Estimation Complication

Jahnvi and I were on fire this morning. Since she switched to my class we now have the act of grabbing breakfast and heading to class early down to a science. We're still lazy enough to take the elevator instead of the stairs despite of this.

Today in class we calculated the solar constant. It was finally a sunny day, so we could actually find the solar constant which we've been using to calculate other values, but today we finally were able to search for the answer ourselves. We used a black plate and a IR thermometer to measure the temperature increase in the plate over the course of a few minutes. After collecting the needed data outside we worked on trying to find the solar constant. There was a question that required you to estimate a result in order to plug something into the equation. This in particular bothered me. I've never been a big fan of estimation and especially with a variable that drastically changed the answer. A few of the other people in my group wanted to use an example from the beginning in order to try to calculate the last value we needed to solve for the solar constant. I worked backwards with the known solar constant to find an approximate result, and we used that to help with our estimate.

Solar Constant set up

Since there are new programs staying in Campus North for the next few weeks, the dining hall was completely packed at lunch with all of the day camps and overnight students. It was almost impossible to find a place to sit, let alone find a friend to eat with at lunch, so it was quite a zoo in the dining hall today.

After lunch it was time to work on projects. I spent most of the time trying to figure out exactly what I would start with and what direction I would take my project on pulsars in. I read scientific research and graphs trying to find what direction would be the best to go in. When I realized that I was really getting nowhere I asked professor Kron with help further narrowing my project. Now I know at the very least how to start my project off with, and if it goes faster than I expect I'll search for more answers.

In the afternoon we also were able to see the sun through a special H-alpha telescope, and were able to see a prominence which makes it look like the Sun has a curl of hair sticking out. 

After class Olivia and I went to Michael's as Olivia wanted some craft supplies.We somehow managed to spend an hour just inside Michael's. I think it was all the cute notebooks that truly got us.

Back at the dorms I went to Kara and Olivia's room to hang out before doing more homework. There Michelle came in with two people she had met from the program, Pathways, which just moved in. I had met David last night when Jahnvi and I were working on outlines, and we met Hamilton who Michelle had just met today. As I know from last night, David is pretty nice and fun. After a long conversation I continued my outlines in Jahnvi's room. At this point I've moved practically all of my school supplies into Jahnvi's room, so she doesn't quite have a single anymore.

Jahnvi's photography skills at work.