Elisabeth's Blog

Aches

2009-08-25T00:16:00.001-07:00

Monday was my last day at home. It was a very nostalgic day.

- I went up to my former community college and felt sad about the piles of rubble that used to be the buildings in which I had Precalculus, English, and Critical Thinking. I miss those buildings.

- I went to Walmart for the sixth time in eight days. I am so tired of going to Walmart.

- I dyed my hair dark burgundy. Yes, all of it.

- I had a dear friend over to say goodbye

- I finished packing!

- I finished a painting

- I watched X2 and drank Dr. Pepper with my siblings

I stopped counting down the days to Reed on Thursday. I finally realized that I was leaving. Now I have to wait until I get to campus for my anticipation to be revamped.

Quoted

2009-08-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

Today the summer 2009 edition of the Reed Magazine was posted online! This was a very exciting event for me, as I was interviewed last April and ended up being quoted in a magazine article about the book "Blue Like Jazz". "Blue Like Jazz" talks about Reed quite a bit, so much so that admissions notice the book referenced in quite a few admissions essays. Including mine. Anyways, I'm quoted on page 3 of the article:

http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/summer2009/features/spiritual_odyssey/index.html

It's really nice, because the quote is in context and captures what I was trying to say. And that's about it!

13 more days until I leave...

TESLA COIL!!!!!!!!!!

2009-07-09T23:17:00.001-07:00

48 days until Reed.

MY TESLA COIL WORKS!!! AAAAH!

I got it working about...three days ago. I put my new 2000 pF/40 kV capacitor in, and it works beautifully. I still need to tune it. Then my sparks will probably get longer than their 4 inches. I love playing with my coil. After all, who doesn't love being near device that has about 2 million volts of electricity on its topload?

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sImwJSPZVfA

<3 my tesla coil! And yay God! Just because God is pretty much awesome for making the laws of physics!!

Incredible Realizations...

2009-06-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

You never realize how incredibly blessed you are until you read articles like this one:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/business/economy/10reed.html?ref=your-money

Discovering, as you read, that you are lucky to not be one of the 100 wacked off of the list because you needed money. PRAISE JESUS!!! Have I had qualms and doubts about going to Reed? Somewhat, but when I read this article, they were all the more dispeled and I trust that God absolutely knows what He is doing! Yay God!!!

Praising Jesus!!!

2009-05-03T15:24:00.000-07:00

So...Reed increased my grant by $4000! God keeps blessing me! How deep the Father's love...

Oh, and I am now 19! I had a splendid birthday in which several friends came over for cake and ice cream, and we spontaneously decided to highlight my hair and my brother's hair. It was great fun.

Down with Webassign

2009-04-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

Enough said. Physics homework is eating me and spitting out my bones.

Dark Suckers and Church

2009-04-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

Going to church is often a most interesting event. Every Sunday morning, I find myself pounding on the bathroom door, yelling for Ben to get out of the shower as "we are leaving in FIVE minutes!", shooing the kids out the door - "get in the car and behave" - and taking the dog for one last "go" under the bush.

While interesting events happen before church, more entertaining events occur during the church service.

We have just ended worship, and Mr. Nelson is giving the sermon. My dad feels it necessary to adjust Mr. Nelson's microphone - three different times. After which my dad sits down in the back of the church. with Andrew on his lap, and they entertain themselves by laughing about my toes, which are apparently peeking out of the back of my chair as I am sitting in my usual position - comfortably on my feet.

Ben is in the soundbooth. We have just sung "Better is One Day", which reminds Ben most frightfully of Tim Hawkins' "Better is Hundai than a Ford" . He is trying his best not to laugh.

Mr. Nelson's sermon has to do with light, however I am not understanding the main subject of the sermon as I am whispering to my grandma what I have been learning about light in physics, and giving her the scientific side of the sermon. "No Grandma, this is how it really works...the reason you can't see colors in the dark is because of the way that the cone cells and rod cells in your eyes work..." Thoughts of the index of refraction and laser beams are filling my mind, and I am overcome by the amazing properties of light and how it completely reminds me of God.

Meanwhile, my mom is thinking about Dark Suckers. Yes - Dark Suckers. She happens to come up with an explanation that she claims biblically eliminates Dark Suckers, and later, during the potluck, I hear everyone discussing Dark Suckers, and once overhear my mom saying "Go ask Elisabeth! She knows how to explain it better than I do." I am indeed asked about Dark Suckers, as eventually I am joined at my table by Mr. Nelson, with whom I have a grand conversation about Dark Suckers, light, physics, and Mr. Tesla.

Such is a day at my church. Filled with physics and Dark Suckers.

Spatulas

2009-04-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

The cook at my work stared at me as I gazed at the full container of spatulas and pondered aloud, "where are the spatulas?"

Really, where were the spatulas? With myself as the origin, the (x,y) position of the spatulas - with the units being meters - would be (0.5, 0.25). Because of the mathematics showing the location of the spatulas in the spatula container, I appeared either blind or considerably unobservant.

It turns out that in order to avoid presenting myself as such, I should have specified that I was looking for a particular size of spatulas, which were indeed absent from the container.

125 days...

2009-04-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

125 days until I move into my dorm at Reed!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the meantime I am awaiting results of my Stats exam...it was really easy...hopefully I didn't do anything stupid on it! It was nice to be able to have very little homework tonight - I went and worked for one of my coworkers instead. Hopefully Webassign is easy again this weekend so I can get busy working on the plans for my Tesla Coil! Next weekend will be difficult as we will have a physics essay due...and I'm sure it's going to be that dratted one where we have to figure out the speed of light using a microwave and a Hershey's bar. I am so very unsure of how to go about that. That will be...a very long weekend! Thus I'm going to go get some sleep...one can never get too much sleep...

128 days...

2009-04-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

There are now 128 days until I leave.

For the last couple of days, the fact that I am going to be attending one of [reputedly] the most liberal colleges in the Pacific Northwest has been very much on my mind. I have had quite a few moments in which things just "thud" and I wonder - "what on earth am I doing? What am I getting myself into?!" I don't want to be changed into anything that does not honor God. I want to come out stronger and more solidified with God than ever.

But this is where God is leading me. It was an open door; set apart from the rest of the places I could have gone, and thus I am trusting that God is going to keep me and guide me. I am so scared - but I know that I will be happy at Reed! I can't wait to go somewhere where grades are not the emphasis and where [most] everyone loves learning. I can't wait to be somewhere where I am not the only person who discusses physics at the dinnertable or brags about my lack of sleep. I know I'm going to be happy there. And happiness is certainly helped, but not determined by the surroundings. Happiness comes first of all from God. Yay!

And why am I even worrying about this when...I haven't even gotten to experience it for myself? Granted I have been asked by Christians and non-Christians alike - "why are you going to Reed College if you are a Christian...?" but I think that God has wonderful plans in store, and I am excited. =) And praying hard for a wonderful roommate!!!

Before physics lecture today, I was being annoying to one of my classmates and "cheerleading" for him as he obtained green checkmarks on webassign in the last five minutes before webassign was due. This disturbed him greatly, and he rolled both me and my chair out of the lab and left me hollaring in the hallway. I was then positive that he would block the door to keep me from coming back in, so I picked up my chair and snuck around to another door to the physics lab. Then everyone just watched as my hysterical, giggling, mischevious self set the chair down and sat down in it, trying to regain my dignity but finding it impossible because of the giggles that would not stop coming. They attacked me in full force as the said classmate yelled, "You BROKE your CHAIR!"
"I did NOT!" *giggle*
I then found a piece of broken plastic underneath my chair. I um...DID end up breaking the chair...kind of. Oh well...such is my life.

Ponderations

2009-04-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

Of my acquaintances, only those who do not own cows firmly believe that cow tipping is possible.

Yay for God!

2009-04-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

I am so excited that I'm going to Reed College!!! I never thought I would be able to go. I am just simply amazed. Just amazed. I'm praying...hard...for some Christian friends at Reed...iron sharpens iron kind of friends...because life at Reed won't be as easy as say...going to Portland Bible College or something. I really almost considered going there. That was before I discovered physics. Thus a lifetime ago. GOSH I am EXCITED!!!!

So today I was extremely depressed because my grade in physics went from an A+ to an A. One of my friends told me
"If I had your threshold of depression, I'd be depressed all the time."
I just got more and more depressed all day...Tutorial drove me insane...I *gasp* assumed that two triangles were similar and then was wrong because I couldn't prove it. Logic, my friend, is...beautiful. Assumptions are not. In fact, they can make life quite ugly. That was depressing. And then...I came home...lamented to my mom about how I would never be able to major in physics and how I would be the stupidest person at Reed and all these woes...wallowing in the "depths of despair."

Joy and happiness. I had let grades dictate my life. God told me so quite plainly and reminded me that life is not about GRADES but about the fact that I am learning - the point is to have fun learning and not to have my happiness dictated by whether or not I am at the top of the class. By having fun learning, I will glorify Him. He made me to have fun learning! I glorify Him by being who I'm made to be!
"What do you do for fun?"
"Um...school!"
It's true! So true! I enjoy it with my utmost being. This is who I am created to be - passionate, exuberant, and happy about the strangest things! And thus, I am not going to let grades be the barometer of my happiness.

And that's one reason I want to go to Reed. Grades will not be the priority! If what has been advertised is true...

Thank you Jesus!!! Woohoo!!!!!!! I'm so excited!!!

Now to get back to some neglected research so I can build that tesla coil! I am taking way too long about it...

Decision is Made - I am going to be a Reedie!

2009-04-08T16:59:00.000-07:00

I've finally made my decision; I received all financial aid information from Lawrence. This was the deciding factor, and it turned out that they did not offer me as good of a package as Reed did, thus - I am going to be part of Reed College's Class of 2013!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I never thought that I would be accepted to and actually attend my first choice college. I prayed so much about this because Reed isn't necessarily made up of people with my beliefs (i.e., Princeton Review selected it as the college "where students are more likely to ignore God") and it would be a real challenge not only academically but spiritually as I'd probably be one of the few Christians on campus. Though I wanted to go really badly, I asked God to open or close the doors as He willed - and the doors were opened.

YES!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Waiting

2009-04-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

Still no word from Lawrence. I'm so ready to know. I'm so tired of waiting. I am having such a hard time not being stressed about all of this...all it does it run through my mind...I'm really just...ready to let go and be done thinking about where I am going to be in the fall. I just want peace of mind.

And thus...I was reading Philippians this morning:

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. - Philippians 4:4-9

So the peace of God which transcends all understanding...I want this peace because right now I just don't have it. I've got to stop being anxious; I've rejoiced and I've thanked God and I've sent up a request to heaven for more money for Reed but I am going to STOP being anxious about it and I want that peace! Amen! God take control of my thoughts.

I'm feeling sick right now too. And I so need to be doing homework! All I did after school was stats, physics, tesla coil research, and then sleeping all day so I guess that is what my body wants. It's pretty much screaming for it right now, so I am going to give myself seven hours of blessed sleep. Yaaaaay! No, I will NOT think about that physics essay that is due on Monday! I need sleep NOW!

2009-04-07T04:32:00.000-07:00

Forget it. I skipped the Precise Definition of a Limit and went to Continuity, where I was in bliss because I actually understood it!

So yesterday I heard from both Lawrence and Reed. Lawrence was kind enough to send me another alumnus letter about why they loved their time at Lawrence. Personally, I think that money is more of an incentive to go than promotional letters. I don't understand why they haven't given me financial aid info yet! And then Reed sent me a calendar. Umm...yay? It was definitely very beautiful and made me want to go there even more but again...these promotional things are really not going to help half as much as financial aid will!

Now back to physics homework, which really tried to eat me up yesterday.

Limits

2009-04-04T21:09:00.000-07:00

No college emails or letters today. Surprising! I've received at least one email, phone call, or letter almost every day for several weeks now. Writing the appeal tomorrow...hopefully Reed changes my financial aid to a more preferable package...

So right now I am teaching myself calculus. I enjoy it very much but am having a hard time with the precise definition of a limit. I must have read each page about six times. I'm going to MAKE myself understand it. I have two calculus textbooks in front of me. One of them is closed because it did not have the information I was looking for. I do not understand why there was a temporary constant added into one of the proofs. Time to search for more calculus lectures on Youtube. I don't want to wait until Monday to ask my former math professor. I want to know now. Somehow I have a feeling that if I were taking calculus this quarter, I would spend my time in class listening to the lecture instead of spending lecture time doing physics homework, like I did in precalc.

I'm leading worship tomorrow. I should really get some sleep before I do that. But I want to understand this first! Unfortunately as my body approaches zero sleep, the limit of my brain function capacity is zero. Almost zero at zero sleep, but not quite. Otherwise I couldn't breathe. Or something. The function is undefined at zero sleep.

No rejections!

2009-04-01T17:50:00.001-07:00

Whitman: Waitlisted

Which means that I probably won't be sticking around on the waitlist trying to get a spot for the class of 2013...financial aid is too risky. At least I wasn't rejected! Yay!

Still waiting to hear from Lawrence for financial aid. That's the last piece of the package (I'm sure UW won't offer any sort of financial aid and that makes me less likely to be able to go) and then it will just be a decision between Lawrence and Reed that may or may not be dictated by financial aid. I really hope we can appeal for financial aid for Reed though!

Alright...back to stats homework...

Hmmm

2009-03-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

I got my financial aid package from Reed today and come up $10,000 short. My dad looked at it, said that he saw what he needed to see (not good), I almost burst into tears, and have been crunching numbers ever since trying to figure out if I can come up with $10,000 in five months. Homework is on hold. I need my other colleges to send me financial aid info (technically I would be looking at approximately the same amount - $20,000 altogether - to attend even the UW, but I don't know what Lawrence's package is and, if they accepted me, Whitman's) but...oh I wish that Reed had given me even just $5000 more...

Acceptances!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-03-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

I have been accepted so far to:

Reed College
Lawrence University
University of Washington Seattle

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just waiting on Whitman College and financial aid info from everyone......

Mechanics and The Upper Room

2009-01-31T22:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I kept coming up with Google search results with "This Site May Harm Your Computer" underneath each and every one! I thought that the internet had broken down or something, but my fears were subsided when I read this article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,486268,00.html

Tonight I went with Angelina to The Upper Room again. We got there ridiculously early to make sure that I had a normal parking space and would not have parallel park. (I park very crookedly in normal parking spots and cannot parallel park to save my life.) The service was very good and I found myself yet again translating the sermon into physics. For example...the pastor was talking about how big God is, and he related God's power working through us to a big elephant and a tiny flea on a bridge. They jump on it and cause it to oscillate, and then after they get off, the flea remarks "look what a difference our jumping made!"
In mechanics, we generalize things. Often we disregard air drag when doing calculations with falling objects. We make everything into a point particle and simplify as much as we can. We would just ignore the flea if we were calculating the magnitude of the force that the elephant exerts on the bridge when he is jumping on it. It is technically not an accurate picture. However, if we were looking at things from the level of the flea, every single force exerted would become important, including that exerted by the flea on the bridge. It would then be a much more accurate picture.
Now things are generalized and simplified in general mechanics, but in quantum mechanics, things suddenly change. Generalization and the ignoring of very small forces becomes impossible. The picture is more accurate than the generalized picture of the elephant, but everything is now based on probability. An electron has a higher probability of being here and in that spot right there, but it also could very well be on the other side of the planet.
This relates to our worldview. We like to generalize and simplify things so that we ignore the flea and just look at the elephant. It gives us control. But when we look at things from a more accurate perspective, everything is probable and we have no control and cannot predict what will happen. We may not know whether or not an electron will be here in the next nanosecond or on the other side of the universe. We do, however, know what the final picture will look like and that the electron is a component an atom, or of that big picture.

Whether that made sense or not...

After the service we bought lunchables at Safeway because we hadn't had them since elementary school, and then went to the coffee house. I love food. And I love coffee houses.

Goodness Gracious!

2009-01-29T22:11:00.000-08:00

Today I was taking a break from homework and felt a sudden urge to call one of my bestest friends. I did so, and it turned out that the random phone call was much-needed and very refreshing. I love it when God does things like that.

We had physics lab again today. We spent most of the time waiting for water to boil. I had some escapades, one of which involved soaking a pile of papers with an ice water bath. We were doing a lab on heat capacity, which we only got half way through. The instructions said to look on the internet for a chart containing the relationship between millibars and temperature, so I typed in "mbars as a function of temperature." Google then suggested "do you mean: mars as a function of temperature?" I started laughing and couldn't stop for a while. Later I heard that one of the other groups had typed in "internet.com" into Google.

I got my physics exam results back. :D I got a 71! That may seem like a barely passing grade, but in my physics class, a 50 is the class average. You have to know what you are doing to get a good grade on the exam, and you have to know how to do it quickly. The "quickly" part is the part that I am challenged with. Anyways, I still have an A in the class and am really happy...because that is the highest raw score that I have had on a physics exam yet! I was so scared that it was not a raw score; once when we did really awful he graded on the curve. I ran back to his office two minutes before lab was supposed to start and quickly asked if it was graded on the curve, and it was not. I'll see if I got anything wrong tomorrow! My main problem was just finishing the thing. =P

I talk about my physics class way too much on here. Humm...what else?

I'm reading through Isaiah and James right now. The last book I read through was Ecclesiastes.I love Ecclesiastes. It pretty much keeps my head on straight. EVERYTHING is meaningless without God. I have been convicted so much by reading James though...and have some other things in my life that need worked through right now. It's hard to work through them with school going on...which is why I need to go sleep...so that I can wake up early tomorrow and have some God time. Wuuunnnnderfullll it has been a very interesting day. Weekend begins tomorrow afternoon!

Yay!

2009-01-28T22:37:00.000-08:00

My physics exam is over! I spent half an hour on definitions and tutorial, which left me only twenty-five minutes for the rest of the problems...there were probably 8-10 of those, and I think I only did half of them. However I am fairly confident that though I only did about 2/3 or 3/4 of the exam, I think that I got everything that I did correct. We'll see. I was hyperventilating before the exam...I really don't like exams.

Usually I do physics homework in math. I hadn't read ahead for the chapter I thought we were going to do today, so I was pulling out my notebook so that I could take notes. I placed it on the desk, and my math teacher announced - "We will not be learning anything new today!" Crestfallen, I picked the notebook back up and put it into my bag. We were to have an optional quiz at twenty till, and the rest of the time was to be spent working on problems. I opted to do a bit of review but soon tired of it and began physics homework. Then I got distracted and kept helping a classmate with homework. He kept forgetting to use identities; I don't know why. Once I met identities, they became my best friend! I think that they are awesome. My math professor kept walking by and laughing at me. Whatever.

A couple of days ago I made one of my physics classmates so mad that he stomped out of the room after tutorial. He had been intending to stay but I guess it was the combination of me being dreadfully annoying and some things that I am guessing have been going on in his life that did him in. I was mortified; I hadn't been that annoying in a while. But when someone invites me to be annoying, it is exceedingly hard to resist! I guess I need to grow up a little more...

My brother and I went to WalMart today; I needed new headphones (they break monthly...for no reason!) and he needed fish food. We both decided that we had a craving for candy, so we stood in front of the candy section for ten minutes trying to decide what to buy. After those ten minutes had passed, we realized that the craving had passed and bought the rest of our items.

What has been new...nothing else. I was intensely focusing for the physics exam. Now my eyebrows hurt and so do my teeth; when I am stressed I keep my eyebrows in a worried position and clench my teeth. I am going to go to bed to relax my face now.

The countdown begins...

2009-01-26T00:35:00.000-08:00

Er, it already began...since the beginning of the quarter. I have a physics exam in two days! I'm hoping I can pull over a fifty on it. I have an A+ right now but know from experience that the grade drops a couple points after exams. Except after my last final...there were three hours allotted for a normal-length test, and my grade surprisingly went up after the final! I had enough time to do everything.

Anyways, I am ahead on math right now. I am romantically infatuated with trigonometry. The beauty of it all. I really like it. For no reason whatsoever. I hope it is this way with calculus.

Today I almost fell asleep in church. I feel so bad because every Sunday, once the sermon starts, I am out. I should really try to get more sleep on Saturday evenings, or something. I was also struggling during worship. When I went down to Bethel, I was surrounded in a wonderful atmosphere. But the way I at least worshipped down there was based on feelings. Not necessarily the joy that comes from the amazement of the fact that God sacrificed His Son for me - tears every time - but...I can't describe it. Anyways, less of my worship was based on the gospel than on what God was doing right now at that moment in the room. Bethel was a wonderful atmosphere to be in but I am now back in suchandsuchatown, WA. Pretty much...not like that. I can't explain the difference except that spiritually it is a lot different here. And what happens when the worship is based on the atmosphere instead of the gospel? Wacked out and wrong. So today I just felt kind of numb and sleepy. I thought about what it was like worshipping at Bethel and worshipping here. I have been thrown into an atmosphere of reasoning and questioning ever since I started school again, so I ask a lot more questions than I used to and am a little wary of things based solely on feelings. And it was during that time this morning that I realized how very feelingsy my worship had been there. Here, though the atmosphere is spiritually...less desirable...I enjoy worshiping more here because I worship because of the gospel, the cross and the resurrection. That's the REASON. I am humbled by the grace that He gives. I so want to give that kind of grace to others. I don't want to be so swayed by the emotions and feelings in my heart. I want to be strong, but humble because...without Him...I am just completely lost. He's not a life enhancer. He is life itself. Physics doesn't matter without Him. Art will just represent the infinite void if it does not have Him. Math is absolutely nothing without Him; math is a complete reflection of His love. Without Him, my hands are holding onto a frictionless rope over an infinite vacuum at zero kelvin.

2009-01-24T06:05:00.000-08:00

I have a physics exam on Wednesday! *gulp*

So last night I went to the physics club social night and watched the Dark Knight. I cried. End of story.

I have a lot of homework on my mind right now. I think I am behind in History and have no idea what will be on my exam on Saturday. It is kind of frustrating having an online class and I am not sure that I want to go through it again. Life goes on! I am also very sleep deprived. Hopefully I make it through work okay today.

2009-01-23T06:18:00.000-08:00

It is almost 6:30 am. I have been up for about two hours now. I haven't accomplished a whole lot, but I have been working on history homework. I am sitting in front of the warm fireplace, and the rest of the house is still, sleeping. I like it.

Tonight I am going to watch The Dark Knight for the first time. The physics club is having a social night, with food. I hope they have marshmallows. I have this intense craving for marshmallows right now. One of my friends came up to me outside of math yesterday. I was staring at the physics club poster.
"So I saw one of these in the PUB earlier" she said. I laughed, and she continued.
"One of my friends saw it too and said, 'I can't think of anything more unappealing than a physics club.' I told him, 'well I know someone who disagrees!'" We laughed.

They have a microwave in the physics lab. Yesterday I went to microwave my food and accidentally interuppted a particle accelerator meeting. It made me laugh. We had lab an hour after that. Lab is so long and it is the only part of physics that I really don't like. Thank goodness it doesn't count for much - only one of my classmates read the syllabus for this quarter; everyone else thought it would be the same as last quarter. He later showed us a small change under the weight that everything has on your grade - "Lab: worth virtually nothing". We got through 7 or 8 of the 13 pages and had all of these messups with uncertainties and significant figures. I hate uncertainties! Anyways, I stayed after lab to work on today's physics homework with a classmate because I was sure I was wrong - I had 1600 degrees Celsius as my answer, which seemed immensely wrong. However, we came up with the same answer, so it remains to be seen whether it is right or wrong. I still think that is such a large temperature for the question asked. =P

I suppose I'd better get back to history homework. I have to leave for school in an hour.