Rockets and Telescopes

Another great day goes by here at PENN in physics class.  Today was an elaborate breakdown on kinematics and dynamics.  The difference being that kinematics is the study of motion excluding factors like mass and friction, while dynamics incorporates those factors.  It was an interesting take on relatively basic principles.  One thing that made the day interesting was the fact that our teachers constantly used me as an example for forces.  Examples including, “if I dump this bucket of water on Mike” or “if I hit Mike in the face”.  I thought that it made the material more engaging that way and it was all in the sake of learning and good fun anyway. 

After lunch ended, we had a very exciting demonstration from Bill Burner the department head using a fire extinguisher.  It involved using a large fire extinguisher as an improvised method of propulsion in order to explain Newton’s Third Law about equal and opposite reactions.  This is such an exciting class; first day Mr. Burner starts levitating and now he’s blasting us with a large container of CO2.

Another fundamental concept we discussed today was the property of inertia.  We had a demonstration using two strings hung from a pipe with a weight in the middle of the two strings.  It was an instant flashback for me because I had used the same exact demonstration on paper during my interview in order to get into the physics program here in the ILC.  It was a good feeling knowing the answer way before most others could guess what would happen when the strings were pulled. 

Today we also revisited some optical experiments in the second lab section of the day.  Our task was to be able to read a fortune cookie fortune at the end of a five foot PVC pipe using an improvised telescope.  Our group had a bit of a tough time trying to calculate the focal point of the two lenses we were using.  After about an hour and a half we finally figured it out.  I think I be in the library or talking with the teachers after class tomorrow in order to ensure that I have completely understood the material.  There may be no grade in the class, but I want to actually learn the material.  Otherwise there would be no point in the class if I didn't try to actually master the lessons each day. 

Tonight I pick up my new camera so I can start taking some amazing photos during class.