So after our staff meeting this morning (I'll talk about that in a bit) Nicole and I showed Dr. Hornak the graphs we made yesterday afternoon. I knew something was wrong on mine because the data points were spread all over the scatter plot and didn't form a noticeable trend. So we went to Building #8, hoping that there was something wrong with the spectrometer that I used yesterday that would be easy to fix.
When we got there, Dr. H got Tom Allston, the equipment guy, to come inspect my spectrometer. Basically one of the "cells" that holds the clear cuvettes was messing up the data for some reason. After about and hour, Tom was done fiddling with the instrument and I got to test the data again. Nicole also tested the same samples on her spectrometer so we could compare the results.
Then we got to learn how to use the brand-spanking new "Lambda 25" spectrometer in the
connecting lab. But just as Tom finished working all of the kinks out of this too, it was time for lunch. Just like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before, we went to Crossroads; however, this time Nicole and I both brought our lunch from home today. We were joined by Alex of Remote Sensing. He shared his salt and vinegar Pringles and told us all about the work he was going to be doing with ice this summer.
After our lunch break, we went back to Building #8 to use the new spectrometer. It takes longer than the older ones because apparently it is more accurate and measures the absorbance differently. We finished up with that and then went to the computer lab to make all our data into graphs. Today, all of the graphs pretty much matched each other which is a good sign. We took the graphs to Dr. Hornak and he showed us how to calculate the uncertainty of our data on Excel. Then we went back to Building #8 to do some tests on blank cuvettes ... and now I'm writing my blog.
So back to our meeting this morning. We met up in a room on the third floor with all the light turned off. When we were all there, Bob shut the door and let our eyes "adjust" for a few minutes. Then he made us try to navigate our way around the room back to our seats. Of course, we were all bumping into each other because we couldn't see very well at all. Then, with one eye covered and closed, we took a loop around the third floor and then back to the dark room. When the door was closed, we were allowed to open the eye we had covered during our little parade around the hall. This time, I could see the scattered chairs, tables, and everyone around me much better from the eye that was covered. Now it is my homework to tell you why:
But before I do, I would like to mention this is just like the Pirate Special Episode on Mythbusters. They were testing to see if pirates' eye patches could have also served as nightvision aids. If you haven't seen this one, you should. It's a pretty amusing episode. :) It's basically what we did this morning, except we covered our eye with our hand instead of an eye patch. And we weren't dressed up like pirates.
Sooooooo....There is a pair of chemicals in the eye called rhodopsin and iodopsin that allow you to see in the dark. When the eye is exposed to light, this pair breaks down. So when we tried to walk around the room for first time, we had difficulty because we did not have enough of these chemicals in the eye yet. But after our walk with around the third floor, we could see much better with the eye that was covered because the rhodopsin and iodopsin had time to build up. So there you have it...I have to credit AJ for helpfully explaining this to me.
Tomorrow is Friday!!!! :)
When we got there, Dr. H got Tom Allston, the equipment guy, to come inspect my spectrometer. Basically one of the "cells" that holds the clear cuvettes was messing up the data for some reason. After about and hour, Tom was done fiddling with the instrument and I got to test the data again. Nicole also tested the same samples on her spectrometer so we could compare the results.
Then we got to learn how to use the brand-spanking new "Lambda 25" spectrometer in the
connecting lab. But just as Tom finished working all of the kinks out of this too, it was time for lunch. Just like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before, we went to Crossroads; however, this time Nicole and I both brought our lunch from home today. We were joined by Alex of Remote Sensing. He shared his salt and vinegar Pringles and told us all about the work he was going to be doing with ice this summer.After our lunch break, we went back to Building #8 to use the new spectrometer. It takes longer than the older ones because apparently it is more accurate and measures the absorbance differently. We finished up with that and then went to the computer lab to make all our data into graphs. Today, all of the graphs pretty much matched each other which is a good sign. We took the graphs to Dr. Hornak and he showed us how to calculate the uncertainty of our data on Excel. Then we went back to Building #8 to do some tests on blank cuvettes ... and now I'm writing my blog.
So back to our meeting this morning. We met up in a room on the third floor with all the light turned off. When we were all there, Bob shut the door and let our eyes "adjust" for a few minutes. Then he made us try to navigate our way around the room back to our seats. Of course, we were all bumping into each other because we couldn't see very well at all. Then, with one eye covered and closed, we took a loop around the third floor and then back to the dark room. When the door was closed, we were allowed to open the eye we had covered during our little parade around the hall. This time, I could see the scattered chairs, tables, and everyone around me much better from the eye that was covered. Now it is my homework to tell you why:
But before I do, I would like to mention this is just like the Pirate Special Episode on Mythbusters. They were testing to see if pirates' eye patches could have also served as nightvision aids. If you haven't seen this one, you should. It's a pretty amusing episode. :) It's basically what we did this morning, except we covered our eye with our hand instead of an eye patch. And we weren't dressed up like pirates.Sooooooo....There is a pair of chemicals in the eye called rhodopsin and iodopsin that allow you to see in the dark. When the eye is exposed to light, this pair breaks down. So when we tried to walk around the room for first time, we had difficulty because we did not have enough of these chemicals in the eye yet. But after our walk with around the third floor, we could see much better with the eye that was covered because the rhodopsin and iodopsin had time to build up. So there you have it...I have to credit AJ for helpfully explaining this to me.
Tomorrow is Friday!!!! :)
