Dolphin Head Nebula Taken By Ben Brown On February 23 2024

15/01/25 - 16/02/25

Forgetting to make this posts hehe- So much has happened :3

Had my music exam (it was funny lol -like fr). The examiner was the advocate of High Court! 💀 (I got to know it only after coming out of the exam room) She told me to remember things more (I forgot many things huff) for next year and not to get nervous (I was offered water THAT'S HOW MUCH I GOT NERVOUS).

Organised the farewell of our seniors <3 (can't believe that soon it'll be my last year of school).

Wore beautiful dresses in different events and took no photos alone. 🕶️ (WHYYYYY)

Gonna have my last classes of 11th tomorrow! Finals start from the 6th of March; yo girlie's locking in! :p

Currently, writing my chemistry practicals and computer science project (DUDE I HAVE TO WRITE 275 LINES OF CODE ON PAPER -ON PAPER).

International Space Station transit of the Moon taken by Quinn Groessl on January 31 2023.

The ISS orbits the Earth at a typical velocity of 28000 km/h (very fast) and at a typical altitude of 400 km. Gravitational forces keep the ISS in constant freefall, but with the forward velocity of the ISS, the overall distance to Earth and velocity stays pretty much the same.

These transits are pretty infrequent. The angle of the moon from the orbital plane can vary over time, and any small changes in the ISS orbit can have major effects on its path. In the sky, they are both fairly small objects, leading to smaller probabilities as well.

An important factor that allows these events to occur is that the ISS is traveling much faster relative to our perspective on Earth compared to the moon. The ISS orbits the Earth around 16 times a day, while the moon takes around a month (27.3 days).

You can see the video of it at this link. It's incredible how precise astronomers have to be with how short of a timespan there is to record this.

academia moodboard

study tip: eat chocolate 🍫 (unless you’re allergic please don’t die)

i couldn’t sleep last night and ended up falling asleep at 5 am. waking up this morning was really difficult and all my muscles were feeling achy.

i didn’t think I would get anything done, but then i had half a chocolate bar…

- rc circuits problem set

- rc circuits quiz

- electric circuits unit test

now i’m spending the evening working on python and then scrolling on pinterest 👀

typically, sweeter snacks are frowned upon because of the high sugar content which can cause you to crash and make it difficult to maintain focus.

however, chocolate also contains cacao. cacao improves focus and memory, and also relieves stress.

before school, i’ve started adding cacao nibs to yogurt, oatmeal, and smoothies. it’s a great way to boost your mind in an easy and delicious way :)

happy new year! 🎉🎉🎉

physics feels so inaccessible.

like what do you mean the only information on this topic is a power point presentation from ten years ago with only half of the information on it?

or you tell me there's three ways to download the software i need for the calculations, but only one of the ways actually works and you don't even tell me how to do it!!!

never mind the sheer amount of prerequisites. i never struggled with math too much, but i also never took the opportunity to skip a level in math. when i was starting out, you can't do anything without trig. so then i went and learned trig on my own, but then i needed matrices. so i went and i learned matrices and vectors on my own, but now i need calculus. and holy shit is there a lot of stuff within calculus.

half the important papers are hidden behind paywalls and the diagrams are so confusing they take me forever to figure out. maybe i'm just inexperienced, but isn't the whole point of diagrams for the information to be more accessible?????

i might be wrong since i'm young and inexperienced, but it seems as if there's this tone of exclusivity in physics. why is it so hard to find mentors, and when i do, they have such trouble believing in me? i might be young, but i can still understand and help with something. why would you ignore all my emails and just tell me to take the easy way out? i'm in it for the long run.

i made this post a while ago and omg its even worse than i thought. i'm working on some electrostatics problem sets rn. how are you going to have v for velocity, V for electric potential, V for the volts unit, V for volume, U for potential energy, u for energy density, v (or i guess nu) for neutrinos, v for frequency???? they all look the same...

don't even get me started on k

why are there so many variables in physics? it’s like reading a whole new language and i’m dying here 😭

07/02/25 day 32/100

Goals —

Physics (Anything).

Yeah, only physics. 🐧

How to Read a Scientific Article

THE THREE-PASS APPROACH

The key idea is that you should read the paper in up to 3 passes, instead of starting at the beginning and plowing your way to the end.

Each pass accomplishes specific goals and builds upon the previous pass:

The first pass gives you a general idea about the paper.

The second pass lets you grasp the paper’s content, but not its details.

The third pass helps you understand the paper in depth.

At the end of the first pass, you should be able to answer the 5 Cs:

Category: What type of paper is this? A measurement paper? An analysis of an existing system? A description of a research prototype?

Context: Which other papers is it related to? Which theoretical bases were used to analyze the problem?

Correctness: Do the assumptions appear to be valid?

Contributions: What are the paper’s main contributions?

Clarity: Is the paper well written?

Purpose of the Sections of Empirical Articles

Section — Use it for

Abstract — This is a great section to read to find out if the article will be relevant to your own research.

Introduction — This section gives you an overview of work that has been done on topics relating to the hypothesis of the article, and will often lead you to other relevant work that has been done in your area of interest.

Method — This section will help you understand the design of the experiment. This is particularly useful if you'd like to replicate the study.

Results — The results will tell you what the author/s found in the course of their experiment.

Discussion — The discussion section is typically easier to read than the method and results section, and it will help the reader understand the implications of the results of the experiment.

References — This is a great place to look to find articles that are related to the one you are reading. If you're looking to build your own literature review, the references are a great place to start.

The Anatomy of a Scientific Paper

Some initial guidelines for how to read a paper:

Read critically: Reading a research paper must be a critical process. You should not assume that the authors are always correct. Instead, be suspicious. Critical reading involves asking appropriate questions.

Read creatively: Reading a paper critically is easy, in that it is always easier to tear something down than to build it up. Reading creatively involves harder, more positive thinking.

Make notes as you read the paper. Use whatever style you prefer. If you have questions or criticisms, write them down so you do not forget them. Underline key points the authors make. Mark the data that is most important or that appears questionable. Such efforts help the first time you read a paper and pay big dividends when you have to re-read a paper after several months.

After the first read-through, try to summarize the paper in one or two sentence.

If possible, compare the paper to other works.

Write a review that includes:

a one or two sentence summary of the paper.

a deeper, more extensive outline of the main points of the paper, including for example assumptions made, arguments presented, data analyzed, and conclusions drawn.

any limitations or extensions you see for the ideas in the paper.

your opinion of the paper; primarily, the quality of the ideas and its potential impact.

The guide below details how to read a scientific article step-by-step.

First, you should not approach a scientific article like a textbook— reading from beginning to end of the chapter or book without pause for reflection or criticism. Additionally, it is highly recommended that you highlight and take notes as you move through the article.

Skim the article. This should only take you a few minutes. You are not trying to comprehend the entire article at this point, but just get a basic overview. You don’t have to read in order; the discussion/conclusions will help you to determine if the article is relevant to your research. You might then continue on to the Introduction. Pay attention to the structure of the article, headings, and figures.

Grasp the vocabulary. Begin to go through the article and highlight words and phrases you do not understand. Some words or phrases you may be able to get an understanding from the context in which it is used, but for others you may need the assistance of a medical or scientific dictionary. Subject-specific dictionaries available through our Library databases and online are listed below.

Identify the structure of the article and work on your comprehension. Most journals use an IMRD structure: An abstract followed by Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. These sections typically contain conventional features, which you will start to recognize. If you learn to look for these features you will begin to read and comprehend the article more quickly.

 Read the bibliography/references section. Reading the references or works cited may lead you to other useful resources. You might also get a better understanding of the basic terminology, main concepts, major researchers, and basic terminology in the area you are researching.

Reflect on what you have read and draw your own conclusions. As you are reading jot down any questions that come to mind. They may be answered later on in the article or you may have stumbled upon something that the authors did not consider. Here are some examples of questions you may ask yourself as you read:

 Have I taken time to understand all the terminology?

Am I spending too much time on the less important parts of this article?

Do I have any reason to question the credibility of this research?

What specific problem does the research address and why is it important?

How do these results relate to my research interests or to other works which I have read?

6. Read the article a second time in chronological order. Reading the article a second time will reinforce your overall understanding. You may even start to make connections to other articles that you have read on this topic.

Identify Key Information

Whether you are looking for information that supports the hypothesis in your own paper or carefully analyzing the article and critiquing the research methods or findings, there are important questions that you should answer as you read the article.

What is the main hypothesis?

Why is this research important?

Did the researchers use appropriate measurements and procedures?

What were the variables in the study?

What was the key finding of the research?

Do the findings justify the author’s conclusions?

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

funny story… the timer on my quiz was at ~40 mins and i only had an hour for the quiz so I was super stressed— only 20 mins left with a third of the problems left.

turns out the timer was counting down 😭 so i rushed for literally no reason. i got 100% anyways! so no harm.

today is a study day (fortunately or regrettably depending on your perspective). this problem set is really cool and i actually like learning about circuits, which i didn’t expect.

- circuits problem set (88 mins)

- circuits quiz (39 mins)

- advanced circuits lecture

i’m REALLY behind in my course and i need to catch up by the time school starts again so i probably have another 4 hrs of work minimum. it’s finally feeling like crunch time lol

I over-explain, yes.

So,

I was going through the communities option here because somehow too many computer science memes have been coming up on my feeds in Instagram and Pinterest. So, I was like- huh, let's see what Tumblr has!

I typed programming, well nothing came up so I tried coding. Again nothing. I tried programmer, coder, cs, computer science, comp, hack, hacking, hackers, nerd, geek etc etc but nothing came up.

But oh, I did find many people posting stuffs about coding and computer science. So why aren't these people united- Surely, there's Discord (I'm not on it and have no intention of opening an account there any sooner) for that but still what about people like me? (who already have too many apps just lying around unused and sometimes overused)

So,

I am thinking about opening a Tumblr Community for all the people who laugh at computer science memes even after it's the only thing they love to do- (referring to people who have a thing for computer science, yes)

(The options are direct because I've finished my daily quota of humor)

Also, I might end up naming the community Geeks, so yeah- think about a name please. Thank you.

Tagging some awesome people: @deletedg1rl @transiently-translucent @viridiangreennn @bagalois @sariel-studies-stuff @selenophhile @teaisstudying @bartholomewthestudyduck @swars-is-a-curse @shinaaposts @chu-diaries @stressed-burrito @straaaa @studyblr-perhaps @ramblingsfromthytruly @notyourtypicalfool @iwillsurvivecollege @moonlight-n-moondust @dormienscattus @instantsaladbouquet @minmin-vs-physics @jasminejava @lady-knight-inspo @ashs-nerd-den @ashs-reverie @losergfdotcom @sitamahalakshmicore @finisconoratopus @nelyastudies @reallynotmemoi @study-beee @andreainlove @whalelotofstudy @superlocrians @spcwtchstdy @lovesickd0ll @hopelittledreamer @aristudiess @yarensdiary @j-juno @sariel-studies-stuff @sirenkacode @sleep-deprived-music-gremlin @geniejeans @goose-the-corvid @itsliterallyjustme @stemstudyblog @aethereallynephilim @stem-diaries @dadoorman

Tag more people please!