Post #38: Oh, how it's been so long, We're so sorry we've been gone, We were busy writing songs for you

So, no, I am not a song writer, but the Panic! At the Disco lyrics seemed a fitting title after my very long hiatus. I define myself as an inconsistent blogger for a reason.

I am going to try to get more consistent though. I am trying to get more organized in my life.

For the entire month of May I hit my 10,000 steps per day goal, and I am hoping to continue that trend. I have a goal of doing it 100 days in a row, which brings me to August 8th. So I will keep you updated on that.

This fitness goal has helped me keep my other fitness goals to. I am going to the gym in the morning fairly regularly (24 out of 31 days in May), plus getting in roughly 4 runs per week (3 short ones [2.5 miles] and 1 long one on the weekends [6-10 miles]). I am training for the Boilermaker, a 15k road race that happens in July.

I have been good about my makeup rehab too. Since the start of the year I have used up $534 worth of makeup and beauty products. I have spent $454 on makeup and beauty products in the past 5 months. It is still a lot of money to spend, but I am trying to reduce.

I am also trying to work harder on getting through this PhD. I have been dragging my feet, but that needs to stop. I have a thesis title now, which is a new development since my last post: THE IMPACT OF LOW-ENERGY ION POPULATIONS ON THE DYNAMICS AND LIFE CYCLE OF FLUX TRANSFER EVENTS AT THE EARTH'S DAYSIDE MAGNETOPAUSE UNDER VARYING SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC CONDITIONS

Just take a moment to let that sink in.

Well this has to be just a quick update; back to writing and working on a poster for my next conference.

Post #15 Making up for lost time

Updates!

Sewing

I have still been doing a bit of trial and error when it comes to getting better at sewing. Since my last sewing post I made another circle skirt and a simple dress, both in the same fabric. The fabric I used is a black and white, tribal print pattern. I saw it at Joann's and I wanted it. It is a thick, knit fabric, aka it is stretchy, but not prone to runs like the navy blue knit fabric I used for my first dress (post #11). The circle skirt was only one piece, so a true circle skirt, that all I had to do was add the elastic waist band and secure the hem. I am pretty pleased with it. and it is one of three skirts I wear on a regular basis. (I have only worn my first skirt once). The dress is also a big hit, I am consistently getting complements on it.

Day 32 Lorac Alter Ego Celebrity and the dress I made

Makeup Artistry

I have not done any movie makeup looks since my Alien/Sea creature, but I did start a Pan Project on June 28th (Post #16). That is gonna be a big improvement because I was able to declutter some makeup that was dried up and was a waste of space. I also found that I have some darker foundations and powders that will look better with my summer skin (I managed to get a tan somehow). I am also currently partaking in a 100 days of lipstick (Post #17), which I will post about once it is all over, I am 30 days away. If you haven't seen pictures, you must not be following me on Instagram (neon8919). It is on Instagram that I am keeping track of what I look like in each lipstick. I am also writing down all the lipsticks in a little notebook, which is a helpful way to keep my life organized. 

Running

I restarted the Marathon Trainer for a third time, I am on week number 4, GEM kind of derailed my progress, but the hope is that I will be able to keep it up and get to a point where I can run without the Trainer. As I have said before, and I will say again, I am not intending to run a marathon any time soon, but I would like to be able to run a 10k (~6 miles), that would be awesome. 

Physics

June was a month of travel: the 2nd MMS community workshop (in Boulder, CO) at the beginning of the month, and then GEM 2017 (in Portsmouth, VA) the third week. I am one of the GEM Student Representatives so that kept me busy leading up to, and into, the meeting. 

This summer I have two things that need to get done:

(1) My paper - which I have been working on, but it is not in a completed stage yet...

(2) My thesis proposal - I will be turning it in at the beginning of the Fall semester, so as soon as my paper is done my efforts will be turned to coming up with my title. The title cannot be changed from the one I submit in the Fall, this means it has to be broad enough, because I don't know what results I might get, and it must be narrow enough to still be a PhD title. 

Post #13 February Summary - March Goals

Straight from my January Summary:

Stuff I am hoping to finish in February:

1. Sew my first dress (will also be in the February sewing blog)
2. An alien makeup inspired by a deep sea creature

3. Chapter 2 of Gurnett and Bhattacharjee

4. Submit my first first-author paper

5. Have my thesis proposal mostly done.
6. Finish the C210k Trainer

I did complete my first dress as you have seen in post #11.

Also, I did attempt to create an alien inspired by an angler fish, post #12, albeit nearly a week late.

I have been slacking on the plasma textbook. I only completed up to the section I posted on earlier this months: post #10.

I have not submitted my paper yet...

I still have no real thought on my thesis proposal...

Technically, I have not finished the C210k Trainer, instead I have started the marathon trainer by Zen Labs. I am not doing this because I aspire to run a marathon, I am running off the adage "Go big or go home," pun intended. I ran outside during the beautiful weather we had last week, and failed miserably, so instead of trying to continue with the free version of C210k, I would just do the one time payment of the marathon trainer and be good to go until I can run on my own for any distance. So who knows, six months from now, maybe I will be capable of running 26.2 miles. (Don't worry if you laughed, I am laughing, and anyone who knows me would laugh. I am not a marathon runner, I like pizza entirely too much. Though if I do make it, this whole section will be fun to read, and make a great part of my Success Story.)

So 2 out of 6 goals completed... eh. Here's to a successful March:

Stuff I am hoping to finish in March:

1. Sew a vest, some beach apparel, and my Tea Party dress

2. An angel/devil makeup inspired by a good/bad personality trait

3. Chapter 2 of Gurnett and Bhattacharjee

4. Submit my first first-author paper

5. Have my thesis proposal done.

6. Finish weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the Marathon Trainer

Post #10 "It is a relatively simple matter to show that..." (Physics post)

From Gurnett and Bhattacharjee (hereafter known as G&B): "It is a relatively simple matter to show that..."

This is a fairly common phrase in physics textbooks, and most of the time a student reads that phrase and immediately laughs because usually it is not 'simple' to show whatever it is they want to be shown. It could be simple if a couple key notes were added in the text, I am going to use the above example from G&B.

"It is a relatively simple matter to show that the root-mean-square velocity is given by (root 3) times (C sub s), where C sub s equals (root (kappa times T sub s) divided by m sub s)." I will include a screen shot of my LaTex file, so don't worry so much about the "math into words" I have decided to add:

First things first, root-mean-square velocity. For this problem it is:

Also from an earlier 'easy to show' in chapter 2 of G&B, we know that the denominator is equal to the density of a particular species of particle, n sub s. So the above equation becomes:

The distribution function, f(v), in this case is the following:

So now you can plug it in to the numerator and solve for the root-mean-square velocity. But wait, there is more math that is not for the faint of heart, (feint of heart?). Cue the Google-ing of "definite integral of exponential." Thank you Wikipedia. Skip to this one:

Where n = 4, and alpha equals m sub s divided by (2 kappa T sub s), and don't forget to carry the constants in front of the v and exponential:

To get a cleaner version of the integral in the general form I direct you to a blog post by a friend and colleague: Conrad's blog, and a YouTube video that I found very helpful.
So plugging stuff into this:

You get this:

and after canceling out and putting it back in the numerator of the root-mean-square velocity equation:

you see "It is a relatively simple matter to show that..."

Ta-Da.

Hope this post was sufficiently physics-y and look forward to next weeks post on my sewing projects, including my first circle skirt, and my first dress. Also, two weeks from now I will have my special effects makeup post, featuring my take on an alien inspired by a deep sea creature.

Post #6 A Physics Carol - Explained

Happy New Year! Welcome to blog 1.1 of 2017.

So since my freshman year of undergrad (Christmas 2007), I have been a fan of a certain collection of Physics Carols, a complete catalog found HERE. I enjoyed them so much that one year I had my fellow physics majors sing them at our Holiday Party, videos can be found HERE. But, also since freshman year of undergrad I have been working on my physics education, so over the past 9 years I have learned something about what the songs are referring to. 

Today, I give you 12 Days of Newton - Explained.

On the first day of Newton , Sir Isaac gave to me 

    The acceleration due to Gravity 

Sir Isaac Newton (hereafter abbreviated SIN) studied the work of Kepler and Galileo, from which he was deduced a gravitational constant - which will be touched on more on the Sixth Day, but for now: the acceleration due to gravity is a constant that is dependent on the gravitational constant, the mass of the planet in question, and the distance from the center of mass. This constant is different based on which planet you are on, for Earth see Day Nine.

On the second day of Newton , Sir Isaac gave to me 

    Two torques a balanced 

Torque is a turning or twisting action on a body about a rotation axis due to a force. A necessary step when balancing torques in an introductory physics problem is summing all the torques, and this process is usually completed by invoking Newton's Second Law in Angular Form. (Newton's 2nd law can be seen on Day Three). 

On the third day of Newton , Sir Isaac gave to me 

    Three laws of motion 

Newton's Three Laws of Motion, quoted from Halliday & Resnick's Fundamentals of Physics:

1. "If no force acts on a body, the body's velocity cannot change; that is, the body cannot accelerate." An object at rest remains at rest, unless acted upon by a force. Conversely, and object moving will continue to move, unless acted upon by a force. Also articulated this way: "If no net force acts on a body, the body's velocity cannot change; that is, the body cannot accelerate."

2. "The net force on a body is equal to the product of the body's mass and it's acceleration." Or, in equation form, which is very important for so much of physics, F = ma.

3. "When two bodies interact, the forces on the bodies from each other are always equal in magnitude and opposite in direction." This law is probably the most familiar to all people, even the Broadway people who might think that they don't know any physics. (Hamilton's Washington on Your Side) 'Ev'ry action has its equal, opposite reactions...' sings Jefferson when he complains about Hamilton. SIN is obviously thinking of something different, but hey it works.

On the fourth day of Newton , Sir Isaac gave to me 

    Four apples falling 

Much like the story of George Washington and the cherry tree, SIN has his own illustrative adage. Albeit, SIN is believed to be inspired by an apple falling, but not that apple falling on his head, it does make for a good School House Rock song (Victim of Gravity - see HERE)

On the fifth day of Newton , Sir Isaac gave to me: 
Five Newton rings 

The first four days I understood and knew why they were associated with SIN, but then came day five. It is fitting that it is the crescendo of the song. 
Newton Rings are an optics topic, SIN used them to quantify the quality of his optical telescopes. The rings are an interference pattern that is created by the reflection between a spherical surface and touching flat surface. SIN wasn't the first to discover this phenomenon, but he was the first to analyze it (53 years after it was first described by Robert Hooke). 
Newton Rings can be seen as the rainbow glimmer in soap bubbles or oil deposits.

On the sixth day of Newton , Sir Isaac gave to me 

    Six point six seven 

As hinted on in Day One, 6.67 refers to the Gravitational Constant, abbreviated G = 6.67 x 10^-11 m^3/(km s^2). It is a necessary quantity for a large amount of classical physics, and some astronomy classes. It was July of 1687 that SIN published his Law of Universal Gravitation. This law is yet another version of SIN 2nd law; it states every particle attracts any other particle with a gravitational force. 

On the seventh day of Newton , Sir Isaac gave to me 

    Seven spectrum colors 

SIN chose to denote the seven discreet colors of the spectrum (made up of different particles of light), even though it is a continuum. But ROY G BIV is all SIN. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. As far as I know, (seeing as I have no direct connection to what they are teaching grade schoolers), elementary schools are not teaching it as ROY G BIV anymore, indigo is no longer part of the rainbow. 

On the eighth day of Newton , Sir Isaac gave to me 

    Eight mints of money 

1696, SIN has been appointed the Warden of the Mint. He came into this position at a bad time for British money, coin shaving was a thing, but with the meticulous nature of SIN the mint was about to get a much needed overhaul. New equipment, plus SIN knowledge of alchemy helped turn around the grim outlook. Coin amounts were redefined, (aside: as an American, I don't understand British currency but way to go SIN for helping out), 21 shillings and 6 pence equals 1 gold guinea. SIN also used his position to cut down on counterfeiting and was an enforcer of the death penalty for counterfeiters, (hanging plus drawn-and-quartering, I wouldn't counterfeit). Credit: J. Lienhard

On the ninth day of Newton , Sir Isaac gave to me 

    Nine point eight 

Another constant I hinted at on Day One, 9.8 is the acceleration due to gravity on earth. It is the a from F = ma, and is one of the first constants I memorized, I prefer to use 9.81 m/s^2, but Nine point eight one doesn't roll off the tongue as easily. 

On the tenth day of Newton , Sir Isaac gave to me 

    Ten z-components 

Okay, this one is the one that throws me for a loop. The only z-component I understand is in coordinate systems. My first assumption is that there are not 10 of them, it just is convenient to put the z-component on this day. SIN's connection with z-components is the next mystery to solve... Okay this might remain a mystery. Any thoughts from any of my readers? I can come up with something like the sum of Forces and Torques rely on the sum of all components, including the z-component, if applicable.

On the eleventh day of Newton , Sir Isaac gave to me 

    Eleven speeds of sound 

Like Day Ten we are not talking about eleven different speeds of sound but instead we are referencing that SIN calculated the speed of sound as one of his numerous experiments. In 1687, SIN was the first to publish a value for the speed of sound (979 feet/second ~ 298 meters/second, which is about 15% smaller than the actual speed of sound). The missing variable was how temperature effects the speed of sound.

Sir Isaac Newton (12/25/1642 - 03/20/1727)

On the twelfth day of Newton , Sir Isaac gave to me 

    Twelve particles of light

Like Day Ten and Day Eleven, it isn't exactly 12, but Newton believe light was made up of particles. Wave/Particle duality is a common topic of debate throughout the history of physics. As far as our science has gotten us, scientists have shown how light acts as both a wave (Diffraction patterns when light is shined through a thin slit) and a particle (reflection and refraction through a prism). SIN believed light was made up of discreet particles.

I post these day on the 12 days leading up to Christmas, as a kind of countdown to the day of Sir Isaac Newton's birth. This, and the other carols do not need to be just Christmas carols, but can be used to celebrate a love of Physics and science all year long.