Jump to content

Akano

Premier Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    778

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Akano

  1. Akano

    Royal Wedding

    By Akano,

    Royal Wedding finale is best finale. Seriously, I was wowed throughout the episode. The songs were okay, but the plot was very interesting. Celestia actually fought someone! And Cadance is adorable.
     
    Also, Jaller is best Captain of the Guard, be he pony or Matoran.
     

  2. Akano

    Physics Conference

    By Akano,

    As the fates would have it, the day after my birthday I hopped on a plane and went to a physics conference. I'm now sitting here in my lovely hotel room waiting for today's poster session at which I am presenting a poster on my research thus far. It involves stuff from my first published paper and some current "in the works" calculations that I'm doing to help our analysis along.
     
    The talks up to this point have completely left me in the dust, so I'm hoping there will be discussion during the poster session that's more to my level of understanding on the various topics I've been exposed to.
     
    Also the food is quite good.
     



     

  3. Akano
    My elementary-school self is jumping with joy.
    One of the ways I've occupied myself this summer was by trying to reconstruct one of the old LEGO Pirate ships, the Black Seas Barracuda. However, I wanted to do it with a twist. I've always loved the sails of the Skull's Eye Schooner, but the yellow/black/white motif of the Barracuda was always my preferred color scheme. Therefore I opted for a mixture of the two.
    The sails are, alas, not genuine, but printed sheets of paper cut appropriately. Surprisingly it looks really good in person, but I do want to try printing actual cloth sails in the future.
    A keen eye will notice that the bow is modified to be more like that of the Skull's Eye Schooner, and there are still some minor decorative pieces that need to be obtained, but otherwise it looks quite impressive.

  4. Akano

    New Skin is New

    By Akano,

    And I likes it! Thankee to Than and Watashi Wa.
     
    Also, an awesomely amazing photo autographed by Yakko Warner/Pinky himself, Rob Paulsen, came in the mail today. I am quite happy.
     

  5. Akano

    Video Games...in 3D!

    By Akano,

    So, I purchased a lovely Zelda-edition 3DS with some money I got for Christmas and some out of my own pocket after the festive holiday. I have to say, it is awesome. Playing the classic game that got me into the Zelda series in 3D is fun, and due to the fact that I am used to 3D stereogram images the 3D bothers my eyes minimally. Actually, I think OoT is a great game to do in 3D, because there are many scenes that the 3D adds to well (such as Navi's flight at the beginning, establishing shots of dungeons, and basically any scene in the Chamber of Sages). Another great thing about the 3DS is its two external cameras, enabling you to take stereogram pictures. This was one of the biggest appeals to me buying one (the deciding factor was the Zelda-edition-ness). To demonstrate, I have put some 3D LEGO pictures here. Note that the images are crossview stereograms. Enjoy!
     

     

  7. Akano

    Comic And Question

    By Akano,

    New comic is up! It covers the subject of learning new things.
     
    Now, I have a question to pose to you. My friends were talking about being productive with their evenings (both are fellow physics grad students), and I had mentioned that I had felt really productive lately due to the fact that I made two reviews (one of which no one has commented in yet. show it some love!) and finished my latest comic. Then they replied, "I wouldn't really call that productive; you just do that for fun."
     
    To be fair, my one friend was working on a paper she's trying to get published, but I feel I have to defend myself. While I do enjoy writing these set reviews and my comics (which I'm sure you all would love me to update more often), they do take honest work to produce since no one would want to read a review written by a twenty-three-year-old that looks like it was written by a four-year-old. I tried to convince them otherwise, but they kind of shrugged it off.
     
    So, my question to you is this: do you think that working on these "hobbies" is not productive? Just curious on your opinion.
     
    P.S. Please do not say anything hurtful about my friends, as they are my friends, and I do love them very much.
     

  9. Akano

    Monthly update

    By Akano,

    Haldo, everypeoples!
     
    I just wanted to check in (as I haven't posted in well over a month). The semester is wrapping up pretty well. I've started writing a paper to published this summer (!) and have been deep in spectrum assignment land. I also have some friends getting married at the end of the month and will be playing trumpet for their wedding with two of my friends. After that happens, I'm going to a conference to give a talk on my research (a first!).
     
    So, yeah, a lot of exciting stuff coming up. Basically, pretty busy up until mid-June.
     

  12. Akano

    My BrickFair Loot

    By Akano,

    So, I know it's been a few weeks since the awesomeness that was BrickFair, VA, 2013, but I've finally gotten around to editing the pictures of the stuff I managed to get my hands on at that wonderful convention.
     
    My loot includes
    A pin
    A BrickFair brick (It's actually three bricks stacked on top of each other, but whatever.)
    A yellow prototype Shadow Leech! (Thanks, Black Six!)
    A yellow 1980s space guy.
    Two minifigs (Build-your-own)
    A bag of BIONICLE pieces for Tekulo
    KopakaKurahk's loot includes
    A red 1980s space guy
    Timmy from Time Cruisers.
    An awesome villain minifigure.
    A BrickFair minifigure.
    I also got my mom a small Toy Story polybag set with the alien toy minifigure, since she loves those characters so much.
     
    Soon I hope to upload some more pictures of our BrickFair adventure, so keep an eye out for that.
     

  13. Akano

    Sleep

    By Akano,

    http://youtu.be/bxjWNJU8rNE

    When I was in college I had the privilege of performing many beautiful pieces in both choir and band. While I got to sing Eric Whitacre's "Hope, Faith, Life, Love" and play trumpet in his instrumental piece "October," I never did get to sing this beautiful piece.
     
    I absolutely love his suspensions and cluster chords. They give it a real ethereal quality, and it's beautiful.
     

  14. Akano
    "The proportionality factor σ (not to be confused with surface charge) is an empirical constant that varies from one material to another; it's called the conductivity of the medium. Actually, the handbooks usually list the reciprocal of σ, called the resistivity: ρ = 1/σ (not to be confused with charge density—I'm sorry, but we're running out of Greek letters, and this is the standard notation)."
     
    This is the man who allegedly can teach physics to gerbils. I wish I could take a class with him simply for his wit and skillz at teaching.
     

  17. Akano

    Going home for turkey

    By Akano,

    This evening, KK and I will embark on an epic quest to return home via Greyhound bus. Neither of us has ever partaken in such an adventure, so it will probably be full of intrigue, drool, and snorts due to the fact that we leave after midnight. 'Twill be interesting indeed.
     
    In other news, scattering theory is still something that eludes me. This is funny, because one of my research projects sort of uses scattering theory as an approximation technique. I get it there, but not when it comes to General Relativity.
     
    Also, dat Detective's Office set. 8L
     

  19. Akano

    Reflection

    By Akano,

    The other day I decided to look at my comics from start to finish to remind myself of where I started and how far I've come to get to the comics I have today, and I have determined the following.
     
    I sucked in the beginning. I mean, I was awful! Did I really actually think some of those comics were post-worthy? Holy Mukau!
     
    Seriously, go over to my topic and read the first couple comics. Then, cry in a corner. For several hours. That's what I did.
     
    In unrelated news, I've been toying with the idea of voicing some of my comics in a sort of strange animated-comic sort of way. Would anyone anywhere think this would be entertaining? KK may even have a role.
     

  20. Akano

    The Harmonic Oscillator

    By Akano,

    My Classical Mechanics professor quoted someone in class the other day: "The maturation of a physics student involves solving the harmonic oscillator over and over again throughout his/her career." (or something to that effect)
     
    So, what is the harmonic oscillator? Otherwise known as the simple harmonic oscillator, it is the physical situation in which a particle is subject to a force whose strength is proportional to the displacement from equilibrium of said particle, known as Hooke's Law, or, in math terms,
     

    F = -kx


     
    where F is our force, x is our displacement, and k is some proportionality constant (often called the "spring constant"). That sounds swell and all, but to what situations does this apply? Well, for a simple example, consider a mass suspended on a spring. If you just let it sit in equilibrium, it doesn't really move since the spring is cancelling out the force of gravity. However, if you pull the mass slightly off of its equilibrium point and release it, the spring pulls the mass up, compresses, pushes the mass down, and repeats the process over and over. So long as there is no outside force or friction (a physicist's dream) this will continue oscillating into eternity, and the position of the mass can be mapped as a sine or cosine function.
     
    What is the period of the oscillation? Well, it turns out that the square of the period is related to the mass and the spring constant, k in this fashion:
     

    T2 = 4π2m/k


     
    This is usually written in terms of angular frequency, which is 2π/T. This gives us the equation
     

    (2π/T)2 = ω2 = k/m


     
    This problem is also a great example of a system where total energy, call it E, is conserved. At the peak of the oscillation (when the mass is instantaneously at rest), all energy is potential energy, since the particle is at rest and there is no energy of motion. At the middle of the oscillation (when the mass is at equilibrium and moving at its fastest) the potential energy is at a minimum (zero) and the all energy in the system is kinetic energy. Kinetic energy, denoted by T (and not to be confused with period) is equal to mv2/2, and the kinetic energy of the simple harmonic oscillator is kx2/2. Thus, the total energy can be written as
     

    E = mv2/2 + kx2/2 = p2/2m + kx2/2


     
    Where I've made the substitution p = mv. Advanced physics students will note that this is the Hamiltonian for the simple harmonic oscillator.
     
    Well, this is great for masses on springs, but what about more natural phenomena? What does this apply to? Well, if you like music, simple harmonic oscillation is what air undergoes when you play a wind instrument. Or a string instrument. Or anything that makes some sort of vibration. What you're doing when you play an instrument (or sing) is forcing air, string(s), or electric charge (for electronic instruments) out of equilibrium. This causes the air, string(s), and current to oscillate, which creates a tone. Patch a bunch of these tones together in the form of chords, melodies, and harmonies, and you've created music. A simpler situation is blowing over a soda/pop bottle. When you blow air over the mouth of the bottle, you create an equilibrium pressure for the air above the mouth of the bottle. Air that is slightly off of this equilibrium will oscillate in and out of the bottle, producing a pure tone. Also, if you have two atoms that can bond, the bonds that are made can act as Hooke's Law potentials. This means that, if you vibrate these atoms at a specific frequency, they will start to oscillate. This can tell physicists and chemists about the bond-lengths of molecules and what those bonds are made up of. In fact, the quantum mechanical harmonic oscillator is a major topic of interest because the potential energy between particles can often be approximated as a Hooke's Law potential near minima, even if it's much more complex elsewhere.
     
    Also, for small angles of oscillation, pendula act as simple harmonic oscillators, and these can be used to keep track of time since the period of a pendulum can be determined by the length of its support. Nowadays, currents sent through quartz crystals provide the oscillations for timekeeping more often than pendula, but when you see an old grandfather clock from the olden days, you'll know that the pendulum inside the body is what keeps its time.
     
    Hopefully you can now see why we physicists solve this problem so many times on our journey to physics maturity.
     

  21. Akano
    Today I went to my local LEGO Store to plunder some Series 8 Minifigures. I reviewed the 8 Series 8 minifigs (clever, ain't I?) over here, so check it out for pics and entertaining descriptions. I posted a teaser below:
     
     
    Also, while at the LEGO Store, I noticed some new sets. Remember the recent beach set that contained the Hula Girl, Surfer, and Surfer Girl from the Series Minifigures? Well, two new similar sets are now in the LEGO store, and I snapped a quick pic of them.
     

    Click for larger image.


     
    I sent this into news, so maybe you'll see an article about it.
     
    UPDATE: Apparently, LEGO has these on its Shop@Home site. They are the Halloween Accessory Set and the Rock Band Minifigure Accessory Set.
     
    ALSO ZOMBIE MINIFIG AAAHHH!!!
     

  22. Akano
    So, I've been doing various things in the world of Pokémon recently. I obtained a Squirtle on Wonder Trade (that was awesome), a Froakie from Spain, various forms of Vivillon, a Riolu from Japan (リオル), and a Rotom (8D) from Japan (ロトム). I'm hoping to try the Masuda method to get a shiny Riolu, because shiny Lucario is awesome (and yellow).
     
    Also, I caught a shiny Ditto in Pokémon Village. Luckiest chain ever (I definitely did not get a chain of 40...).
     

  23. Akano
    You may have learned once that classical mechanics all stems from Newton's laws of motion, and while that is true, it is not necessarily the best way to solve a given physical problem. Often when we look at a physical system, we take note of certain physical parameters: energy, momentum, and position. However, these can be more generalized to fit the physical situation in question better. This is where Lagrange comes in; he thought of a new way to formulate mechanics. Instead of looking at the total energy of a system, which is the potential energy plus the kinetic energy, he instead investigated the difference in those two quantities,
     




     
    where T is the kinetic energy and V is the potential energy. Since the kinetic and potential energy, in general, depend on the coordinate position and velocity of the particle in question, as well as time, so too does the Lagrangian. You're probably thinking, "okay, what makes that so great?" Well, if we were to plot the Lagrangian and calculate the area under the curve with respect to time, we get a quantity known as the action of the particle.
     




     
    where t1 and t2 are the starting and ending times of interest. Usually if the motion is periodic, the difference between these times is one period. Now, it turns out that for classical motion, the action is minimized with respect to a change in the path along which the particle moves for the physical path along which the particle actually moves. This sounds bizarre, but what it means is that there is only one path along which the particle can move while keeping the action minimized. Physicists call this the Principle of Least Action; I like to call it "the universe is inherently lazy" rule. When you do the math out, you can calculate an equation related to the Lagrangian for which the action is minimized. We call these the Euler-Lagrange Equations.
     




     
    These are the equations of motion a particle with Lagrangian L in generalized coordinates qi with velocity components denoted by qi with a dot above the q (the dot denotes taking a time derivative, and the time derivative of a coordinate is the velocity in that coordinate's direction). This is one of the advantages of the Lagrangian formulation of mechanics; you can pick any coordinate system that is best-suited for the physical situation. If you have a spherically symmetric problem, you can use spherical coordinates (altitude, longitude, colatitude). If your problem works best on a rectangular grid, use Cartesian coordinates. You don't have to worry about sticking only with Cartesian (rectilinear) coordinates and then converting to something that makes more sense; you can just start out in the right coordinate system from the get go! Now, there are a couple of special attributes to point out here. First, the quantity within the time derivative is a familiar physical quantity, known as the conjugate momenta.
     




     
    Note that these do not have to have units of linear momentum of [Force × time]. For instance, in spherical coordinates, the conjugate momentum of longitude is the angular momentum in the vertical direction, which has units of action, [Energy × time]. The Euler-Lagrange equations tell us to take the total time derivative of these momenta, i.e. figure out how they change in time. This gives us a sort of conjugate force, since Newton's second law reads that the change in momentum over time is force. The other quantity gives special significance when it equals zero,
     




     
    This is just fancy math language for saying that if one of our generalized coordinates, qi, doesn't appear at all in our Lagrangian, then that quantity's conjugate momentum is conserved, and the coordinate is called "cyclic." In calculating the Kepler problem – the physical situation of two particles orbiting each other (like the Earth around the Sun) – the Lagrangian is
     




     
    Note that the only coordinate that doesn't appear in the Lagrangian is ϕ, the longitude in spherical coordinates. Thus, the conjugate momentum of ϕ, which is the angular momentum pointing from the North pole vertically upwards, is a conserved quantity. This reveals a symmetry in the problem that would not be seen if we used the Lagrangian for the same problem in Cartesian coordinates:
     




     
    That just looks ugly. Note that all three coordinates are present, so there are no cyclic coordinates in this system. In spherical coordinates, however, we see that there is a symmetry to the problem; the symmetry is that the situation is rotationally invariant under rotations about an axis perpendicular to the plane of orbit. No matter what angle you rotate the physical situation by about that axis, the physical situation remains unchanged.
     

×
×
  • Create New...