I recently had a chance to take a class called MAE195: Numerical Methods. This course was offered in 2022 by the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of California, Irvine and taught by Perry Johnson. Basically, numerical methods are a way of approximating sometimes impossible-to-solve math problems with computers. You can create cool things like this, which is a contour plot of heat across (x-axis) a 1-d fin (right) exposed to a fluid whose temperature varies with time (left), with constant temperature boundary condition.

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I was biking a few days ago. In the roadway, I spotted what looked like a mobile phone. Once it was safe I went over, and sure enough, a phone. I wasn’t sure what type of phone it was but I picked it up. The screen is in bad shape, but when I got home, I plugged it in and it seems to power up, which is a good sign. I deconstructed it, and found that most components are in excellent shape, even the battery, which does not show any signs of mechanical damage.

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