curious – Page 13 – Montessori Muddle

Voyager

v2_ts_image — Voyager approaching the heliopause (from NASA).

The Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977, are still going and making new discoveries. They are after all the man-made objects that are furthest away from the center of the solar system, beyond the orbit of Pluto, and are now approaching interstellar space.

Where does the solar system end and interstellar space begin? Well, the Sun gives off light, but it also emits a plasma of charged particles (protons and electrons typically) that’s called the solar wind. These charged particles are launched from the Sun pretty fast, but as they get to the edge of the solar system they start to slow down, because the solar system is moving through a magnetic cloud, and, as we all know, charged particles are affected by magnetic fields.

The solar wind, assisted by the Sun’s magnetic field, pushes against the interstellar magnetic cloud, creating a bubble, called the heliosphere (helio=sun, sphere=sphere) that is pretty much the edge of the solar system.

Both Voyager spacecraft are approaching the heliosphere, and we’ve recently discovered that as the solar system moves through the interstellar magnetic cloud, the heliosphere is pushing against the cloud and the cloud is pushing back quite a bit. As a result, the heliosphere is shaped like the bow wave of water around a speeding boat.

It is difficult not to personify these two lonely spacecraft as the get further and further away from home, with no way to get back, but sending signals that tell of their discoveries and ensure their immortality.

Evil, mad, scientist!

Why have I not found this site before, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. A place where people will put serious thought, rigorous design and atrocious single-mindedness to create, well I’m not sure I can call it anything other than, “very interesting” projects. Applications of robotics that would make Asimov cry (probably with joy at human ingenuity, probably).

They carefully detail how to create such wonderful projects as:

And many more interesting and eclectic projects for an interesting middle school.

The Moon transits the Earth

Perhaps one of the most amazing sequences of images ever taken. NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft took these movies looking back at the Earth from 50 million km away. You can see the moon clearly crossing the face of the planet. This really resets your perspective. The full movie is below.

How to fly through space

Interplanetary spacecraft — Ion thruster spacecraft. Image from NASA.

To get anywhere in the solar system takes a long time and is not easy. The Mars rovers took years to get there and were built to be very light because heavier spacecraft are harder to lift into orbit and take more energy to get them where they’re going (and to slow the down when they get there). Getting humans to other planets, or even another solar system, is an even greater challenge. New Scientist magazine has a nice little article on different types of deep-space spacecraft that might work.

A sailing game that explores the trans-Atlantic triangular trade

Wind patterns over the North Atlantic Ocean had a huge effect on the colonization and history of the Americas because, after all, all they had were sailing ships. The circular, clockwise winds meant that it was easiest to sail south and west from Europe, and when you did, the first place you arrived at in the New World was the Caribbean or the northern edge of South America. This helps explains the first settlements of the Portuguese and Spanish, and why the latecomers, like the British, ended up further north up the coast of North America.

Using wind data from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and Google Maps I created an online sailing game I call Mariner AO. The game is pretty simple (basic instructions are here), you tell your ship which direction to go, starting off near Lisbon in Portugal and sail the Atlantic. What makes it interesting is that you can go wherever you like and make your own objectives. All that limits where you can go is the fact that you can only sail within 90 degrees of the wind. It’s very Montessori in that you have choice within limits.

The game is most interesting, I think, if you set objectives like trying to sail the triangular trade route, Europe (Portugal) to Africa (Dakar) to America (Charleston) and back to Europe again. The general clockwise wind pattern is persistent throughout the year, but sometimes you need to wait until the wind changes to be able to reach your objective.

Alistair Boddy-Evans has a nice article on the triangular trade of European manufactured goods to Africa, African slaves to the Americas, and plantation crops back to Europe.

I really like this game because it integrates so much. Atmospheric circulation, slavery, colonization, and even the physics of sailing if you can and want to get into it. In fact, I think it’s enough to base an entire cycle of work around. I’m still taking comments about how to improve the game.

Auto-Tune and the trajectory of fads

This intelligently done history of Auto-Tune is wonderful for several reasons. First, it has a simple, elegantly executed story arc, where it describes the trajectory of a fad from introduction to over-exposure to parody/remix and finally to a new equilibrium. And it discusses these concepts in a clear and entertaining way.

Know Your Meme: Auto Tune (featuring “Weird Al” Yankovic) from Rocketboom on Vimeo.

Second, Auto-Tune is a great example of something that was created for one purpose but finds a new life in a completely different discipline. The technology was created for analyzing seismic signals in petroleum exploration before being applied to music. It is amazing what can come from working with people of diverse backgrounds, and having a broad appreciation of the world. Group work is important.

Third, in touching on parody, it brings up an issue that adolescents, in particular need to understand; parody is not just a cheap joke, it has something important to say. It uses humor to address significant issues:

While making fun of something is easy [mockery], parody requires a study of both technique and form, before creating its own recontextualization.

Third, the overexposure stage of fads and memes is something everyone should be aware of. The meme infiltrates so many aspects of the culture that it becomes irritating. As a Middle School teacher I see it primarily in the language my students use. By introducing this concept to my student, we now have a common language for talking about at least one type issues in the classroom.

Finally, equilibrium. An important concept in natural and social science, the concept is neatly encapsulated in how the fad starts off small, overshoots and gets smaller but does not disappear as there remains some lower level of use.

Periodic table trivia

This online periodic table by Theodore Gray has pictures of all the elements. Some are in pure ingots or crystals, others in example applications, and some in ore form. What I find most interesting is there is a bit of trivia about each element when you hover over its picture. Also, the images of the noble gasses shows the colors they emit when excited with electricity (e.g. neon lights), which is kind of cool.