Penguins Passing

So, I've been revising and I'm sorry that all of my posts seem to start like that at the moment but you have to realise that is pretty much all I do at the moment. And yes, I realise that my starting every post this way I sound incredibly defencive as though I actually just spend all of my study leave watching YouTube and playing just dance... And apparently blogging even though I said I wouldn't. But, hey I guess today is just your lucky day!

So anyway I've been revising and since penguins are pretty much all I can draw (ha ha, I still think I can draw them no matter how much people laugh at them...) every time an animal appears in a diagram, I penguin substitute. It seemed a pretty good idea at first, you know a penguin on a swing, a penguin on a Ferris wheel, the penguin was having fun, I was having fun and everything seemed great. Until recently this week... Things rook a turn for the worst and unfortunately the penguin was put in some uncomfortable situations...

In Chemistry I penguin substituted the cow in the nutrients cycle:

(in case you can't see clearly/read my awful handwriting, yes that poor penguin is excreting...)
And then today in my physics revision about radiocarbon entering living things:

So it looks like I can't penguin substitute again...

Okay, so maybe acting like a drawing of a penguin would have a finite lifespan and feel emotions such as embarrassment makes me seem a little crazy but seriously this is what revision does to you! I haven't seen my friends in so long that they are about to get penguin substituted too...



Super Hero back up plan for when I fail my exams...

So I'm revising for my Physics Alevel and there's a chapter about particle accelerators but I'm currently up to the bit about magnetic fields, in particular Flemings left hand rule. This is a trick that you can use to find either the direction of the current, the field or the force produced assuming that you know the other two, basically you do this with your fingers.

So I was practising and felt a bit like Spiderman and I suddenly realised, imagine if it were exactly like Spiderman! Well, not exactly, shooting web is kind of stupid but what about a Spiderman Magneto cross? Like I could produce a magnetic field in my hand my thumb would shoot beams of magnetic force? I've been revising since 8.30am so by this point any valid excuse for a break is party time. So I got to thinking and trust me you might think this is a lame idea right away but the more you think about it the more awesome it becomes!

I'm thinking a super hero name of 'Flemingo' (cause its Flemings left hand rule, get it??) and I wear pink like a Flamingo. Still working on a catch phrase... May the force be with you? Oh wait is that already taken? Oh...

Anyway, you may think this is a slightly rubbish power but there is where you are wrong my friend! I made a list to prove it to you:

1. Dodge bullets (Matilda and the Carrot style)
2. Open cans
3. Get free drinks from vending machines (hey I don't have to use my powers for good)
4. Rob banks (but only from old pennies that are still magnetic)
5. Catch bad guys (like by pulling their cars back)
6. Beach comb (better than a metal detector)
7. Recycle (see I'll do my bit and make up for those drinks)
8. Deflect asteroids (this one is my favourite!)

Well, I guess the hand on the hip isn't compulsory... And I know what you are thinking, 'Are you sure you really want this power? With great power comes great responsibility. What if you can't control it? What if the bad guys all insult you and make jokes behind your back saying that you are repulsive (like a repulsive force, get it???)? worryworryworrybuzzkillworryworry'. Well to you I say, get your own catch phrase, when do you ever accidental put your fingers in a position that uncomfortable and finally - you're face is repulsive. BAM.

World trip: England

So I've been working really hard. Apparently leaving school isn't as easy as you would think. There are leavers masses and parties and presents to organise and my revision is piling up and I just today had the realisation that 8 exams in 2 weeks is actually quite a concentrated exam timetable so how am I going to revise for everything at once and I should really cut back on coffee and chocolate and I need to catch up on the blog list that is piling up but how can I when there is so much to do? Deep breaths...

So I deserve a holiday. Today I am going to visit the Joint European Torus Reactor. I chose this place mostly because I'm studying it as part of the fusion energy part of my Alevel course (actually one of the most interesting and enjoyable parts) and also because its actually less than 2 hours, I mean come on how am I supposed to visit the hydroelectric plant in Canada I have exams coming up people! There are actually 28 countries involved in this project!

Its an experimental nuclear fusion plant and it uses some really interesting technology. Nuclear fusion is a dream for electricity production because the 'fuel' (its like fuel but it isn't combusted so it isn't really) is plentiful since deuterium is found in water. It also has no nuclear waste and is a form a clean energy. Its how the sun makes energy but really high temperatures are needed to overcome the repulsion of two positive nuclei coming together.

Here's the coolest thing for me. Because of the high temperatures needed the plasma can't touch the sides of its vessel because it will lose heat. The solution to this works like the northern lights. here charged particles are caught by the magnetic fields of the earth and brought down in a spiralling paths and this pattern is used by the plant. The plasma is contained by magnetic fields, moved around the vessel in paths. I mean how cool is that?! Plus the pictures of the place in my textbook are ah-mazing!!

Actually looking at the website I found something quite interesting. Since the site uses a whole 1 percent of UK's power they aren't allowed to run at times when there may be a peak electricity usage such as half time of a football match.

Ps. this was completely fictional but you can actually visit this place! But they are fully booked for 2012... But there is a waiting list in case of cancellations! I might sign up for one in the summer, that'd be really exciting!! Oh my goodness, I've got to sign up to that reserve list! Excitement!

Sometimes I wonder what i would do if I couldn't vent some of my nerdy excitement on my blog... Probably explode.

Oh wait, you don't care...

So, I think maybe an update post is in order.

First of all, I got a new poster! It was free from the open university and it is pretty big! I really need to sit down and look at it but there is just so much on it!

It's still available so go and order one!

Second of all, my new math teacher arrived! She seems lovely and isn't too strict with us so that's nice. She knows what she is doing which makes all of my worries seem quite unnecessary now. Well I suppose most of my worries are! Our first lesson included a maths joke (math construction - classic) and a math trick (she stuck a number above the board and when we asked what it was for, she proceeded to get us to call out random numbers and they added up to the number!). I knew then that we would be ok.

Third of all is a new series I will begin shortly. It is called 'the end?' and will work like a competition between geography and physics in their bid to end the world first/best. So... We'll see how that goes?! I think Brian would enjoy it.

Fourth of all, I have wrote this on a piece of paper in the middle of the night 'Is there anti matter? I could go at the speed of light if I had a spaceship that weighed the opposite of me'. It turns out that anti matter isn't a thing yet but who knows what will be possible once we learn about the higgs field? Or am I being crazy? It seems crazy but that just makes it even cooler! I think anti matter would be repelled by the gravitational pull of the earth though so I could get to really high speeds easily. Construction and landing might be a but tricky though... Maybe it could be switched off?

Last of all, I did a physics mock last week but I'm really not holding high hopes. It's all getting a bit worrying! And then the other day I had a strange thought. I was doing some geography revision and I suddenly had the realisation - Physics should really be my priority.... And then I thought, ' Why haven't I thought of this before?!' And then I thought about how much I had to do and how much time was left so my chest tightened and I hyperventilated a little.

Sometimes I forget that just because I write the title at the end, you don't read it that way...

Dream a little dream of me...

I've been eagerly awaiting the next opportunity to build on this series and just when I though it was never going to come, here it is - the latest physics dream!

So, I and a group of friends are walking to one their houses for a birthday party. We stop off for drinks and I have to buy two bottles of coke because it is buy one get one free and they all like diet coke so my bag is super heavy and I really want to lay down. But now I think about it the weight doesn't really make sense so the gravitation field strength must be stronger in dream world or something. Anyway so we get there and it turns out that from what I can see, she lives in a cinema. So we sit in a corridor  and her mum comes out from one of the screens and asks if we want any drinks or anything. So far perfectly normal right? And then she says, 'Becca, have you turned on the Hadron?'. As in an actual hadron collider. A hadron collider. In. Her. House. So I'm pretty excited at this point. I'm the only one standing up and then the floor starts to vibrate and I'm super excited. A hadron collider. In. Her. House. Although, again, now I think about it, this doesn't make sense because actually in real life when I went to the diamond light accelerator they said that there can't be any vibrations because that would be bad for the equipment or something... Anyway then the amazingness ended because then her mum and I got pretty stressed out about running out of olive bread but I think that was just my subconscious expressing my fear of exams or whatever because it seems like all my dreams start extremely happy and end with being terrified nowadays.

But then in a few days the birthday party actually happened.There was no hadron collider. Or olive bread, I tried to hide my disappoint by singing really badly in karaoke. I succeeded.

Motivational Quotations

So... I've been busy okay? Can't a girl take a break and not have to explain herself? Get off my back okay?! Okay? Okay... deep breaths...

It seems I already tried to come back and started this post with 'It's a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon and I finally have some free time and so I have decided to blog! By free time I mean that I have no outstanding duels on Pottermore (it's just too addictive!) and yes, there is always revision that I could do but hey there's always tomorrow and I have done quite a lot today.'

I don't know why I didn't finish, I probably checked pottermore and got distracted... So now its a lovely Saturday afternoon and I certainly don't have free time... But it's okay I have cured my addiction of Pottermore and physics homework at the moment is literally never ending! Turns out it is pretty hard to keep motivated with no end in sight... Well, there is an eventual end but I am scared to look ahead to that because it involves leaving school and entering a scary, responsible, completely new and different, adult world which seemed exciting and fun about a month ago but is now not looking so cool. Deep breaths...

So my life is basically all revision at the moment but every now and then you need a good motivational quote I found some good ones and put them on my wall and here is my list of favourite ones:

1. Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending - Carl Bard
2. I'm not telling you its going to be easy, I'm telling you it's going to be worth it - Art Williams
3. No man is free that cannot command himself - Pythagoras
4. Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity - Edwin Hubbel Chapin
5. A lot of us would like to move mountains but only a few off us are willing to practise on small hills
6. Don't worry about moving slowly, worry about standing still - Chinese proverb
7. If we did all the things we were capable of we would astound ourselves - Thomas Edison
8. The most painful experience is not defeat but regret - Leo Bascaglia
9. Many of lives failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up - Thomas Edison