Time to Burn Rubber

Today was the PENN cohorts first day of academic classes.  We all had the privilege to walking to the building in the rain.  During class, we met our teacher Mr. Bill Burner, who is primarily a high school physics teacher and has over thirty years of experience in physics.  There was also the academies assistants and academic aids who also have almost as much experience as Mr. Burner.  We were also introduced to the basic course material and procedures of the class.  

During lectures, Mr. Burner demonstrated his ability to fly to the class.  He didn't actually fly but he did use a crafty illusion using mirrors and the virtual world that they create.  But we just like to tell other students outside of physics, "yeah, our teacher can fly".  Although it was only a parlor trick, it was still a fun and interesting way to ease the tension of first day pressures.  

We completed two labs today as well as two lectures.  The first lecture was about kinematics, or the study of motion, followed by a lab using motion graphs.  The second lecture was a bit more difficult.  It had to do with optics and the difference between virtual images and real images.  This was followed by an elaborate lab that involved numerous tasks revolving around focusing lenses and finding focal points.  It was difficult to grasp at first, but eventually we accomplished the task.  

After classes ended, the entire group of summer students went to the Hall of Flags for some icebreaker events.  Everyone played "speed-friending", where I was introduced to about fifteen girls in about three minutes. Everyone else did the same and everything went along smoothly.  I was surprised that there was only about six people in our group from the U.S.  The goal was to make new friends while breaking the tensions of classes.  Following this, we went on a tour of campus with the residence hall in which we were introduced to.  On the tour we got to see the boundaries of different areas that we are and not allowed into.  I thought it was a good opportunity to finally see the landmarks to indicate the limits of our freedom.  After the tour, everyone headed back to the dorms for some quality study time.

As it gets late now, I must dedicate the remainder of my time to the most dreaded of all school related activities... homework.