Sliding Trebuchet
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At the beginning of my sophomore year, Mosaic hosted a trebuchet building and firing contest. The year before we built a standard trebuchet, but for the second time around we wanted to mix it up a little bit. We built a sliding arm trebuchet, to not only catch the eye of the other competitors, but also maximize efficiency by losing as little energy as possible. With the sliding arm trebuchet we also instead of having the weight drop at a slight slope, as with a standard trebuchet, we have the weight drop directly downward to allow the weight to maintain its velocity and the force it applies to the projectile. In this video it demonstrates the potential and the power of this trebuchet with only a 30 pound counterweight. This throw launched the softball 54 yards(162 FT). To see all other pictures and video click on the video below.
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Cryptography
As you may know, ciphers and cryptography play a huge role in our everyday lives; from credit transactions to sending a text to your parents. Ciphers not only make your life secure, but also makes mathematicians scratch their heads. As I began my study of cryptography I soon realized that the mathematics behind it become extremely complex as you dive deeper and deeper into the complexity of the cipher it-self. I soon learned many different types of ciphers, such as mono and poly alphabetic substitution ciphers, which uses addition, subtraction and multiplication to disguise a message, as well as poly-graphic ciphers, which uses matrices to encrypt a message. As I continued my studies in cryptography I began to expand my knowledge into public key cryptography. Public key cryptography, not only eliminates the need to communicate a secret key, but also deals with the complexity of extremely large prime numbers and uses those numbers in even more complex equations to ensure that the password to your WiFi is completely unknown, because the password never has to be transmitted anywhere but to it self. To preview my work and to see my process of learning cryptological mathematics click on the link below.
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Programming
Although there are various types of programming, I particularly took interest into Java. Java is an object oriented programming language, this type of programming deals with the skeletal structure of an application. Essentially making an app do what it is supposed to. I first began my programming by incorporating my math into the programs. This not only gave me a purpose for my code, but also a great opportunity to learn both math and Java at the same time. Some of the programs I made ranged from basic math functions to more complicated cipher encrypters as well as decrypters. For the process as well as the complete text file for game click on the link below.
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World Affairs Challenge
In the Spring of 2016 a team of 6 students all engaged in finding a solution to issues around the world. This year the theme was Smart Village and we chose to focus in Haiti. Our research then led us to not only focus on the unemployment rate, but also the dependency Haiti has on imported rice. Through this competition we explored the legalities of tariffs, and also the affects of these tariffs will have on Haiti. This presentation prep video outlines our goals and ideas for a Smart Village in Haiti. For specific details please click on the link below.
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American Sign Language
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Freshman Year I took a huge interest into American Sign Language. I practiced through silent chats as well as through vlogs, the signing of songs and just 'one on one' conversations with my ASL teacher, Ms. Payne. This year I will be continuing my ASL study as an independent study, and will transition from songs to poetry, which I believe will be an amazing experience and give me the opportunity to really express how I feel about the poem through Sign Language. This video is just one of the many videos that I have documenting my progress in learning American Sign Language. The link below will direct you to my entire directory of my videos.
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November 22nd 2016