Learning is fun

Today in NUEN 201, we learned some cool stuff.

Basically, what it boils down to is that the quantum numbers of the electron (n, l , m_l, m_s) are (with the exception of m_s, which was suggested by Pauli) derived from the three-dimensional time-independent version of Schrödinger's equation in spherical coordinates. What happens in that equation is you can separate it into the left side of the equation which is only dependent on rho (the radius from the origin), and the right side of the equation which is only dependent on phi and theta (the z-r andgle and the angle in the x-y plane along the point).

Anyway, the way it works is that n, the principal quantum number, is derived from the rho side of the equation.
l and m_l are derived from the phi-theta side of the equation (phi is also known as the azimuth, and l is also known as the azimuthal quantum number).

Of course, it's more complicated than just that, but it's cool to know that all those "meaningless" quantum numbers that Mrs. Jones teaches you actually come from somewhere, and that somewhere is the infamous Schrödinger equation. And, of course, that ties back in to probability and the electron clouds and all that, which is just awesome.

I love it when learning something connects several other pieces of knowledge together.

Nostalgia time

Remember on our SC trip when Michael was in the back and "quoted" (rather loudly) that joke from Boondock Saints? And Mrs. Jones heard him and was like, "Michael!" ?

You don't?

Oh.

It was funny, until you had to go and make a big deal about it.

P.S. If you don't know what joke I'm talking about, you need to watch one or two of the deleted scenes from the movie.

P.P.S. I like having a Post-Post-Script. Gandalf does too.

I dig Prokofiev's music.

New poll. Again.

The new one should be a fairly landslide vote, unless Gilbert misbehaves again.

Old poll results:

What is the worst class that you've been in at A&M Consolidated? Answers Votes Percent 1. English 5 19% 2. History 3 11% 3. P.E. 5 19% 4. Orchestra 8 30% 5. Biology 1 4% 6. Chemistry 2 7% 7. Physics 1 4% 8. Other (post a comment saying what) 2 7% Total Votes: 27

For those who think

Presenting The English-to-12-Year-Old-AOLer Translator. Paste in an email, and look at the result.

Dear black smokers,
I want to tell you how much I like your blog. It is interesting and has good content. It is my favorite web site now. Thanks.

Turns into:

D3AR BLAK SMOKERS
I WANT 2 TAL U HOW MUCH I LIEK UR BLOG11!!11 WTF IT IS INT3RESTNG AND HAS GOD CONTENT1!1!1 OMG LOL IT IS MAH FAVORIET WEB SIET NOW!11!!11! OMG WTF THX!!!1!!1 WTF LOL

MAZNG WT MARV3LS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY CAN DO HUH?!!??! OMG LOL

This has been the fourth Monday this week. I still have much to do. But I'm not burned out yet!

I was bored

...so I changed the comment text. I can change it back if anyone cares. I just thought the bland comment statement needed some pimiento, if you get my drift.

Greetings, my fellow constituents

I'm in my boring, waste-of-time ENGR 111 class, and I thought that the name "Meters to the Mile" would be a good name for some song.

:sigh: I'm bored with this class.

Holy moley.

I just realized that today is November 4th. That means that there's only a month (and a week, maybe) left of school. I best get crackin' on that research project and homework and stuff.

Guess what day it is...

It's ENGR 211-rant Monday! (Just a short one today.)

Okay, so today we got our tests back - the tests we had taken almost a MONTH ago. The grade distribution was rougly as follows: the average was 65.5, so the grades were mostly failing, and the top 6 grades (the only B's) were 89, 88, 85, 85, and like 82 and 80. This was out of about 72 people.

Our professor's curve was basically, "88-100 is an A, 76-87 is a B, 64-75 is a C, 52-63 is a D." This would mean that only 2 people out of 72 would get A's on the test, and since his curve would be bringing up the bottom people, the class average might be boosted to a C, albeit without having a bell-curve-resembling distribution.

This is especially maddening since I was one of the 85's: the 3rd-highest grade in the class, and I don't even get an A!

After he went over the test some, our professor (once again, surprise, surprise) tried to work a homework problem - and failed.

At least today, he "taught" us conservation of mechanical energy. I swear, the way he wants us to do stuff in that class is detrimental. I can honestly say that this is the first class that has made me forget more than I learned: I am now even unable to do the kinematics problem the good ol' Walker/AP Physics way - which actually WORKED.

Pah.

That age-old question.

After a friend identified the person in the random glitch in my browser from however long ago as Pamela Anderson, I managed to track down the image to a link (scroll down to "Pamela Anderson Lee") from some CNN story on the 1999 MTV awards. Now, how absolutely inSANE is that? I have never, ever, EVER visited that site before. It is absolutely INSANE that that image ended up on my browser.

I don't know kung fu

I got to see some young Shaolin Monks (less than 15 years old) perform some amazing Kung Fu. It was amazing, especially for their age. There were some perhaps-7-year-olds doing some amazing performances.

It seemed more like gymnastics than anything combat-related (even though they performed with an array of weaponry). It would have been cool to watch them try to actually attack some guy, but they only did some fake battles with each other.

Nevertheless, a cool experience, courtesy of A&M's China Week stuff.

Printer

My $100 Samsung ML-1700 laser printer is so spiffy!

It consistently prints out pages at almost exactly 12 ppm with a 20-second warmup time. (I just printed off 6 pages of Maple output [text + graphics] and it was all done in 50 seconds.)

Hooray for not having silly, low-quality, obscenely-high-ink-cost inkjet printers!

And no, I am not a Samsung employee.

Emmmmmmmmmm Ohhhhhhhhhhhh

I just spent 45 minutes refreshing my memory on my Molecular Orbital theory and helping out a friend on some homework with it. Sigh, the good old days of Chem AP.

It's funny how MO can be simultaneously not fun and fun.

How ridiculous

And the Goofiest Prop Used in a Blockbuster Movie Award goes to...
.
.
.
Vin Diesel in his use of a Sony Camcorder as a heat-seeking missile launcher in the movie Triple X!

Want proof? Here it is. (Click it. You will find it highly entertaining).