Tuesdays

I hate Physics lab.
Physics lab occurs on Tuesday.
Today is Tuesday.
Therefore, I hate Tuesdays.

Prime effing example of why I hate Physics lab happened today.
We were doing an experiment where we measure the mechanical heat energy value or something or another. In order to do that, we had to set up a calorimeter and run an electrical current through it and measure the temperature change, yada yada. So we get to doing it and it takes about 10 minutes to run the first trial. We didn't get terribly good results, so the prof. told us to run it again and see if we get better results. One of my partners suggested just manipulating to data to make the numbers work better. I said that it would probably not be a good idea because the prof. was kinda-sorta standing there watching us and would probably know if we didn't actually do the experiment again.

So, we get to setting up trial 2. Now, the setup for this experiment was kind of a pain in the ass because you had to fill up the can with no more than 200g of water, and the water had to be running out of the faucet for a couple of minutes because it was supposed to be below room temperature. Once you wait for the water to cool off, you pour some in and weigh it and hope it isn't more than 200g. If it is, you trial and error it until you get less than 200g. Then you put the thermometer in the water and wait til the temperature stabilizes, then put it in the calorimeter and start up the current. You have to fiddle with the voltage and current so the two numbers multiplied are less than a certain number of watts and by then, the wire inside the water will have started heating up and, thus, the water heats up. When you put power to a wire it gets hot and if that hot wire is submerged in cold water, it will TYPICALLY start getting warm, so you have to quickly find the watt power and then turn off the machine until you're ready to start the experiment. It's not rocket science and it's something that the prof. reiterated several times before we got started.

But my partners did not listen the 2nd time around, apparently. Because one of the idiots left the machine on and did not tell us so the water temperature started rising and we had not started the stopwatch yet. So we then had to pour out the water and start the whole prepping process over again.

So the third time around, we finally got it going again and still got shitty results. So the other girl started going through the numbers and changed them around until it got us good results.

Manipulated data in a lab is in violation of the Honor Code that Oglethorpe upholds and I'm just not quite sure that I agree with doing that. But the rest of the group doesn't seem to mind.

Every week I try my best to let some slack go with the other partner because he's from South America and has an extremely strong accent, so I know there's some kind of language barrier with this stuff. But I mean god damn. He can be extremely annoying, either by interrupting you while you're cranking out numbers and data or by fucking around with the equipment and messing with stuff.

This is ranty and rushed and I have a lot to say about why I hate this class so much but I can't quite type as fast as I can think and everything just kind of comes up like word vomit and everything gets all mixed up.

But that, in a nutshell, is why I hate Tuesdays.

Blah.