I'm taking 5.12 (Organic Chemistry) this semester, which is interesting, to say the least. Orgo is notorious for being slightly less fun than having your feet cut off, but I really enjoy it thus far. We have our first exam next week, though, so we'll see how I feel about it then. (I will say that I like the subject matter more than that of 5.112 - Principles of Chemical Science, which I took last semester.)
But my professor, Dr. Berkowski, is fantastic. The other day in lecture she put up the lyrics to "Deprotonated", the chemical rendition of Avril Lavigne's "Complicated".
"SING IT," we yelled from our respective purple seats (the seats in 10-250 are, indeed, purple).
"I'm a HORRIBLE singer!" she protested. "Luckily, I'm not shy."
(Removed content. Sorry!)
It's been approximately about two weeks like it sometimes always is: time for Q and A!
Anonymous has one quick question: I know this isn't really related to this topic, sorry, but I have one quick question..How do you get to be a blogger on this website? I know you have to be associated with MIT, but do they just pick random people on campus, do you need connections, or what?
Way back when MITBlogs was a wee little thing, there was Matt, Ben, and Mitra. More bloggers were added because they worked in the admissions office, or out of personal interest; some were actively picked out because they had interesting stories to tell or had blogging experience. Last year the admissions officers actually created an application and a committee to determine the '10 bloggers, which you'll have to get to go through next year as well if you want to be an admissions blogger! (My answer to the aardvark question is posted here.) I'm not exactly sure how you get to become a guest blogger, but I'm guessing it probably involves some large sum of money and telling Matt McGann how that blue shirt he always wears brings out his eyes.
Sh1fty says: do MIT students get free windows licences? students at FER here in zagreb get free m$ software :)
We do! (Vista too!) Mac users can get Bootcamp as well, so that we can use Windows should we ever need to.
Monica requests: i was wondering if your parents were really strict on studying, because most korean parents can be...
In retrospect, I feel like relative to other Koreans I know, my parents weren't that strict on studying, and my sister and I seem to have turned out okay. But I'm not here to tell you how to raise your kids, parents, Korean or not. I'm here to tell your kids to find what they like and go with that, becuase it's not always the worst thing if you actually enjoy what you're doing. Otherwise, you lose a hydrogen ion, and you become, Cl-, and H3O+, your pH is low, 'cause in H2O, you deprotonate, H+ you donate, you see...
EVERYBODY!
Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)
n BTW, avril is probably gna quit singing if she sees wats happening to her songs... or probably... she'll deprotonate...!!!
Posted by: Ashwani Gupta on February 22, 2007
wow, you seem to have a cool teacher, I mean, it takes a lot of guts to sing in front of the class, haha
Posted by: Monica on February 22, 2007
Posted by: milena on February 23, 2007
Posted by: Jon on February 23, 2007
That might have made my day.
I love nerdy songs. I still know the formula for Poisson distribution to the tune of Penny Lane...
Posted by: Meara on February 23, 2007
Posted by: anonymous on February 23, 2007
1. The other hopefuls respond to your comments
2. The people who run the blog site have responded as well
3. You've written comments under multiple names, hoping no one realizes they're all the same person, so it doesn't seem you're obsessed
4. You've had the priviledge of writing "FIRST POST!!!" at least once
5. You've actually BEEN the first person to post, not just the second person thinking you were the first
6. You tell your friends/parents about the rediculous things "hopeful753" or "BobbyTeenager1000" posted last night...
7. You feel like you kmow all the MIT admissions officers personally
8. You've entered at LEAST one on-line contest that has no impact on admission decisions
9. YouTube is your daily dose of watching crazy MITers do things you wish you could!!
10. You're now friends with >50 people that are self-described "nerds" or "geeks"
These are just a few I can think of on the spot...if you have any more suggestions to add to this list, be my guest!!
Posted by: Alyssa on February 23, 2007
"Three fatty acids and one glycerol make a lipid! *double-clap* Make a lipid! *double-clap*"
Posted by: J.P. on February 23, 2007
Posted by: Sh1fty on February 23, 2007
Posted by: Keri on February 23, 2007
shi1fty...is croatian food/fruit really that good compared to american food? never heard that before. interesting...
...then again, what do you classify as "american food" anyways?
Posted by: Josh V on February 23, 2007
Posted by: Jess on February 23, 2007
Posted by: Utkarsh on February 23, 2007
Add this to your list.
Posted by: Solomon on February 23, 2007
Posted by: Albert on February 23, 2007
Posted by: Albert on February 23, 2007
Posted by: bhushan on February 23, 2007
Posted by: Sanja on February 23, 2007
I love the video!
Can you post some more of such videos ?
Posted by: 0 on February 23, 2007
Posted by: 0 on February 23, 2007
(I'm serious, in a way.)
Posted by: Deepthi on February 23, 2007
(for the quotient rule of derivatives): low dee-hi, hi-dee low. draw the line and square below - (square below!)
and another math song - the quadratic song, which is saying the quadratic formula to the tune of the Addams Family theme song (finger snapping included) :D
Posted by: theresa on February 23, 2007
You're awesome.. cool cases of deprotonation in MIT.. and You bring it on to light.. Your professor is one to be applauded.. she'll definitely grade you well.. considering the amount of popularity she'll get. You're awesome once again.. Keep posting such (out of the expected) videos.. gosh!! who would've thought about posting one.. cool.. YOU COoL!!
Posted by: Shawntwan on February 23, 2007
You're awesome.. cool cases of deprotonation in MIT.. and You bring it on to light.. Your professor is one to be applauded.. she'll definitely grade you well.. considering the amount of popularity she'll get. You're awesome once again.. Keep posting such (out of the expected) videos.. gosh!! who would've thought about posting one.. cool.. YOU COoL!!
Posted by: Shawntwan on February 23, 2007
Posted by: Christina on February 23, 2007
Posted by: Alyssa on February 23, 2007
Posted by: James on February 23, 2007
Posted by: Emily L. on February 23, 2007
Posted by: The madman who makes people fly on February 23, 2007
Posted by: Melis on February 23, 2007
My buddy once brought an old Simon and Garfuncle (did I spell that right?) record with the song NaCl to chem class. Pretty amazing even though I don't remenber how it goes :( Oh Well. Horrah for excellent MIT professors!
Posted by: BonBon on February 24, 2007
Posted by: Katherine on February 24, 2007
and you and i, my friend
will be living it up
Posted by: amrita on February 24, 2007
I have never thought that "complicated" can be modified in such a scientific way....
Posted by: Ying Wei on February 24, 2007
Here is the riddle:
There are 5 houses in 5 different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage.
The question is: Who owns what?
You guys definitely need CLUES so..
• The Brit lives in the red house.
• The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
• The Dane drinks tea.
• The green house is on the left of the white house.
• The green homeowner drinks coffee.
• The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds. .
• The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
• The man living in the center house drinks milk.
• The Norwegian lives in the first house.
• The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats.
• The man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
• The owner who smokes Bluemaster drinks beer. .
• The German smokes prince.
• The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
• The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water.
Get on it!! hey Jess.. nice video though..
Posted by: Challenger to MIT Brains!! on February 24, 2007
Posted by: Melissa '11 on February 24, 2007
But I'll get started =)
Posted by: Melissa '11 on February 24, 2007
Swede: white, dog, beer, Bluemaster
Dane: blue, horse, tea, blend
Norwe: yellow, cat, water, Dunhill
German: green, whatever pet was not mentioned, coffee, prince
House Order L-2-R: Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, White
=)
Posted by: Melissa '11 on February 24, 2007
Posted by: Sh1fty on February 24, 2007
On an unrelated note, how was first semester at MIT for you? I understand that MIT has a pass/no record for first semester, but still, I think I would feel really crushed if I failed a class there. Yet I've heard many people talk about the immense difficulties associated w/ MIT classes, so it seems inevitable to have a "no record" class.
Posted by: Prospective Student 2398543 on February 24, 2007
i solved it
here it goes
Name House Bevrage Cigar Pet
Brit Red Milk Pallmall Birds
Swede White Beer Blumaster Dogs
Dane Blue Tea Blend Horse
Norwe. Yellow Water Dunhill Cats
German Green Coffee Prince N.M
Posted by: MIT Brain(bhushan) on February 25, 2007
Here's another shot if people would like to take..Should be a piece of cake for you brainniess..
Find a number consisting of 9 digits in which each of the digits from 1 to 9 appears only once. This particular number should satisfy the following requirements:
a. number should be divisible by 9.
b. If the most right digit is removed, the remaining number should be divisible by 8.
c. If then again the most right digit is removed, the remaining number should be divisible by 7 and so on until the last remaining number of one digit which should be divisible by 1.
Get on it!!
Posted by: Challenger to MIT Brains on February 25, 2007
Posted by: Challenger on February 25, 2007
Posted by: Melissa '11 on February 25, 2007
Anyway, answer to Challenger's puzzle
381654729
Ayman J Singh
Posted by: AJ Singh on February 25, 2007
I'll still go and figure it out for myself though
Posted by: Melissa '11 on February 25, 2007
You are right about the even numbers thing. I am not sure how you fixed yourself with the starting digit.
AJ
Posted by: AJ on February 25, 2007
Posted by: Sea on February 25, 2007
Which is why only 4 pets were mentioned...
(I just did that puzzle about a month ago, found it here: http://www.ssqq.com/archive/vinlin06.htm )
Yay logic puzzles!
Posted by: Kim '10 on February 26, 2007
<ul>Find the smaller number which when
<li>Divided by 10 gives remainder 9</li>
<li>Divided by 9 gives remainder 8</li>
<li>Divided by 8 gives remainder 7</li>
<li>Divided by 7 gives remainder 6</li>
<li>Divided by 6 gives remainder 5</li>
<li>Divided by 5 gives remainder 4</li>
<li>Divided by 4 gives remainder 3</li>
<li>Divided by 3 gives remainder 2</li>
<li>Divided by 2 gives remainder 1</li>
</ul>
I think that was the puzzle. I don't remember the answer though.
Try cracking it.
Posted by: AJ on February 26, 2007
i will try that
Posted by: MIT Brain(bhushan) on February 26, 2007
#include
main()
{
int i,r=0;
for(i=1;r==0;i++) if(i==9 && i%9==8 && i%8==7 && i%7==6 && i%6==5 && i%5==4 && i%4==3 && i%3==2 && i%2==1) r=i;
printf("%d",r);
}
it prints 2519
Posted by: Sh1fty on February 26, 2007
(THESE CRACKERS ...)
Posted by: Nina on February 26, 2007
It could be done in another way, the number is actually LCM of i (1 to 10) -1
Guess why.
Chiario
Posted by: The madman who makes people fly on February 26, 2007
Posted by: Sh1fty on February 27, 2007
its 2519
Posted by: MIT Brain(bhushan) on February 27, 2007
Seems that the answer is correct. Lets try something interesting. Here is another problem. Think about it:
<ul>
Suppose that a clock takes 7 seconds to strike 7, how long will the same clock take to strike 10?
</ul>
And another one:
<ul>
John takes 2 steps for every 3 steps taken by Bob. They both start out on the left foot. What is the minimum number of steps that Bob has to take so that both he and John land together on the right foot
</ul>
AJ
Posted by: AJ on February 27, 2007
<ul>
The monkey and the banana
Over the top of a fence hangs a rope. On one end of the rope a monkey is holding a banana. On the other end of the rope hangs a weight equal to the weight of the monkey. The rope weighs one third pounds per foot and the banana weighs two ounces per inch. The length of the rope in feet is the same as the age of the monkey. The weight of the monkey in ounces is the same as the age of the monkey's mother in years. The combined ages of the monkey and its mother are thirty years.
One half the weight of the monkey plus the the weight of the banana is a quarter as much as the weight of the rope. The monkey's mother is half as old as the monkey will be when it is three times as old as its mother was when she was half as old as the monkey will be when it is as old as its mother will be when she is four times as old as the monkey was when it was twice as old as its mother was when she was a third as old as the monkey was when it was as old as its mother was when she was three times as old as the monkey was when it was a quarter as old as it is now.
How long is the banana?
</ul>
AJ
Posted by: AJ on February 27, 2007
1) (7/6)*9 sec ( I like RAW format both as a photographer, and a puzzler)
2)6 ( I have practically experimented this)
3)feeling like monkey ........... I leave it for others;)
Has anybody tried rebol ? or SCHEME? SCHEME is an MIT language, ( ie MITDev)
Posted by: The madman who makes people fly on February 27, 2007
but first transfer all units in SI
Posted by: bhushan on February 28, 2007
Comments have been closed.