Is it Too Soon for Another Brian Post?

I never watch Danny's house but I flicked onto it for a few seconds and BAM! There was Brian!! He is everywhere!! In my cupboard, on my TV, on my computer and in my school (well in the corridors... Well on the walls...) but hey, I'm not complaining ;)

p.s. Sorry the picture is so blurry!

My last Brian related post can be found here.

New Project

So, I have started a Physics wall! Well, its currently a Physics door because then I can close it away when people come over if I need to.. But I'm hoping to stick at it long enough to expand onto a wall!

And no - before anyone starts trying to be funny - it isn't just an excuse to have a poster of Brian! I already explained my feelings in regards to Brian here.

Reasons to Like Physics Number Three

There are some pretty awesome words!! Sometimes when me and my Physics class (there's only 6 of us) are talking about Physicsy things people think we are speaking another language and I'm not going to lie, for a few seconds I feel infinitely cool.

Some examples of great words are:

1. Spaghettification - when something falls into a black hole and the gravity closest is a lot higher so the object is stretched like spaghetti

2. Supersymetry - as previously discussed (I have made it my life's goal to actually understand this - well one of my life goals)
3. Strangeness - So something is happening with particle physics that you don't understand? Call it a new characteristic called strangeness and you're sorted ;)

And those are just the S words!


Reasons to like Physics number Two can be found in this post here.

Super Moon was Super!

Well the super moon definitely didn't disappoint! I wore my glasses the whole way home (I usually sleep!) and just stared at it!! It was bigger and brighter than I have ever seen! What was even better was that I knew I was definitely staring at the right thing, I'm not entirely sure it actually was Jupiter that I was staring at  when I was looking for it last time!

Ps. Due to the suggestion of a loyal follower I looked at this - wow! It is at Glastonbury and I think the moon looks even bigger because it is closer to the horizon and therefore easier for our eye to compare and understand its size!

I first wrote about this super moon in this post here.

Super Moon!!

Since the moon has an elliptical orbit sometimes it is closer to us than other times. This makes it seem 14% bigger (though it's hard to tell) and 30% brighter and when this coincides with a full moon it's called a super moon and it's happening TONIGHT!! Tonight the moon will only be 221567 miles away!! And it's not even cloudy so we should be able to see it well!!


The closeness of the moon should only increase sea tides by a few cm and although there is no proven link between human behaviour and the moon the word lunacy is derived from the Roman goddess of the moon Luna so beware!!

My Introduction to String Theory

I've heard the term 'String Theory' bouncing around for a while now and I finally decided that I need to know what it is actually about.

Basically, it is insane! It goes against anything I have ever learnt or believe in the world around me and that feels pretty awesome actually!! The basic definition that I found is that string theory is an attempt to unite quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity (since we are trying to find a theory of everything) by saying that fundamental particles aren't point-like but actually 1 dimensional string structures which vibrate. Worse still is that for this to work, other than our current 4 dimensional (length width height and time) there needs to be 6 other dimensions somewhere?! This theory isn't finalised or fully accepted but its pretty fascinating! Plus I found the word 'supersymmetric' - I'm too afraid to find out what it means in case it isn't as awesome as it sounds!

Ps. I finally built up the courage to google - the word was too awesome for me - wikepedia says that it 'is a symmetry that relates elementary particles of one spin to other particles that differ by half a unit of spin and are known as superpartners.' it then went on to talk about bosons (basically the only word I recognised in a sentence) and I felt a little out of my depth! For now I'm better to be content with a little bit of ignorance I think!

This is what google images gives you for string theory, looks like the Spirograph drawings I used to draw!

I lalalalalalalaLOVE it!

What? You don't think a picture of
Brian is strictly necessary?

So, I have resisted this long and not spoken about Professor Brian Cox because I didn't want there to be too many posts about him in a row but enough time has passed! It is possible that I think about this too much but I don't want people to think I'm obsessed... And yes, I see the irony of that!


I absolutely love his new series!! I mean I actually love it! It has pretty much sorted out half of my chemistry revision and earned me some science nerd points at school (they don't know about the blog!) I find it slightly absurd the amount of posturing and death/end of the universe references Brian manages to fit into one hour but that kind of makes the show all the more brilliant! Plus watching it makes be feel smart!

I wrote about the last show of Brain's that I watched ages ago (seriously a really really long time ago) in a post over here.

Getting Tired

Today I got a 54% in a Physics test and this reminded me why sometimes I don't like Physics... It's REALLY hard!

Of course normally this is also a reason why I like Physics, the challenge and the extra buzz you get when you actually do well (to be honest it's been a while since I felt this!) but... it can be kind of frustrating! I can see where I went wrong and thats whats important but it just feels bad. As exams draw closer, I'm getting tired and my patience is wearing thin - I just want to be good already!

I just have to trust that it will get better and maybe lower my expectations a little. It will be worth it, well it had better be. It doesn't look like there will be a repeat of January, which I talked about here.

Tsunami in Japan

I pray to God for the people of Japan. That as many as possible will be saved. This natural disaster just highlights how powerless we really are, with everything we have developed and learnt, we still can't stop or prevent something so destructive and terrible. I also pray that the nuclear plant is restored to a stable, safe position as soon as possible and that enough people are treated for radiation as quickly as possible. However only so much is possible and this isn't enough. Please God, help them and help us to help them.

Reasons to like Physics Number Two

I have never met a horrible physicist.

I realise that there must be some somewhere, laws of probability and all but their numbers must be particularly small. Granted my only experiences of Physics people are tour guides, on television and in classrooms or lecture halls but that could pretty much also be said about my experience of every kind of person so I feel like my variables are controlled enough for me to make a reasonable conclusion.

In my A level Physics class we are all really good friends and I really love that because its one of the reasons Physics is a lesson I genuinely look forward to.

And then I just went to google 'horrible physcists' and I typed out the whole word without any suggestions from google, so that's a secondary proof.

In summary, Physics is made by people. The people involved are pretty awesome so therefore Physics is awesome!

Reasons to like Physics Number one can be found here.

Bang goes the Theory

This isn't particularly Physics related but very sciency. I just watched 'Bang goes the theory - Bang goes winter weather' on BBC iplayer and literally loved every second of it!

It combined what I have been doing in Chemistry with the earths atmosphere, what I have been doing in Physics about wind chill and what I did in Geography in regards to weather characteristics into an incredibly interesting and entertaining programme. The scale of the experiments couldn't possibly fail to impress anybody and it must be impossible to find fault with the presentation of the show. Even though it is the evening after a particularly strenuous day of revision and homework I can honestly say I wasn't tempted to close my eyes once - and that is an extremely high compliment to the show!

I also loved the weather themed sound track throughout!

It's hard to compare this with Stargazing live since they were on completely different topics but I semi-revewied it in this post here.

In Loving Memory of an Old Friend

Today is a day I will remember for my whole life. A momentous landmark in my mathematical life that will stay with me forever - I bought a new calculator!!

I've had the same calculator for the last 6 years. It has been my faithful friend through two examination levels. Where seating plans and timetable slots have separated me from other friends (especially my biology friend who broke my heart and was forced to left me) my calculator was there to comfort me and no one has been able to separate me from my calculator - trust me people have tried!

I don't think it is at all unreasonable to allocate at least some of the success of my GCSE examinations and recent further maths module result to my trusty calculator!

Just when I thought my calculator and I were inseparable, destined to be together till infinity and beyond - BAM!! A level maths!

I resisted for as long as I could, I honestly did! I even resorted to stubbornly multiplying by pi to convert my answer so it could be in terms of pi... And then we got to the log section of the course and the multibase log button was too tempting... Please don't judge me!

Out of the way - Math Genius Coming Through!

'Maths genius' isn't too extreme a word for someone who just got an A in a further maths module, in their first try, right? Because I totally just actually got an A in my further maths exam!!

I'm just kidding, I'm no genius but I did just get an A in my further maths exam!! Oh did I mention that already? Never mind, I got an A!! Wow, it's nice to say that a few times, I don't get to show off nearly enough in real life. Hopefully I get lots more of these lovely surprises in June

Saving the World by Destroying Evil Sound Waves

I'm going to write my first post that actually contains some Physics - you have been warned!

Yesterday I talked about avoiding my Physics essay and this evening I actually finished it. It was quite interesting once I got into it and started using my other favourite website (since yesterday it is now demoted to second favourite... I talk about you new first favourite website here), howstuffworks and I actually understood what I was doing!

The essay was supposed to be all about noise and how to reduce it, I'm not exactly sure that my teacher wanted more than half of it to be taken up by noise cancelling headphones but it was so cool I just couldn't help myself!

The headphones 'destroy' background noise by using small microphones to detect the noise (any sound wave outside of the headphone) and then replicate the waves. The replicated wave has the same width and height (frequency and amplitude) as the original sound wave. However the wave is rotated by 180 degrees so when it is emitted the peaks (convex part) of our new wave aligns with the troughs (concave part) and vice verse so they look like the image where the orange line is one wave and the pink line is the other wave. This causes them to cancel out and so no outside noise is heard within the headphones.

The noise is now cancelled! Of course I realise that sound waves are longitudinal and not transverse so this must be a simplified explanation but this is cool right?! The sound practically disappears!

I guess maybe the title exaggerates slightly but Noise Induced Hearing Loss is a serious problem! At least that's what I read on the Internet... Everyone knows the Internet is always right!

New Favourite Website

I have found my new favourite Physics website! It is called scicast and people submit videos for a competition. I found it through the Institute of Phyiscs website and find the videos incredibly interesting - this is the most perfect example of how cool physics really can be!!



I can also confirm that it is also a brilliant way to avoid a particularly challenging Physics essay! I simply have to convince my physics friends at school to help make a video now, which shouldn't be too hard once they see this website!

See the World Through Rainbows

Wow - I love my mum too much! She went to the Science Museum and not only bought me astronaut strawberries (which weren't exactly how I imagined they would be.... They had an odd texture and were surprisingly sour - luckily the total coolness of them counteracted the unyummyness of them!!) and - HOLOGRAPHIC GLASSES! When you wear them light is diffracted into heart shaped rainbows!! My life is almost complete!

Stamp Collectors

Ernest Rutherford once said that 'everything in science is either Physics or stamp collecting'. He was later awarded a Nobel prize in Chemistry - the perfection of this makes me smile :)

If you like this style of post, you may also like my Euclid post here.

Euclid

I'm currently reading 'Fermats Last Theorem' by Simon Singh and it is actually brilliant. There are parts that I love so much I simply have to share them! One of my favourite little stories from the book is this: Euclid was the first head of the mathematical department of Alexandria (an ancient city with the biggest library in the world). A student asked Euclid what the use was of the piece of mathematics that he was learning just like so many other people that have been in my classes over the years. However rather than being dumbfounded like so many of my teachers, Euclid turned to his slave and said 'give the boy a coin if he wishes to profit from all that he learns' and the student was expelled.

I suppose that just goes to show how times have changed. Back then they did maths just for the purity of numbers, the joy of a puzzle and satisfaction of completeness and now we do it in the name of science for development or because we are forced to through the education system - I wonder what Euclid would say?

The last book I read was a little less challenging but hey, you've got to start somewhere! I talk about it in this post.

Heartbreak

Professor Brian Cox is amazing - there I said it!

I admire Brian (and feel as though I know him well enough to call him by his first name?!) but purely in a scientific sense. We first met in his TV series 'wonders of the universe' but it wasn't until stargazing live that I officially acknowledged an admiration for him. That show was perfect physics viewing: interesting, witty and accessible.

A friend of mine admires the professor in a more 'extra curricular' way, which has lead to many interesting discussions (including inviting him to our school)!!

So when we heard that our Professor Brian Cox was participating in a physics gig we were overflowing with excitement and when we read about what it was about it seemed perfect!! And then we saw the dates... Why Brian? Why would you plan an event only available on two days - two days that are the day before and the day of my first A level exam? Why Brian? Why?!

So needless to say, I'm not going... But my friend and I cannot stay mad at Brian for long. Happy birthday for yesterday and I'll be seeing you on Sunday ;)

Stage One: geek initiation

Recently I finished my first ever complete physics book!! It feels like a landmark on my way to becoming a proper physicist!

Except... Well... I'm not really sure it totally counts... Well it's just that it's... A comic strip? It was the comic strip History of Space - and I really enjoyed it!

Okay, so maybe it wasn't particularly intellectually stimulating but it was genuinely interesting which is surely more important? I suppose it slightly diminishes my geek points for this book but I actually finished the book which is more than I can say for physics books before. I'll be stepping up my game soon though...

Reasons to like Physics: Part One

It is absolutely the ultimate excuse to have a nerdified geek out!

It allows you to laugh a disproportionate amount at jokes such as:

What do nuclear physicists have for lunch?

Fission chips

And not have to apologise for a particularly tacky sense of humour.

You can visit the science museum for your 17^th birthday, have plenty of people to go with and have a fantastic time.

You can start a physics blog in which you talk about reasons to like physics.

You don’t have to pretend to be unimpressed when a balloon can bend water or you get a perfect line from an experiment.

Physics makes being a nerd cool – who can resist that?!