Don't Try This At Home

Okay, this is my warning.  What follows is the theory behind something.  I am in NO way endorsing that you try this.  If you do try it, it is not my fault.

www.learnthermo.com

How to walk on fire:

First, let me explain boiling. Thermodynamically, boiling occurs when a solid surface in contact with a liquid is at a higher temperature than the saturation temperature. Saturation temperature is the point when the liquid has absorbed as much heat as it can. Any more and it vaporizes.  On that nifty diagram to the right, everything to the left of the arched curve is a liquid.  Everything under that arched curve and is shaded is a liquid-vapor mixture.  Point 1 is a saturated liquid.  Boiling occurs as soon as we go from point 1 on the graph to the right, and become a mixture.

There are three modes of boiling: convective, nucleation, and film boiling. Convective boiling occurs just when the surface temperature is above the saturation temperature of the liquid. Convective currents form (think wavy heat lines that you see rising from blacktop on hot days) and carry the "boiled" liquid towards the surface until it's cooled.  Nucleation boiling is when the bubbles start to form.  There is no clear point that defines the separation of these first two.  First there aren't bubbles, then there are.  The last, and most awesome, (and relevant to my point) is film boiling.  Film boiling is when there is a vapor layer separating the surface from the liquid. Think of a long thing bubble covering the bottom of the entire pot.  Because air/vapor is an excellent insulator, heat is no longer transferred into the liquid, instead the surface temperature of the pot increases until the heat transfer overcomes the insulation and the temperature of the liquid starts to rise again. (There's a nifty graph that illustrates this too but short of me drawing one, I don't have one)

What does this have to do with walking on fire, though?

There is moisture on your skin.  Presumably, if you are going to attempt this for the first time, there's a lot of moisture due to perspiration from nervousness.

When you step onto the fire, the moisture goes through the first two modes of boiling and arrives at film boiling.  You get a nice insulating layer in between your foot and the coals.

Tread softly, and carry a big stick because if you stand for a prolonged period of time, you go passed film boiling and the insulating layer disappears and you'll want to pole vault off the fire.

Oh, and you need a $^@%&* hot bed of coals.

(Kids, don't say $^@%&*.  And please, please don't try walking on fire)

One of Life's Lemons:

As witnessed in a hotel room.

 What makes a Nathan:

Chilling out. I love just sitting around or wandering with no agenda and no cares. (no homework) It has it's place. There's a point where this becomes boredom, then you better add some sort of agenda or it could lead to trying to walking on fire. Until then, it can clear your mind, realign your thoughts, take you to some deep, dark corner of your head you forgot was there...

I don't have the liberty to do this much anymore, more specifically right now, but it sure makes me appreciate it. My recommended places to try it:

around a fire, just sitting

wandering around bookstores

running (what else do you have to do while moving)

walking

friends living rooms (this occurs when they think that there's an awkward silence or that you're bored. They often try to fill this void. Silence is golden)

I guess I should add at this point that most of these occur alone or in silence.

Ahh... Silence.

Getting to the Meat of Things

We're just going to skip over any personal update or commentary and cut straight to the chase.

What you will learn today: Why condensation occurs.

The picture on the left is a control panel to an extreme temperature simulator.  If you can't read what it says, the set temperature (top number) is -45.0 C.  The next number down is -45.3 C. (current temperature)
My senior design group wanted to see how much a heat pipe would shrink if we froze it.  That's why I got to play with the freezer.
All that aside, to the point!
Relative humidity is the amount of water vapor in air compared to the maximum amount of water vapor in air at the same temperature; that is to say the current vapor pressure of water divided by saturation vapor pressure. In a formula:
P[H2O in air]/P[saturation @ temp] - (if the top value is at 70 F, then you want the saturation pressure at 70 F)
This changes with temperature; as temperature rises, relative humidity goes down.  Conceptually: you have a cube of air with a given amount of water in the air.  You heat it up.  The amount of water in the air stays the same, but the air can now hold more water, and the number on the bottom of that equation increases. (the result shrinks)  And the opposite is true.  You freeze the cube and the amount of water it can hold decreases. (value up)
Okay, now you a master at relative humidity.  You pour yourself a glass of ice cold... Water.  The ice cold glass is surrounded by hot air.  The amount of water in the hot air is equal to the amount of water in the cold air surrounding the glass, but the saturation pressure at the lower temperature is less.  It is so much less, in fact, that the relative humidity goes above 1 so water has to come out of the air and you get...

Condensation

You now have something interesting to explain to everyone when you feel like you can't make small talk and there's that awkward silence. ...

What makes a Nathan: (more appropriately, what Nathan makes)

I love to cook and I love to eat.  (which came first, the appetite or the hobby?)

This is my take on food: it's fuel, but fun to experiment with. Here are my fundamentals:

These are carbs. Left is complex, right is simple. (kudos if you know what they are)

Complex

Simple

Simple is good for filling you now and giving you energy now. Complex is good for keeping you full and giving you energy later.

Blueberries, Anyone?

(In my head simple: good for training now, complex: good for the long run this weekend)

Due to caloric density, you must eat a large volume of complex for it to really matter.  Actually, that makes sense since most complex carbs weigh quite a bit less than simple ones.

Another rule: Color is good. Eat the rainbow, just not skittles.

I was complemented on my rainbow today.

Ways to get affects from both complex and simple carbs? Eat both. Duh.

But to me, no meal is truly complete without meat. I love meat. Mmmmm... Steak.  Or in this case, fish.

Hey, my grill had to make it in somewhere.

Oh! And as you see from the above, you can grill a lot of things, like pineapple! Its amazing. Trust me.

As you can see from the mass of pictures, I really love food.

And the best part, food is like math.  Its just simple addition.  Salad+pineapple+fries+salmon = YUM!

Don't worry.  I only ate half the pineapple and salmon. Everything else, though...

And remember, tip your waiters and waitresses.

Enduring - aka A Long Ways to Go

Right-o. I was looking at my past race stats that I have accomplished and determined that I have a really, really, really, long ways to go to get my pace time down to what I was running two years ago.
1st 5k (and first ever race): ~27min (i.e. 8:39pace)
2nd 5k: ~23min (7:22)
3rd race, 12k: ~59min (7:53)
I'm not fast. By any means. My marathon time that year was 4:56, a pace of 11:30.
Why am I divulging this information? (besides the fact that divulging is fun to say?)
Because as it currently stands, my 5k time right now is ~28min (8:58) and I want to run a 4 hour (9:09) marathon in less than 3 months. 82 days to be precise.
Yeesh. Better get moving. Literally.

Educational Section:
Enduring is a nasty word. It means suffering patiently or remaining in existence. How very depressing. But! (there is always a but in this blog) It is similar to word such as: continuing, persisting, constant, stable, steady, steadfast, fixed, unwavering, unfaltering... (Thank you dictionary app)
Now are those some words that you would like to be known by? I know I would.

What makes a Nathan:
It's time, to introduce you to my lil' friend.
"Will the usher's be so kind as to lower the lights?"
"Those of you with weak electronic and mathematical skills may wish to close their eyes."
(Get to the point already...)
"Ladies and Gentlemen, my right hand, the 'heavy weight' champion, the Ti-84 Plus."
I've had this thing since my freshman year of high school, and I still don't know everything that it does. I know that I can solve equations that people with those newer fandangled Ti-89's can't. (Clever manipulation of graphs) It's flat out amazing.


...silence falls upon the crowd... What is this appearing in the opposite corner???

"Someone to challenge the title???"
"This is going to be an epic fight"

This is my new Ti-36X Pro. With all of those extra letters, it must be amazing, right?
Bottom line: It is. I'm contemplating cutting off my right hand for this thing; this newer, slimmer, faster, fewer menu'd, solar powered thing of beauty.
Why? It does nearly everything that I used the 84 for and more. (except graph) We're talking integrals, derivatives, solving polynomials, matrices, and more! Plus its allowed on the FE. And smaller so I can take it to work if need be.

We'll see how this battle turns out. The last week the 36 has been pretty impressive.

(Hey, I'm an engineer. I can love my calculators)

Last word: why am I writing in my blog when I'm so busy? I had 20min before my personal hw cut off time which isn't enough to start anything. When is there any better time to blog?

Hi There

No I have not been writing in my blog. No I have not forgotten it. No I do not feel bad. No.
Okay, now that all of the "no's" are out.

I have been wildly doing homework. And if I'm not doing homework, I'm studying the grand Fundamentals of Engineering exam. Insert a side note, I was just called "babe". (?) A running tally of what I'm doing- Lab write ups: 5-8 hours. Machine design homework: 4-6 hours. Arctic Engineering homework: 2-3 hours. Machine design project: 8-10 hours. Senior design project: 8-10 hours. 11 hours of class and 2 hours of lab. 6 hours of F.E. review classes.  6-8 hours of Tau Beta Pi/other honor society work. Then 10-12 hours of FE studying on my own time.
We're up to 62-76 hours a week. If you factor in 8 hours of sleep a night, your typical work week is 80 hours. I'd like to say that I sleep 8 hours a night. (6-8, at most) But! Lets add the fun stuff:
1.5-2.5 hours a day of gym time. This is "sanity time". Its when I get to unwind, plan, plot, and generally do what I want.
I will sleep less before I decrease this time.

Now, why am I spending this much time in the gym? June 23, 2012 is the Mayor's Marathon which I was convinced to run. I am going to do it.
I'm also trying to do it in a much faster time than my 2010 Equinox, so I have to drastically reduce my pace.

Educational Section:

Grain patterns of metals are sort of circular. When they go through the rollers, they elongate. Eventually, the grains go back to circular. Why?
Hooke's Law!

Stress is force/area. Strain is change in length over original length. E is a material property.
Under the rollers, the metal is plastically deformed. Once it is plastically deformed, it goes back to it equilibrium state, except now deformed. So the grains go back to circles, just smaller.

What makes a Nathan this week:
MAN CAVE!!!

Version 1

Version 2

When I moved in January, I had all of my apartment furniture, and really nowhere to put it. Luckily, my new room was large enough to fit it. Then I was given a tv. So now I've got the makings of the ultimate man cave.

Version 3

Better View of Version 3

Static elements that haven't moved: bed, bookshelf, and couch.
Version 1 -> Version 2: my chair and my desk switch places.
Version 2 -> Version 3: I ran out of desk space so I was forced to add that island desk.

Things to notice in Version 3: Mug warmer (the black disk next to my Mac)
Magic Trackpad (Graciously lent from Steven and simply one of the coolest things in the world)

The K-man walked into my room and exclaimed "Dude! It looks all official! Like I need a chair 'here' (across from my desk in the last pic) and I need an appointment."

Lacking Luster

Such is this blog. This is why things like facebook and other social media are not for me. I have the hardest time keeping up with this. Email is about the best that I do.

You know it's cold when... Your car shakes horrible when trying to idle, even though you just drove it for an hour. Or when a car passing you creates a fog that cannot be penetrated by sight. But Chena at less than 40below is awesome. It feels so good. And then you sleep for 10hrs, only to wake up and do yoga.

"Yoga??!!?!?," you say. It was a P90X workout that I never did. It was hard. For the first 45 minutes, you're in positions that stretch you body beyond belief, holding it, and dripping sweat. Then we got into "balance poses" and you think, "what the h*&% was I just doing?!?" Those were more like, just hold a not so awkward position for longer.

I got some great face time the other day with the UAF and UAA advisory boards. It was an unspoken duty of a position that I hold, and as a result, I've been asked to help muster student support for a new engineering building. Sort of single handedly. I keep asking myself over and over, how do you sell something to someone who just doesn't care. Its not easy.

And as a cherry on top, mark "Moving at -40 below" off my list of things to do. That was this weekends activity.

New Hobby

I've found a few new absolutely time consuming things to do: chess and reading.

Both I sort of stumbled upon and didn't intend to make anything of them, but I decided that I would be a man of action and make good on all of the book recommendations that I get and play as many chess games as I can.

Chess is frustrating me right now. I've lost now three games that, egotistically, I should've won. People overestimated my ability, and pride cometh before a fall... Three of them.
Two of them, I have a vague idea of where I went wrong. The third, I swear I know where I went wrong, but I wonder if it would've made a difference.
However! It is very enjoyable to text chess moves, so if you're ever interested in a chess game, send me the opening move.

As far as books go, I'm reading "How the Mind Works" and right now, it's in a section about emotions and is quite dull. To me.
Also being read: How to Win Friends and Influence People. Read it. Or go look for it. Mainly because of the strange feeling of being in the self improvement section.
I am reading this because it is on the artofmanliness and looked good. Honestly, who doesn't want to read a book giving them more manipulative power to bend people to their will?
The book, though, is filled with what should be seen as common sense that no one knows, or at least follows. Chapter 1: don't criticize. How simple is that? Don't tell someone that they're wrong, just give them a suggestion and the option to change. And don't weight your suggestion. People can see through condescension and that opens a new can of worms.
And, "a great man shows his greatness by how he treats little men."
Chapter 2: truly appreciate people. Flattery is opaque, and we're back to condescension.
Interesting read; I recommend it.

On a lighter note, you can judge the character of a man by his... Underwear!
Briefs: the man loves his security, isn't much of a risk taker.
Boxers: for those who are adventurous and will just jump off of a cliff of risk.
Boxer Briefs: for those who are highly athletic. If you are not, get off the fence.

There are my thoughts for the weekend.

Welcome Back

Nothing says "welcome back!" quite like a flooded apartment.

Apparently pipe broke upstairs in the wall nearest my bed. Most of the apartment floor was soaked and they tore up the carpet. On top of that, the kitchen circuit went out, so everything in the fridge was bad.

I had fish in the freezer. The strange thing is that it's not in the freezer. I'm not sure what happened to it.

Well, hello. I gave practically no warning that Christmas vacation meant not blogging. Somehow, I just didn't find time.

Tying in to the last post, I said something was wrong on Tuesday the 20th. I'm not sure when it started snowing, and I am equally unsure of whether or not it truly stopped. The piles around the yard are now quite deep and as high as the tractor bucket. There's a lack of places to put the snow.

The wind was pretty strong at times and created this:

Notice the trails that those snow balls made behind the larger ones.

There were clear skies a few days, and I got to listen to people whine about 5 to 10 below.

Just one more way that Fairbanks says, "welcome back!" The sign read 40 below at 5pm and 41 below at 6pm yesterday. I read this morning that it was 45 below in Nenana. When I drove through Anderson, the heat was being sucked from my car. It was blowing hot air out of the vents, but the interior temperature was falling. I don't want to know how cold it was there.

While I was in Anchorage, I completed a few applications, and worked a little. Well, maybe not a little. I think I worked more than I did in October, November, and December combined.

Only now am I getting a relaxing break. (That's only because its too cold to go outside and do anything)

Stay tuned for how the last semester comes and goes...

View from one of my office windows