life. faithful.

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." Those are bold words, spoken by a man who wasn't afraid to stir things up a bit--Albert Einstein. And though it may go against my better judgment (or maybe it just makes me nervous) I'm going to take a chance at stirring things up a bit myself... I still find it hard to believe at times, but I'm in the world of science. I still hesitate to call myself a scientist and don't know if I'll ever really feel like I can call myself a physicist, but after all life's twists and turns I've found myself right in the middle of a world that somehow seems both disconnected and intricately blended with the world of faith in which I grew up. Some people, it seems, think those two worlds--one of science and one of faith--should never collide. I'm not sure what chaos they think might come about as a result, but surely it would be something terrifying and life shattering. You know wha...

So, I'm thinking it's time for another physics lesson...and this time we're going with a bit of electricity. Electricity and magnetism have never been my favorite--just ask Dr. Hemmati, my professor for that subject in undergrad!    ~Don't get me wrong; I'm definitely a big fan of all the wonderful things we have because of electricity. I'm just not a big fan of all the crazy things behind it: Maxwell's equations, Poisson's equation, Laplace's equation...the list goes on, but I won't :0) Honestly, though, I'm one of those rare physicists who would be perfectly content saying, "You flip the switch, magic happens, and the lights come on!"...which doesn't go over so well with professors. This semester, though, I'm taking Classical Electrodynamics I, my first grad school electricity course. The professor is great and has this novel idea that he should teach us things (sadly a rare thing among way too many teachers...but ...