I am now officially in the dissertation phase of my PhD! I finished all my coursework two weeks ago, and this is my first term in the research phase. I'll look into outdoor temperatures and suicide, using geospatial/spatiotemporal techniques to identify hotspots and to see how they shift over time.
I just turned in the last assignment in the last class of my PhD coursework. What lies ahead of me now is research and dissertation. It's a little scary, but this is why I took the thesis option for my master's degree: I have done research and written a big paper. I can do it again. Only bigger. :)
I'm reading an article that has a puzzling history. It says: "Received: 07-06-2020, Accepted: 03-08-2020, Published online: 02-09-2020" So how was it accepted before it was received? and published online before it was accepted? 2020 was a strange year, but was it really THAT strange? 🤔
I apologize for breaking your brain so early in the morning. If it helps, I've spent nearly 90 minutes on this, and I needed that time to work on homework this morning!
So Happy Mole Day, friends! I encourage you to spend a little time making your brain hurt with 6.022 x 10^23 of anything.
(13/13)
... we can fill 39 Rogers Centres with those baseballs.
If your head is spinning, between baseball squares covering the earth and baseball cubes filling Rogers Centres, I am sorry. It is really difficult to imagine how much 1 Mole of anything represents.
(12 / 13)
... we could fill up 39 Rogers Centres with 62.5 million baseballs.
Now remember, we were making earth-sized quilts out of 1 Mole of baseballs, and with 1 mole of baseballs, we could make 62.5 million quilts.
So if we represent each quilt as 1 single baseball, then ...
(11 / 13)
Okay, so the Toronto Blue Jays are in the World Series, and they play at Rogers Centre. If we want to fill up the Rogers Centre all the way to the retractable roof, that volume is 1.6 million cubic meters -- 1.6 x 10^6 of our meter cubes.
This means that...
(10 / 13)
But a mole of baseballs is 6.022 x 10^23 baseballs. If we wanted to make enough baseball quilts to use 1 mole of baseballs, it would take 62.5 million baseball quilts big enough to cover the earth.
But even 1 million is more than human brains readily understand.
(9 / 13)
it takes about 19 baseballs to cover 1 square meter. 19 baseballs doesn't make for a pretty quilt square, but we can trim the baseballs to make it work.
So if we cover the earth in our new baseball quilt, it takes 5.1 x 10^14 sq m x 19 baseballs = 9.64 x 10^15 baseballs to blanket earth.
(8 / 13)
What if we made each quilt square out of baseballs? It is World Series time, after all. A baseball has a circumference of 23 cm = 0.23 meters, so it mostly covers a square that is 0.23 meters by 0.23 meters = 0.0529 square meters. That means...
(7 / 13)
Now imagine our meter cube as just a meter square. So imagine lying two meter sticks on the floor to make a square: this is 1 square meter. If we made quilt squares that are 1 meter squares, then it would take 510 trillion squares to cover the earth. That's 5.1 x 10^14 square meters.
(6 / 13)
So if we had 1 mole of baseballs, how many times would we have to make a line of baseballs between the earth and the sun to use them all up? 34 billion times.
The problem with this is, the circumference of the earth is only about 1.6 million baseballs!
(5 / 13)
So maybe... the distance from the sun to the earth? It's 93 million miles or 150 billion meters. I mean, that's too huge for us to imagine anyway! But if you measured that distance in baseballs (at 3 in. per ball), then it takes about 1.77 x 10^13 baseballs to span the distance.
(4 / 13)
Okay, good. If you're at sea level, that cube holds 10 trillion trillion air molecules. That's 1 x 10^25, so more than 1 mole of air molecules.
Now set your cubic meter at the top of Mt. Everest. Here there are only 4 trillion trillion air molecules inside the cube, which is 4 x 10^24.
(3 / 13)
So let's imagine a meter stick. If you're in the US, think of a yardstick. Now imagine a cube that is a meter/yard by a meter/yard by a meter/yard. Are you holding that in your mind?
(2 / 13)
Happy Mole Day, to all who celebrate! Rock me, Avogadro!
Avogadro's number (6.022 x 10^23) is staggeringly freaking huge. I thought I'd try to imagine it as air molecules.
We breathe about 843 million (8.43 x 10^8) air molecules in a lifetime. Not nearly enough to make 1 mole.
So...
(1 / 13)
I got an email yesterday that I've been matched with the committee for my doctoral dissertation. Only three weeks left in my last term of coursework. I'm excited about my topic and looking forward to wrangling it into shape. The feels are 😱 and 🫣 and 💃.
Wow. Mateo Lopez just knocked the anthem out of the... racetrack... at the Formula 1 race at Circuit of the Americas. I didn't know that he is the youngest mariachi ever. That is one of the technically best Star Spangled Banners I've ever heard and young Mr. Lopez is only 10/11 years old. Just wow!
The wrapper on my throat lozenge is telling me to
GO FOR IT
and
BE UNSTOPPABLE.
Thank you, Hall's, I think I will!
For anyone struggling tonight:
You matter.
You have value.
You are loved.
You do not need to prove your worth or justify your existence to anyone.
If you know someone who’s lonely, sick or struggling… reach out and say “how can I support you?”
Let them know someone cares
It makes a difference
Bonus links. :)
Climbing Mont Ross: (One climber's account: www.reddit.com/r/Highsofthe...)
The academic paper: hal.science/hal-02333859
There's feral (imported) rabbits on the island, but that's okay bc the feral (imported) cats prey on them: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_...
... it must be really super nerdy to gaze upon maps and not just look up encyclopedia entries of the places but academic danged papers.
And all because Formula 1 is racing today in Singapore.
(6 / 6)
... which led me to an academic paper on the two concepts and how they differ. I had just come across a Presqu'île in the U.S. yesterday that I hadn't seen before. And all of this led me to realize that...
(5 / 6)
... 1975! And here, as I took in the incredible terrain, I saw the word again: Presqu'île. Not only are there Presqu'îles here but also péninsules. They all look like peninsulas to me, so what's the difference?
Of course I googled (or, well, duckduckwent?) the question...
(4 / 6)
I had to turn on the satellite layer, of course, and found an insane looking road connecting Albert Faure to a small harbor. Then I moved back eastward, where the Kerguelen Islands had actually been visible as I had scanned the ocean. Mont Ross is there, and it was first summitted in...
(3 / 6)
... the tiny wee islands of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, itty-bitty things in the southern Indian Ocean, close to nothing else in the world. I spotted them because there was a dot indicating a town, Albert Faure. I couldn't see an island at that magnification, but a town?
(2 / 6)
I made a strategic decision to look up Singapore on the map, to be sure I had the right place in my mental geography. This is always dangerous, because I can lose myself for more than an hour when I start map gazing.
In this case, I started moving westward and found...
(1 / 6)
The kids are suggesting (in their words) letting Slothy pick the games, saying s'licha, sharing Bunny's carrots, giving a hug, apologizing, making t'shuva, being nice. It's soooooooooo freaking adorable. :)
Watching Cantor in a bunny costume and Rabbi dressed as a sloth for the Yom Kippur kids' service. Bunny hurt Slothy's feelings by always being too fast and making Slothy feel left out. It's freaking adorable.