Christopher Ibarra, Physics 1010, Professor Schaffer

My experience doing my Physics 1010 project was fun, educational, and more expensive
than I thought. I picked making a scale model of a star constellation, and had a hard time
deciding between Libra, Leo, and Orion. I knew that this would entail doing research on each
star, calculating distance to scale down to model level, and supplies to make the model. I
recognized some aspects of this process from previous classes and previous projects.
My overall experience was fun, I love painting and I ended up having to paint all of it.
The galaxy has always had my interest so doing research on my own and learning about each star
wasnt only educational but super interesting. Although what I had thought was the cheapest
project out of the list turned out to cost around 30$ after everything.
I ended up picking Libra solely because its my astrological sign, and its the
constellation that Im most familiar with. I researched each of the main stars, Zubenschamali,
Zubenelakrab, Zubenelgenubi, Upsilon Librae, Sigma Librae, and Tau Librae. I learned that the
constellation consists of blue dwarfs, orange giants, and a red giant, as well as Zubenelgenubi
being a system of its own consisting of two main stars a1 and a2. I calculated the light years of
each star from earth into miles, I then took the miles difference from the closest, Zubenelgenubi,
to the farthest, Tau Librae. I then fitted that difference accordingly to the size of the base that I
had which was a 2x4 foam board. I ordered each star from closest to farthest on the board
considering the difference between each one and leveled the height solely on constellation shape.
I used wooden dowels and wooden balls for the stars, and cardboard as the background. I used
small balls for the dwarf stars, and bigger ones for the giants, as well as two small balls for a1
and a1 connected together. I painted the whole background black with some stars, the dowels
black to blend in with the background, and each star accordingly, (orange and red, red and
orange, blue and black, blue and white, white for a1 and a2). I labeled each star accordingly and I

used some tape and super glue to hold it all together and there it was.

I believe the most challenging part of this project was probably this reflective essay.
Calculating, building, and painting isnt so much as a problem to me as writing. Although there
were a few bumps in the road, finding all the supplies, and figuring out what to use, it all turned

out better than I thought. I couldnt help but think about gravitational forces and other topics we
discussed in class while planning this out and building it. Overall, even though I felt a little lost
in the class due to things that I felt were beyond me, I feel that I learned allot and can use allot of
these tools that Ive learned in the future.