Did you feel that? Because the world was just flipped upside-down . . .

Today in physics lab, after an hour of hands-on fun with electrical circuits, we had group tutorial session, where, in groups of 3 or 4, we work through concepts of the physics that our professor will be addressing in class in the next lecture or two, and if we have questions about anything, one of the TAs sets us straight (which is why these sessions have come to be called "Wednesdays with Walter").

Today the topic was magnetic fields. We started off with regular bar magnets and stainless steel rods, but were quickly handed 3D compasses. I'd never seen one of those things before, but they're fantastic! So we were exploring the electric field lines around different configurations of magnets and such, when we stumbled upon a harrowing conclusion:

If the north "pole" of a magnet is always attracted to south "pole" of a magnet . . .
And the north "pole" of a compass magnet is always pointing to the magnetic "North Pole" of Earth . . .
Then the "North Pole" must actually be the polar SOUTH of the world's "magnet"!!!

Please don't fall out of your chair. I think I've done it enough today for both of us.

The sound of silence . . . every last second of it . . .

So, I'm in the midst of an all-nighter. My fourth of the semester, actually, so I'm starting to grow accustomed to seeing "4:30" on my watch more than once in a single day.

In an hour and a half, I'll be starting another Physics 202 exam. I rocked the first one, but completely bombed the second, which leaves me quite uncertain as to what to expect from Exam #3. It's an 8:00am class, but just so we can take our time taking the exams, our prof. comes in at 6:30, allowing us another hour-and-a-half. It's quite generous of him, but at the same time, it means that if you don't take advantage of it and find yourself running out of time, you can't stop kicking yourself. Yeah, kinda tricky.

SO, this has been just enough to keep me rollin', so I'm going to get back to the books. Thanks for helping me keep awake! ;)