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Akano

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Blog Entries posted by Akano

  1. Akano

    *Slow clap*

    By Akano,

    Well done, Alex Hirsch. Well done.
     
    The latest Gravity Falls episode was excellent. Totally squashed theories about the author of the journal and, while answering some questions, raised even more. Can't wait for the next episode...
     

  2. Akano

    Equation of the Day #3

    By Akano,

    Just so everyone knows, I obtained the awesome LEGO Haunted House over Fall Break and have pictures that will work wonderfully in a review. You can probably expect that next week at some point (I hope). For now, let's go over another fun physics equation! This one is probably very familiar to you, though you may not have any idea what it means. I give you mass-energy equivalence:
     



     
    Where E is energy, m is mass, and c is the speed of light. It's a very simple-looking equation with only three parameters, but what does it mean? Well, it means that anything with mass – you, your cat, your house, the Earth – has latent energy stored in it, and the amount of mass determines that latent energy. For an object at rest, this correlates to the rest mass of the object. If an object is moving really fast (near the speed of light) its kinetic energy causes it to actually get heavier, since the object can never actually reach the speed of light (only objects with no rest mass move at the speed of light).
     
    So, if we have an object sitting and doing nothing, and it suddenly glows for a split second, then stops, where did the light come from? Well, light has energy, as we know, so we could calculate the energy of the light that escapes our object. If the light emanates in all directions, then the net kinetic energy of the object is unchanged. But conservation of energy says that energy can neither be created nor destroyed! Have we violated the laws of physics with our weird glowing object? Well, no, because if you were somehow able to weigh the object pre- and post-glow, you would find that the mass of this object is actually slightly less after the light is given off.
     
    But wait! Doesn't conservation of mass say that matter can neither be created nor destroyed? Well, yes, it does say that. So the only way for this to make sense is if the mass is converted into the energy that was emitted. We know that energy can be converted into different forms (electric, mechanical, thermal, etc.), so this must mean that mass is another form of energy that can be converted to and from! Pretty neat, huh?
     
    Minutephysics has a cool video on this with a bit more technicality and pretty pictures of radioactive cats, but this is my text-based explanation simplified.
     
    Another thing that may cross your mind is that this looks very similar to Newton's second law:
     



     
    So, does Newton's second law equate force with acceleration? Well, no, because in the mass-energy equation, the constant of proportionality, c2, is a universal constant; it is the same for any and all objects in the universe. The mass of an object, however, varies from object to object, and is thus not a fundamental, universal constant, so while these equations are similar and relate two seemingly different entities, they do not conceptually perform the same task.
     

  3. Akano

    Random Blurb

    By Akano,

    My gradumacation party was on Sunday, and I had a blast. There's truly nothing better than having your friends celebrate with you, no matter what the occasion.
     
    And I almost ended up in the ditch outside my house twice. 8D
     
    That seems to be my only problem. That and a couple left turns.
     

  4. Akano

    Take That, Quantum

    By Akano,

    Finished 4/5 problems on my quantum final today AND almost half of the fifth one. I'd say I thoroughly owned that test to the best of my ability. 8D
     
    Also, kudos to BZP's staff for keeping their cool and being able to bring the forums back. You guys are awesome.
     

  5. Akano

    Legend Of Korra

    By Akano,

    What I'm really awaiting on this show is the episode where Korra and Aang finally communicate about the state of the Avatar world. They've been dropping tantalizing hints these past few episodes, and I'm getting rather antsy. >>
     
    In other news, week 2 of my summer internship is done. I'm going to be repairing a laser-locking box that will be used with a Fabry-Perot cavity. Fun times.
     

  6. Akano
    I am currently unable to upload photos to Brickshelf, and I'm not sure why. I'm trying to upload a .zip file of pics I want to use for a review, but after a long time of "uploading," the folder I attempt to upload to is empty. I tried doing one photo at a time, but that's failing as well.
     
    Anyone else experiencing this?
     

  7. Akano

    Back to School

    By Akano,

    So, today was the first official day of school at my grad school, but I didn't have any classes. Today was lab orientation for Monday and Tuesday lab sections (since we had yesterday off). Having nearly 50 students crammed into a room only able to seat 32 is rather entertaining.
     
    Also, I have a talk to give on Friday on my research I did over the summer. This wouldn't be so much of an issue if I knew which part of the research to discuss, as I worked with two undergrads, and we have to split the topics of our research between us. However, one of the students worked in another lab over the summer as well, so she's probably not going to present on what the three of us did at all. Now the talk has to be divided in half.
     
    Also, did I mention the talk was Friday? ._.
     

  8. Akano

    Mwee Again…

    By Akano,

    >>;;
     
    Currently at school, with about 4 minutes to spare.
     
    Mwee, had a fun night Friday. Our football team creamed the opposing team by 46 points. It was nice. ^^
     
    Our new show, our "funk" show, did really well, and we pulled it off despite learning and cleaning it the week of the game.
     
    Also, I hope to make a new comic soon. Speaking of which, I want to possibly try something new with them, provided I get some time to do it. You might either look forward to it or dread it. That's your…choice?
     
    Anywho, that's all for now.
     

  9. Akano

    New Comic And Some Maths

    By Akano,

    Hi, all,
     
    New comic (and topic) have been posted over in the comics forum! Check it out!
     
    To address the maths in the new comic, the first sum is
     
    1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + ... = Sum(2^n), where n = 0, 1, 2, 3, ... all the way up to infinity. Now, if we look at the partial sums of this series, we see that the sum of the first term is 1, the first two terms is 3, the first three terms is 7, first four terms is 15, etc. Clearly, the sum gets bigger the more terms you add on. However, let's say that we have
     
    s = 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + ...
     
    We can rewrite this by using the distributive property,
     
    s = 1 + 2 (1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + ...)
     
    But, what's inside the parentheses is clearly the sum we had before, so we can rewrite this as
     
    s = 1 + 2s
     
    Subtracting s from both sides, we get
     
    0 = 1 + s
     
    Therefore, s = -1 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + ... So, while the sum does not converge to a number in the traditional sense, it still has some other meaning that says that it is equivalent to -1. Similarly,
     
    1 - 2 + 4 - 8 + ... = Sum((-2)^n) where n = 0, 1, 2, 3, ... all the way up to infinity, or
     
    s = 1 - 2 + 4 - 8 + ...
     
    We can again rewrite this as
     
    s = 1 - 2(1 - 2 + 4 - 8 + ...)
     
    What's inside the parentheses is, again, the sum, so
     
    s = 1 - 2s, or 3s = 1. Therefore, s = 1/3 So, while the partial sums (1, -1, 3, -5, 11, ...) get larger in magnitude (with alternating +/- signs), the sum is still on some higher level equal to 1/3. Neat, huh?
     
    If this doesn't make sense, that's okay, because it is confusing and highly mathematical. What I think is cool, though, is that you can still show these two statements using alternative mathematical methods, meaning that these values are consistent with different techniques. It's about as awesome to me as how classical physics comes out of quantum mechanics when you take the limit of quantum mechanics for a "large" (classical) system.
     
    I love math and science. 8D
     

  10. Akano

    Neutrons Bouncing on Glass

    By Akano,

    Yes, you read that right.
     
    So, today our physics department had our Journal Club, where one of the professors/grad students get to share a journal article or two that they found in the vast amount of physics literature available to academia. Today our resident dark matter-seeking professor gave the talk, and boy was it awesome.
     
    The researchers whose papers he found were bouncing neutrons on glass and looking at their quantum states due solely to the potential energy caused by gravity. Quantum mechanics with gravity.
     
    For those of you who don't understand how ridiculously awesome this is, let me put it in terms of Classical Mechanics: when a classical object is under the influence of a uniform gravitational potential (like that near Earth's surface), it follows parabolic trajectories. Imagine a ball bouncing on a table; it forms a series of parabolic bounces, each one smaller than the last due to friction and lost energy due to sound and such. This is essentially what this group did, but with neutrons and glass.
     
    However, because neutrons are not classical particles and instead behave quantum mechanically, they don't bounce in parabolic trajectories. Instead, they abide by the laws of quantum mechanics, which means that there are only certain heights above the table at which they are likely to be found and certain heights that they cannot be found. So, a neutron in the ground (lowest) state of this system is most likely to be found at about 10 microns (thousandths of a millimeter) above the glass.
     
    Also, when this was published back in 2005, it was the first time quantized energy levels due to Earth's gravitational potential alone were ever observed experimentally; the theory has been known for a while, but this is the first time anyone has in any way verified it.
     
    Now, this group is attempting to test the properties of the force of gravity using this apparatus and their neutrons. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!
     
    This blog entry brought to you by SCIENCE!
     

  12. Akano

    Blog Statistics

    By Akano,

    I have absolutely no life to the point that I just spent the better part of my afternoon going back through my blog posts and recording the view count, reply count, and word count of all 185 entries I've made prior to this one. These are the results of my labor:
     
    All time averages:
    Views: 57.4 ± 45.8
    Replies: 2.2 ± 2.6 (LOL)
    Word Count: 176 ± 242 (BIGGER LOL)
     
    Post-server upgrade averages:
    Views: 79.9 ± 42.6
    Replies: 2.58 ± 3.01 (LOL again)
    Word Count: 198 ± 292 (BIGGER LOL again)
     
    Largest stats:
    Views: 266 (courtesy of "Ask Akano" blog entry; Fort Legoredo review got 265, a close second)
    Replies: 24 (again, "Ask Akano")
    Word Count: 1711 (Vampyre Castle review)
     
    Here are the graphs for each stat.
     
    What I learned from this experience:
    Before the server upgrade, I made a lot of posts about how I'm a terrible blogger.
    Among my most viewed posts were my set reviews.
    My old text color is more painful to view since the background is now completely white.
    Most of my blog posts have fewer than 50 words.
    Most of my blog posts get zero replies.
    Post-server upgrade, most of my entries get between 60-90 views. Pre-upgrade, they got between 10-20 views.
    This is my 186th post.
    I hope this was informative. I know I learned quite a bit from the experience.
     

  14. Akano

    Gen 2

    By Akano,

    Guys, Gold and Silver were released almost sixteen years ago, why are you all—
     
    OH! You mean BIONICLE...
     
    ...
     
    There was a gen 2?!
     

  15. Akano
    Yesterday, February 22nd, was my birthday. Unfortunately, it had to fall on one of the busiest days of my schedule, with Science Olympiad, Pit Band, and Jazz Band all dominating in one foul swoop.
     
    I had a decent time, though, and my friends got me some nice gifts. I got cookies and a card today from some of my friends in band, and another friend got me a CD. Oh, and I got cupcakes. Can't go wrong with cupcakes.
     
    And waiting at home for me after all this was a Chipotle burrito with my name on it, which I saved for today's lunch.
     
    Tomorrow is Regionals for Science Olympiad. Yes, Nerdfest 2007 — the part that counts — is on.
     
    Wish me luck!
     

  16. 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.
     

  18. 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.
     

  19. Akano

    Jackson ≪ Griffiths

    By Akano,

    I know most of you aren't physicists, but it's very important to me that physics education be designed to effectively teach physics to any and all audiences. After all, if you want people to have some inkling as to what you do, you want to be able to come up with a way to explain the necessities without getting bogged down in all the details. When you do this, it prevents the person you talk to from feeling like a moron and also allows you to talk about yourself and what you do to someone who has no clue what you do.
     
    This is why graduate-level texts frustrate me. The authors always assume that half the stuff they're discussing in their textbook is obvious to the reader/student who has maybe seen the material once before in an undergraduate course. While some of this material should be expected to be known already, you can't just chuck stuff at your reader and say "it is now obvious that" or "the proof is trivial" when neither of these statements is actually true. If you use either of these statements in your textbook, you're not a good teacher. Period.
     
    The title of this entry comes from the fact that I'm comparing two Electromagnetic Theory textbooks, one by D.J. Griffiths and the other by J.D. Jackson. Griffiths' Introduction to Electrodynamics is a witty, conversational, and informative text that helps undergraduates cope with the fact the E&M is really hard and that most of the concepts are foreign to someone who has only ever dealt with classical mechanics. Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics, on the other hand, is a text where the reader can tell that the author really knows his stuff when it comes to E&M, but has no sense of how to convey that knowledge to someone who is not an advanced student of the subject.
     
    For instance, let's say I were teaching the concept of projectile motion to someone who has never delved into the subject. If I were Griffiths, I would say something like, "All objects in free fall on Earth experience a force due to gravity toward the ground. This force causes all objects to accelerate at the same rate, meaning that the rate at which something speeds up/slows down in Earth's gravity is the same for all objects regardless of how heavy they are. Because this acceleration is constant near the ground, objects tend to follow a parabolic trajectory (if we ignore air resistance). The equations that show this follow from Newton's second law, F = m a. If you don't believe this, let's try it, shall we?"
     
    Now wasn't that nice? This explanation is certainly very clear about what projectile motion is and what causes it. Griffiths enjoys taking concepts that may be hard to comprehend and then following through with some equations/proofs to try and clarify the situation, usually speaking to the reader as though he were sitting down with them helping them through a problem.
     
    What about Jackson? He would probably say something along the lines of, "The reason projectiles follow parabolic paths is simple: if you solve the Hamilton-Jacobi equation in a uniform gravitational field, you will find that the path that minimizes the action is that of a parabola. This can be seen by setting the variation of the Lagrangian equal to zero."
     
    Well that was simple, wasn't it? While technically correct, you probably have no idea what the Hamilton-Jacobi equation or Lagrangian are, nor do you probably know what "action" means in physics. Now you may be thinking, "well, these things are part of undergraduate courses, right?" Well, no, actually. I had no idea what the Hamilton-Jacobi equation was until I took graduate level quantum mechanics, and I was expected to have known that from my graduate classical mechanics course (which I didn't take until my second semester of quantum mechanics). Suffice it to say, there was a lot I had to learn on the fly, but you can probably see what I'm getting at. The assumption that students know everything you expect them to know and have it ready to go the minute you throw that curve ball at them is a terrible way to go about teaching and, in my opinion, does not foster good education.
     
    On an unrelated note, I have a problem set out of Jackson due tomorrow which I haven't finished yet. So, how was your day?
     

  20. Akano

    Lemuria

    By Akano,

    When I first played Golden Sun, I had no idea that this was actually a mythical place that some supposed existed in the real world. I also had no idea that lemurs were named with a common etymology.
     

  21. Akano
    Welcome to another installment of 90s LEGO set reviews! This entry's review is of the 6496 Whirling Time Warper of the Time Twisters theme!
     
    Presentation
    From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.
     

    Image courtesy of Peeron


     
    The box features a shot of the titular Time Warper flying through a dark backdrop with what looks like a portal to a city in the sky and a dark forest near the bottom. Behind some mountains, a moon or other celestial object appears to be setting. There's a flying ghost and bat along with other objects flying around the vehicle. I have to say, I really like the backdrops for the Time Twisters sets. The give a good dark edge to the appearance.
     
    Building
    Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?
     



     
    This set contains 147 pieces, of which 142 are shown here. This set is missing two TrRed magic wands, one black airplane rudder piece, and two chrome daggers (this is what happens when you own a set for a long time and leave it apart for a while). You'll notice that this has significantly more pieces than the Time Tunnelator, and for an originally $22 set, it better have more pieces. The build time for this set was around twenty minutes or so, which isn't too bad.
     



     
    There are two figs to obtain in this set: Professor Millennium, Tony Twister's brother and fellow Time Twister, and the Ghost. Note that this ghost, which has a smiling face, is different than the one coming with the upcoming Monster Hunters sets, which features a more spooky moaning face. Also, you may notice that the ghost's arms are not quite as white as they should be. Being an old piece, it got a little too much sun over the years, and the body is faded.
     

    The legs were replaced, so you can see the difference.

    Set Design
    Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.
     



     
    The set foundation is a white bathtub piece which premiered in Belville theme. This piece has only ever been released in three sets: this set (1997), 5895 Family House (1996), and 5837 Flora's Bubbling Bath (2002). I'm guessing that the rarity of this piece is why BrickLink has this set at relatively higher prices compared to its original MSRP than those of other Time Twisters sets.
     

    Curse your exclusiveness!


     
    You also get some cool minifig accessories, such as the bugles, coins, magic wands (not shown), a chrome crystal, and a bunch of 1 × 1 clear round pieces.
     

    Note: these bugles are not edible, nor are the coins chocolate.


     
    Playability
    The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?
     



     
    Again, pretty cool functionality. In this set, like the Time Tunnelator, the rear wheels drive the moving parts of the set. The propeller is connected by a rubber band to the wheel axle to make it spin, and the propeller is connected to the "power drum" on top to spin the container and swirly disk around.
     



     
    The skulls on the side also bob up and down exactly out of phase with one another due to the wheels having a peg that moves the side "arms" (for lack of a better word) up and down. Thus, you get a spinning propeller, rotating container of stuff, and bobbing skulls that make this vehicle come to life. I would rate the functionality of this set higher than that of the Time Tunnelator, since it simply does more stuff.
     
    Final Thoughts
    Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?
     

    Note: The dome piece is old/scratched up, hence the not-so-clearness.


     
    Again, fans of functionality will like this set. It comes with two minifigures, both of which are different from the Time Tunnelator, and it comes with that unique bathtub piece, so anyone wanting to do a vignette of a bathroom would love that. This model is also more filled-in than the Tunnelator, so this set may be preferred simply from an aesthetic point of view.
     
    What about Price? Well, as stated earlier, the MSRP was $22 in 1997. Sets available on BrickLink that are in the US are all above that price, with the lowest at $25, while most of the lots in Europe are < $20. So, if you're willing to spend a little extra on shipping, you can get a good deal.
     
    Pros
    What's to like?

    Functionality! (again)
    Cool looking vehicle
    Has good pieces to plunder

    Cons
    What's not to like?

    Price may be high.

    If you can find a good deal on this one, pick it up. It's a good set with quite a bit to offer.
     

  22. 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.
     

  24. Akano

    Special Relativity

    By Akano,

    A particle moving through space at the speed of light (i.e. a "massless" particle) does not experience time, and particles that are at rest travel through time at the speed of light.
     
    So the next time you feel lazy loafing on your couch or computer chair, just remember that you are traveling at light speed, no matter how fast or slowly you move.
     
    This entry brought to you by SCIENCE!
     

  25. Akano
    Since it is now the end of the semester at my school, professors are winding down the semester by ramping up the students' workloads. Isn't that just dandy?!
     
    Thus, real life takes over and Akano's free time goes from some to nearly none. On the bright side though, my brother KK and I recently had a recent acquisition of a Legend of Zelda DS Lite! (Do do do doo!) Thus, super fun happy fourth-gen Pokémon games are going to be played by us (KK has already gotten Platinum. I personally am waiting for HeartGold to come out in the US).
     
    That's really all I've got right now. As a parting gift, here's a cute little Rotom to wreak havoc on your appliances.

     

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