Beginnings

At the beginning of the program, I compared the trip to a roller coaster. I have made it over the first hump: touring the colleges. Today my class finally started, and I prepare to go through more turns. I woke up a fairly sane 7:30 in the morning. I had slept poorly, as I do not have control over my air conditioning and it was perhaps 50 degrees (10 °C or 283K). I only had a top sheet. The mattress was perhaps more comfortable than granite, but not much softer. I still managed to get an okay amount of sleep. I showered, then joined the crowd of people flowing to the dining hall at about 7:50. I had some pancakes for breakfast, then returned to the quad to walk to my class with the other students. We passed a bust of Tesla. The class met in a large lecture hall.

Our professor, Bill Berner looks like Einstein. The class went as such: introductions, then walking graphs, lunch, an optics lecture, then an optics lab. We also got binders. During introductions, our instructor began by telling us about Penn itself. It was founded by Benjamin Franklin, an impressive scientist himself, a pioneer in electricity. Bill Berner also told us about how the program would work. There are no grades or tests, as the focus is really on learning. I think that this is a very good idea. Grades can be a useful indicator of progress, but they can also dominate the class. Our class is really about learning theory and gaining a sense of how to do science, not just how to regurgitate information back onto a test.

Tesla is a personal hero of mine. He was a genius but not a business person.
He invented an incredible amount of things, many of which Edison stole
credit for.

The walking graphs were an experiment to introduce us to classical mechanics. We were separated into groups of 4. In it, we walked towards or away from a motion sensor to match a distance-time graph. The computer then gave us a score based on how closely we matched the graph. While I have done similar things before, we had to matched much more interesting curves. By now it was about 12:30, and time for lunch.

For lunch, we went to a different area. We had to come with our group today, so I was a bit late. I also didn't know where everything was. There were also long lines. Over lunch I met someone named Andrew, from New Jersey, also in Physics. He says that his school has a large drug problem. This is a good public school from a fairly rich area. Perhaps the drug problem comes from people being able to afford drugs extremely easily. It might also be deeply embedded in the culture. 

After lunch, we returned to the lecture hall. We thought through how lenses, mirrors, and parabolic mirrors work. I really liked that it did not focus on equations, but instead on understanding the material. Bill Berner also had some demonstrations to show us. He picked himself up by his bootstraps and floated. This was done by straddling a mirror. He also used a camera obscura with a pinhole lens to demonstrate how a pinhole camera works. He then explained the experiments we would do.

The camera obscura, with a pinhole lens

All three experiments were methods of measuring the focal length of a lens. The first method had an object, a lens, and a screen. We measured the distance between the three objects, and used an equation to calculate it. The next experiment involved using the index of refraction. We measure the index of refraction with a microscope and and a piece of glass to rest the lens on. Using another equation, we calculated the focal length again. The final experiment had a very far light source, a lens, and a screen. We then measured the distance between the lens and the screen. All in all, it was a packed class.

After class was over, I went to the store to get a duvet to thaw the north pole in my room. I then had some pizza for dinner, then waited a while in the quad. We did a teambuilding activity. Unfortunately, it was extremely loud, so I could hardly hear anybody. We then walked the perimeter of the area we were allowed in. Part way through, they gave us some water. I was innocently drinking my water, when bam! I had been hit in the face with another water bottle being thrown to another person. We got back to the quad around 9. I blogged and talked with my friends. Luckily I had already done my homework. I am hoping to sleep well for class tomorrow.