The Only Acceptable Solar System Diagram!

the physics students

as requested by the wonderful @starferns

the chalkboard at the front of the lecture hall, covered in equations and graphs

visualizing a problem in your mind, step by step

cold water with ice cubes and a slice of lemon

diagrams drawn hastily on the corner of your paper, scribbled lines and half formed thoughts

replicating famous experiments and demonstrations

watching youtube videos late at night, picking apart complex theories

having an instinct for force diagrams and direction of motion

rushed, messy handwriting

finding beauty in motion and calculation and precision

seeing the universe as unimaginably small and unimaginably large at the same time

a well-worn grey sweater, frayed a little at the sleeves

equations scribbled on your arm until you know them by heart

studying newton and meitner and plank, all those who went before

talking with your hands, forming the shapes of arcs and trajectories as you work through a problem

long hallways and cold, sunny days

late night study groups

staring up at the sky, knowing exactly why and how the planets move as they do

trying einstein’s thought experiments

an old grandfather clock, pendulum measuring the passage of time

pages filled with calculations and precise strings of digits

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How to Finish

I drew this poster for Jon Acuff and his FINISH book tour. Big thanks to Jon for this collaboration, his book has some great ideas about how to complete creative and life goals.

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Hey remember when US and Russia was all like “We’re the best!!! We’ve won the space race!!!!” But India sent a kick-ass space probe to Mars and the whole mission was fuel efficient, costed less and a roaring success in the first try and then they were like “…..wait no that can’t be true” and still have the audacity to call us “underdeveloped” or only view us as a ‘third world country’? :)

For anyone who needs more info, the probe was called Mangalyaan (which literally means space probe vehicle) or Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) and you can also get more information here and here

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 Preparing for your exams

Check whether you have anything you haven’t studied. If you do, list them out in a paper/document. Put them into three categories: 

1. Things you are not familiar with at all (that you probably haven’t paid attention during class, and haven’t read through them)

2. Things you have already gone through once and have a rough idea what it is about, but not clear with the details

3. Things you are quite familiar with, that you just want to go through them once again to memorise them

It is very important that you have every content of your exam syllabus on the second level around 2-7 days before your exams (depends on the amount of materials that is going to be on the papers)

So you should make a timetable to go through everything if you still have a few days/weeks

Don’t try to spend so much time actually memorising them for now. The key right now is to understand everything, so that they can be in your long-term memory. 

You can leave other small details and examples (that probably requires your short-term memory) till the last week/last three days before exams.

If you have the feeling that you MUST remember things word by word / very clearly, mark them with a red pen or something to make sure they stand out so you can quickly memorise them during the final review.

You can also make index cards during this stage

Which may help you to organise the information and help you to stay focus (without wasting you so much time in making full and comprehensive notes)

And to quiz yourself during your final review

Final Review - 2-3 days before your exams

Scientific research shows that we are all very good at recognising things, but that does not mean that we are good at recalling them (which is exactly what requires during exams)

So, instead of just reading your notes, definitely quiz yourself using flashcards, or just look at the heading of the notes and recall as much information as possible

“no I have to memorise everything first before quizzing myself”??

No, not really. It is known that even pre-quiz can help you to remember the information better! Quickly quizzing yourself once to understand which areas you are least familiar with so you can focus more on those chapters in your final review

It actually does activate your mind too since you will be curious about the information (after knowing you cannot recall them during the quiz) - that can help you to remember better

Memorise in the right way!

Auditory learner: read the information out loud / try to teach others

Visual learner: recall the information by writing them all out in a piece of blank paper (feynman technique)

You can recall the information better when you are in the same kind of environment (scientifically proven)

That is, if you exam hall is silent, it’s better for you to remember things in silence

Even works for your condition too.

If you take energy boosting drink while your are studying, you can probably recall the information better if you drink them before exams (same as NOT drinking energy boosting drink too)

Write a list of very important keywords / information / equations as a final summary

The morning before your exams

Try not to go through anything new, you probably can’t remember/understand them anyway

The best thing to do is probably simply to go through the summary sheet you made before exams. It will help you to recall all the information you have memorised + you won’t panic since it’s everything that you have already studied

Breakfast, remember. You don’t want to be starving during exams.

#10 || Link to my study tips series - I post once a week here!  (strive-for-da-best) 

“A rainy day is like a lovely gift – you can sleep late and not feel guilty.”

― Elizabeth Jane Howard

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Coffee ☕

Coffee ☕

"Don't even try to talk to me right now. I need my coffee first."

"This is literally the perfect cup of coffee!"

"I really like you. Would you want to grab a coffee with me?"

"You don't have to marry them. Just grab a coffee together and see where it leads you to."

"Do you actually know my usual order? I'm impressed!"

"I'm not sure I'm ready for a full dinner yet. But how about a coffee?"

It was a very slow day in the coffee shop, so the employees decided to launch a competition, to see who could come up with the weirdest coffee orders that were still safe to consume.

He started his day like he always did - with a coffee in hand and no ambition to be more social today.

The latte art was so spot on that she was left speechless.

It was so cliché to crash into someone and spill your drinks on each other, but that doesn't make it less annoying, when you have a job interview in a few minutes and are drenched in coffee.

Coffee Shop AUs + How to create a coffee shop atmosphere + Coffee Shop Prompts

One Word Prompt Lists

Jellyfish Sprite

Red sprites or the tentacle-like spurts of red lightning in the sky during a storm are sometimes referred to as Jellyfish Sprite (because of their shape). There are also some that are vertical columns of red light and those are called carrot sprites.

They are ultra fast electricity traveling through the atmosphere towards space and are extremely rare (they last a tenth of a second). They can also be seen from space.

The picture above was captured on Mt. Locke in Texas (July 2nd, 2020) by Stephen Hummel.

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8 / 1 / 2018 //

Tomorrow I start my finals month and let’s just say physics midterm isn’t really the thing I want to start off with. but this is my life/desk situation right now, flooded with tons of formulas that just won’t go in my head easily:(

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Free Astronomy Resources

Astronomy

Astronomy Lecture Powerpoints

Astronomy Lecture Notes (Textbook-Like)

Astronomy Notes

Astronomy Lecture Notes (Alaska)

Astronomy Lecture Powerpoints (Trinity)

Astronomy Lecture Notes (MIRA)

Astronomy Lecture Powerpoints (Rutten)

Modern Astronomy Lecture Notes

Astronomy Lecture Powerpoints (Wickman)

Solar System Astronomy Lecture Notes

Astronomy Lecture Notes

Astronomy Lecture Notes (Mitchell)

Astronomy Lecture Notes (Rochester)

Time Systems Lecture Notes

Earth and Sky Notes

Galactic Structure and Stellar Populations Lecture Notes

Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe Lecture Notes

Astronomical Techniques

Essential Radio Astronomy

Introduction to Astronomy 

Physics

Equations and Formulas

Essential Physics Equations

MCAT Physics Equations

Frequently Used Physics Equations

General Physics Notes

Physics Lecture Notes (MIT) 

University Physics (Textbook-Like)

General Physics I

Physics Lecture Notes (Colorado)

Physics Lecture Notes (Rochester)

Physics Lecture Notes (Cabrillo)

Physics Lecture Notes (Trinity)

Physics Notes

Physics Videos (Flipping Physics)

Physics Ch 1 to 8 Lecture Notes

Feynman Physics Lecture Notes

Electromagnetism

Electromagnetism Lecture Notes

Feynman Electromagnetism and Matter Lecture Notes 

Mechanics

Mechanics (Physics) Lecture Notes

Mechanics (Physics) Powerpoint Slides

Feynman Quantum Mechanics Lecture Notes 

Physics and Astronomy

Physics of the Interstellar Medium Lecture Notes

Physics for Astronomy Lecture Notes (Textbook-Like)

Radio Astronomy (Physics 728)

Physics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology

Inorganic Chemistry

Inorganic Chemistry Chapter Notes

Inorganic Chemistry Lecture Notes

Inorganic Chemistry 2 Lecture Notes

Advanced Inorganic Chemistry Lecture Notes

Calculus

Formulas and Equations

Calculus Cheat Sheet

AP Calculus Basic Formulas and Properties

Calculus 1 Formulas

Basic Calculus: Rules and Formulas (Video)

Differential Formulas

Integral Calculus Formulas

The Basics

Basic Calculus Refresher

Single Variable Calculus

Multivariable Calculus (Textbook-like)

Basics of Calculus (Textbook-like)

Calculus for Beginners

Calculus 1

Calculus (Textbook-like)

Calculus 1 (Textbook-like)

Calculus 1 Video Lectures

Calculus 1 Lecture Notes

Calculus 1 Lecture Notes (Northern Illinois)

Calculus 1 Lecture Notes (Citadel)

Calculus 1 Compact Lecture Notes

Calculus Lecture Notes (Raz Kupferman)

Introduction to Calculus Lecture Notes

Calculus 2

Calculus 2 Lecture Notes

Calculus 2 Lecture Notes (Northern Illinois)

Calculus 2 Notes (Illinois State)

Calculus 2 Lecture Notes (McClendon)

Calculus 2 Lecture Notes (Textbook-like)

Calculus 2 (Textbook-like) (Dawkins)

Calculus 2 Lecture Videos

Calculus 2 Class Notes

Calculus 2 Materials (Notes, Handouts, Etc.)

Calculus 3

Calculus 3 Lecture Notes (Lamar)

Calculus 3 Lecture Videos

Calculus 3 (Dawkins)

Calculus 3 (Notes, Homework, Quizzes)

Notes for Calculus 3

Calculus 3 Class Notes

Other Calculus

Integral Calculus Lecture Notes

Algebra and Differential Calculus

Differential and Integral Calculus (Textbook)

Differential and Integral Calculus (Lecture Notes & Old Exams)

Computer Science Calculus Lecture Notes

Calculus for Physics C

Analytic Geometry and Calculus 2

History

Notes on the History of Astronomy

History of Astronomy Powerpoint

Early History of Astronomy

History of Radio Astronomy

NASA History

Neolithic Astronomy

Mesopotamian Astronomy

Islamic Astronomy

Indian Astronomy

Greek Astronomy

Chinese Astronomy

Egyptian Astronomy

Mayan Astronomy

Space Agencies

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

South African National Space Agency

Canadian Space Agency

National Space Research and Development Agency

Italian Space Agency

Norwegian Space Center

Korea Aerospace Research Institute

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

UK Space Agency

Australian Space Agency

problem solving tips that actually worked for me

Hey there!

If you have a math, or science related subject (like I always do), you’ll find that you really can’t escape analysis and problem solving, especially if you’re majoring in something science or maths related. So I am here to share some tips that actually made studying technical subjects a little bit easier and manageable for me in college:

Practice solving. If you have a subject that requires you to solve, you really have to practice solving, there is no easy way out of this one. This allows you to develop your own technique in solving the problem. You can start by doing the problems you did in class, then venture out to some examples in textbooks, then further into the problems in the textbooks until you get the hang of how the concepts and theories are applied. 

Listen during class. I know, it’s boring. But you have to do this. This way, you’ll be able to understand the topic once it is presented to you. In my opinion, it’s better if you let an expert explain it because they know the important bits in the lesson. Then study it afterwards on your own to develop your own techniques.

Ask your professors. Don’t be afraid to ask questions in class. Or if you’re shy, you can ask them after the class. However, it’s important that you ask them about the lesson when you already did your part; meaning: you already studied the material/solution over and over again but there’s just something that you can’t seem to grasp. 

Study before the class. Studying the lesson in advance doesn’t hurt. Plus, it works because you already have an idea about it. However, I don’t do it usually. What I do is that prior the discussion, I study the lessons that are going to be essential to the next topic. Example: Say that our topic later will be about introduction to thermodynamics (which includes derivation of various thermodynamic formulas); what I’m going to study instead is the different integration and derivation techniques, and different basic thermodynamics concepts like laws of thermodynamics. This ensures me that I know the prerequisite lessons of the next topic in class.

Absorb the conceptual parts of the topic first. Before diving into the problems itself, try to digest the concepts or theories behind it first. This way, you can understand which information is important and easily think of a solution because you know the problem’s framework. Even when your professor gives you a problem that seems different from your other sample problems, the concepts will still be the same throughout.

Reverse engineer the solution. Reverse engineering is reading and understanding your solution from bottom to top. I do this to make connections while going through the solution. I usually ask myself “‘where did this come from?’, ‘why did this happen?’, or ‘why is the answer like this?’” It allows me to look into the parts that I missed which are usually concepts or theories that I forgot to apply in solving the problem.

Look for key terms or phrases. There are some problems that put in information that may seem unimportant, but actually is really important. Examples such as the phrases constant velocity, constant acceleration, starting from rest, accelerate uniformly, reversible isothermal, adiabatic conditions, isobaric/isochoric compression/expansion, etc., are easy to miss but actually gives you vital information especially when solving a problem.

Try to ask yourself how or why it happened in every step of the solution. You can do this to gauge your mastery of the lesson. If you can answer yourself confidently, then you’ve studied well enough. But, if you can’t or if you feel that it’s not enough, then you better get your pen, paper, and calculator to practice some more.

If you have to draw it, draw it. Some problems need the use of your imagination, and these problems are the ones that get tricky most of the time. It’s easier to draw each of the time frames that are important so you get the sense of what’s going on between these pictures. This way, you’ll know which information you’re missing and which ones are you failing to take into account.

It’s okay to be messy and slow while practicing. Not all of time you can solve in a tumblr-esque manner because, dude, tumblr notes or solutions are soooo pretty to look at, BUT, what’s more important is that you understand each step of the solution and how the answer came to be 8.0658 m/s directed 32° south of west. So it’s okay to have dashes, strikethroughs, and crosses on your scratch paper, as long as you’re learning, a messy solution on a paper you’re not going to submit to your professor is fine.

IF YOU’VE REALLY GOTTEN THE HANG OF SOLVING IT, try to solve a fresh set of problems as fast and accurately as you can. Try to solve as if you’re in an exam. This is also to gauge how well you’re prepared for it, but you need to do this accurately. I repeat, accurately. It doesn’t work if you’ve finished it in less than an hour but all of your answers are wrong.

Rest. If you know that you’ve done a good job, then take your mind off of everything first and let it wander to wherever it wants to wander. You deserve it ✨

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