Day 16: My sunflower made some significant changes almost overnight. Between the two leaves at the top of my plant sprouted what seems to be the beginning of an extension of the stem. I am no sunflower expert so for all I know it could soon open up to a big flower. Below is a picture of my plant, as you can see it is nice and happy sitting in the sun.

Sunflower diary

Initially I was very skeptical on whether or not my sunflower seed would ever sprout. I left on Thursday morning in order to go to Detroit with my lacrosse team for the weekend. When I returned my seed had still not sprouted at all. This was about 6-7 days in. A few days later, day 10, my sunflower showed signs of life and popped out of the soil!

Day 10: My sunflower popped out about an inch. The soil looked a little more dry than usual and I would imagine that the little guy was very thirsty.

Solar Trajectory

Eric Yoggy

2/11/14

 

Objective:        To determine the location of the sun in the sky by measuring a fixed object. In this case, I used a light pole and measured the shadow it cast. Throughout the day I recorded the changes in the shadow.

 

Study Site:      We found a light pole on College Street and used its shadow for measurement.

 

Materials:        1. Notebook

2. Pen

3. Tape measure

4. Light pole

5. Compass application on the iPhone

6. Suncalc.net

7. Lab Partner: Cole Mitchell and Sarah Brown

 

Methods:         1. We found a light pole

2. We measured the height of the light pole

3. We measured the shadow of the light pole six times on January 25.

4. We used the compass application on my iPhone to measure the direction the sun was shining

5. We recorded the information and used tangent to find the angle of the sun at each point during the day.

 

Calculations:   The pole height and shadow length are measured in inches. I used the tangent function, which is the length of the side opposite of the hypotenuse divided by the length of the side adjacent to the hypotenuse multiplied times tangent.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

                                                                   

TIME	POLE HEIGHT	SHADOW LENGTH	DIRECTION (DEGREES)	SUN ANGLE (DEGREES)
9:45	210	274	217	37.46
10:45	210	204	196	45.83
11:45	210	157	192	53.21
12:47	210	140	116	56.3
1:42	210	158	118	53.04
4:40	210	383	68	28.73

 

 

Conclusion:     At 12:47 pm, the sun was close to directly over our heads. I put our measurements into suncalc.net, which showed me that the sun was never directly over our heads because of the season we are in and the tilt of the Earth. Logically thinking as well, if the sun were to be directly over the pole, there would be no shadow.

 

http://www.suncalc.net/#/32.8407,-83.6324,10/2014.02.06/16:27

Calculation of rain fall on the Willet Science Center Parking lot

During our first lab we measured the volume of rainfall that the Willet Science Center parking lot experiences during a 2 inch rainstorm. Once we discovered this amount we were asked to convert it to gallons in order to give a more realistic unit.



The measurements were:
Length = 240 feet
Width = 250 feet
Rainfall = 0.17 feet


The formula for volume is V=L*W*H
I found that the volume came to be 10,200 ft^3 and with the help of www.metric-conversion.org I discovered that this was equivalent to 76,301 gallons of water. Given these amounts we can detect that during a 2 inch rain storm on the Willet Science Center parking lot the rain fall induced would be enough to fill nearly 8 common swimming pools. Below you will find a picture of the study site via Google Earth.

 

 

 

John Muir

"When we try to pick anything out by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."

This was a quote by John Muir who was an American naturalist, author, and supporter of the preservation of the wilderness. John Muir has written several essays, letters, and novels of his travels. Many of these works have to do with the Sierra Nevada area. The Sierra Nevada is the central area in  California east of Sacramento and San Francisco. When I learned this about him I became very interested due to the fact most of my family lives just outside this area and I travel there on an annual basis. Whenever I drive through this area I always bask in the grandeur of the mountains and can really see why Muir found this area so moving. He found this area so important it drove him to create the Sierra Club. This organization is one of the largest, oldest, and most influential environmental organizations in the United States. Some refer to him as the "Father of National Parks" for all of his work in preservation. The above quote stuck out to me because it really defines why I feel that Muir traveled as much as he did. He felt that everything was linked together on our planet and wanted to have a little taste of all he could and do everything in his power to preserve the beauty that connects everything on our planet.

John Muir also founded the hiking trail known as the "John Muir Trail", the video below gives a short documentary on some students who took on this trail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_2GASM1XS0