Turkey Vultures in Flight

This video by the Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company shows a Turkey vulture in flight. Wilbur Wright studied these birds in action for hours. It is from their abilities that the idea of “wing warping” was born.

Surface Area of the Earth

Meanwhile, have some fun with this interactive graphic brought to you by charts bin!

 

James Cameron at Ocean’s Deepest Point

Not only has James Cameron reached the deepest point in the Mariana Trench, he’s tweeted to let us all know! That’s an amazing use of technology given that he is about 7,000 feet deeper than Mt. Everest is tall! To say conditions down there are inhospitable to human life is to put it mildly. The pressure down there is 8 tons per square inch. The water is near freezing in temperature. It’s perpetually dark. And – One leak and it’s all over. Still, Cameron is reported to have said once he’s underway, he puts his trust in the engineering and focuses on the dive.

Cameron is piloting a one-man sub named the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER. The capsule he sits in is shaped like a sphere because that is the strongest shape under pressure. To keep the pilot from being subjected to the changes in pressure, the pressure stays constant in the pilot’s space. The DEEPSEA CHALLENGER is only 43 inches wide and is so cramped that Cameron has to keep his knees bent. There’s a payload bay for any samples he collects while he’s down at the bottom.

James Cameron is the Expedition Leader, Submersible Co-deisgner, and Pilot. He’s led seven previous deep-ocean expeditions. Cameron is also the one who explored the wreck of the Titanic and made an Oscar-winning film about the ship. It’s been a long-term goal of his to explore the Challenger Deep – the deepest point in the Mariana Trench.

The Fastest Man in the World

I’ve just started reading “The Perfection Point,” by John Brenkus — host of ESPN’s Sport Science. The first chapter calculates the maximum speed for the 100-meter sprint. Using the actual performance of Beijing Olympic championship runner Usian Bolt of Jamaica as a starting point, Brenkus arrives at a theoretical maximum fastest time of 8.99 minutes. Of course, this won’t happen for generations and depends upon the human species remaining pretty much as we know it today.

I was especially interested in his discussion of drag, or air friction, on the forward progress of athletes. Brenkus uses a pitch clocked at 100 mph as it leaves the pitcher’s hand to illustrate, calculating that the ball will be traveling at 97 mph when it reaches the plate because it loses roughly one mph for every 7 feet it travels. The entire slowing effect is the result of the friction created by the air flowing over the ball and stitches.

He mentions that John Howard, a two-time Olympic cyclist, “wondered what would happen if you could eliminate it [air resistance] entirely. He mounted a wind-breaking shield on the back of a race car and rode his bicycle behind it, so that he was effectively riding in zero wind.” Not only did it make a difference. It made such a profound difference that Howard needed a bicycle with enormous gears that allowed him to pedal fast enough. The result? He reached a speed of 152 mph with no other source of power than his legs.

Brenkus writes that higher altitudes also have less air resistance. This is because the air is thinner at these altitudes. As a result, there is less air resistance, resulting in better athletic performance in sports where air resistance is a key factor. Likewise, even a small tailwind can make a crucial difference since it reduces the effect of the headwind created as the athlete moves forward.

I found this all very interesting because it ties nicely with my current work on applied fluid dynamics. It brings the theory into practice. I hope you check it out and post your comments.

Step-by-Step Experiments

My books are out!  They have step-by-step experiments designed for kids in grades K-4.  The illustrations are terrific and help the kids know what to expect!

Summer in the United States. Winter in Australia.

If you have a birthday in August and you live in the United States, you have a summer birthday.  Did you know that if you have the same birthday but live in Australia, you have a winter birthday?  Yep.  It’s true.

The summer months here are the winter months Down Under.  So the winter holidays you enjoy with snow and ice?  Bar-be-que and swimming time.  The holidays you look forward to for long, lazy days at the beach?  Short and bundled up down there.

How can that be?

The Earth revolves around the sun.  That means the sun stays still and we move around it in a gigantic loop.  While we loop, we also spin on our axis – the imaginary stick that runs through Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole.  Each time we spin we move from day to night and back to day again.

The axis we spin on is not straight up and down.  It is tilted.  Because of this, the sun cannot shine equally on all parts of the Earth that fact it at one time. When the part of the Earth with the United States (the Northern Hemisphere) is tilted closest to the sun, it is summer here and winter in the part of the Earth with Australia (the Southern  Hemisphere).

Can you guess what happens when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun?  If you guess the Northern Hemisphere would have winter and the Southern Hemisphere would have summer, you’re correct!

Consider This:
The months don’t change. Only the weather does. It is September in the United States at the same time it is September in Australia. The only difference is, September is the Fall in the Northern Hemisphere and the Spring in the Southern Hemisphere.

Why is Summer Hot?

Most people believe the summer is hot and the winter is cold because the Earth is closer to the sun in summer and farther away in winter.

That’s just not true!

The Earth is closest to the sun in January! If it’s a matter of how close we are to the sun then January should be the hottest month and it’s not.

So what’s going on?

The temperature of Earth has to do with the tilt of its axis; not how close or far it is from the sun. The sun’s rays shine at a steep angle in the summer. Because of this, the light is very focused and a lot of energy hits one spot at a time. In the winter, the sun’s rays hit Earth at less of an angle. With the light spread over a greater distance, there just isn’t enough focused energy to make it very hot.

Another thing at work in keeping summer hot and winter cold is that the days are longer in the summer. This means there’s not only focused light reaching Earth, but plenty of it! In winter, when the days are shorter, there just isn’t enough daylight to heat things up.

Try It Yourself:
Take a flashlight into a dark room.
Shine the flashlight at a steep angle and see how strong the beam is on that spot.
Shine the flashlight at less of an angle and see how strong the beam is on that spot.

(Not sure what a steep angle is versus a shallow angle? If the floor is the 0 degrees and the ceiling is 90 degrees, a steep angle would be when the flashlight is shining down from about shoulder height. A shallow angle would be when the flashlight is shining from around your knee. Give it a try and see for yourself.)

Plastic Bottle Bird Feeders

>If a summer nature journal sounds good to you but the terrarium is not your thing, how about a bird feeder made from a 2-liter soda bottle? You can recycle and help your feathered friends at the same time!

Gather your materials – and an adult for the cutting part! – and you’re good to go.

Soda Bottle Terrariums

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Summer Nature Journals

A summer nature journal is the perfect way to sharpen your observation skills while keeping your writing sharp. The only thing you need is a journal and a project. How about micro terrarium? They’re easy to make and fun to observe.

All you need is a small container, some small plants like clover from the yard or a micro variety of a plant from the local nursery. You can even grow herbs if you’d like. Next you’ll need a small container that’s attractive and easy to seal. The last thing you’ll need is gravel, sand, and soil for your plants.

Not sure how to get it all together? Here’s a video from StormTheCastle.com that will take you through it step-by-step.