Week 7: How did it get late so soon?

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Saturday, July 18, 2020

By:

Billy "Trey" Cole

7 weeks have passed, and that is truly hard to believe. Writing weekly blog updates has made me more aware about the passage of time, and how slippery it is. The main differentiatator of the weeks is the different speakers that we have the opportunity to listen to and interact with. This week, Dr. John Mather was able to join us for a Q and A type of session where he talked to us about his journey in Physics. It was inspiring to hear about how natural this field feels to him, and how he wouldn't want to spend his time any other way. Something he said particularly that resonated with me is how he often is approached with people wondering about all the time he has dedicated to his work. To him, it isn't work, it is something he would do even if it weren't his job. More on the theme of time, he discussed the beginning of time as we know it, and how it really doesn't exist in the way we might think. He told us how there is no definitive t0, or time equal to zero, something I wish I had more time to inquire about. Since time is a dimension of spacetime, then did the universe really start from a zero dimensional point? From what I gathered, his answer would be no. He said there is no way to condense thre simensions of space, and one dimension of time into a single point, a notion that is really fascinating. 

 

On the research front, I am spending most of my time learning and understanding the COMSOL software and the modules I was given access to. I managed to simulate a vibrating cantilever and ran simulations to determine its eigenfrequencies, or natural frequencies. From what I can tell, the software does this using boundary conditions and solving for a second-order differential equation using finite element analysis. Upon further searching, the free vibration of a cantilever is a fourth-order partial differential equation in space, and a second order ordinary differential equation in time. Solving with the appropriate boundary conditions give quantized modes of excitation which can be analysed in COMSOL. The next step is then to add a Platinum tip to the cantilever and see how it responds to varying electric potential surfaces. 

Billy "Trey" Cole