Category Archives: Science

Ankle Sprain

On Thursday I managed to sprain my ankle with some severity (Class II, most likely) while playing softball. I slid into third base, but did so too late so I hit the bag while still going pretty fast. I must have rolled my ankle right underneath me.

At the time it wasn’t very painful. I managed to limp off the field without any problems, but soon realized that my ankle felt funny… swollen (but not painful). I layed on the ground, but refused an initial offer for ice. After another minute, my ankle started swelling and was soon quite large—maybe the size of a softball.

Intramural sports had already dispensed their only ice bag for the evening, so Rachelle had to ride over to McDonald’s to get some ice for me. Stepnick graciously drove me home.

I spent Thursday night in the dorms, but quickly realized that I’d have a much better time this weekend at home with a couch and a TV to watch. My mom picked me up Friday morning, and I have been home since.

My ankle has made considerable progress in the last 48 hours. I can now walk on the ankle in a sort of unusual fashion. It doesn’t feel comfortable enough to really use very much yet. But it can load bear without any pain… a very good sign.

I should be back and walking in another day or two. Latin dance on Tuesday might be a little crazy, I might have to sit this week out.

All in all, I feel lucky that it wasn’t anything more severe. It did ruin a lot of my weekend, including missing the Gopher Spring Football Game at the Metrodome and the Drum Major Tryouts this afternoon.

I’ll post a few pictures of the injury when I get back to school tomorrow and have access to my camera again.

Barry Goldwater Scholarship

The 2005 Recipients of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship were released last week. There were 4 recipients from the University of Minnesota which is impressive because each institution can only nominate 4 students per year.

The 2005 Recipients from the U of M are:

  • Bradley M. Froehle (That’s me!)

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Major(s): Physics/Mathematics
Career Goal: Ph.D. in Physics/Condensed Matter. Conduct leading edge research in condensed matter physics and teach at the university level.

  • Loren Greenman

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Major(s): Chemistry/Chemical Engineering
Career Goal: Ph.D. in Chemistry. Conduct research in the area of computational chemistry at an academic institution or the industrial world.

  • Katie N. Lee

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Major(s): Biochemistry/Chemistry
Career Goal: M.D./Ph.D. in Cancer Research/Biochemistry/Pharmacology. Conduct research using new and established scientific concepts to investigate and translate basic science research into clinical solutions.

  • David P. Molitor

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Major(s): Mathematics/Physics
Career Goal: Ph.D. in Mathematics. Research mathematician in the field of combinatorics studying the applications of mathematics to physics and economics.

This scholarship is good for $7.5k/year for up to two years to cover Tuition, Fees, Textbooks, Room and Board.

Best humorous congratulations from a professor so far:

Brad,

Congratulations for the Scholarship. I guess you are not just sleeping in class. Yuichi

Coincidentally, David Molitor and I are going to be roommates during our class in Italy/Switzerland/France over May Session.

Putnam

The 2004 William Lowell Putnam was held on December 4, 2004. This year 3733 undergraduates representing 515 institutions participated. The test contains 12 problems and is given in two 3 hour segments. Each problem is worth a maximum of 10 points, resulting in 120 possible points. Most years the median score is very low, usually about 1 point.

Ten students participated at the University of Minnesota. Of these, 3 were selected before the competition to compete on behalf of the University in the team portion (calculated by summing the individual students’ scores).

2004 Team Members consisted of Matthew Korson, Derek Dalle, and myself. I haven’t heard how the team fared in the competition.

Personally I scored 46/120, placing me 122nd nationally.

This is up from last year’s performance, where I scored 30.3/120 and placed 200th. I definitely knew I did better than last year when I walked out of the test, but my feelings on the test’s difficulty still hold true.

Update: The University of Minnesota – Twin Cities team finished in 63rd place overall.

Amazon’s Shipping Estimates

Why does Amazon tell you Super Saver Shipping will take forever, especially when it usually ships way before the time they tell you it will.

For example, yesterday I ordered:

Shipping estimate for these items: February 21, 2005- February 21, 2005
Delivery estimate: February 24, 2005- February 28, 2005

“Colgate Phos-Flur Anti-Cavity Fluoride Rinse, Cool Mint – 16 oz”
Health and Beauty; $9.99

And yet it shipped today, February 14th, a full week before it was scheduled to ship.

I understand that the free shipping probably cuts significantly into Amazon’s bottom line (and therefore they’ll do a lot to get you to pay for shipping), but can they at least not lie about the ship date by a week!?

Update: The other items I ordered (3 books) were shipped the day after (Feb 15th). All arrived on Friday, February 18, almost a full week before the predicted arrival time.