Richard Feynman in 1955 gave a speech where he said:
“It is true that few unscientific people have this particular type of religious experience. Our poets do not write about it; our artists do not try to portray this remarkable thing. I don’t know why. Is nobody inspired by our present picture of the universe? The value of science remains unsung by signers, so you are reduced to hearing—not a song or a poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age.”
In 2020, when covid hit, I found myself, like most others, unsure whether I would work as an actor again, unsure what the world would look like, unsure even when/if the world would return to normal. It was then I decided to go learn this “remarkable thing”. And in 2026, I graduated from The City College of New York with a BS in Physics.
I went in unsure whether I would be capable of pursuing such a rigorous task, but I felt I was being called upon personally by Feynman from 65 years ago to pick up the helm to go out and bring some of the wonders of science into the arts. Along the way I found myself capable and continuously interested, humbled and in wonder at what could be considered the most beautiful and marvelous collaborative human accomplishment that is the mosaic of our understanding of the natural world.
As time goes on, I hope that I keep learning, keep growing and finding ways for others to see that remarkable thing, not in a lecture, but in a poem, play, or film. Below are a few of my projects I have done if you’re interested.
Artemis II Trajectory
Like most of us, I was enamored by the Integrity crew’s journey to the moon and back in April of 2026. For a final project in Astrophysics at CCNY, I plotted their motion to the moon and back.
A plot that uses the same data from JPL Horizon showing the beauty of the symmetry between the velocity Integrity vs their position relative to the earth.
Trajectory of a baseball with air resistence
Aaron Judge’s longest recorded home run modeled with air resistance.
For a final project in my classical mechanics course at CCNY, I modeled Judge’s longest recorded home run to included air resistance. One can see that the path still falls short. Additional parameters, such as the Magnus force I believe need to be considered.
HR Diagram of cluster of stars around vega
Hertzsprung-Russel Diagram for a group of stars | Database: SIMBAD: Query by criteria
Spectroscopy of two unknown sources
Using this cutout spectrometer and a DVD one can analyze the spectral makeup of a given light.
Spectral analysis of a compact fluorescent bulb.
Converted x-axis to from pixels to wavelength (nm)
Spectral analysis a single source mysterious gas.
Converted x-axis to from pixels to wavelength (nm)
The mysterious gas resulted in wavelengths that fit hydrogen gas.