User:Carmstro
From MariachiWiki
About this picture? Yes, my friend /did/ throw me into the pool hahaha it was quite the experience swimming fully clothed I must confess
Yes, I know I could've angled better so my friend was in pic too... mehhh
Cher's lab index [[1]]
My part of the Distance/Spacing Cosmic Rays Experiment
[[2]]
My part of the Various Media cosmic rays experiment
[[3]] My part of the Angle Change lab.
[[4]] My part of the Simultaneous Coincidences lab.
Hey everybody, what's up? My name is Cher Armstrong (or you can call me Cherie, but please do NOT call me by that positively dreadful name on my birth certificate that I have detested the entirety of my life) and I am a 19-year-old frosh at SUNY Stony Brook. I do not have a major declared yet, but I definitely have aspirations for secondary education. The hitch is that I must select a subject to teach, and I am yet undecided about the subject in which I shall instruct adolescents of the future. I also hope to ascertain the skills necessary to become a published author. I enjoy writing fiction, although I have yet to show my stories to anybody outside a very select few individuals because I do not yet regard my work as worthy of disclosing to other folks. I also am an avid reader. I am particularly fond of the fantasy and science fiction genres and over vacations I work in my local library and have a habit of procuring a pile of novels to peruse by the end of practically every shift, novels that caught my eye whilst going about my typical daily tasks. I enjoy learning new vocabulary, and my favorite real word is lackadaisical, closely followed by discombobulated and malarkey. I also invent my own words... the favorite of my nonsense words is bingerbongers.
Aside from my intellectual hobbies, I enjoy walking and running a whole lot. Over the summer, I often take long runs- or walks- of ten miles or more, exploring territory previously unbeknownst to me. If there is a clump of woods, I enter. If I spot a new pond, I abandon the run and immediately take to exploring the premises. If there is a "Danger: Do Not Enter" sign.... I enter, just to see exactly what is so dangerous that a sign declares it imperative that I avoid a place. If I come across what looks like a good running trail, I turn onto the trail and see where my feet end up carrying me. I also enjoy funny lists of compeltely random items, and am particularly amused if there is a ring of truth to the said lists, such as "Signs you're from Long Island" or "You know you're a long distance runner when..." Yes, my feet are comparable to rawhide. Yes, I do schedule dates around meets. Yes, I do own more than five pairs of sneakers.
I am on the Stony Brook track team. Unfortunately, they do not have the event at which I am really good: racewalking. Instead, I am taking the opportunity to get more cardiovascular fitness, as well as keeping myself familiar with the strong pressures of racing, competition, and striving for perfection, so that I am not rusty when I return to my event in my postcollegiate career and commence attending the really big races in other states. My goal is to qualify for the Pan-American Games, or even the Olympics 20KM race. Lofty goals indeed, but I never even expected to get where I am now, and, totaling in the pressures of Division One track that makes high school look a breeze, whoi knows where I'll end up? I jsut plan to work hard, keep my fingers crossed, and hope for the best.
And when I'm not running or racewalking or reading or writing more and more stories... I hang out with my friends and have a blast acting insane with everybody because my best friends all have the same random and strange sense of humor as myself, or I draw (I show my drawings to NOBODY) or I instant-message, or I sleep.
Did I mention I'm quite obsessed with M&Ms? (Yes, I warned you I was random... don't say I did not give you a fair amount of warning!)
I am also a WISE 187 student- an ickle firstie at SBU!
February 28, 2006
Today's class was quite interesting. We did this experiment where we hooked up a microwave to this machine that detects sound waves and which was in turn attached to the computer so that the sound waves could be graphed onto the screen. The point was to find out the differences in popping rate as time progressed, and discovered that a sort of bell curve is formed. We also used 2 scintillators, endeavoring to detect the movement of cosmic rays through them. My lightbulb moment, i have to say, was discovering that the further apart the scintillators are the less likely cosmic rays are likely to pass through them. Sometimes the counter did not chnge at all, showing us that cosmic rays do not move laterally.
The popcorn was yummy.
The challenge moment since last class? Trying to get that new program to download onto a computer that's already been through 2 hard drive crashes, haha, and then trying to get the graph to also download.
[[5]]<-Click to view the writeup of the Popcorn Lab
March 7, 2006 Today's lesson was comprised of more observations on the scintillator and the oscillator worked. We also brainstormed ideas on what endeavors to take on in future labs. Liz, Rose, and I are curious about the effect of different materials being placed in between the scintillators, what might happen if the scintillators are positioned at an angle as opposed to flat on the table, and also what the effect of the scintillators being directly above each other but with a considerable distance between would be.
Lightbulb: We students were issued an explanation on exactly why we can be confident that most of the waves detected by the oscillator are cosmic rays. That made a lightbulb ignite in my head, for I was wondering exactly how we could be assued that the cosmic rays were the only thing being counted by the machine. The explanation is that there is a discriminator unit that only registers what passes through both of the scintillators, which eliminates most of what could be termed noise. It was rather surprising to see exactly how many cosmic rays exist in this world; last class I entertained the notion that noise was being recorded. Now I know better.
Challenge: I still, however, wonder exactly how to use the machine and how one can tell where to situate the scintillators and all of those plugs. The scintillators, discriminators, and oscillators look quite complex to set up, and i'd be worried about damaging equipment.I also still wnat to know what inside the popcorn kernels makes popcorn pop!
March 9: Today our very first lab experiment was conducted, in which we tested the change in the number of cosmic rays that pass through both scintillators when the factor of distance comes into play. It was rather interesting carrying out a lab which my classmates and I actually planned. We had a control group with the scintillators situated one atop the other, and three experimental distances. I also learned how to use an oscilloscope on account of the fact that I very thoroughly interrogated Nathan on the subject. Getting my questions answered for more than to simply know the materals and methods of the lab experiment through and through was my lightbulb moment. It transpires that every action from adjusting the vertical and horizontal positioning of the screen to setting the channels, voltages and time scales of the grid has its own special knob to toy with. It's rather a relief knowing that I will not somehow accidentally lay waste to the physics building bia turning a knob the wrong way or "pushing the little red button." Notw that Nathan had somewhat exlained the oscilloscope it does not appear as complicated as it has the past few classes.
The challenge moment of the class was the endeavor to get the extremely stubborn tape measure to exactly where my classmates and I wanted it to go: onto a very high ledge. Every time we almost had the hook attached to where it belonged, the tape measure bent over, and then the first timewe actually managed to hook it the hook became dislodged. I volunteered to climb the ladder, being completely unafraid of heights, but people were against the idea... however, we finally got the tape attached so we could measure after about five minutes of wasted time. Yay, joy divine! We are jsut such uber-awesome science students like that. =D Another challenge is the whole group of us getting together because we all have rather busy schedules, and there's hardly any overlap in free time for us all.
March 14, 2006 Today, we conducted our second experiment that we devised ourselves, which consisted of placing a wide array of different materials between two scintillators and observing the effects and changes in rate of cosmic ray transmission, if any. Among materials used were aluminum, concrete, lead, and empty air. Jeil, Zina, and I contemplated the idea of seeing whether human flesh, blood, and bone slow down the cosmic rays any,, but we ran out of time. I suppose its just as well in case some freak occurrence of a cosmic ray occurred and disintegrated Jesil as she laid across the platform between the scintillators... Newsday has quite enough to write about that, i think ,and personally I ike Jesil better not obliterated into all of the atoms comprising her.
Challenge: Without a doubt, the challenge award goes to those dang lead blocks. I am not entirely sure of the density of lead but holy macaroni it's gotta be one BIIIIIIIIG number.... maybe 50 grams per cubic centimeter?? Let's jsut say it was a shock trying to lift it... it's definitely gotta be at least 50 pounds though, because I can bicepcurl up to twenty-ficve on one arm and damn that thing felt HEAVY! I'm frankly shocked my arms didnt fall off... I'm sure my track coach would not have been too thrilled conasidering we need arms to pump haha. Wouldn't it be hilarious to see a tall armless girl running around campus though?
Lightbulb moment: Here's me thinking we'fd have to carry over the cement blocks one by one and either Zina or Jesil suggested wheeling the cart over to our stagtion because the cart had wheels...
hehheh what can I sawy I'm a blonde, lol. But aside from living up to my hair color's stereotype, we discovered... that cosmic rays come at somewhat random concentrations, considering there was no sizeable difference between any of the media and thin asir. Cosmic rays penetrate all! As sicentists of old have said... eureka!
Today was sheer madness. I'd say the challenge moment was finding everybody's parts of the labs to try and get them up... I got back to my room from bio lab and track practice/rehabilitation at 2:30 and then proceeded to read ahead in my biology textbook for today's lecture.... then I finally checked my away message and saw I was to put everytihng together. Whoops, definitely picked the wrong day to be a good student without any breaks! So I then proceeded to sift through one insane mix of email to pull out everybodsy's things, and I still wasn't able to find two people, although I put everybody else's stuff into PDF format. Then, I finally textmessaged Leah to say I couldn't finsd some of the data. At long last, I decided there was o way I'd find everyone;s stuff and I jsut uploaded what I had.. I got to class at 4:20! I also think I sprinterd much faster than I have since December before I pulled one of the major tendons in my leg!
Anyway, aside from lab compiling madness, Liz, Leah, and I got to spend some quality time with Cosmic Chris. First we left him down for half an hour on the D level of the physics level and then we took him down into the Physics basement to see how many rays he could catch with about six stories of building over him. It turns out there's a significant difference between how many he detects on the top floor and how many in the basement.
Lightbulb: The vast difference between the number of cosmic rays Cosmic Chris caught on the D floor and how many in the physics basement. I now see that there has to be a substantial amount of matter between the cosmic rays and the scintillator; just a few centimeters won't cut it.
Challenge moment: Trying to locate an electrical outlet in which to plug in Cosmic Chris. They really need more of those in the halls of the basement... yet they have electrical outlets in the display cases, of all things! How weird is that? Finally one was located near the display cases.
March 21, 2006 [[6]] <-procedure lab 2
The first thing I watnt to say is... HAPPY SPRING!! Spring=life. FINALLY! Goodbye cold, goodbye winter coat... hello sweatshirts and capris... can you tell I loathe winter?
Also... today is the last day of class O.O Thuresday its onto Marine Sciences stuff that involves a boat trip at some point. Today we just had a bit of the photo shoot (oy vey I totally detract from the quality of the pictures!) and outlined other experiment possibilities.
And now... the class sessions in review
Overall, I found this laboratory endeavor to be not quite as bad as I first presumed it would be when I perused the syllabus and heard of the expectations of us designing, conducting, and analyzing our own labs with virtually known outside information. In retrospect, however, i must say that being able to formulate one's own ideas rather than simply spouting those of others is a useful skill to posssess. Also, it was nice to make a new friend in Cosmic Chris, even though Leah most unfortunately already claimed him and thus procured a faithful spouse for life. He is a fun guy to be just friends with though =D
The popcorn tasted quite good, and the octogonal wheel looked like a rather enjoyable piece of equipment. It was also interesting when Nate instructed me on how to use an oscilloscope in detail, and told me what all of the barious buttons and knobs did.It'sds good to know I'm not gonig to somehow deytonate any explosives with the oscilloscope.
And comment on the picture of the group... gah!! Edit me out or let me edit myself out, I'm totally detracting from the quality of the photo... i look positively dreadful!
