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| Sunday, December 20th, 2009 | | 7:44 pm |
| | 2:25 pm |
Gremlins, Cheyenne
After reading Furzicle's posting of today, I wanted to add a pix of Cheyenne.  I also wanted to report some strange happening around here. I suspect gremlins. First, on taking down the flag on Wed., I noticed something in the front yard: a big bald spot. I'm pretty sure that's where a 500 pound rock has been for the last 10 years. It's just run off. the gardeners may have been involved; they had come the day before. Then, on Thurs morning, about 3:00 AM I awoke to hear a strong wind blowing. That brought my attention to the windmill. It looked different. Soon, I realized that the blades were gone. (I don't think I can call it the propeller since it doesn't propel anything) In the light of day, I found the "propeller" about 15 ft to windward of the rest of the windmill. In this case I think it did propel itself out away from tower. For this to happen the wind must have suddenly quit (very unlikely) and the cotter pin gone (quite likely) so the prop would pull itself ahead. I haven't found any damage, but, as yet, I'm missing a ball bearing. Another mystery yesterday: I was at the playhaus and happened to look over to the cement ramp ahead of the boat. There was the carcass of a chicken. I'm pretty sure it's the one which disappeared almost four weeks ago, tho another just like it had disappeared four weeks before that. The mystery is how that chicken could have been there any time without me noticing it. Initially, I figured it might have been in a tree and the wind blew it out. When I got a shovel and went to scoop it up, I found that it was well stuck to the cement; it's been there several days. I don't think Casey is involved. I'll probably never know. | | Monday, October 26th, 2009 | | 9:23 pm |
Kinetic Sculpture Race
This was the weekend of the Kinetic Sculpture Race in Ventura. Son Mike had made an entry and had invited me to be on his crew. I somewhat reluctantly agreed, knowing that the physical demands were demanding. For those not familiar with the race, it has four legs: First, a mile and a half on the water (Ventura Marina), Second, a half mile over beach sand. Then lunch break. Third, about 6 or 8 laps on pavement in a figure eight pattern of maybe 100 yards ea. (potential for collision at the intersection). Fourth and final: The Killer, about 100 feet of very gooey mud. One of the principal rules is that the vehicles must be primarily propelled by human muscle. Sails and/or solar power are allowed, but no storage of the electricity and only as an assist to the muscle, ie, the solar cannot be the main source of energy. There were neither of these in this race. Mike had been building his vehicle for a good percentage of last year, but with a tremendous extra spurt in the final week necessitating that he take off from his job. He had made his first flotation trial the week before the race which convinced him that he needed to add flotation at the stern. He did this, but had no chance to retest it prior to the race. His vehicle is basically a very oversized tricycle. The two rear wheels are huge tires which drag racers discard after just a few uses because they’re burning rubber as they zoom down the track. Each of these rear wheels is powered independently by one of the “Pilots” who sit side by side on a bench seat. He does have provision for locking the two wheels together so that either peddler can drive both wheels. (useful in water or mud) A set of paddles is affixed to each wheel while in the water. Each entry is named by its creator; we were “Whirled Peas”. Our crew consisted of: Mike, his son Sylvan and me. Thus, we had three generations aboard and, I’m quite sure, the youngest and the oldest participants in the race. (12, 54, 82). Sylan and I were to trade off at the left side pedals. I think we were the third to launch. We sped down the rather steep launch ramp with some trepidation (untried floats) and entered the water with a pretty good splash (one of the things upon which we were judged). Mike had done quite well in his float modification; we were high, dry and stable. The impact with the water had caused some of the Styrofoam blocks to shift and we worried that there might be more of that, but they stayed after repositioning. Almost immediately we passed a previous launcher who was fighting a mechanical failure. Mike had neglected to lock the axle, so he was continually admonishing Sylvan to pedal harder so we’d go straight. After a half hour or so, I relieved Sylvan at the pedals. My legs are significantly longer than Sylvan’s and the pedal to seat distance was rather permanently adjusted for him. So, I had my knees up near my chin. It seemed to me that we were going awfully slowly and I kept remarking that I was amazed that no one had passed us. The guy on the very tall tricycle was overtaking us, but we still got to the south end of the harbor ahead of him. As he neared us he called out, “My GPS says we’re doing 1.3 kts”. At the south end, we picked up our token and headed north again, Five minutes into this, Mike noted that one of the links in the chain to the left wheel was coming undone. For the next half hour we drifted helplessly as Mike first, tried to repair the bad link and then put on a whole new chain. He’d anticipated this kind of problem and had brought both tools and spare parts. As we drifted both Sylvan and I were occupied fending us away from the boats in the slips to leeward. Meanwhile, all our competition passed us up – except the one still doing repairs. With our chain now fixed, we made pretty good speed. Now, my concern was that the last couple hundred yards was going to be straight into a freshening breeze - that, and a very full bladder. By now we’d been on the water nearly two hours, pedaling for a lot of that. The transition from floating on the water to rolling on the beach has been very difficult for many Kinetic Sculpture racers and the downfall of some. I’ve claimed that it’s essential that all wheels of the vehicle be powered. That’s not the case with Mike’s, but probably 90% of the weight is on the two rear –powered – wheels. We came ashore triumphantly, the crowd cheering. As we were reconfiguring for land travel – repositioning floats, removal of wheel paddles – the last, now repaired, entry rounded the bend and came ashore. Again, cheers, although their landing was not nearly as controlled as ours. I won’t dwell on the beach run, the lunch or the figure 8 “promenade” except to mention that we did have a minor collision with “Henry Ford goes surfing” at that intersection. Finally, the mud. At the outset it was clear that the mud was gooier than normal; All the vehicles had difficulty. Some didn’t get through at all. We were the last to make the attempt. The mud was thoroughly churned up by then. Mike wouldn’t let me pedal- Sylvan got the glory. I was ballast. Mike had strapped on some cleats for better traction. We got off to a good start, but quickly bogged down. I got off into the mud and walked around to the front wheel where I climbed up to grab the fork and walk on the wheel to drive it forward. At the same time, Mike and Sylvan were straining at the pedals, rocking fore and aft and, shortly, getting some forward motion. I then went around to the rear and gave a push. I didn’t realize, then, that this was illegal and this disqualified us on the mud run. Or at least lost points. In spite of this, at the awards breakfast on Sunday morning, we got an award – the“Mediocrity Award”. Mike’s Davis racing buddies (who overnighted at my place in Camarillo both Sat and Sun, nite) tried very hard to convince us that this was the most coveted of all the awards – proof that we were in it for the fun, not trying to beat others. Actually, I felt terribly proud that we had even finished at all, even with the chain failure. Mike’s vehicle had performed magnificently on its first run. And I was rather pleased with my own performance. I had expected to come away all stiff, sore and cramped up. I felt no discomfort whatsoever.  | | Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 | | 7:55 pm |
Air Conditioner
As of last Saturday morning, the Tweedy cabin now has an air conditioner. It's rated at 1500 BTU. I'm pretty sure that means 1500 BTU/ hour, tho it could be per minute. I've got to do some homework. It's, perhaps, not big enuff to make a significant diff in the whole cabin. It ought to be some relief standing in its blast. I don't intend to leave it permanently mounted. Rather, I hope that it's easy enuff to put in place when the forecast says that it would be useful for any given weekend. It took me about two hours to install the first time, but I hope that will be more like 45 minutes next time when I'm not cutting the pieces to close the gaps. There was intermittant light rain for that two hours which was probably a help. It would have been too hot without it. It took not quite a half hour to uninstall and move the A/C into the cabin when I left. The Temp was 85 F in the cabin when I arrived around 4:30 Fri. At 2:00 AM it had dropped to 80 F (upstairs). That was all before the A/C was even in place. When I first turned it on around 11:00 Sat., it went from 85 F to 82 F on the thermometer at the base of the stairs in about 15 minutes.  Hoisting into place  New view inside I saw quite a bit of Faraday and Ellen this trip. - each with a boy friend. ' Also went to a memorial service for Beverly Sampson at the Sampson cabin. During the hour that I stayed, there was no spoken service for Bev. Many pictures of her on display and a great many refreshments. The bees living under the siding near our upstairs door are getting to be a pain- literally. I got three stings while getting that door unlocked. | | Sunday, August 16th, 2009 | | 9:03 pm |
Recapture Youth?
Yesterday I had the opportunity to recapture my youth -- briefly. The occasion was a reunion of the gang that used to go spear-fishing at Scotchman’s Cove down close to Laguna. It was all orchestrated by Bill Kreile, the same guy that did the orchestrating back in 1946-1948. In those days we’d park up on Coast Hwy, crawl thru a hole in the barbed wire fence and go down a steep trail to a deserted beach. We’d usually spend the day there with frequent forays into the water in search of fish. A few times we also stayed overnight, feasting on the fish we’d speared which had been cooked over a campfire. Things were relatively primitive then: We had masks and fins, but, initially , no snorkels, wet suits, sunscreen. We were also unencumbered by any serious responsibilities or maturity. All of us were about 19 years old and recently discharged from the military. Our spears were homemade – powered by strips of inner tube. We’d usually stay in the water about an hour at a time and then come ashore to recover from the hypothermia. We usually got serious sunburns. I believe that all of us were enrolled at some college. Now, skip ahead 60+ years. The beach is now known as Reef Point State Park, tho Scotchman’s Cove still refers to the beach just to the south. It costs $10.00 to park (unless you daughter Furzicle loans you an annual pass). There are a number of paved walkways or steps to the beach, dressing rooms and toilets. But, the beach itself is really much the same; no longer deserted, but still not crowded. Bill had this reunion scheduled at least since last April. Spouses, families and friends were invited. Before we were thru, there were about 30 folks in attendance- predominately Kreiles. The principals, in my mind, were: Bill and Ann Kriele, Gene & Joan Tankersly, Bob Martinelli (Sp?) and Me (known to this mob as JQ Mold). Ann Elg had been a frequent participant in the old days, prior to wedding Bill. Bill had arranged for it to be low tide shortly after nominal meeting time- 10:00 AM. At around 11:00 the four old codgers, Ann and her daughter Nancy+son Jim and about four Kreile grandsons all mustered at the waters edge for a group photo, some took a deep breathe and then all marched into that cold water. At least I anticipated bone chilling cold. But, for some reason, it didn’t seem bad at all. I heard someone state that the sea temperature was 67 F. That was probably just a guess. I’d not been swimming in the ocean in the last three decades and have cringed on entering our 81 F pool lately, so I was really dreading it. Perhaps I was even disappointed , but I’m sure it was much more a feeling of relief. I believe most of us had some form of flotation; for me it was an inner tube. I also had dive mask and swim fins. (+ bathing suit). Going thru the breakers posed no problem and then it was strike out for the reef. I guess that was 100 yards out. We set no speed records and I was tail-end-Charlie. I’d occasionally dip the mask into the water to see what was below. Visibility was fair, perhaps10-12 feet. I didn’t see much of anything exciting in the way of fish: maybe a dozen small Garibaldi (salt water goldfish). Perhaps I’d have seen perch if they were as obvious as the bright gold Garibaldi. On arrival at the reef itself there was some debate as to whether we dare swim thru the channel between the two parallel sub-reefs. Waves were breaking over both of them and the water in the 25 ft wide channel was somewhat turbulent. Someone, probably Bill, shouted let’s go for it. So we did. At one point I had the feeling that I was close to being thrown onto the shoreward half, but with some furious paddling and kicking I worked away from certain death. (Well, I might have stubbed my toe). By this time we’d been in the water at least a half hour and I was getting kinda chilled and was glad to see that others were now headed back. The return leg was uneventful. I wasn’t particularly graceful coming thru the breakers and onto the beach. I tumbled about some and found it difficult to get back on feet that had fins on them. Just like I did in my youth, so it was like old times. There were more pictures taken to commemorate such a grand event and then we all dove into our lunches. I stuck around till 2:00 and then bailed out. I had just arrived at PCH in Santa Monica and was creeping along in slow traffic when I felt a cramp coming on in my left thigh, undoubtedly the result of my exercise with fins. Very uncomfortably I managed to work my way into the right lane and then pull off and get out. A ten minute walk cured the cramp and I got back to Camarillo @ 5:00. Just like old times.  Reef on the left, Kreile mob on right. | | Sunday, August 9th, 2009 | | 1:57 pm |
Truck Hoist, Lathe
You may have already seen this in an e mail. I just wanted the Blog to include the account about the truck hoist. I expect to make use of this hoist on Aug. 22 to install the room air conditioner @ Tweedy.  The main project this weekend has been to do some repair on the old (60 yrs) Atlas lathe. A couple weeks ago the power feed on the cross slide bogged down. I had just tightened the gibs and supposed that I had overloaded something. I hesitated getting into the job ' cause I imagined that I must have broken some part that was now irreplaceable. Also, I suspected that it would be a major chore to dismantle the thing. I was wrong on both counts: It was really rather simple to get it apart and on getting access to the rear side of the apron on the carriage, it was obvious that the whole trouble was a paper towel that had gotten tangled in the gears. In the roughly 70 years that I've dealt with lathes, I've often wondered just what lay out of sight behind the apron. Now I know and you can too by gazing at the foto. The biggest part of the job was cleaning up 60 years worth of grease and grime that had accumulated back there. I wouldn't claim that it now runs any better, but I feel a little more pride in the machine. That's the lathe that I had in our service porch in 1953 while in the USAF at Rapid City, SD. (And used to make some parts for the RB36 that I was told, "Saved the Air Force millions of dollars") It's also the lathe I gave to Jim once, but then played indian giver and reclaimed.  The guilty paper towel is in foto. | | Friday, June 5th, 2009 | | 9:11 pm |
Solar
The thing that's new and exciting around here is the array of solar panels on the roof at 618 VV. It's taken a while to get going - red tape associated with being assured that the rebate would be forthcoming- but, once started, it all went very quickly. All the hardware installation happened in two days. Most of another day getting the control and monitoring system to talk to my computer. For the last four days it's been on line and in that period has produced 47.3 kilowatthours. Today's output was 12.6 KWH and it was raining or at least overcast till 2:00 PM. That's what has been most surprising to me: that even on an overcast day, with the Sun low in the sky approaching sunset, it can be producing 360 watts. The system is rated at 3000 watts. So far, the highest reading I've seen has been 2900 watts. We've had cloudy mornings for the last couple weeks. The array faces SE. My next related step is to have SC Edison switch me to a "time of use meter" which charges more for power used from 10:00 AM to6:00 PM, but less in the off hours. Once I've upgraded the small booster pumps that circulate water thru pool solar water panels, I'll reset the large pool pumps to run during the cheap electric power hours. I'm told that they are 30% of my current electrical bill. I'll have to live another 15 years or so to see all this pay for itself, but now I've got some incentive.  | | Sunday, May 10th, 2009 | | 3:07 pm |
New Job
The following are a couple excerpts from the newsletter that I compiled, using up most of my Friday. The bulk of that time was battling Word which thinks it knows what I want to print more than I do: ________________________________________ _____________________________________ NEWSLETTER EDITOR Greetings. I am Roger Ransom, your new Newsletter editor and this is my first attempt to fill the shoes of Ken Gilbert who has so ably produced this document for at least as long as I’ve been in the club. We Optimists are very much in debt to Ken for his efforts, dedication and results in this endeavor. He has done a superlative job in addition to all the work he does as the club’s secretary/treasurer. Perhaps thanks are also due to Ken’s wife Sallye. I do not know the extent of her efforts in actually producing the newsletter, but I suspect they are significant. And we owe her thanks if only for putting up with the demands on Ken’s time. At the outset, I must ask for your patience and forgiveness as I undertake this task. I make no claim to any experience or skill as an editor. It will be a case of on-the-job-training. I know that I cannot do it alone. I solicit your input of news and articles and your comments/criticisms. With luck and your support, it might be fun. Thanx, R2 You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing. ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- If any of you are interested in being on the E-mailing list for the newsletter, let me know. | | Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 | | 9:54 am |
Janiq
' Will post more detailed account later. For now, a pix of Janiq.  | | Sunday, March 15th, 2009 | | 11:54 am |
Tooting one's own horn
Last Friday I got a free lunch. The occasion was the annual awards luncheon of the Tri County GATE Council (Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo). I was the guest of Nils and Bev Rueckert. Before letting us eat, we watched about 20 people -mostly teachers, I think - be presented a certificate of commendation, a pot of flowers and hear their sponsor rave about how great they are. I was one of the 20 and what follows is what Bev said about me: 13 March 2009 How do you thank someone who gives so much of himself to the GATE Symposium - his time, his expertise and supplies - and then simply and humbly says, “I do it because I’m having fun.”? Who is this person? Mr. Roger Ransom is a semi-retired professional engineer and science expert. After years of working on projects at his own precision optics company for JPL, CalTech, Panavision, Lockheed and the Hubble telescope to name just a few, he now sets his goals on motivating the next generation. His interests range widely, a true Renaissance man. He has been active with the youth of the community in many capacities. He is the perfect model of an octogenarian GATE student himself, exemplifying a thirst for knowledge and a love of science, problem solving and ingenuity. Over the past three years Mr. Ransom has volunteered countless hours of time to mentor me in physics, aeronautics and now alternative energy sources. He has made possible all of my goals of offering a rigorous and challenging curriculum with exciting and interactive working demonstrations. Imagine being a 4th or 5th grader and feeling like you were meeting a man who might impress you as being an Albert Einstein. The kids’ quotes tell it all. “Mr. Ransom is my hero.” “Mr. Ransom should be famous”. “I didn’t think physics could be so much fun.” Why do the students feel this way? Mr. Ransom has a vast background of scientific knowledge. I discuss my lessons with him and I treasure the added depth and hands-on applications that he is eager to offer. His creative mind raises our lesson to the next level as he designs and builds a working interactive model that brings that lesson alive. Imagine a platform demonstrating weightlessness and the effects on the ventricular system during our study of aeronautics. He also built a working wind tunnel that demonstrated Bernoulli’s Principles and also the physics of pitching a baseball. This year he designed a Styrofoam sundial and calculated the math needed so that it could be read accurately for this area. Each student individually constructed his/her own and he donated all the parts. While teaching the lessons of Archimedes, he built a pulley system that demonstrated the principles we were studying. Then he revised it to demonstrate solar power and the transfer of energies. He often comes to the classroom to meet the students, answer their questions, and challenge them with his own observations and questions. When I asked why he worked so hard and diligently for our nearly 200 Symposium students, he answers, “I believe in them and what they are capable of. Besides, I’m just having fun!” A sample of the good humor that comes along with his expertise: Mr. Ransom’s Bernoulli Rulee A STUDENT WITH THE NAME OF BERNOULLI, WORKING LATE IN HIS LAB AT HIS SCHOOL, HE OBSERVED THAT SWIFT FLOW MADE THE PRESSURE GO LOW. WHAT IS NOW KNOWN AS BERNOULLI’S RULEE! This is one of several verses he has written to imprint principles on students’ Beverly Rueckert, Teacher 4th and 5th grade GATE Symposium Pleasant Valley School District Following the lunch, We - Nils, Bev, Nora (Bev's supervisor) and I- went over to Channel Islands Opto-mechanical Engineering, Inc. where I gave them a tour. - with considereable assistance from Alan Cornelius. Alan and his wife Dianne were at work there, even tho we've cut to a 4 day week (economy) and the place was otherwise idle. | | Sunday, March 8th, 2009 | | 9:17 pm |
Fun Weekend
It was a fun and productive weekend. It began to be fun around noon on Friday when I finally saw an image from the little Infra Red telescope I was assembling. This is a 2” aperture, 8” focal length Cassegrain which is used in the IR, but, since it’s all reflective, can be tested in the visible spectrum. The customer orders two or four about every three years. It’s always just long enuff that we’ve broken down all the set-up, lost the tools and gotten rusty on the procedures. I’ve always been the one to do the figuring on the ellipsoidal primary mirror. But, this time I did a better job of documentation and coached Jerry on the figuring technique. Its always been sorta chancy on whether the resultant image will meet the requirement –blur size less than .0003”. What I saw at noon Fri. was comfortably within that, so I was relieved. I don’t know whether that primary was one I’d done or one of Jerry’s. On Fri. evening I went swimming at the public indoor pool. I do four round trips across a 20 yard pool. – significant rests between trips. The main event for the weekend started Sat. morning: That was hoisting one of the Solar heating panels back to the top of our pool dressing room. That panel had blown off during a gusty Santa Ana a couple months ago. It landed on the clothes line which cushioned the panel, but smashed the clothes line. I’m estimating the weight of the panel at around 120 lbs (empty).The photo shows the hoisting means: there are two parallel 2x3s forming a very steep inclined ramp. I muscle one end of the panel at a time up in increments of about 6”, C clamping as I go. At the top edge, it passes on to two other short 2x3s that are hinged to the top edge. I tilt it near horizontal and slide it into place. It’s exactly the same thing I did putting the three panels up originally. The panel was in place by Sat. mid afternoon. Today, most of the morning was taken up redoing the plumbing to connect the panels. The pool is currently @ 59 F. Hopefully it’ll be swimable (75 F for me) by mid April. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/r2smr/SolarUp1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/r2smr/SolarUp2.jpg I had a guest for dinner Sat. nite. We planned to watch Red Skelton on PBS after dining on Marie Calendar chicken pot pies from the freezer. When I went to get the pot pies, I only found one, but just as I was to confess that we’d go to plan B, the phone rang and another neighbor was offering some chicken pot pie that she’d made. It was probably better than the MC pot pie that I returned to the freezer. And there was so much excess donated food that I’ve got left-overs for two more meals. But, as so often happens, the scheduled Red Skelton was replaced with something completely uninteresting, so my guest – another neighbor lady, went home. As usual, Casey and I walked on the hill this late PM. Not as usual, we hit the jackpot in collecting BBs: 19 more. That makes a total of 3007 now. I think it must have been while on that walk that we had a visit from a critter – coyote, probably – and lost the Rhode Island Red named Scooter. We’re left with just Chickee Poo who’s not much bigger than a pigeon, but who lays a similarly small egg every other day. That was the only negative of the day. To top it off, while writing this, a phone call from Chelsea. They’re gonna visit Mar 27. And Janike’s coming in April. On the whole, a pretty good weekend. | | Sunday, March 1st, 2009 | | 8:44 pm |
Bike Lite for GATE
I've been typing for most of the last hour doing this update and when I went to add a pix, lost the whole thing. so, I'm starting over on an abbreviated post. Last week the GATE classes used the contraption I kludged together around the old bike donated by Claudia Brower of Tweedy and the airplane generator donated by Jim R of BAM. It had been my hope that the kids would be able to develope something like 1/4 to 1/3 horsepower (186 to 249 watts) and thus get a feel for the effort required. But the highest we saw was 66 watts. Most of the problem, I believe, is that even pedalling furiously, the voltage never got much over 6 volts. It's a one speed bike and I'd pushed the pulley ratio about all that was practical. But, the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, it became a contest to see who could generate the most power.  | | Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 | | 7:48 am |
Vacuum
Before Maria comes again to do housecleaning, on 17 Feb, I need to get a replacement vacuum cleaner for the trusty old blue Royal that has served so nobly for the last 20 or 30 years. I would welcome any recomendations for brand, model, feaures,etc. Thanx JQM PS Still no takers on the sox & hat out of the lost & found at Tweedy. | | Thursday, January 15th, 2009 | | 8:40 pm |
More Gate classes
I have been known to state that, "If I should win the lottery and find myself with scads of maoney, what I'd like to spend it on would be something like the Exploratorium in San Francisco, but here in camarillo". For those not familiar with the Exploratorium, it's a science museum where kids can get hands-on experience working on equipment that illustrate and teach scientific principles. Well, my chances of winning the lottery aren't very good because I've never bought a ticket and don't intend to. In spite of that, I am doing something akin to creating a science museum and having a blast doing it. Instead, I am, from time to time, making up some contraption for the GATE program that is taught by neighbor Bev Rueckert. Most of these I've shown off here in my blog. The latest has been what might be labled as a "Solar Hoist". Its purpose is to illustrate the conversion of one type of energy into another. We use a solar (photovoltaic) cell to capture light energy from the Sun (which, of course, originated as nuclear energy). the solar cell turns some of the light energy into electrical energy. We conduct the electricity to a gearhead motor which converts the electrical energy into mechanical energy, turning a drum, winding a cable threaded thru a block and tackle. With this we lift some known weights a known distance. With voltmeter and ammeter in the circuit, we can calculate the electrical energy consumed and compare this to the potential energy added as the weights are lifted. Dividing the latter by the former tells the efficiency of our machine. The classes this last week came up with a surprising range of efficiencies: from 5% to 29%. It's hard to know just how much of this sank into the student's brains, but they seemed to enjoy it. These are 4th and 5th grade kids, but they are the cream of the crop.  | | Thursday, November 20th, 2008 | | 8:10 pm |
Gate Class
The latest topic in the Gate class with Bev Rueckert was the study of using pulleys to multiply force. Here two students easily overpower six by means of block and tackle. Bev made it more interesting by having them picture that they were duplicating the feat of Achimedes when he launched the King's overweight yatch around 200 BC. The block + tackle is the set we used in 1965 to install a different 10 HP motor on the Blanchard grinder.  | | Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 | | 8:38 pm |
| | 8:22 pm |
| | 7:36 pm |
Sun Dials
Yesterday I spent the whole day in the GATE program. This was more of helping neighbor Bev Rueckert teach some 4th and 5th graders about sun dials. The chief topic this semester is about Solar Energy. An important part of that is understanding how the sun moves thru the sky. So today each of the kids made a sun dial. There were approximately 100 of them in four classes. It was a pretty simple design: Two styrofoam blocks glued together with a sheet of paper glued to them on which were printed the lines marking the hours. A bamboo skewer stuck in the blocks served as the gnomon. I had sawed up the blocks, provided the skewers and served as consultant to Bev in preparing the lesson. The Sun Dial book that Nibot had given me for Christmas a couple years ago was a huge help. It had rained the day before, but we lucked out on the weather. There were scattered to broken clouds thru the day. The first class had perhaps 30% sun, the next two more like 80% and the last one of the day was troubled more by the sun getting quite low in the sky, but still had 60%. I think it was successful. One particularly perceptive kid was heard to declare, "You know. If you knew the time, you could use this as a compass" Bev, going solo, had another 100 kids today and faces 50 more tomorrow. But she gets paid. The guy second from right is holding his backwards.  | | Sunday, October 26th, 2008 | | 8:27 pm |
Kinetic Weekend
It was a very full & Fun weekend. It started fairly early Sat. AM when I left the house @ 8:20 to drive to Camarillo Airport to meet Jim and Jack flying in in OUR airplane -the Grumman Cheetah. They landed around 8:40 -following a pre-dawn takeoff from Modesto. We proceeded directly to Ventura Marina where we met Mike and Sylvan. They had arrived the evening before traveling from Davis with neighbors and friends in a large bus pulling a trailer loaded with vehicles for the KINETIC SCULPTURE race. A friend of Mike's had offered the use of a vehicle the friend had constructed some time ago and Mike had proposed that that I could join as part of the crew in the race. Having only just the week before given up hobbling around on crutches or cane (back problems), I had pretty much decided not to accept the offer. Besides, if I was in the race, I wouldn't be able to photograph it. But, Mike said, "You wouldn't have to do the whole thing. You could bail out after the first leg". (the mile and a half of water) "And you could take a position in the car where you wouldn't have to pump". For those of you unfamiliar with rules of the Kinetic Sculpture race, all propulsion must be provided by human muscle. The four legs of the course are: 1 1/2 mile water, 1/2 mile sand, approx 1/2 mile pavement, 100 ft mud. I decided it was an offer I couldn't refuse; the thought that I could henceforth brag that I'd once participated in the KSR was too much to pass up. The vehicle had 4 seats. The two rear ones had bike-like pedals which power the two huge wheels and the center paddle wheel. The two forward seats also had pedals powering the front tires, but no significant water thrust. The entire 800 lb contraption was kept afloat by the massive tires. It is articulated so that the steersman (Jim) could cause it to bend in the middle. Mike occupied the other rear seat and thus was obliged to supply the other 50% of our energy for the water leg. Jack took the front left, I took front right. Sylvan was classified as a "Barnacle" and rode on the hood. We were the first of the nine entries to launch (because it was assumed that we would be the slowest). It was low tide, so we got an extended wild ride down the launch ramp. This was particularly exciting for Sylvan, on the hood, with little in front of him but the onrushing water. We made a pretty good splash. Once in the water, both Jack and I took up paddles and tried to contribute a little more forward thrust, but it was unclear if that was significant. Thruout the slightly more than an hour on the water, both Mike and JIm would admonish me to take it easy. They didn't want to be responsible for putting me back on crutches. I feel like I did; at this writing, 30 hours later, I'm feeling no bad effects. On transitioning from water to beach, I, and Jack, could finally provide some usefull propulsion. The gear ratio - pedals to wheels- was much higher for the front tires, so we were then useful. It couldn't have been longer than four minutes from the time the front wheels grounded till we stopped up on the beach, but I couldn't have taken much more of that exertion. At that point, I was voted off the vehicle and Sylvan took my place. I then had more opportunity to act as a spectator and take pix. A short sample of the figure 8 race course on pavement is included. I also have a much longer movie of our team going thru the mud in which the successful outcome was very much in dought. That's a long upload tho, I'll spare you. We all spent the nite in Camarillo, returning Sun. AM for the awards breakfast. Our only award was taken by Sylvan for being the best (only) barnacle in the race. It was duly noted that our team was made up of three generations. I personally came away with great satisfaction at now being able to brag about my racing experience. Following a stroll on the beach and lunch at Costco, we went to the airport and my visitors flew off. First stop: Davies to drop off Mike + Sylvan, then Jim + Jack to Modesto. Jim's estimated time enroute was 2:40 hrs, but they must have done it much faster. There was a ans. mach message from Jim reporting them enroute to Modesto even before that. On my return home, I went to Bev. Rueckert's to confer on the Sun Dial lesson for the Gate classes starting this week. As I said, it was a full weekend. But extremely fun. Thanx, you guys!! My efforts at inserting a movie aren't working. I'll fight it more at a later date. Sorry! | | Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 | | 8:34 pm |
Dog Party Pix
Here's the promised foto of the Dog Party. There's only 10 pooches here; one guest left early with his dog. A lot of the two footed guests are also sitting out of camera view. Answering bobolly's question about my back: Yes, I'd say I'm 100% recovered now. I might not have been ay party time, but very close. For the last two evenings, we've done our walks leaving the car & cane at home and going most of the usual distance. With no ill effects, so far.  |
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