Dow, Niagara Falls, and Toronto

Currently I am working at Dow Solar PowerHouse, which is one of the small sectors of Dow which sells directly to consumers. Our product is the Dow Solar Shingle, which can be installed in any residential roof. The shingles we produce are strong enough to withstand hail while providing thousands of watts for your home every year.

Turn hot roofs into home electricity

Since I can't really go into details about job specifics, let me just say that working with this team has been a wonderful experience, and that for a first-time Co-Op, I'm very pleased with the amount of responsibility Dow has given me. 

After my first week of work, we had memorial day weekend. In order to best take advantage of the holiday, I went to see of the great world wonders, Niagara Falls! Since it takes around 5 hours to go between Midland and Niagara, I also slept over in Toronto.

In order to get to Niagara Falls, I first had to drive though Canada. And let me say, everything looks very different in Canada. I was first excited to see the speed limits say 100, until I realized it meant 100 km/hr which translates to only 62 mph. Also, all the highway signs had crowns for some reason.

These roads must be royalty

Eventually I did make it, evident by the large building that told me I was here.

Niagara Falls Souvenir Hub

After walking behind the gateway building, I found a fenced-in river that simply disappeared over an edge. I expected a white-water rapids, but the waters were actually quite calm (before the drop that is).

 Right Side of the American Falls

It turns out what I had found was the American Falls, which releases water at an impressive 75,000 gal/sec! In order to see more, I took a bridge to see the american falls from the other bank.

Left Side of the American Falls

One interesting part of the American Falls I found was this side stream.

Some sort of Niagara creek?

I also got really close to the edge of the American falls and looked down below to see a bunch of people in rain ponchos getting soaked. If I ever came back, I would probably join them.

Cave of the Winds

I was pleasantly surprised with how close the guard railing got to the edge of the falls. I'd imagine if I had kids this would be quite the traumatic experience.

Bryan and the American Falls

One part of the falls that I found particularly enjoyable were the logs that were trapped on the edge. Imagine the thrill if you were swimming in the river, being pulled toward the falls, but at the last second you managed to cling onto one of these logs. I wonder if that's ever happened.

Those are some lucky logs

The other main waterfall of the Niagara falls is the Horseshoe Falls.

Horseshoe Falls Plume

I was surprised to learn that Horseshoe falls releases water at 675,000 gal/sec, 9x more than American Falls!

Horseshoe Falls

While looking over the edge of Horseshoe falls, I manged to catch the Maid of the Mist diving head-fist into the misty plume of the Horseshoe Falls.

The Maid of the Mist

This was truly the iconic part of Niagara Falls that I always envisioned. How a waterfall can be so big truly boggles the mind.

Horseshoe Falls

Afterward it was time for me to go over to Toronto.

Hello Toronto

My car ran out of gas, and that's when the trouble began. Unfortunately, when I managed to find a gas station, I didn't even know how outraged I was supposed to be.

What units are these?!?!

126.6 Canadian cents/Liter x (1 Liter/0.264 gallons) x (1 dollar/100 cents) x(0.9764 US Dollars/1 Canadian Dollar)= 4.68 US Dollars/Gallon! Angry time!

The next step was finding parking. Eventually I fund a place that only charged ten dollars to stay overnight.

Bryan has landed

On the way to my hostel, I walked through Toronto's China town.

Toronto's China Town

I also found this gem on the way. Nice to see the home state has such far-reaching influence.

What if I went all the way from Austin to Toronto for this?

Also, it wouldn't be a visit to Canada without trying the quintessential Canadian dish, poutine.

Poutine

I also treated myself to a green apple smoothie drink at Second Cup, some sort of Canadian equivalent to Starbucks.

Green Apple Drink

By far though the most dominating feature of Toronto was the CN tower. In fact, if it wasn't only the 3rd highest tower in the world, I might have paid the $30 they charge for letting me take the elevator up.

CN Tower

After I finished my walk through Toronto, I realized it was time to get back to work. And to tell the truth, I felt relieved coming back to the USA. Even the strange Michigan welcome sign felt good to see.

Back to the Good Ol' USA

Next week Caiqian is coming to visit, so stay tuned for more!

Vortex Guns, The Gateway Arch, and Driving with Dad to Dow

After Skydiving in San Marcos, it was finally time to drive north to Midland, Michigan, where my Dow internship was waiting for me. But before I left Austin, I managed to squeeze in some last minute antics. So let me introduce you to... the vortex gun!

Vortex Gun Apparatus

The vortex gun is an air gun which, when fired, shoots toroidal (donut-shaped) rings of smoke. In the second picture below, you can see Caiqian's toroidal projectile.

Caiqian shooting a successful vortex ring

Below is a video of me and mom shooting some successful vortex rings.

The first stop on our road trip was Dallas, where Dad's old friend Tony lived. Dad and Tony have been friends since their high school years in Stuyvesant, where they met at a Dungeons & Dragon's club.

A Man and his Friend

Next we tried to identify some land ownings my dad has. What was interesting was that at the office, all the searching was entirely manual. The office had rows and rows of bookshelves full of land titles. In fact, the place had so many bookshelves that they made moving bookshelves in order to store all the books. When they close, it's like an Indiana Jones movie! Below is a video showing how the bookshelves operated.

Next stop was Saint Louis, where we visited the Gateway Arch.

The Gateway Arch (picture by yours truly)

The Arch was a truly magnificent sight to behold. And beneath is was a beautiful green park.

Park Beneath the Arch

When I got closer I was able to marvel at just how large the base of the arch was.

Me Standing at the Base

At the base there's also a fascinating view of the underside of the arch.

View From Beneath

Fortunately, dad had previously bought tickets to go to the top. To get to the trolley ride we went down a pathway that went underneath the arch.

Entrance to the Trolley

On the way to the trolley ride up we went through an old museum which gave a history of the arch.

Construction of the Arch

The most fascinating part of the arch for me was that its shape is the upside-down shape of a thin rope held at two points. When a rope is held at two points the resulting shape of the arch is called a catenary curve. Another fact of the arch was that its base was exactly equal to its height. With these two facts, I was able to  numerically solve the exact equation for a catenary curve where the base is equal to the height. My results are show below.

I had fun numerically solving the caternary curve of the arch

The equation works!

After the museum we finally squeezed our way into the tiny five-seater trolleys.

The Trolley

And here's me and dad at the top (notice the tiny looking glass windows).

Me and Dad at the top.

The view at the top was unique. My favorite part was the romantic sign being unfolded below.

Views Below

After the arch, Dad and I stopped at another one of his friend's houses. This time, we were visiting Jim and Karen. Jim was a college friend of Dad's, and story goes that my dad taught Jim calculus while they were both at the University of Michigan.

Jim and Karen

Jim and Karen have two wonderful sons, Robert and Will. One interesting thing about Will was that he enjoyed having a colorful nylon rope burned into a closed loop in order for him to have a wristband.

The family around an acetylene torch

Our last stop on our road trip was to dad's old school, the University of Michigan!

We're here!

The Michigan campus is very pretty, and even UT could learn a thing or two from Michigan's luscious grass.

Dad and I at his Old University

One sculpture that I did find interesting was this one below. For some reason it reminded me of a sculpture from UT.

Mark di Suvero's Orion, made at the University of Michigan in 2006

And with good reason!

Mark di Suvero's Clockknot, made at the UT Autin in 2007

As we drove out, Dad and I finally passed by his old house where he used to live in his college years. Even the fact that he remembered how to get there was commendable. Kudos dad!

Dad's Old House

After over twenty five hours of driving, we finally made it to my Dow housing in Midland.

My New Apartment

When I arrived the apartment was empty. But after Dad and I drove out to get some food and then returned, I met my first ever apartment-mate, Ben (but he calls himself BJ) Byers.

Me and BJ

Next up, expect to hear some first-day stories at my first internship ever, at Dow Headquarters!