Magic In Physics

I sprang out of bed today at 6:45, rushing to get a shower because last night I got stuck playing foosball with about ten of my dorm mates. I grabbed me towel along with my other bathing essentials that I laid out the night before, hoping it will help me get a shower. As I walked out of my room, I could already hear the sound of water splashing. The first bathroom was filled, but luckily, the second had one open. By 7:15 I was outside ready for breakfast with my cohort. Now you might be thinking about my previous blogs when mentioned I would be waking a few minutes later, well that changed. As you may know, yesterday more students showed up other programs. Our cohort decided to meet earlier to get breakfast so that we don’t have to deal with a line. We managed to get fill up, and then head out to class.

Bill Showing Off His Toys

My professor is a wizard and it’s true, he was doing magic. He would rub a PVC pipe and then attract and repel objects. Then he gave us the secrets to his magic and gave even gave us a chance to try it out with two pieces of tape, where we stuck them together and then peeled them apart. Okay, he is not really a wizard and it wasn’t magic he was using, it was electricity, I just love the way Professor Bill always refers to it being magic. We were lectured on joules, coulombs, voltage, and current. Then we followed up the lecture with a lab on proved current and voltage is directly proportional.

The "Magic" In Action

Earlier today, we were able to escape the massive lines at breakfast. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the same at lunch. I stood in line for about 10 minutes just to get my order in, and then I had to wait about another 30 minutes just to get my food. It was going to be impossible for me to sit down and eat and get to class on time. I had to improvise, walk and eat. Luckily, I was able to eat most of my cheesesteak before class started.

The lab before we went to lunch was to help us get a full meaning of current and voltage because we came back to a lecture on Ohm’s Law. The lecture was very fun, as always, Professor Bill used the fight amount of analogies and humor to help the wonderful lecture sink in. We then moved on to a lab that involved resistance and Play-Doh.  It was very fun playing with the Play-Doh, molding it into different shapes to explore how the resistance changes.

After dinner, I went to go play volleyball with some students from my Physics class. At first, I was scared to play because the sand was filled with hornets, but I also didn’t want to be that kid sitting alone on the bench. It was weird, we were all diving in the sand, right where all the hornets were, yet none of us got stung. I really need the physical activity, especially since I can’t go to the gym.

Tomorrow is going to be so much fun. We are going to be able to speak with Donald Thomas, a former NASA astronaut. In the evening, we are going to play soccer, which is my favorite sport. Now I need to go take a shower to get all the sand out of my hair from playing volleyball.