10% Project

Scientists first began experimenting with invisibility in the early nineties, where they would place a very small piece of fiber optic material underneath a microscope. Afterwards, they would shine a very small laser on the material. As a result, the material appears invisible under the microscope. However, the process had to be very specific, and the procedure very precise, otherwise, it wouldn’t work. Not only that, but the scale was so small at only nanometer, that the whole discovery, while impressive, was entirely impractical. However, as the years went by, and as technology grew, scientists found more and more ways to test invisibility.

 

By far, the largest scaled experiment was conducted in 2004 by professors in Texas University when they took a hand-sized mirror and placed under several lights and cameras in a completely gray room. There, they electrically heated the mirror up to an enormous degree until it reached a point where the mirror reflected any light hitting it, making it appear gray and virtually invisible. This has a sort of ‘mirage effect’, which can be commonly seen on long, hot roads. However, despite the impressive scale, a suit that operated in a similar way would burn the user alive due to it having to be heated up to such an intense degree.

 

The most recent, and potentially most likely way for scientists to achieve full-scale invisibility came in the form of micro fibers. These little fibers were smaller than a single wavelength of light, which was required for what it was designed to do. When light hits it, it causes the light to diverge, or split, and go around the microfiber, making the fiber itself appear invisible. However, this is the smallest scale to date, and would require centuries of increasing technology and research before it may have some practical use. Still, it is effective, and impressive.

 

Invisibility has always been something only seen in the movies, but with enough effort, scientists may finally be able to make that a reality.

Humanities Portfolio 2012

Throughout the year I feel that I have grown, not only as a student but also as a person. Most of my pieces of work have been about family and friends, and through these I learned many different things about them. One example of this was in the beginning of the year we wrote about a piece of art that we observed. We got to choose which piece to look at and I chose one that sister did. It was of a circus elephant standing on top of a ball, and all around it was a rainbow shooting out from every side. I talked about how this was the perfect embodiment of my sister as a person. That she always liked the odd thing, like an elephant standing on a ball, but she also liked to make surreal images that are left in your mind.

Later in the year I compared that very same image of an elephant to a memory that I had of my friend and I playing paintball. I said “In those six seconds I had enough cover to stand up and sprint across the field firing blindly with my left hand (probably not hitting anything but scaring the opponents). I looked over and I was reminded of a picture that my sister once painted. It was a picture of an elephant standing on top of a ball, with colors shooting out of it. I felt kind of like that elephant, precariously perched with colors flying at me from all directions.” This story always bring a smile to my face because it makes me think of how lucky I am to have such a great family, and such great friends. 

About two months later we wrote a paper about our different linguistic backgrounds. As an Irish/German/American I had a lot to say about the many different languages that go on with my family. I said in my language autobiography that “It’s really confusing when people speak all of their languages at the same time (In my family). I am the only one who can understand all of the languages. I can’t speak them back, but I act as an interpreter.”

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Whats in a pitch

So I was having a hard time trying to pick and idea for this project.  But then I just decied to pick something from sports to use because that is what I do most of my projects on.  So i decied to use baseball and how science plays a part in different types of pitches in baseball.  Because in baseball there is like 10 different pitch and each one moves a different way.  But there is a science reason behind why they move a different way.  So I am here to show you.

What If?–NaQuan Harding

​This is the link to my work.


The point of divergence in my project had John F. Kennedy's attempts to prevent the missiles in Cuba fail. As a result, the missiles are launched at America, putting the entire country in disarray. What follows in the following years would be a post-apocalyptic America where it's either kill or be killed. Not only that, but with the country essentially crippled, Soviet forces would move in on America, looking to take over. In all honesty, I had most fun in making the backstory of this "future" America, because it was always a subject that interested me. Dystopian scenarios always gave me that feeling of desperation, which is what really drove me to choose it as my future America. However, the most challenging was showing that through the medium I chose. I doubt that TVs and laptops would be working forty years after the country gets nuked, so I decided to go with a sort of daily newspaper column led by a mysterious man known only as the Journalist.

I definitely felt as though this project could've been made better if I added some sort of twist to the whole columnist thing, but I kept taking into consideration what this place would really be like in a few decades after being bombarded by several nuclear missiles and the limitations that would come as a result. I guess if I had to do this again, I would've added more pictures of a destitute America, just to really sell the point home. But regardless, I sort of had fun making this thing.

Early Dismissal - Monday, June 11th

In anticipation of the extreme heat, the School District of Philadelphia has notified us that schools will be closing at 12:00 noon tomorrow June 11th, and all extra-curricular activities are cancelled. However, this does not in any way affect tomorrow's graduation. Graduation rehearsal will still be at 8:00 am and graduation ceremonies will begin at 6:00 pm with all seniors to report to TFI by 4:00 pm. 

AGAIN - TOMORROW'S EARLY DISMISSAL HAS NO BEARING ON GRADUATION EVENTS!

Thank you,

Mr. Lehmann

Art Quarter 4

​This quarter I had played on following through with all of the plans Ms. Hull had for us. So I started on the first project- abstract. I googled abstract and saw this dart board kind of art piece. I liked it and thought I would do something like that. I picked out colored pencils that I liked and began the work. I made circles and circles until the whole paper was full. then I made lines from the middle point that made the circles all have sections. I began to color each section of one circle a different color. Then on the following circle I would color with the same pencils a different section. It took a long time to finish but I really like how it turned out. 


After that project I got this idea which became my second piece. Basically it is a broken teacup sitting on a broken plate in the middle of the paper. Surrounding the teacups I but song lyrics written in a steady pattern around the shape of the teacup. I used Mumford and Sons lyrics, for the words. 

Songs I Used:
Little Lion Man (In this song some of the lyrics are not school appropriate so I changed them to be more appropriate.)
White Blank Page
I Gave You All
Timsel

Thistle and Weeds
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Book Review

The book “The Physics of Superheroes” by James Kakalios is fantastic. A great read for superhero and physics nerds alike, James is able to go one step further with the idea by thinking in ways no one else would. An example would be his research into the superhero Iron man, James calculates Tony Starks weight with the weight of his suit to figure out the power the his rocket boots would need to exert in order too get Iron man off the ground. Who would think of this? Who would calculate the surface area of the Iron Man suit and figure out how much solar would be able to be absorbed over how long? James Kakalios does.

 

I started physics with no idea what was going on and stumbled along with C’s. Third quarter I told myself I needed to buckle down and started reading this book, the first few chapters are basic physics and the stuff that I was learning in class, this outside source helped me bring my grade up to a B as I worked and read. I read about the tension in Spiderman’s webs as well as the tension needed to hold up ten pounds. This outside source really helped because I was working hard to read up more on the subject.

 

This book brings physics and superheroes together. He picks at the truth in the comics but respects them, he makes sure the reader knows that the reason the science is often wrong is because the comics were coming out so fast the writers did not often have time to learn a whole new science for each hero and villain. The reader gets new insight into the world of science and even learns about superheros.

 

You can tell if you like this book when you get the little jokes. Good reading.

Q4

​A lot of the work I did was randomly thrown away fourth quarter, I do not have many pictures.
The first piece I did was emotional abstract.The emotion I tried to do and get across was anger. I used dark colors such as black, rich reds and dark blue. I tried to make a messy but edgy piece, I used hard edge shapes such as triangles and pentagons to me they are hard edged. 
The next piece which was my favorite was the movement abstract. I decided to do the motion of blood and how it changes colors once oxygen touches it. So I used the colors blue, red and purple. I decided to laminate the entire paper and paint veins on top of it to show the human body so people understood. 
For the rest of the quarter I decided to do iphonetography. I took a bunch of pictures and edited the film. I tried to use different focuses and really understand film. I also tried to only use the natural picture instead of the edits. 
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Q4 Art Projects

Abstract Emotion

In this drawing, I wanted to show jealousy. I used colored pencils and crayons to do this. I wanted to make it so that on one side of the picture there was a lot of bright colors and that it was very happy. Then, on the other side of the picture I wanted it to make a part that is really small and green. The green representing jealousy of how big and bright the other part of the picture is. 
Abstract Motion
Adventure Time; Jake Tile
I worked with Morgan Taylor on this. We wanted to collaborate on a tile that we'd both be happy with. So, we picked our favorite cartoon; Adventure Time with Finn and Jake. We picked Finn the Human because he is bright and happy. And he is the young hero. We were going to have him have on a happy face but, we thought that it would be cooler as a nervous face. The tile is right when you walk in the classroom and we thought that would be funny for the freshman who were nervous when they came in this year.