A Dream Come True

Another exciting day in physics class goes by.  Today we had a guest speaker Dr. James Aguirre, an astronomy researcher who came to describe his research to the class.  Dr. Aguirre had an excellent presentation for us on modern radio telescopes and modern astronomic theories and principles.  It was a dream come true for me because astronomy and astrophysics, or the physics of space is my favorite area of study.  Oftentimes during a standard physics course the focus is on conceptual physics and not astrophysics.   Unfortunately most of my questions for Dr. Aguirre completely escaped me and I spent a good deal of the Q and A trying to remember them but ultimately failed.  However, the presentation was elaborate enough to the point where there weren't many loose ends. 

After the morning lecture, we performed an experiment comparing the potential, kinetic, and total mechanical energy of a bouncing ball using motion sensors.  The purpose was to be able to explain the behavior of the different types of energy through the progression of the bouncing of the ball.  This session went along smoothly and for the first time our group made it through the lab without any delays or technical problems.  By the end, we were able to produce a graph displaying all of the different types of energy and their behavior throughout the trials.  

In the afternoon it was right back to doing mathematics in order to create an equation for calculating the critical angle of light rays during light refraction, or the bending of light rays.  The concept was difficult to grasp in the beginning, but I think that I was able to understand it enough for practical purposes.  Then we began the afternoon lab which involved using lasers and prisms to find the critical angle in real life.  This lab went smoothly as well.  I believe this to be so because our group is finally becoming comfortable cooperating with each other. 

Also in the afternoon Kai Marshland and I were greeted by Mr. Hillyer and had the opportunity to see Mr. Ramsey while on the way back to class. The ILC Vanderbilt cohort had also just arrived here on the East Coast and spent their first day touring PENN.   Unfortunately I was unable to speak with anyone in the Vanderbilt cohort due to the fact that they were in the informational session in the auditorium.  I hope that the Vanderbilt Cohort will have as much fun as the PENN cohort has had and enjoy their time in the Ivy League.