The Age of AI and "Deepfakes"

We all love the realism of new graphic and video technologies, which have brought on unbelievable movies and presentation options. However, like any technology ever invented by human beings, other human beings figure out negative ways of using the tech.

Here comes the age of Artificial Intelligence and the "Deepfake." The possibility of creating totally realistic, but totally made up and fake, videos, is here. It will soon be possible to make videos of anyone doing whatever you can imagine, and posting them to set them up, and it will be near impossible to determine and prove they are fake. The implications for this are mind-boggling and terrifying. In a pretty deeply divided country presently, the deepening of the divide could happen by one fake advertisement during a campaign...and it could be done by an individual, anywhere in the world, who might not be tracked down. And endless possibilities for someone with negative intentions. Check one out - the most famous example, and remember this is really primitive since it is a year or two old.

If you are interested in computer science, this is an area we need top talent to work on to give us tools to identify fakes from reality...this is a world changer! 

Summer Opportunities for Juniors, 2020

Hi, Rising Seniors!! This has a nice ring to it!

I hope you have been well, and I miss you! But, as the shutdowns are likely to continue through the summer, and since the school will be closed, summer programs canceled, etc., there are a number of possibilities to get involved with things (remotely) over the summer, besides research options.

Check out descriptions of things for details here.

Put your name under any of these that you are interested in here.
You need to be in your eths202 account to access these.

This video does a brief description of these opportunities.

CONGRATULATIONS, Class of 2020!!

A few thoughts for you....

Rotations example: Lab problem to find moment of inertia of a rotating contraption

Thanks to Sofia for finding this sample lab-based problem. It is really similar to our bike wheel lab at school. In fact, had we been in school, we would have done this exact experiment!!

This is another example of a typical lab problem (and how we do labs in real life). What can we measure? What quantities is moment of inertia related to (think torque = I*alpha)? What graph will yield a result from its slope for the quantity we are looking for?

Check this out for a nice example with rotations.

CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2020!!! Our last HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

This goes out to the seniors!! 

I love you all, and am SSSSSOOOOOOOO proud of you!!!!

Moment of Inertia with a NON-UNIFORM linear mass density....YIKES!!

Things don't usually seem promising when you hear phrases like, "non-uniform linear mass density!" That just sounds nasty difficult! But if you step back and give it a chance, it allows us to look at objects other than just, say, nice neat sticks like a meterstick, that is uniform....the mass is distributed evenly along the length of the stick, with the center of mass at the actual center of the stick. But what about something like a baseball bat, where the mass per unit length changes along the stick, as it gets wider and heavier on one side compared to the skinny side. The center of mass of a baseball bat is not at the actual middle of the bat.

Linear mass density is the ratio of Mass/Length, or M/L (the symbol is lambda). We use this ratio when we calculate the integral for the moment of inertia of a stick. But what if we want to set things up for the baseball bat? How do we find the moment of inertia for a non-uniform stick? This video shows an example, which comes from the 2018 AP exam.

SENIORS: Share your COVID-19 story!!

Seniors, PBSNewHour is using #SeniorPortrait to allow you to post and be recognized for videos about your senior year experience during the pandemic. If interested, go here to get the details and share your thoughts on Instagram, Twitter, and/or Facebook. You may get your video to be broadcast on a nightly NewsHour show, which generally has about 2 million viewers.

Lab-based problem examples for Physics classes

A classic purpose of experiments done in high school, college, and even for professional scientists, is to get experimental values for different constants or parameters used in theories or mathematical models. This is a fundamental piece of data analysis skills science students need. And very often, this process makes use of graphs that are linearized, and the slope of the graph can be used to get the value you are after.

For a class problem or lab, how do we go about using data to make a graph that will help us find some value of a constant? In physics, maybe we want to use data from some experiment to make a graph that will help us determine the mass of an object, or an acceleration value, or a spring constant value, or the value of a resistor or capacitor in some circuit.

To hopefully help you understand how to do this, this video provides 3 mechanics examples that outline the way of thinking in lab-based problems.

3 Chem/Phys Last Week AP Prep Resources

Hope all is well!! Here are some quick links for convenience:
- For practice problems similar to this year's 2 AP exam problems
- For videos on just about any topic we do (focus on anything mechanics related)
- For old AP exams, solutions (logged in with eths202)
- For other review sets and solutions, quizzam solutions, can check any unit folders (logged in with eths202)

Hope this helps!!

For this last week, try at least 5 old AP problems on any mechanics based topics you think are most beneficial for you - so think of the topics/problems that challenge you the most, and try them so we can be sure to figure out what's going on.  At least 2 of them should be lab-based. This is what will be put in HAC. Our sessions will focus on whatever topics you need to review, so we'll be doing a lot of theory and examples together - come with questions! 

The AP Mechanics exam is Monday, May 11, at 11 AM! For ALL DETAILS OF THIS YEAR'S EXAMS, SEE THIS COLLEGE BOARD RESOURCE.

College Board for Students: Getting ready for Exam Day

COLLEGE BOARD VIDEOS EXPLAINING AP EXAMS

COLLEGE BOARD EXAM DAY CHECKLIST

If interested, sign up to tutor K-8 students!

Some juniors have set up a volunteer, free tutoring service for K-8 students in District 65. If you have any interest in helping with this effort, sign up and join the fun. For more information, check out the website the students have created. This is set up in conjunction with Evanston Cradle to Career. Thank you Ana, for setting this up - it's a great day to be a Wildkit!!