I am Daniel L. Lu, proud to be a student at the UBC Transition Program. Welcome to my website.
My hobbies are: modeling 3D cars, making abstract art in Photoshop, and drawing. Additionally, I enjoy reading, and watching movies. Unlike most people, I detest television.
Today, we went to Playland at the PNE. However, it was for certain that it would be extremely crowded there, since a lot of grade 11s are there. Thus, Mr Martin formulated a plan beforehand: we would all crowd at the entrance before everyone, and once Playland opened, we would charge forth to the roller coaster ride. For the most part, the plan worked! As everyone else was watching the stupid show, we squished ourselves against the gate, feeling how lucky we are to be in the front, to be able to run toward the roller coaster once the gates opened.
Suddenly, we saw a crowd of people inside Playland! How was that possible? Right before our eyes, four hundred people or so were running toward the roller coaster! It turned out that there were 2 gates; and the other one was open! Once our gate opened, we ran towards the roller coaster, but there were already a huge line-up there. Having no choice, we waited like a culture of amoeba, moving slowly, sluggishly forward. Eventually, after a long while which seemed like two hours, or maybe it was really two hours, it was our turn to go on the roller coaster.
Michael D’Andrea and I took the front two seats of the roller coaster. It was relatively exciting. I recorded the acceleration with the accelerometer, and Michael recorded the time. However, our accelerometer had one problem: it could not measure less than 1-G of acceleration, since the spring needed to have a preload. Hence, the negative g-forces could not be measured accurately.
After the roller coaster, we took the wave swinger. To our surprise, there was no queue. So, we took the wave swinger, and enjoyed the ride. It was extremely mild in comparison with the roller coaster. Nevertheless, it was a refreshing.
Then, we sat on a bench and did some calculations. We performed further measurements of the roller coaster and the wave swinger. The astrolabe was used to calculate the angle of incline of the roller coaster hill, and a measuring tape was used to calculate the length of the hill. Using these two pieces of data, the height of the roller coaster hill was accurately determined.
However, Michael and I ran into a series of disputes over a few things about physics. In the end, however, they were solved, since Michael simply wrote down what he thought was right. After we finished the lab, we noticed that there was another hour to go before the quiz. So we went walking round and round the amusement park, but could not pluck up enough courage to go on most of the rides. Eventually, we treated ourselves to 2 minutes of bumper cars and 15 minutes of queuing. Immediately after that, we went to the cafeteria for the quiz. Again, we had lots of disputes, and again, they were solved by the same way.
After the quiz, we were quite tired, so we went straight home.
Today, we had Dr Ward’s class, Dr Waltham’s class, and Mr Zagoudakis’s class. During Dr Ward’s mathematics class, we learnt a bit about probability. We used the nCr and nPr buttons on our calculator and determined the probability of certain events happening using Combination and Permutation respectively. It was quite interesting. Mr Martin told us that according to normal syllabus, we would be learning this next year, so it is best that we pay attention now so as to reduce stress next year.
Then, we had Dr Waltham’s physics class. During Dr Waltham’s physics class, Michael D’Andrea and I presented our proposal with regards to solar power. Upon doing a few calculations on the board, we realised that it was a bit cheaper than burning fossil fuels! However, Michael D’Andrea was not very good at writing equations, so the simple calculations took an entire hour. Then, Mr Martin told us about a newspaper article featuring carbon credits.
After that, we had lunch.
Later, we had Mr Zag’s class. We talked a bit about the Renaissance. However, most of the English class was focused on Siddhartha. We talked about the first chapter, and explored the motifs in the story. After that, we had a break. Jonathan made use of the break and caused the printing workstations (which did not have internet connection) to display the Google webpage, so as to trick people. Then, an old lady came to talk to us about mentorship programs. In the latter half of Mr Zag’s class, we had a discussion about Othello, and watched part of the movie.
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