My Journey Through Physics - Part 13

We've been going through a lot of history in Physics II the past two classes. Last Thursday, we talked about Albert Michelson, Edward Morley and Albert Einstein. It was a lead up to special relativity.

I really enjoy relativity. The answers to all the problems I solve make me smile. I find relativity to be really interesting and fun to think about. We had an in class activity in which we had to say whether we'd take a trip to Deneb that would take 45 years for me but 3200 years would pass on Earth. I said I'd definitely go because I'd like to see what would happen to the Earth in 3200 years. I got a star on my response and he wrote "Me too!"

In Physics II yesterday, we went through the history of the atom. We went through Democritus who said that matter was discrete, Aristotle who said it wasn't, James Clerk Maxwell and his equations, Johan Balmer who attempted to find the pattern in the hydrogen spectrum, Heinrich Hertz who discovered the photoelectric effect, Wien who came up with Wien's Law, Rayleigh and Jeans who came up with a law for black body radiators, Wilhem Roentgen who discovered x-rays, Henri Antoine Becquerel who discovered natural radiation, J.J. Thomson and his cathode ray tube experiment, Max Planck, Ernest Rutherford, and Albert Einstein and "The Miraculous Year."

We discussed thoroughly black body radiators and black body radiation. Planck's equation that predicts the black body radiation curve is really spectacular. I hope one day I can come up with something cool like that.

We only have a week and a half left of Physics II, but we have over 50% of our points in the class left to earn. We have the group project, a quiz, a homework check, the final event, and the final. The final is optional, but I think I'm going to take it anyway, just for funsies.

I'm looking forward to the next semester and a bit of a break. Hanging out with the astronomy class is going to be fun. I'll also be seeing my professor I had for Formal Logic which I'm excited about. I hope I do as well in Intro to Philosophy as I did in Formal Logic. I don't want to disappoint him.

I've been struggling with a bit of a depression lately. I've been feeling sort of passionless, like nothing excites me. I'm in a bit of a rut and I need something to get me out of it, but I don't know what that would be. I'll figure it out I'm sure.