Tag Archives: school

CSSF: Day One

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Whoo! I’m finally back from the California State Science Fair. [edit: It's taken me a long time to write this entry, so it's actually been 5 days since I got back. hehe] So many exciting things have happened, I can’t even begin to describe how fun it was. Good thing I have an entire album of pictures to help me.

Airport

Charles, my roommate.

This is Charles. :-)

The first people I got to know were the high school students sitting across from me at the airport gate. These were Charles, Adeline, and Boyuan. (10th, 11th, and 12th graders, respectively) Throughout my trip, I got to know them the most.

Waiting for the plane to arrive.

The plane is arriving!

(cough) The airport is really (cough) smoggy and (cough) the shuttles are (cough) late!!! (more coughs here for extra effect)
We waited for what seemed like an hour for the shuttles.

When we arrived at the Los Angeles airport, we were nearly an hour late. The “exclusive” Prime Time shuttles weren’t there, and we spent a long time breathing smoggy, polluted air, waiting for the shuttles to come back.

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At the LA airport for CSSF

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Today’s the day. I’m going on an all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles for CSSF, the California State Science Fair. Early this morning, my dad drove me to the San Jose Airport, and I looked for a “tall, white-haired, distinguished looking gentleman”, as described to me in a recent email. :-) We found him, and I got Southwest tickets and $75 cash.

I waited in line to get through the security checkpoint, and after maybe 10 minutes, at the front of the line, we were told we first had to check in to get a boarding pass! Nearly an hour later, I had a boarding pass for flight #1832 in my hand.

The security check only required me to take out my laptop and cell phone. This was surprising, considering the amount of other metal-filled objects in my backpack: an iPod Mini, a 25-foot UL approved extension cord, and a laptop charger. I have to wonder how all that got through the X-ray unnoticed.

Now I’m waiting at gate A4. The wireless internet access here requires you to pay $6.95 by credit card, which I can’t do. I’ll just have to post this entry the next time I get on the net. As I wait, the smell of coffee fills my nose as the cool air from the AC radiates from the window. I just love sitting next to the huge windows. You can see all the planes taking off and landing. My flight is scheduled to leave at 9:35, which is only 15 minutes from now. I’m facing some high school students who are talking about what their majors are going to be in a few years.

We have to go now, as the plane is arriving.

I think I’m prepared for the fair. This is going to be an exciting trip!

NASA VIP tour and Director’s Breakfast (Science Fair special prize)

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Yesterday I attended the VIP tour and Director’s Breakfast at the NASA Ames Research Center. This was the special award I’d won at the science fair this year. I brought my dad as a guest. I had also wanted to invite a friend, but since STAR testing was happening I don’t think anyone would have been able to go. [irked]

We arrived at 7:40 AM, twenty minutes earlier than we intended. That was because we had expected there to be a lot of traffic. There was traffic, but the carpool lanes served us well.

We started out with a few introductory speeches and a light continental breakfast with the Director of the Research Center. Then, they wanted us (the science fair winners) to give brief overviews of our projects! This was something for us to get “nice and nervous about.” (laughs) Even though I didn’t prepare for this, my short presentation went well enough. I would say there were about 10 winners there, plus guests.

After discussing our projects, a presenter was invited to talk about Saturn and its many moons. On October 15, 1997, the Cassini probe was launched, using a “Venus-Venus-Earth-Jupiter Gravity Assist” trajectory to slingshot its way across the solar system.

Illustration of the trajectory of the Cassini probe launch, using the gravity of other planets to accelerate it towards Saturn.

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The Cookie Problem

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Here’s a problem that was presented to me in Math Enrichment. It’s main purpose is to guide an investigation of infinite series.

Part 1:

The cookie monster sneaks into the kitchen and eats half a cookie; on the second day he comes in and eats half of what remains of the cookie from the first day; on the third day he comes in and eats half of what remains from the second day. If the cookie monster continues this process for seven days, how much of the cookie has he eaten? How much is left?

Part 2:

Problem: Share 6 cookies among 7 people. Restrictions: You cannot use 6/7 or any non-reduced form of that fraction. Find a way to use the sum of an infinite series.

(Obviously, the cookies must be divided equally.)

Here is my 9-page, illustrated solution in PDF format.