Light's Path

A new course has arisen, Light Sound & Time is the hybrid math and science class this winter term. Of course, you can tell by the name that the focus of the units are going to be of sound and light, plus how time affects them, with this first unit focusing on light. Now what would be a way to demonstrate knowledge on light? Well with this action project, we created pinhole cameras as well as develop custom negative exposure photos utilizing props to make silhouette and such. The difficulties came with time restraints however, as the picture taken with the pinhole was shown to be rather... ineffective, with little to no results. Yet, should you desire to see the actual project in full, just check it out down below, and I hope you enjoy.

What you see above, is my pin hole camera. I digital scribble out my full name for privacy reasons. What you see on the left is the picture I took... Not exactly clear, but an attempt was made, I if I ever decide to do this again in the future, I'll know that I need much more time. It was also interesting to see how the custom exposure picture developed so much quicker than this one, but I'll get to that later.

With the diagram on the right, you can see how exactly the process of capturing such light happens. The light reflects off of the figure/focus, and the those reflecting light waves are isolated as they go through the pin hole, burning and chemically changing the photosensitive paper. When the light actually goes through the hole, it gets flipped, both upside-down and backwards. After there's been enough exposure time, the picture is supposed to be developed in a dark room, utilizing other chemicals and water to clearly show the changes that happened. Think of it as using UV rays after writing on paper with invisible ink.

Now, there's actually one important aspect of setting up the layout, and that would be calculations. Seeing as how there's some trigonometry involved, I had to calculate the height of my object, the pinhole, and then approximate the distance between the 2. Now I have a triangle within a triangle, and a blank hypothenuse. This is where some things get slightly complex, but hopefully, the visual makes things easier to grasp and fully understand.

So since the total distance was 6.6 inches, and I know that the box was 3 inches, I now can simply subtract the 3 from 6.6 and get the actual distance between the object and my camera, which was 3.3 inches. Now to demonstrate that the course isn't all just science, I'll throw in a calculation for the hypothenuse, which is shown through visuals on the right. Remember how I measure the heights of the pinhole and the object of focus (which is indeed a stone grim reaper skull), well using the height of my object, and know the complete length of my box + the distance, I can tell you just how far the light would have to travel. So using the simple Pythagorean Theorem, which is "a^2+b^2=c^2" thus 6 squared (36) + 6.6 squared (43.56) = 79.56. Since c is squared, we find the square root of our answer, which is about 8.9. The light would travel those 8.9 inches (which is 0.22606 meters, which we'll divide by 300 million since that's the approximate speed of light in meters) in roughly a ten millionth of a second. Yeah it's pretty much instantaneous, however theoretically, there is a delay of sorts.

Now in regards to the actual box, well the inside of it is all black and of course, it's completely covered. This is because the color black is when a surface absorbs all manner of light, whereas color itself is just a mix of the reflected light that we see coming to us. Something that's red is reflecting red, absorbing green and blue, that's how it works. This was a tough thing to actually 100% complete as paint on cardboard has quite an odd consistency, if you can call it that. Now, with the pinhole, the best results were using an aluminum can as somewhat of a lens, and a minuscule hole (aptly name pinhole as I'm sure you've figured) so the light only goes through that space. Something else to mention is the shutter. Now, shutter speed might be a familiar term to any of you photographers out there, but to those of you who may not know, conventional cameras don't snap something and then create a picture, they have a shutter, something that blocks in the light and only allows it to come through when the user desires to capture a moment. Shutter speed is essentially a wall that has a moving slit, therefore, if something moves during that moment of the shutter sliding through, it'll have a great obstruction of even a fancy illusion. It depends on how you look at it. My shutter speed lasted for 3 minutes, so that would calculate to it take 1 picture every 180 seconds, which can be advantageous for more surreal shots, or in a scenario like this where you're required to have an extended exposure. Most conventional shutter speeds are a literal fraction of a second, dwelling all the way down to an insanely fast ten thousandth of a second, which is truly outstanding when you think about that from a technological aspect.

 Light is quite a unique thing, as it acts as both a particle and a wave, because when intersected with itself, the rays get amplified in brightness and go through each other, rather than what a particle would do since that would simply bounce off of other particles. Incidentally, light emits heat and energy called photons, which can be distributed very similarly as a particle would. Light is essentially a hybrid with it's form and with the way it acts. That's why there's the term refraction, which is a word to represent how light can bend and make an image appear altered, like a pen in a glass of water. The water obstructs the form of the pen, or rather, it seems to. That's because water changes the angle and speed of the light as it comes in. Luckily, and arguably, unfortunately, we didn't have to deal with this obstacle with our pinhole cameras, since there was nothing for the light to refract off of, giving us a clean and solid look to the photos we've taken... Assuming they developed properly.

On the bright side, the custom picture developed quite clearly, and I'm rather proud of the result. With that, I hope I've taught you something knew, or even that you simply enjoyed reading through this.

Declaration of Art Dependence

The new term rolls up with a new project in the course called Argument, a mix of history and writing alongside the fundamentals of an argument. Speaking of arguments, you may be wondering why there's a whole class revolving around it, but it's a little known fact that "argument" actually has origins from the word clarify. So rather than the negative connotation of argument, you should see it more as a debate class, since that's easier to wrap your head around. To digress, the first Action Project for this class had us create our own Declaration of Independent Study. Yes, independent study. We essentially write up an organized passage, similar to the declaration, featuring an introduction, preamble, body paragraphs, and a conclusion, and those will tell GCE why this desired class would be beneficial to the students. It was no doubt challenging thinking of a subject matter, however I did manage to think of something and was quite proud of my result. Speaking of that result, just look down below to see my Declaration for an Arts Class unfold!

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We the students are always preoccupied with a variety of classes that do indeed educate us in several ways. Sometimes, we debate and speak out, verbalize, other times we solve, and at moments, we even create. As stand alone methods, each one provides its own benefits and drawbacks, but classes truly shine out as effective when they mix some of these methods, something that GCE specializes in. Hybrid classes that mix several subjects is no doubt a strong trait that this high school carries, but has that idea truly been executed in the most effective way possible?

Schools are intended to prepare us for the world, as well as give us enough knowledge to provide a solid education to not only the next generation, but further ones to come after, and that's how we've learned to speak up, to treat others equally, and many other things. Now to say what you want, solve the world's problems, and to have creative solutions to the problems you assertively address, that's truly something to teach the next generation. We the students, the people, the citizens of Earth; we have unalienable rights to speak our mind, the freedom to treat each other equally, but express ourselves with passion, to be ourselves without the fear of being scrutinized. Those are our rights as citizens of the Earth. Now if you think about it, how many entertaining mediums are out that that express things to teach the new generation in a creative manner? Arts.

Arts help express the lessons we feel are necessary to share with each other, solving problems through conceptual visualization, determining what is fair and far from fair through writing, and even to compose melodies in tribute to those we've either lost, or care for. Arts are not limited by anything, as they are represented by music, poetry, story-telling, film, and of course –the most common idea when that word is heard– visual arts. Arts of the World would be a relatively perfect class, as it's an open minded course that would welcome all kinds of ideas to be executed or expressed. Nothing is limited to visuals, or even the ground beneath us. At times, it's even best to look towards the sky, and aim at the stars above. We, the citizens of Earth, are not limited to helping the same of our kind, as the goal of this final period, extracurricular-type class would be to do anything, to create a story, to develop a debate, to compose something to express your feelings, truly anything. Art is never limited, and we, the people of Earth, are never limited. It only takes time and dedication, for everything is feasible, and anything is possible.

With that, I ask you. I ask us. What drives you to be who you are, and how can you show that to the world? How can you contribute to Earth? That is my guiding question. With any chance, we get enthusiastic participants that are excited to behold such an opportunity to express, solve, or create, and those are the goals for Arts of the World.

Who would teach and handle such a multitude of subjects? Multiple professionals of course. Other creative minds that wish to assist the youth in solving the world's struggles, with architecture, biotechnology, pure design and engineering, etc. Or perhaps to express themselves with the assistance of poets, artists, and even actors or film makers of documentaries. Then there's always the chance of fellow writers, other artists, musicians, and more helping we –the new generation for our planet– create anything and everything. It's an ambitious goal, but most of these traits are already held within GCE itself, as these are talents shared or found within the staff itself. Arts of the World will not need to have a very long search in order to organize a course like this, one that can easily reside in GCE, especially considering the recent expansion (which is still under construction at the time of this post [Feb. 16, 2016]).  If anything, Arts of the World wouldn't require too much outside of instruments, which could be provide by the Old Town School of Folk Music should a partnership be provided. Just as we already know, nothing is impossible, and anything is feasible.

A comparison of Class, VG, 2016

Arts of the World compiles everything, from solving problems, creating stories, teaching lessons, expressing ideas, and sharing experiences. This is what teachings today try to focus on individually, yet the goal to combine them all is what will truly provide an extracurricular class that everyone can access and relate to. That is how we, the citizens of Earth, may start to contribute to the planet. All through the immense portal of expression and creativity known as art. That is how Art of the World will benefit the education system.


Table of Contents:
¶1-Can education improve?
¶2-How will that be achieved (concept)?
¶3-How will that be achieved (execution/coursework)?
¶4-How will that be achieved (people/materials)?
Conclusion-The purpose of the class?