Week 3

This was an interesting week, I have to say. It started out pretty good. Dr. Nugyen and I looked like we were making progress with the project. We also thought we were going to become rich. So, my main goal of the project is to find the efficiency of the solar cell. The experiment was already to run our first scan of the cell and so we did. The data that was taken was very surprising. It was telling us that we had a solar cell that was 1000% efficient. Yay!!! I have solved cold fusion. Also, the energy crisis and people won’t care that BP spilled tons and tons and still counting amounts of oil. Well as you can see that getting something 1000% efficient is not able to be done just like the things mentioned above. So of course we did something wrong. Dr. Nugyen started looking at my calculations thinking that those were the cause but of course those are correct. I already knew what the problem was because I had figured out that the way we were measuring intensity was wrong. The logic was correct but he just put numbers in the code that were wrong and made it off by a factor of 100. He didn’t know that because he didn’t understand what I had told him before. Well we figured out the problem, I guess he figured out the problem. It wasn’t a big deal and just a few things needed fixing on the program and those were taken care of in one day. Now we are able to take new measurements and hopefully this time the data will be good data. I will be working with it this afternoon. A scan is going on now and so I will get the data later. I learned that things will never go right the first time. I hope that by next week I can update about the good data and find the real efficiency of the solar cell.

I also learned this week, to make sure I have money before I go somewhere to eat and to look above me before I stand up on the bus. You are probably wondering why I learned this. Well on Monday a few of the interns were going to go see a Star Trek movie in Crystal City. We decided to go to dinner beforehand and we found a Louisiana style barbeque called the Kings Street Blues. I had the ribs and they were fantastic I recommend it to anyone. But, as we got the check I reach into my purse to get my wallet and there wasn’t one. Luckily, Raina was able to cover my check and I paid her back the next day with cash from my second story about money. So Zack and I both work at NIST and since we are the only people we really know at NIST we sometimes eat lunch together. Zack came to my office and pulled out his bread it was moldy and so we decided to go to the cafeteria. I got there just to buy some fruit but only had my debit card and then I got to the cashier and it was cash only. So I was embarrassed and I had to go to the ATM to get some cash and the change I got was enough to pay Raina back. On Thursday I was getting off the shuttle bus in the morning and as I stood up my head hit a television screen it hurt and it got worse when I hit my head again when getting off a different bus in the afternoon. So I learned a few things this week that are helpful for life and my job. Overall it is going well. I am ready to work harder and get the things done that I need to do.