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Sep. 24th, 2004 01:09 amdirt on burning man: http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/burningman.html
Sep. 24th, 2004
math methods: the first lecture struck me with the incredible fear that I would be subjected to elementary linear algebra yet again... before I could commit hari-kari, though, the topic moved onto more interesting subjects. right now the professor is 100% redeamed, as the last lecture was a whirlwind tour of complex analysis that I found quite delightful. i 
complex analysis. i (heart) linear algebra just as much as the next person, but one can only be subjected to so many painstaking one-hour lectures on linear independence (for instance) before one must auto-immolate for the greater good.
electromagnetics: i haven't taken an advanced course in E&M and yet I still find it tremendously boring. i believe this is because i haven't been asked to do problems yet. (!) also maybe because it's a lot of tedious math to derive things that aren't particularly spectacular. unlike, say, condensed matter physics. i solid state! p.s. I promise to be the guy wearing the "I statmech" t-shirt next semester!
quantum mechanics: this class makes me want to cry. you would think that when prof. H saw the big tears rolling down my cheeks, he would have just stopped with the two-week long overview of linear algebra. you might have thought he wouldn't have lectured today on the various experiments that showed that classical mechanics couldn't be the whole story (the ultraviolet catastrophe [someone name a band that!], rutherford and his silly bread pudding model, the photoelectric effect...), a story that i have already written in fancy handwriting with a mechanical pencil in a quadrile composition book, a story that, IIRC, was given on the first day of undergraduate QM.
add anger to the sobbing when the homework assignments are handed out. we're asked to prove something that's patently untrue. (And the grader's patronizing tone: "You assumed that when Dr. H said, ``Show that the basis B must be of the form X, that there must be only one." Well, that's what "the" means!) and then we have propositions like "Consider the operator Omega = sigma_1 dot sigma_2 where sigma_1 and sigma_2 are independent sets of Pauli matricies," and I'm left utterly baffled at how one takes a dot product of a set. we decipher that it's an allusion to the dot product with a healthy dose of tensor product thrown in for good measure:
Now to prove that "U = 1 + i(L dot n) sin ψ + (L dot n)^2 (cos ψ - 1)" is unitary, where "L dot n" is a linear combination of angular momentum operators, with no motivation whatsoever.. all the while vaguely annoyed at this dot product between a set of operators and a coordinate vector...
complex analysis. i (heart) linear algebra just as much as the next person, but one can only be subjected to so many painstaking one-hour lectures on linear independence (for instance) before one must auto-immolate for the greater good.electromagnetics: i haven't taken an advanced course in E&M and yet I still find it tremendously boring. i believe this is because i haven't been asked to do problems yet. (!) also maybe because it's a lot of tedious math to derive things that aren't particularly spectacular. unlike, say, condensed matter physics. i
solid state! p.s. I promise to be the guy wearing the "I statmech" t-shirt next semester!quantum mechanics: this class makes me want to cry. you would think that when prof. H saw the big tears rolling down my cheeks, he would have just stopped with the two-week long overview of linear algebra. you might have thought he wouldn't have lectured today on the various experiments that showed that classical mechanics couldn't be the whole story (the ultraviolet catastrophe [someone name a band that!], rutherford and his silly bread pudding model, the photoelectric effect...), a story that i have already written in fancy handwriting with a mechanical pencil in a quadrile composition book, a story that, IIRC, was given on the first day of undergraduate QM.
add anger to the sobbing when the homework assignments are handed out. we're asked to prove something that's patently untrue. (And the grader's patronizing tone: "You assumed that when Dr. H said, ``Show that the basis B must be of the form X, that there must be only one." Well, that's what "the" means!) and then we have propositions like "Consider the operator Omega = sigma_1 dot sigma_2 where sigma_1 and sigma_2 are independent sets of Pauli matricies," and I'm left utterly baffled at how one takes a dot product of a set. we decipher that it's an allusion to the dot product with a healthy dose of tensor product thrown in for good measure:
Now to prove that "U = 1 + i(L dot n) sin ψ + (L dot n)^2 (cos ψ - 1)" is unitary, where "L dot n" is a linear combination of angular momentum operators, with no motivation whatsoever.. all the while vaguely annoyed at this dot product between a set of operators and a coordinate vector...
whose idea was that...??
Sep. 24th, 2004 01:00 pmFrom: Physics Laboratories <physlabs@pas.rochester.edu>
Hello TAs,
This is a reminder that Friday, 4PM is the first grading session! (This
will be held in that room at the end of the hall on the third floor).
You are required to attend, and should expect to spend at least four hours
grading.
We can infer a few things about whomever scheduled that.
critical mass rochester!
Sep. 24th, 2004 11:23 pmjust to be clear: http://web.pas.rochester.edu/~tobin/critical-mass.html
i had to miss the ride tonight because of the damn spur-of-the-moment physics dept grade-a-thon. ironically enough, i intend to be elsewhere for the halloween ride too, so maybe we'll have to plan some intermediate bicycle escapades. (-: