Uploaded June 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A detailed research notebook is an indispensable tool for keeping track of what you've done and when you did it. In this video, I'll walk you through a few simple rules I use for my notebooks, and show examples of how to implement them in yours. If you think keeping notes is a waste of time, then maybe this video isn't for you, and we can't be friends.
00:00 - Introduction
00:20 - Background
00:49 - Notebook types
01:49 - Writing utensils
02:22 - General content structure
02:47 - Page numbering
03:11 - Dates and highlighting
04:33 - Referencing pages and notebooks
05:10 - Adding figures
05:22 - Extra notes, corrections
06:05 - Finishing up
===== NOTES =====
- This is how I do it. There is no right answer here. Do what you want.
===== LINKS =====
Note: These are Amazon affiliate links. If you use these links to purchase any of the items, it helps me out a little bit.
► Oxford Composition Notebook (100 sheets, quad ruled), $4.49 at this moment
amzn.to/3wTIZLV
► National Laboratory Notebook (96 sheets, quad ruled), $10.79 at this moment
amzn.to/3yXHYEb
► Adams Record Ledger (300 pages, my preference), $34.11 at this moment
amzn.to/2S0aaFO
► Pilot G2 0.7mm (five-color pack: black, blue, red, green, purple), $6.79 at the moment
amzn.to/3uH76vI
► Pilot G2 0.7mm (5 black, 5 blue), $15.97 at the moment
amzn.to/3vGYExX
► BIC Brite Liner Grip Highlighter (five-color pack: pink, blue, green, orange, yellow), $4.89 at the moment
amzn.to/34AiZcl
A detailed research notebook is an indispensable tool for keeping track of what you've done and when you did it. In this video, I'll walk you through a few simple rules I use for my notebooks, and show examples of how to implement them in yours. If you think keeping notes is a waste of time, then maybe this video isn't for you, and we can't be friends.
00:00 - Introduction
00:20 - Background
00:49 - Notebook types
01:49 - Writing utensils
02:22 - General content structure
02:47 - Page numbering
03:11 - Dates and highlighting
04:33 - Referencing pages and notebooks
05:10 - Adding figures
05:22 - Extra notes, corrections
06:05 - Finishing up
===== NOTES =====
- This is how I do it. There is no right answer here. Do what you want.
===== LINKS =====
Note: These are Amazon affiliate links. If you use these links to purchase any of the items, it helps me out a little bit.
► Oxford Composition Notebook (100 sheets, quad ruled), $4.49 at this moment
amzn.to/3wTIZLV
► National Laboratory Notebook (96 sheets, quad ruled), $10.79 at this moment
amzn.to/3yXHYEb
► Adams Record Ledger (300 pages, my preference), $34.11 at this moment
amzn.to/2S0aaFO
► Pilot G2 0.7mm (five-color pack: black, blue, red, green, purple), $6.79 at the moment
amzn.to/3uH76vI
► Pilot G2 0.7mm (5 black, 5 blue), $15.97 at the moment
amzn.to/3vGYExX
► BIC Brite Liner Grip Highlighter (five-color pack: pink, blue, green, orange, yellow), $4.89 at the moment
amzn.to/34AiZcl


![Explained: Edit Text Box GUI [MATLAB]
Edit text boxes can be used to input numbers or strings in your GUI. This video explains how create an edit text box and retrieve both string data and double data from it. Explained: Edit Text Box GUI [MATLAB]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GfsClzG-fls/mqdefault.jpg)
![How To: Find Mach Number from a Picture (Part 2)
Want to look at a picture of a bullet/plane/etc. and be able to approximate the Mach number? In the previous video on this topic (linked to below), I showed three different methods of approximating the Mach number from angles measured in a Schlieren image.
https://goo.gl/50saau
When using the Taylor-Maccoll code, I used the shock wave angle and the Mach number guess as inputs to return a cone angle. The cone angle was then compared to the cone angle measured in GIMP using the Measure Tool. In this video, Ive updated the code so that it plots a contour plot of the Mach number (cone plotted in black). I am able to overlay that image onto the actual Schlieren image, adjust the opacity of the overlay, and compare the solution from Taylor-Maccoll theory to the actual shock seen in testing.
Photo Credit:
By NASA Glenn Research Center [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons How To: Find Mach Number from a Picture (Part 2)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/H25svaGf9-Y/mqdefault.jpg)

![Explained: Assumptions for Axisymmetric Conical Flow [Taylor-Maccoll]
Its extremely important to understand the assumptions used to derive an equation. This video goes over the assumptions we will be using for the Taylor-Maccoll conical flow problem, and the impact each assumption will have later on in the derivation. Explained: Assumptions for Axisymmetric Conical Flow [Taylor-Maccoll]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HIDeIZO0z-8/mqdefault.jpg)

![Explained: Supercritical Airfoil [Airplanes]
At transonic speeds, shocks waves form on the wings of an aircraft. Wave drag due to the presence of shocks can become a large portion of the overall drag on the aircraft. A supercritical airfoil can be used to delay the onset of shocks, and thus enable faster cruising speeds.
If you would like some more background on the subject, feel free to watch the following videos.
http://goo.gl/hCKHgf
http://goo.gl/iFxmXs
There are a couple things I want to mention briefly regarding drag. I mentioned the critical Mach number in the video, but neglected to include the drag divergence Mach number. Nothing particularly special happens at the critical Mach number. The shock wave or pressure wave that is formed is actually fairly weak because the flow doesn’t need to slow down too much through the shock wave. There is, however, a freestream Mach number at which the drag starts to suddenly increase quite a bit. This Mach number is the drag divergence Mach number, and is actually more important than the critical Mach number when designing planes. Wave drag occurs due to the presence of shock waves, and as the Mach number increases, wave drag also increases. If you’d like to read some more about the drag divergence Mach number, here are some references to get you started.
Modern Compressible Flow, John D. Anderson, pg. 345
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_divergence_Mach_number
http://www.adl.gatech.edu/research/extrovert/classes/hispd/hispd_notes06.pdf
http://adg.stanford.edu/aa241/drag/cdcintro.html
http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/reports/1947/naca-tn-1396.pdf (pg. 6 under Drag Characteristics) Explained: Supercritical Airfoil [Airplanes]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HfW5YTjnp8k/mqdefault.jpg)
![Explained: ASCII Art Creator [MATLAB]
This video details the steps in writing a code that creates an ASCII image from a picture of your choosing. The code is written in MATLAB. The pixel values (0-255) are used to determine the ASCII character to substitute in the picture. The image can be resized in the code for easier viewing.
I use the text editor Notepad++ because it allows me to zoom on the picture. The code also contains a line that resizes the image to make it more manageable.
Here are some things to keep in mind.
1. More ASCII characters can be added to the code, but the intensity variable must also be changed.
2. The characters in the symbols variable are in order of decreasing darkness. That is, the first symbol in the array is the one that appears darkest in the final image, and the last symbol is the one that appears lightest.
3. I chose the resizing values (60 by 200) based on how the final text file fit in Notepad++ when I scrolled to the extent of the window. These values can be played around with and may be different on your computer. Another way to resize the image is to replace the [x,y] part of the imresize function inputs by a single number, for example 0.5. This will scale the picture to 50% of its original size. Explained: ASCII Art Creator [MATLAB]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Hvz-M73xFt4/mqdefault.jpg)
![Rocketdyne F-1 Mass Flow Rate Calculation
Lets calculate the mass flow rate through the Rocketdyne F-1 engine used to power the Saturn V! We will use the equation for the mass flow rate that I derived in a previous video (see below). At the end, we can compare the value we calculated to the actual value given in the engine specs.
NOTES
► There are different values of the variables that I am using in this problem, which will change the mass flow rate slightly. The key is that these values give a pretty good approximation of the mass flow rate.
RELEVANT LINKS
→ CEA Online
https://cearun.grc.nasa.gov/
→ F-1 Engine Specs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketdyne_F-1
RELEVANT VIDEOS
→ Nozzle Mass Flow Rate
https://goo.gl/d6AoFX
→ Converging-Diverging Nozzle
https://goo.gl/jrsyoJ
→ Sonic State (Critical, Star)
https://goo.gl/vhjESy
→ Area-Mach Number Relation [CPG]
https://goo.gl/j4FwQX
THUMBNAIL IMAGE
By NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (http://nix.nasa.gov/info?id=MSFC-6862846) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Rocketdyne F-1 Mass Flow Rate Calculation](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/I4Xz3HgsZhQ/mqdefault.jpg)
