PHYS 101L: A Guide

I have finally finished my first class at The College of William and Mary.  Last week was my last lab for General Physics 101.  This post will both explore the knowledge that I've gained from this class and serve as a guide to any student who plans on taking this lab in the future.

Every lab (formal labs aside) requires a pre-lab.  This sounds like a big deal and a lot of work, but, luckily, your lab manual practically did it for you already.  The introduction covers every important piece of information and formula that you're required to use, so just read that.  Also, be sure to adjust your font size, so it looks like you wrote more than you did.  Some kids fill up the whole page with little text, some fill it with big text; they both get the same grade.

Each lab requires measurement of some form, and every time that you take a measurement using an electronic device, it's KEY to tare it up first.  There are scrubs that roll up into class, throw their unknown mass (which is often labeled) onto the scale, and start writing down numbers in their tables, but now you know better.  Take that scale, set it flat on the table, and hit that tare button.  In fact, as Uncle Kurtis suggested to us (my partner, Ben, and me), it never hurts to tare it up a few times, for good measure.

The next crucial step to a successful lab is practice.  Don't you dare hit the "Start" button on your DataStudio program without giving the turn table a couple of practice spins first.  Don't even think about the "Start" button before tossing that ball a few times.  In fact, it might be a good idea to master the techniques you'll be using in the lab back at the dorm, before even stepping inside of Small Hall.  The key to a beautiful data set is a practiced hand.

Take pride in your work.  Personally, I save every beautiful sinusoidal graph of a simple harmonic oscillator, ever burnt piece of paper tracking inelastic collisions, and every parabolic arc that Ben and I have ever produced during our labs and post them to my fridge.  Pro tip: if your graph doesn't look good the first time, make sure to fudge the data and play around with your scale until it does.  A little trimming around the edges never hurt anyone.

Interpret the data, guys.  Don't just write down numbers.  Write down numbers and stare at them for a while.  Be inquisitive.  Make claims.  They don't have to be right, just so long as you make them.  Let know data set go uninterpreted.  Why does their graph look like a straight line and yours looks like a dinosaur's back?  Why did Uncle Kurtis make you redo the entire first half of the lab?  It's questions like these that make students into scholars.

Don't stress enormous percent errors.  The conclusion section of the lab always gives you a chance to blame it on something-- a few causes I like to default to are air resistance, force of friction, mass of a pendulum or string, and inaccurate measurements.  Be sure to reference the "perfect world" that real scientists seem to live in, when justifying the 60% difference between your results and the actual measurement you were trying to achieve.  Everyone makes mistakes.

Conclusion writing is easy, if you know what you're doing.  Be sure to start every conclusion you write (there will be over ten of them, over the course of the semester) with "I learned that..."  A few words later, when you're fumbling for words again, throw in "I also learned," and go from there.  Like I mentioned before, you can take up a lot of space accounting for the outrageous error in your results.  Once you're getting near the bottom of the page (which you've filled with your biggest, boldest, double-spaced hand-writing), close it out by saying that your results were conclusive.  They will be conclusive, trust me-- the lab is designed that way.

Good luck, my friend.

Who are in You Top Five?

All throughout the first couple of months here at William and Mary, one of my favorite questions to ask my new friends was: "Who are your top five favorite people you've met since you got here?"  I loved asking this, not just because I like to know who's best friends with whom, but because it was interesting to see how people's answers would change from week to week and because it always led into great conversations that didn't consist of the dreaded and generic "What are you planning to major in?" and "Why did you choose William and Mary?"  So in this post I'm going to answer my own question.  

This is a post that a lot of people (really just Liz) have been asking me to write for a while, but I've been putting it off for a few reasons.  First off, choosing favorites isn't fun.  Because I love everyone here.  All 27 guys on my hall (not 26 because I'm including Joe) are like my brothers.  I legitimately wish I could be everyone's best friend, but I've developed this list not necessarily based on how much I like people but on how close I've grown to them, so if you're disappointed that you didn't make the list: quit your crying; I love you too.  And secondly, because, like I said, the list changes from week to week.  I wanted mine to stay steady Eddie for a while, before I posted anything.

I'm not putting these in any particular order, but we'll start with Austin LaPointe.  When we played the name game on the first day, he was "Awesome Austin from Arlington."  Parted hair, glasses, well-dressed, Asian.  Half Asian?  I wasn't sure when I first saw him, but I immediately labeled him as good with computers, musical, reserved, and, like everyone else at this school, smart.  And I was pretty close.  Austin is a super smart Computer Science major who's amazing at the violin and the guitar.  He also kicks some major booty on the tennis court, from what I hear.  His first impression of me was, and I quote, "This guy's gonna be a problem."  He was right too.  What we didn't know is that we were two people who thought the same way about things but almost always came to different conclusions.  What we didn't know is that we would go on walks for hours at a time talking about what happened in our past, what we plan for our future, and what we believe about the present.  What we didn't know is that I'd take a look at his Calculus and he'd take a look at my laptop.  Though lately I've been going to bed before the time when we used to go on walks and we haven't been seeing as much of each other as we used to, I've probably spent more time with Austin than anyone else on this campus.

I don't really remember how Liz and I became friends.  I know that I met her at a mixer during orientation and that I said hi to her whenever I saw her after that (like I said, I want to be everyone's best friend).  She never said anything back; she just looked at me like I was crazy.  We have no classes together.  We do none of the same activities.  But one day she must have said hi back because somehow we became fast friends.  Liz is one of the most involved people ever; she's in a million clubs and is trying to triple major (because, for some reason, English can't be a minor).  I'm pretty sure that she's even a Gates Millennium Scholar.  Yet, somehow, despite her busy schedule, she manages to paint me pumpkins on Halloween, bring me red apples (and sometimes my whole dinner) from the Caf, and go with me to Colonial Williamsburg to fill our mugs with free ice cream, when they've gone unused for too long.  She thinks she's as tall as her six foot something boyfriend back home and would be if her height matched her heart because she's got a big one, but, in reality, she's not much taller than her best friend, Charlie.  And he's a dog.  So...

Jonathan Tabor is my "weekend friend."  It's not that we aren't friends during the week, but he's always writing papers in the lounge and I'm always doing Physics in my room, so we rarely see each other until the week is done.  At first, I never really spent any time with "Joe Nathan."  It wasn't until one destined day when we both needed to make a trip to the thrift store that we became friends.  Now, we show up awkwardly to KDRBecues, sit around trying hard to find a way to chase away boredom on Saturday afternoons, and go to church on Sunday mornings together.  He's one of the few people who shares a lot of the same opinions as me, though our personalities are pretty different.  Jonathan is pre-med and hails from the land of Georgia.  I'm an in-state Physics major-to-be.  He has a love for history.  I think history's dumb.  But when it comes to values and ideals, we're on the same page.  Also, he's been known to carry me around.

Polly didn't think she would be on this list.  When we first met, she talked about how much she loved high school-- I told her how much I hated it.  It wasn't the best start ever, but one day she came up to me and asked: "Hey, are we friends?"  When I said "No," I thought she was going to die, by the look on her face.  But of course we were, she just didn't know me well enough to understand that I was kidding.  The next day, we were sitting in the study lounge, and, after looking at me pensively for a while, Polly asked me: "Is it safe to say that we're, like, best friends, at this point?"  Polly is super outgoing and wants everyone to be her best friend (kind of like me, only she's better at it).  She's also seventy-five percent of the reason I uninstalled snapchat-- I can only handle so many pictures of Nicole in her dinosaur costume.  Sometimes, I think she's going to die because she laughs so hard at everything.  Unfortunately, Polly is in the St. Andrews program, which means she won't be sticking around next year, which is actually a downer.  

I also don't remember when Honor and I became friends.  It may have been when she invited me to Relevant Church that we became close, but maybe not because I pretty vividly remember her leaving Jonathan and me stranded a few miles off campus with no way to get back the first time we went.  Regardless, when she's not being the only white girl in the Indian Dance Company, studying zhong wen, or going to plays I've never heard of before, she's inviting me to go on "CW Adventures," watch The Last of the Mohicans (which turned into Ten Things I Hate About You and How I Met Your Mother), and go on Scavenger Hunts.  I can't think of a time when I've heard a single unkind or thoughtless word out of Honor's mouth, even though sometimes she talks to me (and everyone else) like I'm "as drunk as Cooter Brown."  She's not sure what she wants to major in, she loves convicted felon, Martha Stuart, and comes from Tennessee, "the buckle of the Bible belt."  I don't know what else to say about Honor, except that she's someone who I look up to and respect for her friendly nature, intense work ethic, and Christian faith.  "Bless her heart."

I have to give honorable mention to a few people because I really did want to put more of them on this list, but, to be fair to everyone I've ever told "You have to pick five," I had to narrow it down.  Jack Spacey, Spaceman, Space Cadet is someone who I've had some pretty deep and serious conversations with.  He also gets brownie points for being my roomie.  Jacob and I don't really hang out, but we make a heck of a Physics team.  He knows everything about everything, and I question every word he ever says, so between the two of us, few things slip through the cracks.  Although he probably thinks I'm a complete idiot because I refuse to give him a real answer or an honest opinion on anything, we have some pretty good times on the way to and from class.  One of the best heart-to-hearts I've ever had was with Carly; unfortunately, we almost never see each other, anymore, so we haven't gotten to hang out like we used to.  Marisa and I are A team, but I can't trust her.  And, of course, I have to give a shout out to all my boys on G2U.  Who are we?  G6!  What's our motto?  Ride together, die together!  Am I right?  Ladiiieees!  

Discoveries to Date Concerning the Infamous and Miraculous 3-D Copier

As many of you have seen in my previous post or on Instagram, Gooch Hall is home to the what has become known as the Infamous and Miraculous 3-D Copier.  Today, I will attempt to disclose everything that we have discovered about this mysterious machine, so far.

The origins of the beast are unknown.  It is labeled as the "HP C4780," but it has become clear that this is no ordinary hunk of plastic.  Curiosity is in my nature, so in hopes of shedding some light on the shady device, I turned to Google.  A few searches involving key words such as "infamous" and "miraculous" in conjunction with the model number turned up nothing that matches the phenomenon that we have witnessed at work again and again in Gooch 206, so I'm proud to say with confidence that our hall is the first to encounter this gift to the printing world.  As such, I've taken it upon myself to document what we know, think we know, and plan to do concerning the Infamous and Miraculous 3-D Copier.

To try and unravel this mystery, I've compiled a list of things that we know for a fact about this unique printer:
It has a strange and inexplicable affinity for Ramen Noodles.

It doesn't copy EXCLUSIVELY in three dimensions.

It's somewhat unpredictable.

And, as a scientist, it is my duty to draw inferences from these clues, so here's a list of things that we're confident are true:
HP didn't do this on their own-- they had help.
It devours small game and the elderly while we're away at classes.
It can't be trusted.

Though I'm sure you're beginning to see it, already, I'll paint you the big picture that has become clear to my hallmates and me.  It began in the United States in the 1920's, when prohibition drove alcohol-related crimes to an all-time high.  Think for a moment about the implications of a copier that can produce mass quantities of illegal substances at the touch of a button.  It appears as though the Infamous and Miraculous 3-D Copier was used by a liquor tycoon, who, because of the machine, was able to keep his entire stock in a small suitcase.  Now, this kind of business, as anyone who has seen an episode of Breaking Bad knows, can't last, so eventually this businessman was able to retire his profession and his printer and live an ordinary life around the mid 1940's, when the rest of the world was distracted by the second World War.  This part of the copier's history is still a little bit fuzzy to me, but sometime between D-Day and move-in day at the College of William and Mary, the Infamous and Miraculous 3-D Copier was mistakenly recovered and sold to Thor, and unsuspecting college student, as the HP C4780 that its original owner (and probably inventor) had disguised it as.

That's about all I can say with any kind of confidence about the history of this device, but as we learn more and more about it, it's past is becoming clearer and clearer.

Also, let me know, if you want me to add your email to the weekly update list!  It goes out every Thursday.

Orientation to Present

It's been a long time since I've posted anything.  I meant to do an "Orientation Part II!" type of thing, but I obviously never got around to it, so this will cover my college experience so far, without going into the detail that you read about in my previous post.  Also, the pictures aren't related to the paragraphs they're next to this time, so I'll put some captions with them.

Dave's Birthday Party

As I've mentioned, I see this stage of my life as both an opportunity to change (or fix, rather) the way I live and a necessary rung in the ladder of my career climb.  Since orientation, I've kept up, for the most part, with eating better, sleeping more, and getting more exercise.  I joined the ultimate Frisbee team, go to the gym with my hall mates (when I'm not coughing up a lung-- I've been kind of sick lately), and eat lots of mysterious Asian dishes and subway-style sandwiches.  I'm trying to be cleaner, but that comes in spurts that arise conveniently whenever my room mate or I am expecting company.  I make flashcards, do homework, read books, and spend more time with friends than I did back home.  Overall, I live a completely different life.  Kind of.

A lot is the same.  I still send letters to Glory, wake up two minutes before my alarm, hold off on laundry for as long as possible, and plug my nose when I sneeze.  My fashion sense is still kind of wack.  My showers still take longer than they should.  I still walk on the left side of people.  Sunday mornings are still spent at church, and Friday night, staying up way too late.  

I've met a lot of new people!  Obviously.  I have friends in all of my classes, minus British Literature II (vomit), and get along well with just about everyone on my hall.  I have to give a shout out to my boys in Gooch Second Upper because they truly are like brothers to me.  All of that's not to say that my friends back home have been replaced.  I can't wait for my cousin to receive his acceptance letter.  I have to glance around from time to time at the pictures that I've taped around my dorm room of Chaddy, Glory, and my family.  And, duh, I miss everyone else too, but the point is, I'm not lonely, despite the absence of some of the most important people in my life.

The Infamous and Miraculous 3-D Copier

Church deserves its own paragraph.  I went to Grace Covenant my second week here, and I didn't dislike it.  I was a little peeved when they didn't warn us that the communion was real wine, but I guess I can say from now on that I had my first (and last) taste of alcohol in church.  I decided, though, that other churches were worth visiting and attended one called "Relevant" with my friends, Honor and Jonathan, and loved it.  The worship was amazing, and the pastor seemed very genuine.  I may visit somewhere else at some point, but for the next few weeks, that's the one I plan to attend.  For those interested, it's a pretty small group that meets in a hole in the wall next to grocery and consignment stores.  The worship consists of pretty contemporary songs to the accompaniment of a few guitars, a mandolin, and a drum set.

Freaking Thor (A phrase we use often in Gooch Second Upper)

One of my favorite things about the college so far has been the company.  To give you an illustration of the kind of people I'm surrounded by, I'll walk through last night's shenanigans.  After a day of fun with the Rogers, Pucketts, and Mrs. Cotton, I went to a diversity session with my G6 (my hall), which we followed up with celebratory ice cream cake (because that was our final extended orientation session).  Afterwards, we put on a search for a football, so we could play what I've decided to call hallball, which is exactly what you think it is: football with smaller teams in a much smaller space.  Unfortunately, not even the black people (What we've been calling roommates, Devin and Louis) didn't have one, so we did what we always do when there's nothing fun going on and played a game or two of League (don't ask to play with me-- I'm terrible).  Around 10:00, a discussion about the economy started up between a few of the guys who were chilling in Spaceman's and my room.  Four hours later, a group of about ten of us were sitting in a rough circle, voicing our opinions on politics, economics, business, ethics, sexual orientation, and religion.  The best part about these guys is that we were able to have a discussion instead of an argument; even with consersatives and liberals, trickle-down believers and government distribution advocates, opposite ends of the financial spectrum, completely different sets of values, varying sexual orientations, and atheists and believers represented, the conversation never devolved into argument.  It was purely a chance to indulge our curiosity and hear different perspectives on familiar issues.

Long story short, I miss people, but I'm not torn up, and college is going well.  If anyone's REALLY interested in the specifics of what's going on and how I'm doing, I'd be willing to start a weekly email-- just Facebook me, and if enough people care (for some reason), I'll get that going.

PS: I'm not going to proofread this, so...  There's that.

Orientation Week Part I

I'm going to cover my Orientation experience in separate parts because it has been quite an eventful one, and I plan to go into some detail on each day.

First, of course, was move-in day.  I packed up the truck the night before, went to bed around 2:00 AM (because I had put some of my packing and organizing off until that last minute), and woke up at 4:45 that same morning to call Glory, get ready, and leave for the college.  It was about 6:30 when my dad and I were pulling out of the driveway, and we were the first ones in line for the complex when we arrived at the campus.  There were no real problems up until this point aside from the danger of the back hatch deathtrap, my beach and Busch Gardens-induced sunburn, and the tiredness that carried over from two nights without adequate sleep and two days in the sun.  Overall, though, I was feeling good and was ready to move in.

The move-in process was relatively painless.  My dad and I (with some help from a volunteer student) took my things up to room 207 of Gooch Hall to the shouts and cheers of the Botetourt Orientation Aides.  It wasn't the most fun I've ever had, but we got everything into the room in decent time.  Before we left to pick up my Student ID and mailbox key, we had a couple of short conversations with my roommate and his parents; they seemed nice enough.  Jack used to live in the United States but moved to Berlin because his father was in the military (he retired this summer), and now he's back in the States for his college education; we're very different people, but we get along pretty well.  We spent the hour between ID pick-up and lunch reorganizing the room to expose as many outlets as possible, then split off to go to "The Caf" for a buffet lunch.

After the meal, I put away and organized most of my things, and realized just how much of a problem the lack of an AC unit was going to be; it was hot.  About an hour later, I said goodbye to the father and met up with my Orientation Aides (OAs), Nicole and Neal, as well as my hall (which we now call G6-- "Ride together, die together!") for some Botetourt cheer practice and the trek down to our first Freshman session.  Though I struggled at times to keep my eyes open, it wasn't a terrible experience; we were welcomed by many members of the William and Mary staff, then concluded the congregation with the singing of the alma mater.

Later on, we (G6) did a "mixer" that helped us learn each other's names, met with the other floors of Gooch hall, and were introduced to our Resident Assistant (RA), Joe.  Following some review of common sense rules and regulations, we all left with our OAs to eat dinner (at The Caf, again) and sing the alma mater outside of the college president's house; the walk was a long one, which offered the opportunity to talk with some of the guys on our hall.  Aside from the rain, it was a good time!  When we got back, we were free to do whatever we wanted until 7:30 the next morning-- I slept.

Day two began with a meeting in the social lounge, G6 could make the trip to breakfast together at the Sadler Center.  My roommate forgot his keys and got locked out of our room, so I headed upstairs and found him outside the door in a towel.  We left a few minutes late and we were last ones in the breakfast lines, which our OAs solved by filling cups with donuts and muffins and passing them out during the session that followed.  Once the "don't do stupid stuff and lie about it" lecture was over, we did a mixer with the girls on our hall that involved brief introductions and topics of discussion provided by our OAs.  It was much less awkward than we imagined it would be, and was a good way to exchange names and learn where everyone else was coming from.

Lunch followed, and once again we found ourselves at the back of the lines.  I opted to fill up a bowl with cereal, as no one was in line at the breakfast bar.  Yet another session, which was actually very helpful in the class registration process, took place after the meal.  After a short trip to Colonial Williamsburg (CW) to pick up free William and Mary t-shirts from the bookstore, we were given about two hours of free time before course registration began.  I planned to spend this time hooking up my printer but instead opted to use it mapping out a schedule for my first semester and set up a make-shift air-conditioning unit (I froze some water in a Tupperware container, and set it behind the fan, so it blows the cold air throughout the room). 

The registration process was ridiculous.  Armed with donuts from Nicole for de-stressing, our laptops, CRN codes, and ethernet cables to ensure a quick and stable internet connection, every member of the William and Mary (aside from the kid on our hall who never showed up because he was "too busy working at the theater to deal with college stuff") waited with baited breath for the clock to strike five.  The second our phones switched from 4:59 to 5:00, everyone clicked into the registration window, pasted their first CRN code into the box, and typed out the rest of their priority course codes and hit submit.  After ten to fifteen seconds of frantic yelling at our computers to load faster, we filled in the open gaps with our back-ups, rinsed, and repeated until we had locked in two or three of our first, second, or third string classes.  I was only able to get into one priority class and one back-up, but I managed to get an override (essentially a guaranteed seat) in Honors Physics and picked out a few more classes for round two of registration, which happens in a day or two.

Following what may have been the most stressful few minutes of my life so far, I went with my hall to dinner, which was, as usual, over-crowded.  Fortunately, we weren't the last in line this time, but not-so-luckily, I forgot my swipe card (which I now have a system for remembering).  My RA swiped in for me and explained that this kind of thing happened all the time throughout orientation.  This was my first meal of more mindful and healthy eating, so I opted for some Asian food (don't as me exactly what it was), salad, and an apple.  I spent the next hour or two hanging out with our OAs in the lounge until time for the Rec Party (an official orientation activity, no worries, Mom and Dad).  Just before we left, I had a really good talk with a guy in the dorm next door to mine, and asked him if he was interested in visiting churches with me the following week; he was really nice about it and seemed interested.  Soon after, G6 rolled out to the rec with a few choruses of "Ride together die together!" and "Am I right?  Ladiiieees!"  My friend, Paul, and I used the time at the "party" to scout out the Recreation Center and figure out when its operating hours, then left shortly after the event started with a free ID holder and t-shirt in-hand.

Since we were the first ones back, Paul and I helped Joe set up for the 10:30 milk, cookies, and chocolate fountain party that our hall was having.  We stuck around until around 11:30 talking with all of the residents of Gooch and getting to know some new people, then headed up to our dorms to get ready for bed.  About thirty minutes later, I sat down to read my Bible, then settled into my bed, assuming that my roommate was still out at the party I had heard some rumors about.  He dropped in shortly after I fell asleep, then dipped out again and informed me that he might be back at some point tonight.  I once again decided not to wait up and fell back asleep.  

The next morning (this morning), I woke up at 7:00 to catch breakfast before the crowds got there (mission accomplished), and asked around about local churches, so I can start visiting the different ones in the area.  A nice couple informed me of a few up by CW that I plan to check out.  Finally, I walked back to Gooch sweet Gooch, prepared priority and back-up classes for the second wave of registration and mapped out a few possible schedules, then typed out this blog post.

So far, I've had a good college experience!  I've met lots of cool people, and am really excited to get going with classes this week!