User talk:Eh-Steve

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[edit] Mac

Hi Mac, I thought I'd message you to ask you a load of questions about how you find your school education. Do you generally get bored and fall asleep in lessons due to the spectacularly high level of material you cover in high school? Do you wish you had private tuition as well as school so you can do more advanced studies and ask whatever questions on whatever topics to whatever level? What's the nature of this "intensive University-Style schooling"? What subjects is it for? Who's organising it? How advanced would you consider your understanding in physics. Math? Chemistry? Biology? Sorry about the barrage of questions but I figure its easier for me to ask them all at once --Eh-Steve 15:07, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Hello Steve, I don't fall asleep but I do a lot of reading and write programs on my graphing calculator during classes. I am going to a Department of Defense school (week and a half left) in Guam, which has a slightly lower curriculum compared to public schools, and it is about time I got out of here. Your question to me about the private tuition, and school with advanced studies hits the spot. I wish. If I could choose from any high school classes, I would like to take all gifted or honors academic classes, with a center of physics and math.
I have been accepted into Northwestern University in Chicago this summer to take college-level American Government and Speech Communication classes under distinguished college professors through the Junior Statesman of America Foundation [1]. Although the site says something like "Is politics your passion?" it isn't for me. I'm doing it to have more fun taking difficult classes, to talk to more eager erudite young (and old) minds like myself, and to travel more. I'll be schooling six days per week, and cramming both classes into four weeks. I'll be living in the dorms with a roommate, and without my parents. I set up a blog that is in development (the banner) [2]
I would consider my conceptual understanding of physics as second or third year undergraduate. However, the mathematics side is still developing, because that is something that is difficult to learn off of the internet. Understand? Such as how theoretical physics can be broken into two parts: mathematics, and what the mathematics means—what is physically going on. As for mathematics, I'm kind of disappointed. In 8th grade I took Algebra I Gifted (6th-8th grade I took all gifted classes). In 9th grade, my freshman year, I took Geometry. Geometry was a waste of my time, I could have learned the whole course in a month and a half. In 10th grade, my sophomore year, I took Algebra II. That class was also a waste of my time, aside from being taught the most basic understanding of logarithms, by nine different teachers this year, I had already learned the class in my 8th grade gifted class, and in my physics class. Chemistry, I don't like the class very much because I always mess up the labs, and my 8th grade gifted science teacher taught me the majority of the class already. I took biology last year—in 7th grade my gifted science teacher and the discovery channel taught me the bulk of the class.
My plans for college right now include getting a bachelors degree in nanophysics, somewhere. I also have a fair expertise in paleoclimetology, and just got my technician level amateur radio license yesterday! I'm moving to Florida this summer as well. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 22:24, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Sorry about the delay... All what you've said is really interesting and understandable. The reason I ask is because I was almost exactly in your position when I was your age, and as a result, I think that I had no-where-near reached full potential at the time, and I don't want the same to happen to you. So, I recommend reading up on non-school curriculum advanced topics (whatever interests you), (which you probably do already). I would be completely happy to answer questions on whatever topics you read up on, and if you don't mind, be a kind of "tutor" for you, to help accelerate your education. Also, I'd like to assess where your current understanding is on the various topics (science and math) so I can see where we can improve and whatnot. You can totally say- "No, I'm not interested. Now leave me alone you weirdo..." if you want, but I really would like to help you where your school can't, and where a politics class is irrelevent. --Eh-Steve 18:03, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, that would be nice. How nice of you to offer. :) Where do you live? How old are you? Are you a teacher, student, or neither? What areas are you.. how should I say? "Good at?" — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 01:07, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm in the UK, and I'm kinda both, I'm a student, and I tutor people who need help in sciences and math. My particular "good" topics are- General physics, quantum physics, Advanced math, chemistry (preferably organic), and medical sciences. So, a pretty wide selection. --Eh-Steve 01:36, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

So, what do you think of Physicsforums? Eh? Pretty cool. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 02:16, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
Eh, Steve, in my Algebra II class, for a small project I did this User:Mac_Davis/GSP. It probably will not be seen until Monday (two days from now), and whilst pending, I could use any suggestions from you for improvement.--Mac Davis 05:22, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
Thank you very much! Would this be the correct notation for something like h —> 0? \lim_{h \to 0}\,
I assume it is for when you wrote Lim h-->0 Secant line = Tangent line. How do I represent the secant and tangent line here?
\lim_{h \to 0}Secant=Tangent\,?
Also, what is the relation between secant and tangent in calculus, and secant and tangent in trigonometry? — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 23:59, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Chemistry

I have a chemistry problem I am confused about.

Ammonium nitrate is a common ingredient in chemical fertilizers (yeah, that'll help). Calculate the mass of solid ammonium nitrate that must be used to obtain 0.100 L of dinitrogen oxide gas at STP

NH4NO3 --> N2O + 2H2O

Ok! So I guess I multiply 0.100 times everything, and rearrange the ideal gas law equation to solve for n, the number of moles. Then I find the molar mass of something, and multiply it times the moles to tell me the mass!! What do I find the molar mass of? According to my calculations, n is ~.004. Is this right? — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 11:03, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image:Defibrillator.JPG

Took the liberty of tagging your new image; good stuff by the way. - RoyBoy 800 15:45, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hey, Steve

So, now I'm back from Northwestern University, and I have decided to be homeschooled. Its through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and I may or may not be graduating at the end of the year (three or four). I've found that public schools are fairly good at what they do—kind of the same thing over and over again every year—but I'm a little different. I wanted to go to Lake Howel High school, but they wouldn't accept me because I got here a week before school started. I wanted to go to Winter Springs High School, but they wouldn't let me take the classes I wanted or graduate at the end of the year. The Crooms Academy I wanted to go to wouldn't let me because I was accepted in 9th grade, but I turned it down and went to Guam, and I would be applying a week before school. DIdn't try any private schools because they are too far away and cost a lot of money. So this is what I want to do. I have the most freedom of any schooling system, age, grade, or prerequsite classes do not matter, and I can work at my own pace, whether faster or slower. OH guess what? I also made 3000 edits finally! Going for 5000 now! — The Mac Davis] ญƛ. 17:32, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

I figured the previous conversation was getting too long, so I'll make a fresh one.

Firstly, :D , regarding the decision to homeschool, because I think that you will really be able to proceed at your own rate (obviously faster IMO), and you won't be "kept behind" because of the rest of the class or extreme lack of content of the classes, etc.

Secondly, Grats on 3000 edits!

Thirdly, I imagine the malarkey at Northwestern University wasn't all that interesting, what with you being a scientist, and the topic being sociological, but, hey, I might be mistaken. Did you find it interesting/a way to meet new people?

Regarding the first point... My previous offer still stands on "virtual tutoring" etc. by the way. I'm just curious with respect to the logistics of homeschooling though, for example, will you take standardised exams at the end of it all?

Anyway, I wanted to ask about your interest in nanoscale physics. Is it surface science (Scanning tunnelling microscopy/infrared vibrational/photoelectron spectroscopy etc.) in particular, or carbon nanotubes/nanoscale condensed matter physics that interests you, or is it simply a fascination with all things nano? I must say, seeing an STM with an image refresh rate of 100Hz (seeing atoms jump around on a surface, in live action) is pretty cool, however long you've been working on the topic. Do your university departments have access to this sort of equipment to show you around? I'm sure you'd enjoy it.

In any case, nice to hear from you again after being so busy for a month, and do tell me how your homeschooling goes..

--Eh-Steve 01:07, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

"Thirdly," yes, you're right. Why I decided to do it:
  • Go to college
  • It is a prestigious university
  • See college
  • Meet professors, and people that are kind of... "in the club." Try to get noticed
  • Make friends. I do admit, I've found that I like "smart" people much better... perhaps because they are more like me?
  • Me living on a military base for two years, and on Guam, a small, deserted rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I was quite pent up, and didn't have so much access to meeting smart people friends or have many opportunities to activities. I turned to the internet (also found Wikipedia).
  • Resume
  • Almost once-in-a-lifetime experience, and especially at my age. I can't get enough of those; ever read The Rubayat? I don't quite know how to spell that, its Arabic.
  • Experience college life.
  • Get one of the crappy required classes out of the way
I did enjoy Speech class very much, although Government & Political Science was a bore, plus we had a terrible professor that lectured us to sleep then gave us a test at the end of the week, and that is literally all she did. I actually love my term paper I wrote for the class (more for me). I think I got an A in speech and a C in G&PoliSci
Standardized exams? I take an exam at the end of each class to prove I learned things, but not state standardized exams.
What exactly did you mean by virutal tutoring?
What do I want to do in nanophysics? No idea. I haven't learned anything much at all about it more than just reading the news about it, and one popularized book, Hacking Matter. I did buy Nanotechnology at Northwestern's bookstore. I'm reading through that one and I wil know a lot more after that. Right now I'm reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, and Four Past Midnight before that. I am kind of disappointed to have to take a pre-calc class before calculus? Do you know what is standardized in pre-calc? I may or may not be able to skip it. Thanks, — [Mac Davis] (talk)

Actually, between you and me, I've been thinking. Well... I'm always thinking. Anyway, I have always been torn between wanting to go for some "higher-order" theoretical physics, like string theory, brane cosmology, quantum electrodynamics, etc. I think: In some absurd faction of theoretical physics I could really do something to help the world and leave an everstanding impact. In nanophysics I could make a whole lot of money. The thing is, I want both, but the money is not worth as much. I don't know if I could do something to be written of in high school textbooks in nanotechnology. However, I don't know much about nanotechnology's specifics much at all. I'll have to visit my local nanotech department, and read more about it. — [Mac Davis] (talk)

[edit] ACT

Ok, so I am going to take the ACT, a crappy, needed, standardized test in the US. (ACT (examination)). I got all the math down except for a little bit that is covered in trigonometry, a class I am not taking. Here are a few I need help with. Thanks.

  1. A circle with center (-3,4) is tangent to the x-axis in the standard (x,y) coordinate plane. What is the radius of this circle?
  2. In the standard (x,y) coordinate plane, the graph of (x - 2)2 + (y + 4)2 = 9 is a circle. What is the area enclosed by this circle, expressed in square coordinate units?

Also, if you wouldn't mind me asking, perhaps you could join a new wiki-style social networking site a friend and I started a few days ago. It is Wikisocial, and perhaps we could continue our discussion there because Wikipedia user talk pages are not really supposed to be for chat and this kind of thing. We need to recruit some experienced wiki-users, so we can get a few people on the site. I am User:Mac_Davis. Thanks! ;) — [Mac Davis] (talk)

I left you a message on your wikisocial. — [Mac Davis] (talk)

I left you a rather long message on your wikisocial. — [Mac Davis] (talk)

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