 |
The graduate explains a complicated
piece of equipment in the chem lab. |
I’ve been waiting a year and a half to post
this. Back in 2017, my middle
child, fondly known here as “Son,” graduated from college. He just this month found his first full-time job, for which we are all thankful. Now it's high time I posted this.
In June 2017, I asked, “What did you learn
this school year?”
Son’s answers, forthwith.
Believe it or not, these answers are abridged
from the original. Younger Daughter added to the
conversation.
Son: I learned what the eight types
of corrosion are. And Goedel’s
incompleteness theorem. I recently found
a youtube video that explains Goedel’s Incompleteness Theorem. It’s on a youtube channel called NumberPhile.
Younger Daughter: Girdle needs to get a new name.
Son: In my other math class I learned
all about solving numerical differential equations by numerical methods.
YD:
What other way is there?
Son: Analytical methods. The numerical method is basically a trial and
error method.
YD: Oh, so it’s Newton’s method.
Son: Yes, essentially. Did you learn Euler’s method?
YD:
Oiler?
Son: It’s pronounced “Oiler” but
spelled “Yuler”. I’m surprised you
didn’t learn that in calculus.
[Much discussion of f(x) type stuff, with writing of equations on a poster board that
just happened to be lying there. In an
activist’s home in 2017, there was always poster board lying around.]
Son: In my research I learned that
the problem is never where you expect it is.
…
Son:
This equation (writes on poster
board) describes heat conduction. So
solving this equation is of interest.
Sometimes the equations can be way more complicated than this, and it
becomes impossible to solve analytically.
Me, yearning to get out of equation mode: What about band? What did you learn in band?
Son:
Never underestimate how many times you will play “Candide.” Also, I learned that there is always a Sousa
march.
…
Son: Last semester I took a senior
lab. I learned that the T.A.s are not
always right. When the TA tells you to
do something, you usually just do it.
But then the professor comes around and says, “That’s not what you’re
supposed to do at all.”
YD: How long do your experiments usually take?
Son:
A couple hours.
YD:
Lucky. In bio, experiments take
weeks. For us, we cannot artificially
speed up the hatching of a fly.
Son: I also took Surfaces and
Adsorption.
Me: Absorption?
Son: No, with a d. (college
nerd pun alert --> ) The professor taught this class using a Microsoft “Surface”. …
The
professor reminded me of Grandpa Bill.
He had a white beard and explained things as if he was teaching them to
his grandchildren. You could do however badly on the homework assignments and
still get a good grade.
 |
Words like "reflux", "pot", "head", and "rust"
mean something different to
chemical engineers. |
In
Corrosions we actually did a real project and I lucked out and got a lab
partner who worked in an electrochemistry lab, and so he knew how all the
equipment worked. Electrochemistry is
basically the same thing as corrosion.
Me: I thought corrosion was rust.
Son:
Yeah. Rust is an electrochemical reaction. … The coolest thing was the impressed-current
cathodic corrosion protection. That’s
where you have a big piece of metal that you don’t want to corrode, and you
have another piece of metal some distance away, and you set up a voltage
source. This prevents one of them from
corroding. The drawback is that it uses a lot of energy and creates a lot of
hydrogen gas.
Me: That sounds dangerous.
Son: It’s more just that it’s
environmentally unsound.
Me: Isn’t hydrogen gas what was used in the
Hindenburg? And it exploded?
Son:
Yeah? So?
 |
Following the graduation ceremony, the graduate plays
ping pong with his father. |
