Well Mr. Goertz, this year has been a great year. I've thoroughly enjoyed your class, so for my last blog post as a 2012 senior, I just wanted to share some of my favorite physics memories. Probably my all time favorite was you jumping into the wall and singing. After that, my next couple favorite memories were probably on Kairos and karaoke. I especially enjoyed working on the circuits, and that was probably my favorite unit of the whole year. So thanks Mr. Goertz, for a really fun year. I hope our class didnt cause you too much trouble, and I know this blog probably won't have the full three hundred words required but I hope you will show some mercy.
Have a good summer Mr. Goertz, and let me know when you get that motorcycle.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Blog 30
This is one of only a few blogs left, so I have to make these count. And since its the end of the year, I hope you, Mr. Goertz, will be more lenient on the topics I choose, because these topics are just going to be the absolute most fun topics about things that I like, and not really having much to do with physics or anything else really. Today's topic will be about some of the coolest/weirdest discoveries about history that changes our perception of history.
1) Ancient Egyptians used cocaine, tobacco, and hashish. In the early 1990's, 1992 to be exact, German scientists were testing some unknown particles on several different mummies from many different time periods, and they found several drugs. Now they figured that somehow the mummies could have been contaminated from hard partying archaeologists, so they got an independent lab to redo the tests, and they found the same particles. Now the reason that this is very odd and changes the way that people view things is because cocaine came from the Americas and tobacco came from Europe and America, which means that there was trading going on before it was known that established trade routes were known.
2) This one I don't know much about, but in the 1980's a Giant stone containing the 10 commandments was discovered in Arizona. The only problem was, it was in Hebrew, and testing has placed the writing between 500-2000 years old. Now that is before people came from that place to the americas. It has often been denounced as a hoax, but since so many people have handled the stone, it may be impossible to tell now.
1) Ancient Egyptians used cocaine, tobacco, and hashish. In the early 1990's, 1992 to be exact, German scientists were testing some unknown particles on several different mummies from many different time periods, and they found several drugs. Now they figured that somehow the mummies could have been contaminated from hard partying archaeologists, so they got an independent lab to redo the tests, and they found the same particles. Now the reason that this is very odd and changes the way that people view things is because cocaine came from the Americas and tobacco came from Europe and America, which means that there was trading going on before it was known that established trade routes were known.
2) This one I don't know much about, but in the 1980's a Giant stone containing the 10 commandments was discovered in Arizona. The only problem was, it was in Hebrew, and testing has placed the writing between 500-2000 years old. Now that is before people came from that place to the americas. It has often been denounced as a hoax, but since so many people have handled the stone, it may be impossible to tell now.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Blog 29
I figured that since I had some spare time today I would knock out a blog a week in advance, just to keep me on the right track. Since there is nothing that I can talk about that we have done in class, instead I will write my blog on the terrible weather that was/is occuring yesterday and today. Unfortunately, at least 5 people were killed Saturday due to over 4 dozen tornados that occured Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening, and Sunday morning. The worst is not yet over however. The storms are expected to increase in intensity as they move East Sunday. By the time this blog is read and the grade is entered, I expect that we will see the full damage and magnitude of the storms. I've always wondered why certain areas in the United States see worse storms than others. My biggest question was why Austin seems to always be right on the very last outside edge of the storms, and we never seem to get bad tornados or anything near as severe as Dallas or other northern cities in Texas. Luckily for me, Mr. Goertz told me why its much rarer for tornados to strike here. It has to do with the hills and the other terrain around the part of Austin where we are located. Apparently, tornados are sentient and prefer to have an easier job of destroying things rather than working hard to do their job. Thats fortunate.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Blog 28-awesome music
Well this blog is slightly off the beaten path, in terms of content, but since we do listen to at least one song per day in class so I figured this blog was close enough content-wise to count for a good grade. My musical tastes seperate into two main categories, normal music, and epic music. Most normal music I listen to is pretty mainstream, such as country, rock, and thats honestly about it. But what I enjoy listening to most is a genre of music called "epic" rock. These are the really cool songs that make it into trailers for movies and games. This style of music turns anything you are doing into something 200 million times more awesome. These kind of songs make you feel like you can do anything, and if you're studying, you are studying to save the world. If you are walking the dog, it makes you feel like if you do not do the best possible job walking that dog then something terrible will happen, so you walk that dog epically. These kind of songs are my favorite sport pump up and workout songs because they don't have words and are not particularly strong or hardcore songs, they just make you feel like you can do anything in the world.
Instead of pictures, here are some links to my favorites.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYKUeZQbMF0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASj81daun5Q&feature=related
Instead of pictures, here are some links to my favorites.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYKUeZQbMF0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASj81daun5Q&feature=related
Blog 26 (resubmission)
This week, my physics blog is about something that we have been doing in class, because I can’t find anything cool, weird or supernatural to write about. This week and for the past 2 or so weeks, we have been building circuits. By far it has been the most enjoyable thing for me to learn about, not only because it will give me 2+ free lab grades. For me, mechanical and hands on things are by far the most enjoyable and easy for me to learn from. I have a good group to do, although recently NaBuilding tali joined our group because Cameron and Anthony drove her away out of her own group, which I found kind of interesting. The hardest circuit to build the first time was definitely the black box circuit, but now that we have built it a second time it makes it a little bit easier, although it would have been easier not to take it apart in the first place and just skip the other builds and come back. Building the not complex small circuits in this class have made me appreciate just how complex some circuit builds must be to complete the their tasks. Especially computer circuits. We have a few spare computers lying around the hosue and after we began working on these circuits I looked inside of the computer and saw just how complex the circuits are. Very tricky. But very fun.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Blog 27-Lightning
Lightning will be the topic of this weeks blog. I'm pretty sure that we mentioned it in class and if not, here is my train of thought that proves that this blog is related to class. Circuits-->electricity-->badass things-->ball lightning-->lightning.
The first thing I would like to discuss is clearly ball lightning. Ball lightning has fascinated me since I was a young child. When I first saw video/pictures of it, I thought it was a UFO, but upon further investigation, turns out to be the coolest form of lightning EVER. Unfortunately, ball lightning is very rare, although up to 5% of the population of the United States report having seen ball lightning. However, many people may get this confused with St. Elmo's fire, so the real number is likely much smaller than that. Since ball lightning has never been able to be "conjured" or a sample taken in a scientific setting, there have been many theories and experiments to try and conclusively prove what it is. My favorite hypothesis however, was put forth back in 1999. An Irish scientist, whose name I cannot remember at this time, believed that ball lightning was caled when microscopic primordial black holes came into contact with Earth. I have no idea how lightning and black holes have anything to do with one another, but it is very cool and very amusing nonetheless.
The first thing I would like to discuss is clearly ball lightning. Ball lightning has fascinated me since I was a young child. When I first saw video/pictures of it, I thought it was a UFO, but upon further investigation, turns out to be the coolest form of lightning EVER. Unfortunately, ball lightning is very rare, although up to 5% of the population of the United States report having seen ball lightning. However, many people may get this confused with St. Elmo's fire, so the real number is likely much smaller than that. Since ball lightning has never been able to be "conjured" or a sample taken in a scientific setting, there have been many theories and experiments to try and conclusively prove what it is. My favorite hypothesis however, was put forth back in 1999. An Irish scientist, whose name I cannot remember at this time, believed that ball lightning was caled when microscopic primordial black holes came into contact with Earth. I have no idea how lightning and black holes have anything to do with one another, but it is very cool and very amusing nonetheless.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Blog 25
This weeks blog will be something I have not written about before, but it will be similar in some regards. The similarities will be that it is a few wacky, crazy, really messed up stories, but these are not quite as lighthearted and easy as the tattoos. These are some of the most unbelievable organ transplant stories of all time.
1) The girl who had her hand attached to her leg for three months.
A girl in China a few years ago was badly hurt after she was run over by a tractor on the way to school. She severed her left hand completley off. Her right was too injured to be reattached right away to her arm, so instead doctors attached it to her right leg to heal and grow back. After several months and after the nerves and blood vessels had begun to regrow, her hand was reattached, and doctors say its looking good, and that she can move it around, circulation is normal, and she is regaining functions.
2) The cheating husband.....who after his divorce asked for his kidney back.
A doctor named Richard Batista, from New York, was a cheating scumbag. After he was blindsided by divorce papers from his no nonsense wife, he decided to do something kinda low. He asked for his kidney back in the divorce papers. If the kidney could not be returned, he demanded 1.5 million dollars to cope for possible future medical expenses and for emotional and physical distress.
Unfortunately, these are the only two on my list of epic organ transplant stories that are school/ blog appropriate, so these next few words are just filler to get me over the 300 mark. However, luckily for me, I'm very good at adding filler, so this should fit in just about right.
1) The girl who had her hand attached to her leg for three months.
A girl in China a few years ago was badly hurt after she was run over by a tractor on the way to school. She severed her left hand completley off. Her right was too injured to be reattached right away to her arm, so instead doctors attached it to her right leg to heal and grow back. After several months and after the nerves and blood vessels had begun to regrow, her hand was reattached, and doctors say its looking good, and that she can move it around, circulation is normal, and she is regaining functions.
2) The cheating husband.....who after his divorce asked for his kidney back.
A doctor named Richard Batista, from New York, was a cheating scumbag. After he was blindsided by divorce papers from his no nonsense wife, he decided to do something kinda low. He asked for his kidney back in the divorce papers. If the kidney could not be returned, he demanded 1.5 million dollars to cope for possible future medical expenses and for emotional and physical distress.
Unfortunately, these are the only two on my list of epic organ transplant stories that are school/ blog appropriate, so these next few words are just filler to get me over the 300 mark. However, luckily for me, I'm very good at adding filler, so this should fit in just about right.
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