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Feb. 18th, 2010 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaThis morning's progress was downloading the experiment I had running. This is a two hour process that involves first switching the machine from automatic mode to manual, changing the settings on two different computers (one has been controlling temperature, the other pressure), turning of the heat (quenching is fast--it goes from 650 C to room temperature in less than one minute!) then using the pumps to take the pressure off. That is the part that takes longest. Finally we open up the stack and take out the cylinder break it open and rescue the little gold capsules, clean them up, and drop them off in the lapidary room to be mounted into epoxy.
When that was done I was hungry, so I opened up a web browser to read a bit while I ate. It felt like 20 minutes. Hours slipped by without my noticing. Oops. So around 3pm I returned to working. This time struggling once again to figure out how to get the program we use to calculate the number of cations per mineral formula unit to give me the same results for the data my predecessor on this project got when he used the program. Alas, I can't figure out what settings he used. This is complicated in that I don't have his original data, just the processed data, and the processed data has been set to have an equal amount of FeO and Fe2O3. I can get an approximation by doubling the amount of FeO and using that in the input file (and no Fe2O3, of course), but there is still something very wrong with the settings I'm using as it is still giving different number of cations than he calculated, and his was charged balanced, while mine using his data has a charge deficiency. Sigh. I've e-mailed a report to my boss and asked him to look at the attached files and help me figure it out.
So now it is 20:30, I'm tired, and I've done not quite five hours worth of work, and only two of them were productive. So it goes. If I leave now I might be able to get to the grocery store before it closes at 21:00. Perhaps after that I'll return to organizing books, just to feel like I've accomplished something with the day...
(hoping that having to report a poor progress day will inspire a good progress day tomorrow!)
When that was done I was hungry, so I opened up a web browser to read a bit while I ate. It felt like 20 minutes. Hours slipped by without my noticing. Oops. So around 3pm I returned to working. This time struggling once again to figure out how to get the program we use to calculate the number of cations per mineral formula unit to give me the same results for the data my predecessor on this project got when he used the program. Alas, I can't figure out what settings he used. This is complicated in that I don't have his original data, just the processed data, and the processed data has been set to have an equal amount of FeO and Fe2O3. I can get an approximation by doubling the amount of FeO and using that in the input file (and no Fe2O3, of course), but there is still something very wrong with the settings I'm using as it is still giving different number of cations than he calculated, and his was charged balanced, while mine using his data has a charge deficiency. Sigh. I've e-mailed a report to my boss and asked him to look at the attached files and help me figure it out.
So now it is 20:30, I'm tired, and I've done not quite five hours worth of work, and only two of them were productive. So it goes. If I leave now I might be able to get to the grocery store before it closes at 21:00. Perhaps after that I'll return to organizing books, just to feel like I've accomplished something with the day...
(hoping that having to report a poor progress day will inspire a good progress day tomorrow!)
