A Truly Wonderful City

New York City. I have heard so much about it, and yet, to the surprise of many international students, I have never been there to see it for myself (even though I am an American!). For this reason, the 2 and something hour bus ride seemed a little longer—the suspense was killing me.

When we arrived, we first visited Colombia University. We walked around campus, following an organized tour for part of it, and just soaking in the general atmosphere of the place. I particularly liked the well kept grass fields (complete with sunbathers) and the beautiful statues and fountains. Although the campus was a little small for my taste, I liked its situation surrounded by city streets, but still its own separate campus.

We ate a lovely lunch with Colombia ILC participant Irene Tait, who was taking a break from writing a paper on the acceptable and unacceptable restrictions of freedom of speech. It was very good to catch up with her.

It wasn't until we bussed over to Times Square, though, that we really got a feel for what the streets of New York are like. To be honest, I was not expecting to really enjoy it. I expected New York to be overwhelming and unfriendly, but in fact, the crowds were fairly easy to navigate (as were the numbered streets) and all the flashing lights and billboards were quite mesmerising.

We got a more peaceful view of the city, though, from the top of the Rockefeller Center. The view was breathtaking. After that we stopped at a pizza shop to pick up some dinner, and Coldstone for desert. I can now honestly say that I ♡ NYC, and although I was violently opposed to going to college anywhere near the city before this trip, I now think I would rather enjoy it.

Like any proper Saturday, the day was short, relaxing, and fun. After the tour of the city, the rest of the time was ours and we played a lively game of apple to apples before heading off to bed.

"I Want to Be a Part of It, New York, New York..."

Today’s activities topped everything that we have done thus far on this excursion. Today we took a group trip to New York City. We woke this morning slightly later than usual and got a quick breakfast from Wawa, the 7-11-esque convenience store that is very popular in Philly. It’s actually more like a 7-11 on steroids because it has everything that 7-11 has and more. These stores actually have small deli counters and a significantly large variety of snacks and drinks. After grabbing breakfast, we filed into several busses to begin our journey to NYC. Unfortunately our group was separated and we had to ride in smaller groups. I rode in one bus with Brian and Onur, and we were separated from Julia, Sarah, Abheek, Fred, and Alison. I didn’t mind though, because I was able to just enjoy a relaxing two hour drive listening to music and enjoying the scenery. It was not long (or at least it did not seem like it) before we arrived in NYC.

Our first stop was Columbia University. I was excited because not only would I get to see another Ivy League campus, I got the opportunity to see my friend Milani Lyman, a fellow ILC scholar who is studying Presidential Powers at Columbia. I probably would not have noticed Columbia’s campus if I were just walking or driving down the street. I’m not sure how open other entrances to campuses are, but the one we used was just a gate spanning about twenty feet. This gate gives access to a path edged with tall trees, but you can’t really see much of what is beyond that. This image is deceiving. Beyond that path is an enormous space that looks a lot like a public park, but actually serves as kind of the center of Columbia (or so I gathered). The lawns were beautiful, the buildings were massive, the architecture was grand, and everything seemed so vibrant. Despite the campus being in NYC, I felt like I was in a completely different world. The campus felt isolated from the city beyond the gates. I had ruled out Columbia as a choice for college because of how urban the campus is. But now that I have seen the campus, I have reconsidered. I am interested in researching what Columbia has to offer now. Although we weren’t able to get a tour of the university, we had lunch with Milani and then we talked about our experiences at our respective universities thus far. I really enjoyed talking to Milani because we are close friends and it was good to see a familiar face. As we left Columbia, I found myself wishing we could have spent more time there.

After Columbia, we drove to Times Square. The remainder of our time in NYC would be spent in Times Square. Upon our arrival, our group headed to the Theater District and entered our super tourist modes. We all had our cameras in-hand (except Sarah, who lives in New York) and took hundreds of pictures. We also went to the “top of the rock”, the Rockefeller Building. I cannot imagine a better way to get a view of NYC than to go atop one of the tallest buildings in the city. I had never realized how sprawled out the city actually was. I looked out the first window and my eyes grew wide. There was so much beautiful New York skyline to take in at that one moment. I was blown away by our visit to the Rockefeller Building. We took group pictures, I took a ton of pictures of New York from several angles, and we even got some good souvenirs out of it. One of the RC’s is even going to use a group picture he took of us in the Penn newsletter! Seeing the city from the top of the Rockefeller Building was easily the highlight of the day.

After the Rockefeller Building, we walked around the Theater District a little bit more and then had dinner at a small pizzeria/deli. We then headed to a tourist shop and I was able to buy an official “I <3 NY” hoodie. Due to time, we had to return to the busses after that. On the busride back I was able to reflect a bit on our trip today. I finally realized what everyone meant about NYC being a fast-moving city. I was only there for a few hours, but I could definitely tell that the pace was different than that of home, and even Penn. I also thought more about Columbia and remembered Georgetown’s 3-2 Program. After seeing Columbia, this program seems even more appealing. I cannot wait to resume my college research so I can see if Columbia would really be a good fit for my needs.

Upon our return home, we decided to cool off and recap our favorite parts of the day out on the quad. We also played Frisbee and after that we hung out in the small lounge on our dorm floor for a while. Today was truly relaxing, but exciting at the same time. I will never forget my first time in NYC with my new friends. We had a great time and I plan to ask Mr. Miranda if the four of us can return one Sunday so we can explore a little bit more. I will certainly return one day though, if not within the next couple of weeks.

New York from the Rockefeller Building

They truly are skyscrapers...

Milani and Fred

One of the many libraries at Columbia

Mt favorite of the older cars at the Simeone Musuem

An Aston Martin DB1...just wow...

A Small Bite of the Big Apple

Today was my first weekend day while staying on the UPenn campus. We went to the nearby WaWa store, and I purchased two bagels for breakfast. A few minutes later, I boarded a bus along with Alex and another friend, Onur. To entertain myself on the bus, I turned to the novel that I had brought along with me. I read for about an hour and a half, and then decided to talk with people and enjoy the views from the bus. I had never been to New York City before, and although I’ve seen lots of large cities before, I was still amazed by the New York skyline that I’ve seen in so many movies.

Once we arrived in New York City, our first stop was Columbia University. Because we had two hours allotted to look around, we first strolled around the campus to get a feel of it’s size and layout. The first thing that struck me was that Columbia has a much more compact campus than other campuses I have seen. I liked this because in the words of my friend Onur, “It felt like a campus and not a bunch of scattered buildings”. I absolutely agree with what he said, and I also thought that the campus was gorgeous. After a bit of time in front of the library, we headed to lunch in the Student Center. Because there are ILC students staying at Columbia that we know, we invited them to lunch with us. We were joined by Irene Tait, who goes to El Cerrito High School with me and Julia, and Milani Lyman who goes to Pinole Valley High School with Alex. We had a relaxed lunch at the sandwich place inside of the student center, and after lunch we walked around for a little while.

We hopped on the bus again and headed for downtown New York. This time, we disembarked a few blocks away from Times Square, and we were given four hours to explore the city. I went with a group of about 7 others to Times Square. We headed straight for the M&M store, and spent a while looking around there. Soon enough, it was time to meet for our scheduled trip to the top of the Rockefeller Center. After a short walk, we arrived at the Center, and after a brief wait we were inside. The inside was adorned with a massive glass chandelier. We took the fast elevator ride up to the top, and I was soon enjoying one of the most amazing views I have ever seen. We took in the view on one side for a while, and then looked over the other side towards Central Park. After this side trip, we had a couple of hours remaining, so we went back towards Times Square. While the rest of our time in New York went by like a blur, it was a very enjoyable blur, and I definitely plan to visit again someday soon.

After the bus ride home, I enjoyed some rare downtime. I played Frisbee with some friends, and then walked around for a while by myself to relax. I enjoyed our visit to New York a lot, but I think that I’m currently leaning towards a medium-sized college city rather than a huge one like New York City. Wherever I end up going to college, I am very appreciative of the exposure I am getting to all of these different colleges so that I can figure out what kind of environment and make the best choice of where I want to go to college.

As a small after note, I would like to briefly wish the best of luck to Japan, as it has been hit by yet another smaller but still large aftershock of the devastating March earthquake.

Off to the Races

Today began like the days before it, with a shower, breakfast, and then a walk to class. Once we got to class for the day however, things changed. Instead of a brief lecture and then labwork, Bill’s lecture was a bit longer than usual.

Because we had begun discussing the duality of light (how light is both a particle and a wave), today we learned about waves. Bill began not with the definition as many teachers might, but with many examples of waves. He had a cool demonstration tool where we could easily see a wave traveling along. He then transitioned into more complex topics such as how, when waves meet, depending if they are in phase or not, they cancel or reinforce each other. An effective demonstration of this was a large circuit of PVC pipe that Bill constructed himself. At one part of the circuit, a speaker was mounted, and it was set to play at only one pitch. Because the speaker was centered, and the opening in the PVC where the sound could get out was equidistant from both sides, the waves from the speaker split, and then went opposite ways around the circuit until they collided. Once the waves collided, we could clearly hear the canceling effect of the waves. Similarly, when the PVC on one side of the circuit was pulled out a bit so that the wave going that way had to go longer, the waves collided in phase, and the sound was amplified.

After this, we began a quick lab where with the objective of determining the wavelength of a laser we were given. By splitting a laser beam into two beams, measuring several different angles and lengths of the beam, and doing some trig, we calculated the wavelength of the beam. This was a cool lab, but we all had our minds set on the field trip of the day, the Simeone Foundation car museum. I went to lunch with some friends, and soon enough, we were boarding a bus to the museum.

We arrived at the museum just in time for some torrential rain. It was weird to have a downpour when it was still almost 80 degrees out, but it was fun to have a change in weather, and soon enough we were inside the museum. Inside the museum, Bill and his assistants had set up a bunch of tracks on the floor, and had a large pile of brooms and bowling balls set out.

The purpose of the experiments was really to solidify the idea of inertia in our heads. While anyone can recite the definition of inertia as, “the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest”—which I frequently use as an excuse for not wanting to get out of bed—this lab really helped show what inertia is. By rolling a bowling ball down a ramp, and then only being able to use a broom to push the ball, we had to steer the ball along many curvy tracks. All of us quickly realized that keeping control of the bowling balls was difficult, and that even though we were racing the clock, speed was not the way to finish first.

Our experiments were a lot of fun, but when you’re interested in cars, and there is about a quarter of a billion dollars worth of classic sports cars around you, you tend to get distracted. I saw car after car that had won various international races, set speed records, and simply were full of innovative ideas and technology. Involved in these cars were thousands of physics principles such as spoilers to create a downward force, fancy tires to get better traction, and careful weight distribution for fast cornering. I could describe these cars for hours, but I'll throw in a couple pictures instead.

Bowling Ball Broom-Pushing: The New Olympic Sport

Today, class was the most interesting day of the course so far (of course it was also the day I forgot my camera, so apologies for the lack of photos today).

It started out with a really cool demonstration about refraction index. First, Bill placed a beaker of water in a larger beaker of water and we noted that we could still see the edges of the beaker. However, when he filled the two with corn oil, we found that the smaller beaker virtually disappeared. He explained to us that this was because light moves through corn oil at the same speed it moves through plexiglass, so no refraction occurs and the boundaries between the materials are difficult to detect. The demonstration gave us a physical experience that we could couple with the formulaic information we got yesterday. Bill thinks it's really important for us to not only memorize formulas but to experience the physical phenomenon we are learning about first hand.

He went on to describe the superposition of waves and the way we can use those laws to determine that light acts as a wave. We then quickly went into the lab where we used those laws to determine the wavelength of the red light of our laser was. It was exciting because we were able to get results fairly close to the accepted value.

But it was after all this (and lunch) that the fun really began. We all got in a bus and drove to the Simeone Foundation Museum, home to over 100 million dollars worth of exotic racing cars. Once there, before going on the tour, we did a "lab" investigating inertia and centripetal force. We used a broom to push bowling balls around on a number of different tracks, trying to get the fastest times. The first was just a straight track. The challenge was accelerating the ball constantly, but also knowing when to begin decelerating in order to successfully stop it at the end. We discovered that it can be quite difficult to change an object's path if it has a lot of inertia (a 12 pound ball for instance).

The next track was circular and the ball was rolled toward it with a fair amount of speed. Time was not an issue for this track but rather the broomer's ability to keep the ball on track. In order to do this, one had to continually apply a force in the direction of the center of the circle. After these two labs, "inertia" and "centripetal force" became actual tangible concepts, not simply memorised definitions.

The final track was really just for fun. We broke up into our lab groups, each with four people and pushed our bowling balls around a track with plenty of twists, turns, and hard right angles, one at a time in relay-race fashion. The team with the fastest time and the least number of deviations from the track won. My lab group came in 4th out of 8 (not too shabby). It was loads of fun to see classmates start to get legitimately competitive about it.

After the times were recorded, Bill gave us a tour of the museum (he had been there so many times, he knew it by heart). The cars were arranged in more or less chronological order, starting in about 1905 and dating all the way up to the 70's. He pointed out to us the changes in design in tire size, width, and tread pattern (early tires were simply imprinted with the words "non skid"). We also looked at the development of suspension, which, in race cars serves the purpose not of comfort but of keeping the wheels on the ground. Design changes made to the body of the car for aerodynamic purposes was also very interesting. Not to mention, the cars themselves were beautiful. They could be considered works of art. In fact, one of the cars was one of only two like it and the other is now on display in the Louvre. It was truly an amazing museum.

When we returned home, it was raining like crazy. So much so that our trip to the art museum was cancelled, so instead they took us to watch a slightly immature movie. I was a little disappointed, but I still enjoyed myself and the counselors promised us a reschedule. After the movie and our nightly chill-sesh in the lounge, I got to bed to get some rest for tomorrows trip to New York City.

Week One: Complete

Week one here at Penn has come to a close. It has not yet been a full seven days, but our first week of class has concluded, so I think that counts. It has been a phenomenal week. I’ve experienced one of my favorite school subjects in a whole new way, made a lot of new friends, and seen a lot of a fantastic university campus. This was the perfect way to begin my four week excursion here at Penn.

Today’s class was very fun. The lecture this morning was all about waves and how they behave in certain situations. Bill decided to give an extra long lecture today. Our lectures are scheduled to be an hour long, but they usually run for around an hour and fifteen minutes. Today Bill lectured for close to an hour and forty minutes! I was astounded that I was able to stay focused on a lecture for such a length of time without a break. Bill really has a way of captivating the students in his class. I did not even realize how much time had passed until one of our class’s TA’s mentioned that he needed to wrap up pretty quickly if we were to get to the lab. Today’s lab was the first (and last) that my group (Team Not Last) was actually able to complete fairly quickly. We measured several characteristics, such as wavelengths, of light when put through a filter. My group picked it up fairly quickly and we were able to complete the experiment and come to the correct conclusion. I was proud and sad at the same time. Proud because we had finally completely come together as a team and succeeded, but sad because we will be in new lab groups next week. I will miss working with Ana, Greg, and Sarah because our group had excellent chemistry, even when our labs weren’t exactly going well.

Following the lab, Brian, Julia, and I met Fred for lunch at Houston Market. We had to eat quickly though because Julia, Brian, and I had to return to the dorms so we could embark on our first physics field trip to the Simeone Museum of Historic Cars. This is where we would perform our mechanics lab of the day. We were tasked with applying what we had learned about acceleration, forces, inertia, etc. to guiding a bowling ball around a “race course” with only quick brushes from a broom. I assume this location was chosen because it had wide, open, flat floors that we could use for our lab. This lab was actually quite a challenge and it was harder than I expected it to be. Every group was timed and, true to our group name, we weren’t last! We actually got second to last, but we had quite a few mishaps on the track, so I’m okay with it.

After we completed the lab, Bill gave us a tour of the museum, which housed at least one-hundred cars in an old hangar. Bill told us the other day that he was a bit of a car fanatic. Today he lived up to his statement. He was able to give us a detailed history of every car in the museum as well as explain the physics behind design details that were used in making them. I was truly astonished today when we completed the tour. I took about one-hundred and thirty pictures in the museum. I still haven’t been able to look through all of them to decide which of them I’d like to share on the blog, but when I pick my favorites I will post them. There were some genuinely beautiful cars in there, one of which was an Aston Martin DB1. That was one of the most gorgeous cars I had ever seen. I’m not even close to being a car enthusiast, but this museum was able to blow me away.

We returned to the dorms around our normal time (about 4:00-4:30) and hung out with Fred and talked about our day in physics. Later we went to dinner and then returned to the quad to meet our enormous group of over 80 students to go see Transformers: Dark of the Moon. I can honestly say that my mouth was hanging open for over half of the movie. It definitely redeemed the series after Rise of the Fallen. Not only was the movie good, but I sat next to Brian and we were making funny comments throughout the movie.

The week has come to a close on the ILC Penn cohort. After experiencing all that I have in the past week, I cannot thank Mr. Ramsey, Ms. Kronenberg, Don, the sponsors, my parents, and everybody else involved in the ILC for giving me this life-altering opportunity. Thanks to all of them, I am able to gain knowledge that will help me in my career and meet a lot of great friends in the process. This is truly a marvelous program, and I still have another three weeks to go.

Learn Something Everyday

Today started off at my now routine wake-up time of 7 AM. By solving a complex multi-variable equation that includes the variables of studying, eating, having fun, and sleeping, I have finally settled into a good routine. While the time blocks assigned to each of these activities may be fairly routine from day to day, each day so far has been unique and fun. After a quick shower and then a breakfast run with some friends, I walked over to class with Julia and Alex. While I’ve enjoyed meeting so many new people, having Julia and Alex around, who I’ve known for a while longer, is great too. We arrived in class a few minutes early but very soon Bill Berner was up front with a huge smile on his face.

For me, the majority of the first few hours of class were review. From my physics class at school, I already have a good idea of the concepts of momentum and inertia which Bill was talking about. While I already knew the material in the lecture, once again I was impressed by the lab that followed. When we walked into the lab, we set up the motion sensor, hooked it up to Logger Pro (lab software), and set up our video camera. We then took a basketball and dropped it, as it fell it went further and further away from the sensor. The sensor we used takes 60 measurements every second of the ball’s position, velocity, and acceleration. In this particular experiment, the main things we were interested in were the various forms of the balls energy. By using well known physics equations to calculate the ball’s kinetic and potential energy in real time, we could easily see how the ball’s energy changed forms. Furthermore, we also had Logger Pro graph the total energy (the sum of the ball’s kinetic and potential energy) so we could see it gradually decreasing with time. While the lab was intended to illustrate that the total energy in a system is constant, it appeared to decrease because we had no way to account for the energy lost to heat and sound when the ball squished.

In the afternoon lab, we continued to experiment with optics. This time, we were learning about refraction instead of reflection. Bill cleverly took an example of Snell’s Law applied to the scenario of a lifeguard calculating the most efficient path to a drowning swimmer and reshaped it to introduce the topic of refraction. By analyzing the angles that light refracted in our prism, we could learn a lot about the material the prism is made of. 

After the lab, Bill reminded us that we are taking a field trip to a car museum tomorrow. We will be learning more about inertia, but also have the side benefit of looking at a $21 million dollar Alfa Romeo from 1938. While I’ve had my driver’s license for around six months already, Bill has stressed that the insurance to drive that car would cost more than going to college for the rest of my life.

Finally this evening, I went along with about 40 other people to Penn’s Landing where we watched a free movie outdoors. The movie was the docu-drama “127 Hours” about a man who was trapped in a slot canyon and was forced to cut his own arm off to escape. While it was certainly gory, the underlying message to me was that humans can persevere through so much more than they are put through on a daily basis. 

That said, only getting 7 hours of sleep doesn’t look so bad.