The Ripples of Your Life

Greg Louganis is one of the most decorated Olympic divers in U.S. history. Every time he dives into the water, his impact sends out waves (ripples) of energy that carry onward. This same principle applies to life. He's had an immensely successful career and life. Yet, through all this international success, he has carried one mantra with him that his mother instilled in him...

 

"Make everywhere you go better because you were there."

 

This is how he measures his success. I admire him and try to emulate that in my daily life. I'd like you to share one time when you feel you had a positive impact on your surroundings (the people or the environment) AND one time when you didn't have as positive an impact as you could have had.

 

Choose something meaningful (I picked up a bottle at the beach isn't quite what we're looking for -- although I definitely admire it!). Be honest with yourself. Since your responses might be somewhat personal, email your responses to me -- you needn't put them on the blog. As you go out into the broader community and world during our Spring Break, bear in mind Louganis's words. Leave the world better for you having been here.

 

I'll start us off....I try to be a good neighbor by being friendly and helpful. Sometimes, it's just deliberately making eye contact and giving a smile, which helps add a sense of community and goodwill to our neighborhood because others respond in kind.

Recently while teaching, some middle school students were making noise outside. I made a snide/sacrastic comment about it, which was unnecessary and I regretted because of the example it set to my students in the class. It was a small moment but sometimes those small moments (good ones or bad ones) are the ones that have a lasting impact. I was bummed about my reaction aftterwards, but I'll try better next time.
 

Have a wonderful and well-deserved break! :) Mr. R

The Brown Note

There's no way to put this delicately...rumor has it that a certain low frequency tone can cause a person to, well, lose it! The Mythbusters put this so called "BROWN NOTE" to the test. Watch the clip at right (and notice their lower-half wardrobe choice!), and tell me everything you observe about the following points.
For each, make sure to reference any relevant characteristics of sound (period, frequency, wavelength, wavespeed, or amplitude/pressure level).

1. The huge speaker drivers (the vibrating part of the speaker) are oscillating back and forth. Based on what you see them doing, what characteristics will the sound wave have that they produce? Why?

2. Toward the end, the Mythbusters and the audio guys mention an impact the sound waves had on Adam's breathing (Adam the Mythbuster, not Feldman!). What was this impact and why did it happen?

Lastly, answer this...why would low frequency waves (rather than high frequency) be more likely to have this physical effect on you? (Harken back to "Hey, Baby. How you Doin'?")

I Hate to Sound Dense, but...

As with light, so with sound. Well, not always, but there are a few parallels, and one of those parallels is speed. The material (or medium) that sound passes through affects its speed. How so?

For a benchmark, let's use the speed of sound in air at the beach in Malibu on sunny, 70-degree day -- 1,125 feet/sec (666 mph), also known as Mach 1.

How will the speed of a given sound change (FASTER, SLOWER, NO CHANGE) in the following scenarios:

...on top of Mount Everest?

...submerged in a pool?

...through a wall?

...in Florida (same air temperature as Malibu, at sea leavel, but much more humid)?

...in space?

Excluding space, pick the option above that you think will transmit sound waves fastest, and explain WHY.

Two's Company -- Three's a Crowd!

Watch the Mythbusters, Adam & Jaimie, release the full force of a PRESSURIZED WATER HEATER on a runway overlooking San Francisco. Clearly, there exists a link between 1. heat, 2. pressure, and 3. volume. But what is it?....That's my question to you.

How are pressure, heat, and volume related and dependent on one another? Give me some "for example"s.

Be reasonably thorough in your explanation, which should be at least a couple of GOOD sentences long.

(BTW i think that sentences like this 1 r beneath u and that u should take the time to present ur best work. in other words show better punctuation capitalization and care in the work u produce and ur written communications. just like we established at the beginning of the year i will start taking off points for poor sentences on ur blog work as well as ur quiz responses. better find that "shift" key! if ur still reading good for u b/c to get full credit on this assignment u need to include a smiley face (a colon & parenthesis r fine) in ur blog response. ☺

Get your Bake on!

 

Riddle me this...

There's nothing like homemade! You decide to bake a delicious dessert with only the best of ingredients. Mmmmm, honey sweetened apple pie!

On the prep counter, you have TWO measuring cups -- one is full of water (density of 1 g/mL) and the other full of honey (density of about 1.5 g/mL). In your haste, you accidentally drop a whole apple into the measuring cup of water. Oops! But you notice something....
The water level in the measuring cup went up 300 mL. The apple floated there exactly half submerged.
That must mean the apple has a volume of ____________.
And since you know that the weight of the liquid displaced equals the Buoyant Force on the object (thank you, Archmidedes!), the floating apple has a weight of _________.

You now carefully pull the apple out of the water and in the process of drying it off it slips out of fingers again and goes SPLAT right into the measuring cup of honey. Ugh! Being ever inquisitive, you notice that the level of the honey didn't rise as much as the water, and the apple seems to be floating higher -- only about 1/3 of it is submerged.
With only 200mL of the honey displaced, the weight of the honey displaced is _________________.

 Soooooo, the weight of the honey displaced was MORE/LESS/SAME as the weight of the water displaced, because.... ______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________.

*****YOUR RESPONSE HAS TO ANSWER ALL FIVE QUESTIONS...
1. Apple's volume?   2. Apple's weight?   3. Displaced honey's weight?    4. More/Less/Same   5. Why is it more/less/same?   And don't forget UNITS.

2-for-1 Special!!! Space-Time

Space-time is kind of a big deal. As we discussed in class, when distorted by matter (massive bodies like planets, moons, etc.), it creates the sense of gravity. Earth's gravititational tug-of-war with the moon in turn is responsible for causing the Earth's tides. Gravity also causes light to bend, streeeeeeeeetching time.

Don't worry!....both concepts take awhile to get one's head around. Here's your assignment:

Watch the video (to the right...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAqSCuHA0j8) about space-time AND watch the full animation about tides (http://www.onr.navy.mil/focus/ocean/motion/tides1.htm) -- the total viewing time is less than 5 minutes. Then post a SPECIFIC question you have about EACH concept that you want answered in class.
(That means two questions from everyone. Oh, and by the way, "I don't get space-time?" doesn't count as a good, specific question!) ;)

We'll discuss your questions before your quiz tomorrow and get to the bottom of these topics.

Balance is key

Too much of even a good thing (known as "surfeit") can become a liability. The excess of good usually has the best intentions behind it but ultimately results in unexpected consequences that can have negative effects. That's the point of this assignment and the accompanying article.

Read the article (link below) about the need for resilience and how the prevailing parenting style of the last twenty years has affected young American's resilience and preparation for life.
 
You all are on the cusp of the affected age group, but please don't think I'm giving this to you because I think you lack resilience or that your parents have done something wrong! That's not it at all! But, you're making the transition out into the "real" world very soon, and you all will likely be parents one day. It's important to look honestly at the good and the bad of our past societal choices so YOU can make improvements toward finding the essential balance for the next generation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/Mickey-goodman/are-we-raising-a-generati_b_1249706.html

For the your response, simply write a strong paragraph sharing your thoughts stemming from the article. You don't have to agree or disagree, but reading it should stimulate some thoughts so share them.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

☺ Mr. R