Sunrise this morning by Vivien

Vivien sent this to me this morning from her iPad.

She took it from her house in Mt Vernon.

Thank you Vivien!

Sunrise this morning by Matthew

A very golden sunrise this morning from New Boston

Thank you Matthew!

Full Moon this morning

The Moon this morning around 5:30 a.m. taken by my husband off our deck in Goffstown, NH

Moon Photos by Colin 1/24/13

Taken when leaving Rosary Hall around 4:22 pm, Thursday, January 24th

Later the same evening, 7 pm in New Boston

7th Grade Science Question from last week with a possible answer

Why Do Hurricanes Have Names?

By Jennie Cohen

Source:  http://www.history.com/news/why-do-hurricanes-have-names

As Hurricane Irene continues to batter the Bahamas and churn toward the northeastern United States, some may be wondering why this menacing swirl of peril goes by such an innocuous name. Why do we bestow people’s names on volatile storms in the first place? Find out more about the history of hurricane nomenclature and how it’s changed over the years.

Hurricane Irene roils the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico on August 22, 2011. (Credit: NASA Earth Observatory)

For as long as people have been tracking and reporting hurricanes, also known as tropical cyclones, they’ve been struggling to find ways to identify them. Until well into the 20th century, newspapers and forecasters in the United States devised names for storms that referenced their time period, geographic location or intensity; hence, the Great Hurricane of 1722, the Galveston Storm of 1900, the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and the Big Blow of 1913. Meanwhile, hurricanes in the tempestuous West Indies were named for the Catholic saint’s days on which they made landfall.

The pioneering Australian weatherman Clement Wragge began assigning names to tropical cyclones in the late 19th century, initially using the letters of the Greek alphabet and characters from Greek and Roman mythology. An eccentric and playful fellow, he later turned to the names of local politicians he particularly disliked; as a result, he was able to state in public forecasts that the officials were “causing great distress” or “wandering aimlessly about the Pacific.” Needless to say, Wragge’s subtly hostile approach didn’t take the meteorology profession by storm.

During World War II, U.S. Air Force and Navy meteorologists plotting storms over the Pacific needed a better way to denote hurricanes while analyzing weather maps. Many began paying tribute to their wives and girlfriends back home by naming tropical cyclones after them. In 1945 the newly formed National Weather Bureau—later the National Weather Service—introduced a system based on the military phonetic alphabet, but by 1953 the options had been exhausted. The next year, the bureau embraced forecasters’ informal practice of giving hurricanes women’s names. Because America led the world in weather tracking technology at the time, many other countries adopted the new nomenclature.

By the 1960s, some feminists began taking issue with the gendered naming convention. Most vocal among them was a National Organization for Women member from the Miami area named Roxcy Bolton, whose many accomplishments throughout a lifetime of activism include founding women’s shelters and rape crisis centers, helping to end sexist advertising, achieving maternity leave for flight attendants and eradicating all-male dining rooms in Florida restaurants. In the early 1970s Bolton chided the National Weather Service for their hurricane naming system, declaring, “Women are not disasters, destroying life and communities and leaving a lasting and devastating effect.” Perhaps taking a cue from Clement Wragge, she recommended senators—who, she said, “delight in having things named after them”—as more appropriate namesakes for storms.

In 1979, the National Weather Service and the World Meteorological Association finally switched to an alternating inventory of both men’s and women’s names. (Bolton’s senator-based plan was rejected, however, as was her proposal to replace the word “hurricane”—which she thought sounded too close to “her-icane”—with “him-icane.”) In recent years, the lists of names, which are predetermined and rotate every six years, have been further diversified to reflect the many regions where tropical cyclones strike. Names of devastating storms with major loss of life and economic impact, such as Katrina in 2005 and Andrew in 1992, are permanently retired.

6th Grade Math

Complete pages 138-139 #1-24,26,28,29 as class work

Homework - complete workbook page 4-2 study guide and practice

7th Grade Math - with bonus points

Complete the Exploring Sequences Lab on pages146-147 as class work

If above is incomplete by the end of the period, please complete as homework.

Why is this important?

Consider having a party and you know that 60 people are coming to the party and each will want to eat a full meal.

Your recipe for the meal makes enough for 3 people.

How do you make enough for 60 people?

The recipe calls for two tomatoes, five peppers, 3 cups of black beans and one cup of salsa.

How much of each item will you need to make enough for 60 hungry people?

And that is just for the appetizer, what about the rest of the meal?

What would you serve and how would you figure out how much of each serving to make?

Science Fair Proposals - Due January 31st

THIS IS A REMINDER!!

Your Science Fair Proposal and Bibliography Forms are due January 31st, 2013

• Your proposal form and bibliography form MUST be signed by a parent or guardian
• Include all information that I might need to know about your proposed experiment or 8th grade invention
• Your bibliography summary may be bullet pointed, or in paragraph form, be sure to write in your own words
• You will receive extra points on your overall project if you use sources that are not internet based

So far, I have seen some great starts in this adventure, I am looking forward to seeing what you propose as your project.

Sunrise this morning and the Moon last night by Ethan

Sunrise at 7:46 this morning 1/21/13 and the Moon at 7:19 last night taken in Weare, NH by Ethan

Moon photos can be tough with digital cameras.  

If you have a tripod and can set your camera for a timed shutter release, you may improve your pictures. If you have a telescope with a camera attachment, even better.

I'm still working on my own Moon pictures and know how hard it is to keep that camera steady.

Well done Ethan!!

Sunset photos 1/20/13

These were taken by Maggie from her house in Goffstown around 4:40 yesterday afternoon 1/20/13

Sun Facts - to help clarify some questions this week

Solar Snippets: 

          source - http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/pass/passv12/WheresEast.pdf

The Sun's name: Egyptians called it Ra; the Greeks

called it Helios; the Romans called it Sol. There are

many other names—each culture is different.

Sun's Age: 4.5 billion years (happy birthday!)

Sun's size: Diameter is about 1.4 million km (870

million mi), or 109 times Earth Diameter. In terms of

volume, the Sun could contain 1.3 million Earths

Sun's Rotation Rate: at the equator the surface

rotates once every 25.4 days; near the poles it's as

much as 36 days. This odd behavior is due to the fact

that the Sun is not a solid body like the Earth.

Similar effects are seen in the gas planets.

Surface Temperature of the Sun: about 5,800°K

(5,430°C, or 9,800°F)

Core Temperature of the Sun: 15,600,000°K

(28,000,000°F)

Temperature of the Sun's atmosphere (called the

corona): Over 1,000,000K° (The fact that this is so

much higher than the Sun's surface temperature was

a puzzlement for a long time. We are only beginning

to understand the reason for this—it has to do with

activity on the surface of the Sun.

The Sun is made of about 75% hydrogen and 25%

helium. This changes slowly over time as the Sun

converts hydrogen to helium in its core.

Sunspots are "cool" regions, only 3800 K (they look

dark only by comparison with the surrounding

regions). Sunspots can be very large, as much as

50,000 km in diameter—larger than Earth! Sunspots

are caused by complicated, not very well

understood changes in the Sun's magnetic field.

Pressure at the Sun's core: 250 billion times Earth

atmospheric pressure.

Density at the Sun's core: > 150 times that of water.

Energy output of the Sun: 386 billion billion

megawatts. Each second about 700,000,000 tons of

hydrogen are converted to about 695,000,000 tons of

helium and 5,000,000 tons of energy in the form of

gamma rays. As it travels out toward the surface, the

energy is continuously absorbed and re-emitted at

lower and lower temperatures so that by the time it

reaches the surface, it is primarily visible light. Since

its birth it has used up about half of the hydrogen in

its core. It will continue to radiate "peacefully" for

another 5 billion years or so (although its luminosity

will approximately double in that time). But

eventually it will run out of hydrogen fuel. It will

then be forced into radical changes which, though

commonplace by stellar standards, will result in the

total destruction of the Earth (and probably the

creation of a planetary nebula).

Sunrise and Sunset Photos - 6th, 7th and 8th Grades

As we continue with the Planetary Science sunrise and sunset data collection, if you have the opportunity to take some sunrise or sunset photos, please email them to me with the time and locations and I will post them for all to see.

Extra credit will be provided for students who send in photos that are clear enough to post.

Moon photos are welcome too, if you have a tripod to steady your camera you will take good moon photos.  If you have access to a good telephoto lens or telescope, you may see the moon craters too.

The photo above was taken off of my back porch tonight at about 4:50 p.m. facing west in the Pinardville area of Goffstown, NH

Snow day photos - send yours to my Villa email

      I love snow, more fun than leaves!!!

  And I don't get in trouble for digging in it!!

 Chickadee

                       
                                     

                   Sorry, Mom, but I just have to chase the birds!!

 I am a greyhound after all, that's what we do, chase things, really fast!!

Maggie's dog Jessie showing us how to have fun in the snow!!
Thank you Maggie!!

Caroline in the snow!

Izzi's dog has more fur than both of mine!

Snow face!!

Snow Day Bonus Questions

For anyone checking in:

You may receive up to 10 Bonus points on your lowest grade in Math and Science if you bring any of the following things to school tomorrow.

* a measurement of the depth of snow in your yard after it stops snowing today

* a photo (printed please) of you or a family member in the snow today

* a measurement of one cup of today's snow melted (you might need measuring spoons to measure the melted snow)  Explain how you melted it and what you used.

* what time it started snowing at your house and what time it stopped snowing


Have a great day everyone, see you all tomorrow!