Research Paper

Welcome back everyone!

This week was dedicated to the writing of my research paper. As I stated last week, I have pretty much reached an end in my project, so all that I have left are my final projects, which include a 10-page paper and poster, along with the presentation.

This week, I managed to make significant progress in my research paper. So far, I am on the forth out of the five pages (single-spaced). After being gone for several months, I have had to do some refreshing on the formatting of research papers. So far, I have written the abstract, introduction, the methods, and results. I need to begin the discussion and conclusion, which I hope to have completed by mid-week next week. That would be optimal for me, considering I could move on to the poster as well as free up time for more presentation rehearsals.

There is a benefit to writing this research paper first, and that is that I can transfer a a great deal of material to my presentation. The paper is quite different in comparison to other scientific papers in that I am having to explain the terms so that it's easier for people to comprehend the material. Not to say that it's too complex for them, it's just that I'm sure that most people have not been exposed to the field of astronomy. With that being said, I will have to do similar explaining when it comes time for my presentation. Having already explained the words on paper will definitely give me an plan on how I want to go about explaining all the terms.

As for my poster, I have not yet planned out how I want it to look. My presentation is almost complete as well. The nice thing about this presentation is that I am going to have 20 minutes to speak, meaning that it's going to give me a pretty good amount of time to explain everything I need to. I'm not to worried about giving the presentation. The only thing I am worried about is the audience's comprehension. In other words, I want to make sure everyone understands what I am saying because if they don't, me standing up there for 20 minutes will definitely not be entertaining to them. The more I rehearse however, the better I am going to be at my explanations.

Thanks everyone for reading. I hope you enjoyed hearing about all that I did this week. Have a great weekend.

Finishing the Project

Hi everyone!!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week. I would say this was another slow week for I am reaching the end of my project. This week I received an email from my advisor stating that I had pretty much finished what he wanted me to do. It was nice to hear because there was a lot of math involved. It felt great to take a break from it all. 

In his email he told me what my values meant. I had previously emailed him what values I had reached for my standard deviations. He replied and transferred those values for standard deviation into scatter. Scatter is pretty self-explanatory. My data regarding the peak magnitude had a scatter of 0.19 dex (scatter units). My data regarding the magnitude at 95% had a scatter at 0.16 dex. was Therefore, I am able to determine distance of a supernova up to 0.16 dex. The typical standard candle (type Ia supernovae) has a scatter of 0.05, so my use of supernovae type IIb added a little more scatter. 

I also calibrated the Hubble Constant again but with the supernovae I used in this part of the experiment. I reached a value of ~69 km/s/Mpc. I didn't use this particular method, so that's one value. I plan on finding another value using the method I have been talking about for the past few weeks in a few days.

He also said that I could start my report. I did start that. I have already written my abstract and am currently working on the introduction. 

I must say that doing this work has been a real eye opener in to the world of astronomy. The math and steps required to reach a value for the Hubble Constant is extensive. It definitely gives me an idea of what to expect in astronomy. I can't say though, whether it has affected me positively or negatively. I do like, however, what my values mean in the world. Sure, finding the values is a task and can be strenuous, but what the result means is always interesting and rewarding. I'm sure you guys find my explanation on how to find the Hubble Constant is not the most joyful and fascinating thing. I do think though that the number I have found is mind-blowing. Just imagine, the universe is traveling at a rate, according to me, of 69 km/s/Mpc, spreading into space that doesn't even exist. I love what I have found, and I hope you guys have liked learning about.

Talk to you next week, as I continue writing my paper.

Thank you,

Max Biwer