Physics

Here is my astronomy final paper on "Measuring Rotation of the Milky Way from HI Emission". I'm pretty proud of myself because I got better grades towards the end of my semester as my experimental astronomy skills improved :)

Here is a paper I wrote for experimental astronomy (ASTRO 410) entitled "Radiation Patterns of RF Aperture Antennas". In it, I measure the radiation output patterns for a single RF horn antenna and for an adding interferometer. I write computer programs to model the theoretical radiation patterns.

Here is another astro paper I wrote, "Measurement of Galaxy Rotation by CCD Spectroscopy". In it, I study the Doppler shift of Hydrogen-α lines in the spectra of two galaxies, and try to determine the rate at which those galaxies are rotating.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what interests me most in physics. Astrophysics is fascinating but I don't have a lot of experience with it yet. Hopefully my 3 astrophysics classes this semester will change that! Particularly the lab class. I'm really excited about it. Quantum mechanics is really fascinating too. Here are a couple classes I've really enjoyed...

• Physics 218 (waves and thermo) was great because I had Professor Neil Ashcroft, who is an amazingly good and clear teacher. After totally struggling in physics freshman year, that class made me really realize how much I was interested in Physics. The subject matter of the class was extremely interesting, particularly the thermodynamics portion at the end of the semester.
• I enjoyed Physics 317 even though it was really frickin hard. We started to learn about many of the applications of quantum mechanics to semiconductor technology, materials science, and crystal structure, and that was fascinating. Also we wrote computer programs to study the energy levels of multi-electron atoms using the Hartree Approximations and to simulate approach to thermal equilibrium of various types of particle distributions. Cool stuff!

  You can download the programs I wrote for Physics 317. They should compile just fine with GNU C++ as long as you have gnuplot installed. I wrote these programs with Adam Frankel, my enthusiastic, genius physics partner and friend! Man, I don't know how I would ever have got through the past year of problem sets without him...

Field Methods

I took Linguistics 300, Field Methods, in the Spring of 2002. In this class, we learned how to describe and analyze a language that we knew nothing about. In fact, it is a language that has hardly been studied at all! To learn more about this language, visit my Bukusu Language page.

Linguistics Papers

I wrote a pretty interesting paper entitled "The Status of Etymology in the Synchronic Morphology of English," as my final paper for my Linguistics 309 class.

I wrote another paper entitled "The Changing Phonology of Modern Hebrew" for the final of Linguistics 314 (Historical Linguistics).

I also wrote a very cool paper on "The Phonetics of Korean" including transcribed data from a native speaker of Korean! The file includes lots of Korean characters and fonts, but they should show up correctly as it is in PDF format.

Classes I've Taken

My favorite classes at Cornell have been Physics 218 and 443, Linguistics 300, and Math 332.

To learn about Linguistics 300 and why is is so awesome, see my Bukusu Language page.

Math 332 was fun, not too hard, and really useful. It's all about number theory, coding, groups and fields and stuff. It might sound abstract but it's all so useful. We used group theory all the time in Physics 318 this past semester. And during this class I started thinking about how coding theory could be applied to study language structure and processes of language change.

Here is a list of everything I've claimed to study during my not-so-illustrious career at Cornell University

• Fall 1999
• Physics 116 — Honors Intro to Mechanics
• Math 221 — Linear Algebra
• Linguistics 101 — Introduction to Linguistics
• French Literature 396 — Modern French Novels
• Writing Seminar — "The Medieval and the Modern"
• Spring 2000
• Physics 217 — Honors Intro to Electricity and Magnetism
• Math 222 — Multivariable Calculus
• Art History 322 — Medieval Architecture
• Linguistics 201 — Phonetics and Phonology
• Spanish 204 (now 219) — Intermediate Conversation and Composition
• Fall 2000
• Physics 218 — Honors Waves and Thermo
• Near Eastern Studies 101 — Modern Hebrew I
• Linguistics 309 — Morphology
• Astronomy 195 — Observational Astronomy
• Spring 2001
• Physics 316 — Modern Physics I
• Math 336 — Applicable Algebra
• Linguistics 314 — Historical Linguistics
• Spanish Literature 316 — Modern Spanish Writing
• Near Eastern Studies 102 — Hebrew II
• Fall 2001
• Physics 317 — Modern Physics II
• Physics 327 — Advanced Electricity and Magnetism
• Linguistics 319 — Phonetics I
• Linguistics 203 — Syntax and Semantics
• History 253 — History of the Islamic Empire
• Spring 2002
• Physics 318 — Advanced Classical Mechanics
• Linguistics 300 — Field Methods
• Human Development 436 — Language Development
• Math 420 — Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems
• Fall 2002
• Linguistics 303 — Syntax I
• Astronomy 410 — Astronomy Lab
• Astronomy 431 — Astrophysics I: Stellar Structure
• Government 384 — Contemporary Internation Conflicts
• Appl. & Engr. Phys 321 — Mathematical Physics
• Spring 2003
• Physics 443 — Quantum Mechanics
• Astronomy 432 — Astrophysics II: Cosmology
• Linguistics 421 — Semantics I