roller coasters part 1

Today in class, we started on the roller coaster/skate park project. Mrs. Rousseau went over the guidelines for the project and went over the prices. Some of our team mates didn't agree with the prices, arguing that the prices were rip-offs and such. What surprised me the most was that I either had to write something about the coaster, create a flyer/brochure/website about the coaster saying how Newtons laws apply to the coaster and the cost to ride the coaster and such. At http://www.sixflags.com/greatAdventure/rides/Kingdaka.aspx, the fastest tallest coaster, Kingda Ka is a great example of a coaster for this projects, except for the fact that the cart is launched at 128 mph via hydrolic lift. However, the best example that I can give you is The greatest wooden coaster EL TORRO. With more than four hills and second fastest coaster, you'll literally scream your head off at the beastly twister finale. These coasters will make the other coasters look like scale models made of cardboard. Who knows. your design might be made into a real roller coaster someday.

potentially habitable planet?

Today, there has been a major sighting. In Washington today, astronomers have sighted a potencially habitable planet in a galaxy about 120 trillion miles away (or for those who like scientific notation, 1.2*10 to the power of 13, sorry, can't find superscript button.) The planet can have the same temperature as Earth, and have water in it's liquid form! However, the star it orbits is what we call a "red dwarf", which is smaller and cooler than the Sun. More Information on this topic can be found at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_sc/habitable_planet;_ylt=Ai8mgSIcdtgGR9jk_kzczJuHgsgF
In other news, Nasa's AIM cloud mission launches today!!!!!

Ask a songbird: how does it change tunes?

Songbirds may change tunes with ups and downs, and cresendos and decresendos to make a elegant sound to attract mates. But how do they do it? First off, the sound is produced from the syrinx, which act like human vocal cords. The sound is produced when air passes through the syrinx, folds of tissue resonates, making the beutiful sound you hear when you take a walk. Before, they thought that a bird's upper vocal tract was like a stiff tube; the sound depends on how wide the beak is opened. X-ray movies show how a northern cardinal change sound by rapidly changing the shape of the vocal tract from a drinking straw like shape to a flower pot like shape. The point of the vocal tract is to shape the monotone call from the syrinx and add some color to the call. So when you go out for a walk in the park, the songbird may have a vocal tract changing to make the song for you!

When Life gives you Pandas, Make paper?

In Beijing, two days ago, researchers at Southern China were looking for paper mills to run the high fiber panda dung into high quality paper. Liao Jun, a researcher at the giant Panda reserve in Southern China, says that the idea came to him on a trip to Thailand last year when he saw paper made of elephant excrement and thought that panda poo would make an even finer quality. Several paper mills are currently learning how to change panda dung into office paper and wrapping paper. The paper is eco-friendly and might have a production line going by next year. Those who are afraid to touch excrement, can't tell if the paper they're holding his made of panda droppings, elephant droppings, or made of wood. So watch out paper! Cause the Pandas are back and ready to poo!

colossal squid- run away! run away!

In New Zealand, a couple of days ago, fishermen caught the largest squid ever lived: the colossal squid. The colossal squid was at least 39' long and weighed and estimated half ton. The fishermen were catching Patagonian tooth fish, sold under the name of Chilean sea bass, when the squid appeared. The colossal squid was eating the tooth fish in the net when they [the fishermen] pulled it up. If estimated correctly, then then the Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni [the latin name for the colossus squid] would be 330 pounds heavier than the next largest creature, the name unbeknownst to me. The colossal squid is a different species than the giant squid and that they would grow up to 46 feet long, for now. These enormous creatures dive up to 6500 feet and are extremly aggressive hunters. The squid was frozen and was transported to the New Zealand national museum, Te Papa, in Wellington, for study. For more on this, go to http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070222_ap_colossal_squid.html

gentics assessment!

The genetics assessment started a few days ago and the students of OMEGA had been placed into the following categories: Therapeutic cloning, the cloning of a healthy organ, genetically modified food, food that has been, well, genetically modified, and designer babies, the babies that design things (actually, the parents get to decide which genes go to the child so they could decide to make their child a literal designer baby). My topic for the genetics assessment is therapeutic cloning, and I have to describe what it is, when and why it was introduced. I have also been helping a new student, Man Ying, out by translating and asking her if she understands.

NASCAR and the "Car of Tomorrow"

On Sunday, February 18, 2007, the fourty ninth Daytona 500 took place, revealing slightly altered cars. Aerodynamics is important to stock car, jungle, and desert racing because it makes you faster, right? Probably not because the faster you go, the more air friction works against you. In racing, there are three D's: drag, downforce, and drafting. There are two types of drag: friction drag and pressure drag. Friction drag is due to the wind breaking over the cars surface. Pressure friction, however, is from the low pressure wake coming from the back of the car and sucks it backwards. Teams make tiny adjustments to make air flow smoothly, therefore reducing friction and pressure. NASCAR drivers say they need more downforce. Downforce is the " negative lift" that makes you go faster on hairpin turns. The physics for this is pretty much the same for an airplane wing, except backwards. Drafting, the third and final "D", the most common situation for drafting is when the lead car blocks much of the incoming wind, reducing the friction drag for a trailing car. This year, NASCAR will allow the " Car of tomorrow" in certain races, but which, are not known... yet. The design is primarily meant to improve the saftey, but it also alters the way air flows over the car. For more information on this, go to http://www.livescience.com/technology/070215_nascar_aero.html