MyloXyloto

Hey, do you know whose birthday it is? It is the one, the only, Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss! He was born 241years ago today! Since Gauss' Law helps us solve problems with cylindrical, spherical, and planar symmetry, I thought it would only be right to wish him a happy birthday! Thanks Gauss!

I'd like to dedicate this blog post to the person who has gotten me through this year. You know who you are. Do you annoy me sometimes? Absolutely. Do I annoy you sometimes? I sure hope so. All jokes aside, we do make a good team. We work well together because neither one of us is a follower. We are both independent, which is helpful when one of us is missing something. If you miss something, there's a good chance I caught it, and I'll point it out. If I miss something, there's a good chance you caught it and you'll point it out. We don't leave each other in the dark. If one of us doesn't understand something, we explain it to each other until it makes sense. If one of us is having a rough day or week, the other steps it up and does what they can to help make something more manageable. Do we get of topic? Let's not lie to ourselves, of course we do. However, we also know when we really need to crack down and get a lot done. It may have taken us awhile to get there, but we did. We are close enough that we aren't afraid to tell each other to shut up and work when we need to. We also aren't afraid to be wrong. We know that no one is perfect, especially in this class. We don't judge each other for making a mistake, we know we'll make more and more, and that's okay. Overall, you make things more enjoyable, even when I say you don't. It was great to take on such a challenge with you and support each other along the way, while of course making lots of jokes. I couldn't have asked for a better lab partner. We're partners in crime (I mean physics). Thanks for a great year.

I think I've done enough violin blogs, so how about my other instrument? That's right, ukulele. And yes, I actually play it, I don't carry it around like an accessory and pretend like I know how to play. Like the violin, the ukulele is a string instrument, so the sound comes from vibrating strings. Unlike a guitar or violin, the strings of a ukulele are made of nylon, which gives it that distinct ukulele sound. Both the length and the tension of the string determine what note it plays. When tuning, if the string is flat, you tighten it to tune it. This increases the tension and frequency. If it's sharp, loosen the string. How loud the ukulele is depends on how hard you strum. The harder you strum, the higher the amplitude of the vibrating strings, resulting in higher volume. The noise also comes from the sound of the vibrating strings echoing in the hollow chamber in the body of the ukulele. If there were no chamber, the ukulele would not produce much sound. Enjoy this picture of my ukulele with my violins on top of a piano. I'm bad at piano by the way.

At this point, we have finished mechanics, and we are starting to finish up electricity and magnetism. Each of these courses had it's own set of challenges. However, with mechanics, even when I didn't fully understand something, I could still sort of visualize it and try to make sense out of it. Mechanics definitely felt more straight forward and understandable than electricity and magnetism, except dealing with drag forces is still very difficult. With electricity and magnetism, my main struggle has been not being able to just see how everything works. Things don't really click with me like they often did in mechanics. This is why I would say I've had more trouble with this course than mechanics. I can't see things the same way. When it comes time to review for both exams, I'll have to keep this in mind, and maybe dedicate a little more time to electricity and magnetism just to make sure I understand what I need to in order to be successful.

This spring break, I traveled to London with some other students. Over the week, I took tons of beautiful pictures of the city and surrounding area. However, that's not what I'm going to share with you. Sorry. (Not really) Here's a story instead. I went into a bookstore with a few of my friends while visiting Windsor. I was looking for something specific, and once I found it, I wandered around the store waiting for the others to finish up. I should have known that I couldn't even escape physics while on vacation in another country. I looked at this one shelf of books, and a bunch of them were physics books! No, I did not buy any of them. However, sometimes I do feel like reading something like this would not be a bad idea. I felt like it was a sign like "hey Erika! It's physics, remember me? Yeah you still need to finish your blog posts, so you should probably do that soon. K bye."

During my vacation in Florida, I also visited the Kennedy Space Center. While I was there, I got to take a bus tour, see a spaceship, see the space shuttle Atlantis up close, and try a launch simulation. Throughout the day, I kept thinking to myself, "hmm. I should really write a blog post about this visit. But what exactly do I write about?". Well, I think I found something. While we were there, my mom asked me, "so, does this get you?". Yes, it does. My visit to Kennedy reminded me of what people are capable of when they put their brains to the test. It also reminded me why I'm in this class and why I'm going to college as a physics major next year. I want to be able to apply my knowledge in my life. I want to help us continue to explore what we don't know and make new discoveries. Who knows what the future may hold?

I could call myself a roller coaster enthusiast. I recently visited Disney World, and one of my absolute favorite rides is the Aerosmith Rock 'n Roller Coaster. This roller coaster ride is very unique. In order to see why, I'll first talk about how most other roller coasters work. Most roller coasters start by slowly going up one big hill (which is always the tallest). As it goes up to the top, it gains potential energy, which is converted to kinetic energy as it goes down the hill. This gives it its speed and momentum for the whole ride. However, the Rock 'n Roller Coaster works differently. Instead of a slow start filled with anticipation going up a hill, the roller coaster goes from 0 to 57mph in less than 2.8 seconds; that's an acceleration of about 25.48m/s^2! This gives the Rock 'n Roller Coaster the momentum it needs for the ride full of hills, loops, and music! And by the way, the ride takes a picture in those initial 2.8 seconds!

Last weekend at an honors interview at Roberts, I got to take a look in some of their physics labs. they had some fun things set up for us to check out. One thing was in a section called "physics and music". Sounds perfect for me, right? They had a bunch of wine glasses filled with different amounts of water. When you dipped your finger in some water and rubbed it around the edge of the glass, a specific note could be heard. However, if your finger isn't wet, it doesn't work. Why? Turns out, it is because there is too much friction between the finger and the glass when the finger is dry. When the finger is wet, there is minimal friction, which allows the glass to vibrate, which produces the note. The amount of water in the glass determines how high or low pitched the note is. If you try this experiment, try placing a ping pong ball in the glass. The ping pong ball will make the vibrations visible because it will move on top of the water as the glass vibrates.

I relate to this. Let's make our last semester a good one!

I prefer not to use earbuds when listening to music, I have some solid speakers in my room and I like that a lot better.

Animals are crazy!

I used to jump rope all the time when I was in recess at school. It actually took me a long time to learn, which is why all my friends were boys in first grade!

We're halfway thereeee! (Cue the Big Time Rush song! ...anybody?... no?... ok.)

Wow... definitely not the cheapest way to travel!

It's amazing that I never would have thought about this... but now I know!