Week three

It's hard to believe it, but I;m already at week three of this class. It's needing very little of my effort so far, it seems like everything's just coming to me. I think this is because of the class style. Gone are the days where I would have to cram everything we learned in a short amount of time just to get a good grade. No, it's different now. The hands-on labs are really getting results in to me, you know, stuff that I actually know now. It's incredible. But should I be so quick to make this conclusion? I have seen other people around me, confused and agitated so far. Although I can't compare, could I suggest that they should just pay attention? That's what I've been doing and it seems like it's been working well so far.

But now, about the meat of the class...the material, as I've said before, seems to be elementary, probably just because it's introduction material, and nothing that I would expect to be be mind-boggling. The conservation of mass relates to something  I was studying last year in physics: the conservation of energy if I think that's what it's called...? But anyways, we learned that energy in the system is always translated somewhere else, and you can only lose it to the environment via friction for example. I see this sort of as the same concept. You have a system, and mass (or energy) and within this system it must be preserved. Basic fundamentals. Something I hadn't really thought about was the difference of accuracy and precision. We did discuss this in physics, but I didn't have a good idea because our instructor explained in as if we were shooting at a target. Mr. Abud explained it a bit more realistic to the classroom environment, how observations can be accurate or precise based on the the observer and his or her equipment. I think that's just how it should be explained. Something else that was cool was how the amount of water mL is translated directly into volume. That's just cool.I see why the metric system is so much more superior to our own system. It's based on observations, not random guesses. Like, what is a foot anyhow? What's an inch? I know it's 25.4mm, but what does that mean? Twenty-five point four mm of what?

I know there's something else that I could be missing here in terms of what we've learned, but what is it? But hey, maybe I could suggest that if I can't remember this classroom concept, does this mean it has simply become common knowledge? Just a thought.