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MIT student blogger Sam M. '07

Borne back ceaselessly into the past by Sam M. '07

I've had a week! The whole earth was created in a week!

Someday I must tell you how I did it.

Whoo! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Sorry about that, chief. Basically what happened is that I had to do a “Web Lab” for 10.302: Transport Processes. What that means is we went into a lab in the secret sub-basement of Building 66, pressed “on” on a heater, and let it heat up for 20 minutes while the a computer recorded the temperature. Sure, that sounds pretty easy for a lab experiment at MIT. But the real challenge is to explain why it heats up, thermodynamically, electrically, and philosophically. So, twenty hours of MATLAB and Excel later, I’ve got a beautiful data report ready that my partner Nia ’07 is printing out in dazzling color as you read this, and nary a good night’s sleep in three days.

DID YOU KNOW? Building 66, designed by MIT graduate I.M. Pei, is built in the shape of a 30-60-90 right triangle.

Building 66 also exemplifies the principle that when your MIT education brings you boundless wealth and power, you should still never donate a building to MIT, because nobody will ever use your name in referring to it. Sorry, Ralph Landau ScD ’41, but you should have known better.

If you lay down on your stomach at the 30-degree (or pi/6 radians, if you prefer) vertex, you get a most spectacular vertigo-inducing view of Ames St with essentially no ground below you. Uh, or so I’ve heard… from one of those crazy hacker types. Don’t look at me, I live on West Campus.

Oh, but my life has been much more interesting than that in the past week; it’s just that I haven’t had any time to tell you about it! I discovered whether humans swim faster in syrup or water, hiked five miles, and jumped from a 165-degree sauna into a 36-degree river. So, I hope you don’t mind me writing entries this weekend which recount some of the non-transient-analysis-related aspects, even if I have to dig back as far as last Thursday to do so.

Also, Sam’s Mom is here for Family Weekend. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could convince her to write a guest entry?

No, that’s not gonna happen.

4 responses to “Borne back ceaselessly into the past”

  1. Ruth says:

    Do it do it do it do it!

    Guest entry by Sam’s mom!!

  2. madmatt says:

    Actually, I do agree that a guest entry by Sam’s Mom would be quite fascinating and rather appropriate for Parents Weekend… do it, do it! smile

  3. Erik K says:

    I second that movement… er, third?

  4. Alaina says:

    Yes, I did know that, because when you gave me a tour of MIT you told me that! :-D Miss ya Sammy!