week 6
Science
This week I did some work for my project display which was mostly science and math. I found the average mass capacity of many different objects associated with nuclear power (eg. fuel pellet, rod, assembly, or core mass. I also found the fuel capacity of Chernobyl and the world's largest nuclear power plant and threw those in for fun.
I also found the atomic structure of the isotopes and even inserted diagrams to reference. scroll left here to view that (yellow column).
& Math
I am including these two subjects in the same section because although we worked on systems in math (which were vital for my understanding of the SATs) the majority of the math I did was heavily tied to the spreadsheet and science I had been learning. For example, the Sample Mass (atoms) section of the spreadsheet is using scientific concepts (Avagadro's number, molar mass, etc...) to convert a sample to atoms. This then translates to the graph, where the half-life is predicted in sample atoms based on its half-life. There is still much work to do, like conversions of half-life for simplicity, and enabling the spread metrics.
Humanities
This week in humanities, we not only read more of Trinity: the story of the first atomic bomb, but we also listened to part of a Hardcore History podcast about the history of the cold war. We discussed many things, like who is responsible to clean up the mess created and who needs to fix its ramifications. Among the topics discussed, one, in particular, stood out to me; how the concept of nuclear war is so powerful, that even shallow threats are so deadly, that previous warfare could never cause that much damage. Nuclear weapons are so powerful, that a nuclear war might literally send our species back to the bronze age or similar.
For English, we worked on some grammar for the SATs. I improved some, but grammar is my highest accuracy section on the test so only a few of the things we learned, like em dash usage, were new to me and useful in the practice test.
Other
In Entomology club, we decided on a new logo! here is the logo below:
We also discussed rove beetled and looked a little bit into their ecology. I found some rove beetles in January so they were fresh on my mind. Here is a rarer Apocellus cf. crassicornis rove beetle; I found it in a little rock commune on January 23rd and used it for the lesson.
