Moodboard: Intj, Stem: Computer Science And Math; Color Scheme: Greyscaled; Thank You!

Propagation of Error

When I first started in physics, I was utterly clueless about propagating error. After three years of college, I have a better grasp of it and feel more comfortable using it in the lab. Have a look if you’re having trouble with error propagation!

Error and Uncertainty

Error: an unknown quantity in the realm of the state of nature

Uncertainty: a parameter in the realm of our state of knowledge about nature

Type A uncertainty: statistical in nature (an example of this would be if you were launching an object 15 times and recorded each distance)

Type B uncertainty: not statistical in nature (an example of this would be a digital reading on a scale - no matter how many times you put the same object on the scale, you will get the same reading)

Random vs Systematic Error

Random Error

environmental fluctuations

equipment noise

natural processes

Systematic Error

environment: fixed beyond a relevant parameter

measurement technique: assumptions, experimenter bias

equipment with an offset or using equipment beyond its limits

uninformed choices

You can reduce random error by taking more measurements.

You can reduce systematic error through thoroughness, properly calibrating equipment, reading manuals, and ensuring reproducibility. 

Basic Error Propagation

This is the standard equation for error propagation:

This represents the uncertainty in the measurement of some value x. Suppose you are measuring this value based on this equation:

You took three measurements, a, b, and c, and plugged them into this equation to get x. However, there is some uncertainty associated with each of these three values. Let’s say you measured a on a scale, b on an oscilloscope, and c with a ruler. There is uncertainty associated with all of those measurements. When you’re reading the scale, you read it as 15.45g. Let’s assume there is an uncertainty of 0.01g in that reading. Similarly, you read your oscilloscope to be 3V, and there is an uncertainty of 0.05V. You read your ruler to be 3.45cm, and there is an uncertainty of 0.05cm. We now have our uncertainties for the three values:

a = 15.45g +/- 0.01g

b = 3V +/- 0.05V

c = 3.45cm +/- 0.05cm

The other aspect of the uncertainty equation is taking the partial derivative. Those are the dx/da and dx/db parts of the equation. We will take the partial with respect of each term. 

The partial derivative of the equation for x with respect to a is 2a2

The partial derivative of the equation for x with respect to b is 2

The partial derivative of the equation for x with respect to c is 4.5

Now, we can plug into our equation:

Your uncertainty in your measurement for x is +/- 22.86.

I hoped this helped you if you’re struggling with uncertainty! 

This is really interesting! Is there any reason why this would be useful? Is it useful, apart from getting to save paper?

Pro-tip: You can use paper twice if you take your notes in pencil first and then write over it in pen. 

@shitstudyblr please validate me

A Stash of Tiny Study Tips

STAYING MOTIVATED

Create realistic goals: get ___ grade on next ____

Manageable let down; get back on track

Keep track of grades: focused, know where stand, no surprises

Start small

Low risk confidence builders

Take time to relax/give self rewards

Days off, breaks, rewards

All work & no play =/= living

Little organization goes a long way

Reward achievements!

Keep balance with exercise, clubs, friends

2h/d: friends and exercise

Remember that hard work pays off

Isn’t a breeze to try to get a 4.0 GPA; but it’s possible

You’re smart enough and can achieve it

90% there with these tips, 10% is just pure hard work

Only chill on weekends

Monday-Friday: school mode

Have time for some fun

If work as hard as should during week, will need weekends to blow off steam

Be self-motivated

Grades can matter, not everything, but follow through on what needs to be done

Not most important part of college but underperform? You will regret it

GPA cutoffs exist and matter to employers

College is full of distractions and opportunities

Nobody will hold hand and the work will suck but all the prouder of yourself to be

Suck it up, buckle down, get it done

If think need break, probably don’t

Turn off the little voice

Realize not alone in questioning ability

Avoid people who tend to burst bubbles no matter what 

Physical triggers to stop

Incentive to get something done when know have something else during the day

Don’t have a gaping abyss of study time

Work has to get done, in the end

Books, examiners, and especially your future self isn’t going to care about your excuses for not doing the work

Take the first step

It will almost be fictional how hard you thought the task was going to be

Just keep going because you simply can’t afford NOT to do anything today, nonzero days

Leeway, don’t give your perfectionism control over your life

MUNDANE HABITS

Sleep! Think and function, mind & body

CAN sleep if keep up with coursework instead of procrastinating

Will miss out on some fun stuff

Need to stay awake in class

Figure out what need for full speed

Stay relaxed

Stay physically healthy

Diet and exercise

1 hour exercise during week

Weekends off

Traditional breakfast not necessary if value extra sleep

Systematic habits: neat, prepared

Master material

Look for real world applications

Learning is a process: be patient, don’t expect to master off the bat

Designate study area and study times

Do trial runs

Practice tests

Ask a TA to listen to your oral performance

Study groups

Don’t copy other people’s psets and solutions

BEFORE SEMESTER

Spiral bound notebook, can color code with folders/etc if need be

Lecture notes: front to back

Reading notes: back to front (if fall behind on)

Seminar notes: mixed in with lecture notes, different pen color/labeled

Outline format

Bullet points for everything

Same NB for one set of class notes, separate notebooks for all classes

5-subject notebook

Midterm and exam material in it

Mesh sources, study guide

All study material from week/month in one place

Pick the right major

Indulge in favorite hobby feeling

Pick professors & classes wisely

Take a small class

Pick classes that interest you so studying doesn’t feel torturous

Want to learn

GRADES SPECIFIC

Prioritize class by how can affect GPA

More credits: more weight

Work enough to get an A in your easy classes: take something good at

Don’t settle, don’t slack off, don’t put in minimal effort to get that B/C. Just put in a tiny bit more effort to ensure A

Will have harder classes and need to counteract

Take electives can ace

Anything but an A in an elective is kinda mean and an unnecessary hit for your GPA

FIRST DAY/WEEK/HALF OF CLASSES

Get to know teaching style: focus most on, lecture/notes

Pick and follow a specific note taking format

Outline

Date each entry

Capture everything on board

Decide productivity system

Google Cal

Todoist

Agenda: remind meetings, class schedule, important dates/midterms/quizzes/tests, no homework 

Always wanted to be prepared

Rarely last minute

Have plan, stay focused

Homework notebook

Good redundancy

Study syllabus

Know it thoroughly

Plot all due dates after class

Penalize if fail to abide by

Study the hardest for the first exam

Seems counterintuitive

Hardest/most important test

Pay attention to content and formatLess pressure: just need ___ on final to keep my A 

Easy to start high and keep high

Go into crunch mode at the beginning

End softly

Get plenty of sleep, exercise, and good food in the finals days before the exam

DURING SEMESTER: PEOPLE

Get to know professors: go to office hours, care about grades/course/them

Easier ask for help, rec letter

Get to know interests and what they think is important

Figure out their research interests, 60% of their job is research

Learning is dynamic

Discussion helps

Get feedback early when not sure what doing

Take comments constructively

Consistent class participation: ask questions, give answers, comment when appropriate

Understand material

Find a study buddy in each class: don’t have to study with

Somebody can compare notes with, safety net

Pick somebody who attends, participates, and take notes regularly

Make some friends

Participate as fully as can in group activities

Be involved

Learn – not be taught

Be punctual

Good impression, on human professors

DON’T BE LATE

Skipping class =/= option: It’s “cool” to get attendance award

Make all the classes: it’s hard to feel confident when missing key pieces

Get full scope of class, everything will make a lot more sense and save a lot of time in long run

Mandatory class: higher graduating cumulative GPA

Go to class when no one else does/want to show up, reward

Get to know professor, what’s on test, notice, r/s build, material not in reading

Unless optional and super confusing professor

Sit in one of the first rows

Don’t fall asleep

Fake interest if you have to

Tutors

DURING SEMESTER: THINGS TO DO

Take notes! Provided is bare minimum, accessed by students who aren’t attending lecture

Based on lecture and what read –> test; it’ll be worth it

Write it down

By hand

Bored? Doodle instead of going online

Read all assigned–even if need to skim

Seems cumbersome and maybe impossible

Figure out what’s important

Look at the logical progression of the argument/what’s important/what trying to prove

Understand everything that you do read–even if don’t read everything

PIck 2 examples from text per topic

Complete course material on time

DO NOT WAIT UNTIL DAY BEFORE IT IS DUE

Begin as soon as possible

Sometimes it’s just straight up impossible

Have it look attractive

Library doesn’t just mean = study

Social media in the library is still social media

Confusion is terrible

Read other textbooks, review course material @ another uni/by another professor, google the shit out of it

Review

Do not wait, do throughout semester

Exam prep

Ask for model papers, look at style & structure, thesis, how cite

Get old tests

Look at type of questions (detail level and structure)

Can solve old exams cold

If give out paper exams in class: probs won’t repeat questions, focus more on concepts but still learn the questions

Have class notes and psets down cold

Do all the practice problems

Read through notes a few times; rewrite into a revision notebook

Highlight major topics and subtopics

Different highlighter for vocab terms

Overall picture, go from concept to detail

Look at overall context and how specific idea fit into whole course

Ideas, don’t memorize all your notes

Better understand = more able to use and manipulate info and remember it. Understand = manipulation.

Charts, diagrams, graphs

Lists

Practice drawing labeled structures

Flash cards for memorization

Every school requires some degree of grunt memorization

Say it aloud, write it down

Get friends to quiz you

Self-test: severely challenge self, have a running collection of exam questions

Explain difficult concepts to your friends; force yourself to articulate the concept

Never pull an all-nighter

Do not spend every hour studying up to the exam

Eat, shower, sleep

Don’t wait until night before exam to study

Prep takes time even if reviewed throughout semester

Ask about format–don’t ask the professor to change it for you

Law of College: it will be on the exam if you don’t understand it

Ask professor, internet, textbooks

Night before exam

Jot what want to remember/have fresh

Read through in morning/before exam

Physical prep

Sleep, have test materials

Day of exam

Don’t cram every single spare minute

Go to bathroom before exam

Never miss an exam/lie to get more time

You won’t be any more ready 2-3 days after when supposed to have taken it

Slay exam. Get A. 

WEEKLY 

Friday morning: go through each syllabus, write down in HW notebook

All hw during weekend; study/reading assignments during week

Save everything

Divide big tasks into small pieces to help propel self

Standard study schedule: block off lectures, labs, regular commitments

Note the weeks that have assignments and tests that will require extra studying

Don’t oscillate too heavily every day with study times (i.e. don’t study 2-3 hours for weeks and then 10-12 hour days right before an exam)

Eat and sleep to make more extended work periods liveable and enjoyable

DAILY

Set an amount of time would like to study every day

Try to study most days

Avoid vague/zoned out studying –> waste of time

Do a little bit daily but don’t let studying be your whole day

Review notes: 30mins/day, each class from that day

Look at important ideas/vocab

Prioritize new vocab because language is most fundamental and important tool in any subject

Circle abbreviations and make yourself a key somewhere so you don’t forget what the hell that abbreviations meant

Check spelling

Rewrite/reorganize notes if necessary

Format of ideas is just as important as the concepts themselves, esp. when it comes time for exam review

This helps you retain the material so you’ll be ahead next time you walk into class

Chance to ID any knowledge gaps that you can ask about for next class

Keep up with reading

Skim text before lecture or at least main topic sentences

Jot down anything don’t understand; if lecture doesn’t clarify, ask the professor

After lecture: skim again, outline chapter, make vocab flashcards

Highlight similar class and lecture notes

will definitely be tested on

Review and make study questions

Study

Disconnect from anything irrelevant to study material: help focus and your GPA

Don’t limit studying to the night

Study whenever, wherever between classes

Variety helps focus and motivation

Especially if tired at night and can’t transition between subjects

Try to study for a specific subject right before/after the class

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So I keep seeing posts on studyblr about how to take notes, some of them “official” methods like the Cornwell method or whatever it’s called, others more based on personal experience/ideas, but basically all of those don’t work well with math and physics.

So I made examples of how I take notes in physics and math, which based on what I’ve seen from professors and other students is pretty standard. (Blue text is commentary on the notes)

In math always start by defining the variables, because you will forget and you need to know all the assumptions you’ve made (like “did I define the function f as continuous, differentiable, bijective or just continuous and bijective?”). Drawings are good since they help visualise the abstract stuff (and look pretty), but not necessary. Always write down definitions, theorems, and lemmas, and ESPECIALLY their proofs. Exercises (both proof exercises and application exercises should be written down too, with varying detail based on how easy it is for you.

In math, and a bit less so in physics, you should always try to use mathematical symbols to shorten text. For the theorem I wrote what I would actually write in white, and below in blue I wrote the full, no symbol version of that. It’s pretty obvious which will be written down faster in class.

And never forget to write that sweet little quod erat demonstratum square at the end of a proof.

In physics the only thing you ALWAYS have to write down is a work through of an exercise or proof (this, of course, includes defining the variables, unless you’re the same variables as last time and can refer back to those). Since physics is about THE REAL WORLD you should strive to draw diagrams constantly, since sometimes you won’t be able to find a solution until you draw the diagram and examine the system (some proofs, especially those in optics, rely heavily on diagrams to explain what the fuck is even going on).

Unlike in math, in physics everything has a unit, which you should ALWAYS mark SOMEWHERE, because you might figure an exercise out solely based on your knowledge of units.

Jan 9, 2021

It wasn't a great week. But I did more than I thought I could. Importantly, I completed a difficult internship application. After a full burnout from last semester, I guess this was a good start. A lot of stuff that happened this week was revision of previous concept and I hope it won't be much difficult to catch up.

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22. jan 2021

school started for me this past tuesday so im hoping to post a lot unlike last semester! these are some small chem notes from unit 1 that my cat completely wrinkled...

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Daily Writing Challenge

Write 5 sentences for your WIP right now.

Imagine a place where you would like to be and write about what you would do there.

What are your OCs pet peeves?

Write a 10 sentence long short story about the object next to you.

Write a summary for a book you would love to read.

Write down 10 words that describe your MC.

Write a micro story about an unusual love.

Explain your MCs motivation in 3 sentences.

Write a poem about an empty house.

Write a 5 sentence long short story from three different perspectives.

What nicknames does your MC have and who gave them to them?

Write a new piece of lore for your WIP.

Write a micro story about someone saying "thank you".

Write about one your OC's tattoos or someone getting one done.

What do you admire about your MC?

Write the dialogue for a scene that's been on your mind.

Write a road trip scene.

Write about your MCs favourite outfit.

Write about something that you can see from your window.

Write about a normal day in your MC's life.

Write 100 words today. It doesn't matter about what.

Write a funny scene.

Write down everything on your mind for five minutes.

Write about your OC's first meeting.

Write a scene in a grocery store.

Write a micro story about an artist and their muse.

Write an end scene, without the beginning.

Write 10 sentences for your WIP right now.

If you like my blog and want to support me, you can buy me a coffee or become a member! And check out my Instagram! 🥰

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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

(Travel Journal)

New Zealand 2022: Christchurch

Christchurch was so much smaller and quieter than I had expected, especially having lived in Melbourne for years. It felt very much to me like a big town than a city, resembling Ballarat or Bendigo in Australia, but with its unique charms, of course.

We visited the Tannery (Yes I've posted this spread inspired by the vibes there before, so this is a re-post), a quaint shopping area with beautiful boutiques and vintage shops. Most of the time however, we were around the Riverside Market, trying the local produce or just enjoying the vibes of the place.

Christchurch Botanic Gardens was definitely a highlight, with flowers I've never seen before, massive trees, beautiful water features and charming rose gardens. I enjoyed Christchurch Botanic Gardens more than the one in Auckland, although the weather probably played a big part! The curated experience of the two gardens were very different though, so it's probably not a fair comparison. But I'd definitely recommend all three areas to anyone visiting Christchurch.

these are stunning! <3

notes: theory of spiral galaxies [01, 02 / x]

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