was a talk about 'Quantum Magic' and although the presenter was quite cringe worthy it was a genuinely enjoyable presentation. At the end I was totally frustrated because I cannot understand quantum entanglement and superposition... I mean something cannot be in more than one place at one time!! It just can't... But it is... But it can't... Ah, its making me tired again!! He also told us about his blog which I really like, particularly the name!

Embarrasment

Its officially time to stop fighting against biology and just embrace it! I found this website and feel it would no longer be fair for me to continually resist biology and laugh at my friends who like it after reading this website, from the Institute of Physics - we can live in harmony guys!

In other less optimistic news I still haven't gotten over the embarrassment of getting a certificate in assembly for getting a merit in the Olympiad... Our teacher said it was for the greater good so as to promote physics within the school but it isn't fair - Brian Cox gets to go on all the best TV programmes (including would I lie to you) and travel the world to promote physics. All I get is a situation that in fairness would only be moderately embarrassing if it weren't for the fact that I am far to old to receive a certificate in front of the whole school. In addition to that there was an excessive quantity of certificates (2 certificates for one competition) and the prolonging of the experience by having to explain the Olympiad to various people... Then my Chemistry teacher had the WONDERFUL idea that we should do the Chemistry one in February....

And now theres a picture of me from the school trip on the school website.... Brilliant...

Revision again... and again...

I literally just started some physics revision so that I could write this sentence. I have an exam in January and it has all the things we have been doing in class about medical physics and mechanics (angular equations are driving me crazy at the moment, I honestly can't think in circles) and types of surveying so I have quite a lot to revise. The problem is, I don't want to revise - I want to relax and do christmassy things! I actually hate past paper questions now but they are the best way for me to revise because I get the theory now its all about application... We have a mock on Friday so I'm pretending its the real thing and hopefully it goes okay. Thanks for letting me moan, not that you have any choice!

The Higs Boson

I haven't exactly been keeping up with my 'check the news every week' resolution but this week I am and to be honest I couldn't have picked a better week! They are closer to finding the Higs Boson at LHC (Large Hadron Collider).

It is my understanding that the Higs Boson is basically a particle that allows matter to have mass. Although I don't think it is a particle like I automatically imagine because quarks aren't and I'm guessing quarks are made from Higs Bosons and stuff. Well, I don't exactly understand it all but one day I will! The search for the Higs Boson is vital because they are saying without it the standard model of the atom is seriously flawed...

They probably won't be able to make a definite statement about the discovery for about a year because apparently although they have found 'a spike' in their data they of course have to run many repeats and checks. They measure certainty with a sigma system where a 5 sigma is an acceptable discovery and 3 is just an observation.

I'll end with a joke about the Higs Boson; The Higs Boson walked into a church, the priest saw him and said 'you can't be in here, people call you the God particle - it is blasphemous' the Higs Boson turned to leave and said 'alright I'll go but without me you can't have mass' ba-dum-tshhh...

How to use a Brian Cox Mask

I've be seriously reconsidering giving this Brian mask as part of a Christmas present. And no, that's not just because I want to keep it myself!! Its just that its a little bit weird... And I wonder if it will really have any use? So I've made a list of what you can do with the mask:

1. Put it on the Christmas Tree
2. Jump out at people whilst wearing it (ignore the fact that jumping out on people is always hilarious even without the mask...)
3. 'Dream of being a particle physicist' - haha, the credit for this one has to go to these guys!
4. Join Professor Brian Cox Appreciation Society like this one
5. Wear it to get backstage to see Simon Singh (giving it to her for Christmas may be a little too late...)
6. Wear it on the back of your head, drink unicorn blood and hunt down the philosophers stone to find Brian a new body
7. Make someone else wear it and rehearse what you would say to Brian if you met him for real - honestly its better to be over prepared for these things, you don't want to totally freeze...
8. Hang it up in your room so people thing your obsessed with Brian cox so as to hide your real obsession of Nikola Tesla (maybe that one is too specific...)
9. Use it as a catapult
10. Play with it for up to 5 minuets after you open it then just put it in a drawer somewhere and forget about it....

The Last Parents Evening Ever

Today was parents evening at school... This the first year that I was actually quite worried about what the teachers might say to my parents! In the end it wasn't too bad, my physics teachers just said that I need to be careful with my units and not make silly mistakes - the thing is that they never seem silly when I'm making them?! The meeting was made a lot better by the fact that I got 70% in the test today!!

It seems really weird to think that this is the last parents evening I will ever have!? I guess this year will be full of lasts but they'll still surprise me each time!!

Can't wait for tomorrow!

I have a physics trip tomorrow! I have to admit that some my excitement for this is the fact that I get a day off school. I don't know what it is but recently I've lost my enthusiasm for lessons etc.... But then most of my excitement is due to the fact that it'll mean a whole day of physics! Whats not to be excited about? Except that there are year 12 students coming who think that they are 'cool'... I hope it isn't too awkward!!

The first lecture is 'How can light devices be heavy' which looks like its all about light technology which should be pretty good!

The second is the one I'm most looking forward to! It is called Big Bang by Simon Singh!! He's like actual famous and I started reading his book called Fermats theorem but even though it was a really good book I haven't finished it yet... But it is a really good book! And he knows Brian!!!!! Plus the big bang is an interesting topic

The third is all about the physics of sport with links to the Olympics which is nice and relevant as well as super exciting since the Olympics are getting nearly here and they are so close to home!

Next comes the lecture that they pretty much have in every lecture series which is a talk about exams... Boooooooring... But maybe useful? Maybe....

The next one should be really good though, it is called DJ physics and by Martin Archer a Physicist DJ from Imperial College and Kiss Fm! The little paragraph that comes with it says 'along the way he'll turn sound into fire and guide you fearlessly thorough uncharted frequency space' -- Oh my goodness, how good does that sound??

The final one is called 'real magic or quantum magic' which should be brilliant so long as I can still focus, I'm going to be exhausted after all this! Although I seem to have had quite a bit of practise of this kind of thing.

I really really really hope this is going to be as good as it feels like it will be!

Brian Brian Brian Brian Brian

Brian keeps popping up all over the place today. I got home from my driving lesson and was surprised to find him on the top of our christmas tree, fighting the angel for the best place.

And then I was busy making snow when my Dad found Brian on TV! Well thats sort of what happened... Heres the video... 

Maybe you won't find this vdieo as funny as I have watching it back but I find it hilarious how many emotions I can experience within 1 minute!! Surprise, anticipation, excitement, doubt, frustration and crushing dissapiontment! But seriously, I don't even like Brian that much...

Let it Snow!

I recently made this poster about snowflakes for a chemistry board that was going to be called 'The Chemistry of Christmas'. Unfortunately I think this idea has kind of fallen through but I won't let my poster go to waste so here it is!

It is a little simplistic because it was supposed to be for the whole school and I figured that only year 7's really read the displays anyway!

Our Christmas Decorations are now up! And I have wrapped all my Christmas presents! well all except a few which still need finishing off... I'm now apart of 3 secret Santa's and I feel like I'm about to burst with secrets! Especially the really exciting ones... Ahh, can't wait!!

Even though it never snows at Christmas I was in a christmassy mood today so I made some snow! It was pretty impressive the way the snow grew but it didn't really come out well in the video! I now have a bowl of plasticy snow waiting to dehydrate on my desk - I don't think many people can say that!



The Resourcefullness of A Physicist

Okay so I seem to have gotten a little bit distracted from my chemistry homework but this is too funny to resist! A barometer is something traditionally used to measure weather conditions but here are 8 imaginative ways in which to use a Barometer to find the height of a building:

1. Measure the height of the barometer. Scale the side of the building, measuring its height in barometer-units.
2. Drop the barometer from the top of the building. Measure the time until it hits the street. Correcting for the mass/surface ratio of the instrument, use basic acceleration equation to find the height.
3. Tie string to top of barometer. Lower from roof to almost ground. Swing. Period of pendulum can be used to find distance from barometer's Centre of Gravity to top of building.
4. Place a cat on top of a building. Prod it with the barometer so that it falls off the roof. See whether the cat dies when it hits the ground. Repeat n times. Refer to Dr Karl Kruszelnickis paper on the probability of a cat dying when falling from a certain height. 
5. Take the barometer outside on a sunny day, measure its shadow and the buildings shadow.
6. Smash the barometer on the roof of the building and time how long it takes for the mercury to drip down the wall of the building to the ground, use the known viscosity of mercury to find the velocity.
7. Sell the barometer. Purchase a tape measure long enough to measure the height of the building.
8. Find someone who knows how tall the building is, and trade him the barometer for the information.

Obviously I don't recommend them!

Tips for Lab Work

I'm in the middle of planning an investigation for Chemistry and I found these rules for the lab:

1. If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
2. When you don't know what you're doing, do it neatly.
3. In case of doubt, make it sound convincing.
4. Team work is essential, it allows you to blame someone else.
5. All unmarked beakers contain fast-acting, extremely toxic poisons

I am going to ace this section!! I chose to make mine about rates of reaction and the such like for a bromine reaction because that allows me to do as much maths as possible and forget I am in chemistry! Plus I can avoid too much practical work since that seems to be my weak point...

Maths Spy

When I was a kid I wanted to be a spy. Spys made the best movies and they absolutely made the best games. I'm not ashamed to say that I was the kid who ran around the playground talking into my watch and carried 'lazer lipstick' in my pencil case! And now my dreams are about to come true! It's all to do with maths! You basically have to a crack a code similar to this one and build a virtual computer - easy right? I'll just do it next time I have a spare 10 hours... Oh wait, maybe I should study for my maths test, you know just as a back up in case the spy life doesn't work out for me....

This is the article I read from the telegraph

Olly Murs Must Love Me!

I'm totally in love with Olly Murs at the moment! Especially since he performed with the muppets on the Xfactor! Ahhh, he's amazing and I'm pretty sure he likes girls who like Physics since he specifically designs a girl who is reading a Physics book in this music video - irrefutable proof right? Yeah...

Brian Adventures

Ohmygoodness Ohmygoodness! You are never going to believe what happened to me today!! I got an email from the actual Brian Cox!! It turns out he has been reading my blog for a while! Some of those page views must haev been his... I think he found it while googling his own name but who seriously doesn't do that? So he says that he was reading my blog and this particular post caught his eye. It just so happens that for the new series of Wonders of the Solar System they were planning a trip to Jupiter and they had room for an extra person on the flight!!  So Brian and I went to actual Jupiter! I packed lots of warm clothes because I learnt about how cold it is in space from that Satellite programme but obviously Brian didn't watch that show because he had to borrow my new leavers hoodie when we got there. Obviously I wasn't allowed to do the important button pressing and stuff so I just made Brian cups of tea. I knew you might not believe me so I took a picture as proof! please don't make fun of Brian's tan, space travel can do that to a persons complexion...

Ps. you can't blame me, I would have been a fool not to have a play with the mask before I gave it away, a fool!!

Math Mug

I had my penultimate further maths lesson ever today! It's quite sad because I have really enjoyed these lessons but then again it will be quite nice to have a little bit more time! We're doing mechanics at the moment which is basically physics. My teacher gave us each one of these further maths mugs! They are so cute and the maths jokes are hilarious! You've got to love inside jokes!

Satelites and veiws

Ahhhh, I reached 1000 views!! I realise that at least half of these will have been my own but I can't help but treat this as another milestone! This blog has been a great source of pleasure and relief for me and I'm glad to actually be doing something.

I'm currently watching (well half watching half writing this!) a video on  Iplayer about how to build a satellite. Its pretty cool to see inside a manufacturing lab, they all wear funny hair nets. I'd hate that because it seems enough of a hassle to just tie my hair up in Chemistry. Satellites have really become a major part of our everyday live and apart from considering their orbits I have taken their design for granted. For example they have to be really well insulated so as to still work under space conditions. They are really expensive to build and they have to take extreme caution when building them with great precision. The people who work there seem really friendly and act like normal people even though they are actual space scientists!! Although maybe its more understandable if they are really actors for the programme... Anyway I'll have to watch the rest later, I have a load of physics homework to do!

Que Sera Sera

So I finally heard from Oxford but I didn't get an interview. I thought I was going to feel horrible and rubbish when I got rejected but I don't. I just feel a bit weird because I no longer have this constant worry! I can honestly say that I'm sure this will be a blessing in disguise. I'm really looking forward to going to Warwick (assuming I get the grades) and I'm saved the pressure of an interview. I would much rather be rejected before interview rather than after because I think I would take it more personally. The worst part was telling people and now its over and it wasn't even that bad! Here's the proof: