I pre-ordered them several weeks ago through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory online store. (Glad I ordered when I did. In looking at the site today, I'm thinking they might be out of 'em, as I can't find them listed any more.)
The toys got us thinking and talking about Curiosity and so I had the kids play the XBox game Mars Rover Landing. We downloaded it (free!) last week and this was the first time they've gotten around to playing it.
Annabelle make an OK enough landing on her third try. Here she is, exalting.
They decided to do a project together, a two-person periscope. Today, I had them do some research, and asked them to find Web sites with instructions to build a periscope. They found some sites and read up on them.
One site we found was Exploratorium.edu, a great site we've visited before. Their page on periscope included not just "how to" but some history and factoids. For instance, we learned the world periscope comes from the Greek words peri, meaning 'around' and scopus, meaning 'to look. Makes sense, since periscopes allow you to look around walls and other obstacles.
We also learned that the longer the periscope, the smaller whatever you're trying to look at is. Given that, periscopes on submarines and for military use have magnifying glasses in between their mirrors.
This evening we bought the mirrors we need from the Dollar Store and we have the main tube of the periscope built. Tomorrow, we'll try to put it all together and hope like heck it works.
LIGHTS OUT: There's a total solar eclipse on tap for tomorrow. It begins at 12:35 p.m. Pacific time on Tuesday the 13th (which will actually be Nov. 14 in Australia). Unfortunately, we're not in its 'flight path,' so to speak. It will only be visible to small segments of Australia and wide swaths of the ocean.
The good news is, you can watch the eclipse online via a few outfits, including the Slooh Space Camera. Link here: http://events.slooh.com/
Tourism Tropical North Queensland will also provide live views from Cairns via this link: http://www.ustream.tv/cairnseclipse2012
BLACK SUPERMAN: Don't ask me why, but at about 7 this morning I started thinking about Muhammed Ali. That, naturally, led to me thinking about the AM radio hit from my youth "Black Superman." It was rolling round in my head all day and around 3 p.m. I finally played it on YouTube.
The kids heard it and wanted to know what it was and why I was listening to it. And so, we talked about "The Greatest" and how he was born Cassius Clay, why he changed his name, his conscientious objector stance and what that meant to him and the nation at the time.
"It's sort of ironic, because he fights, but he doesn't want to fight," Annabelle assessed.
It's a lot to think about, to be sure.
We spent some time checking out Ali's wonderful Web site (www.ali.com), reading about his fights, challenges, and human rights accomplishments.
I told the kids one of my favorite Ali moments was him lighting the torch at the Atlanta Olympic games in 1996. What a moment that was!
IT IS ROCKET SCIENCE: Today XKCD featured a Saturn 5 rocket schematic ("Up Goer Five") using only 1000 most commonly-used words in English. It's great. I especially love the explanations near the "business" end.
remember we asked how far away a mirror image appears to be? the image in a periscope is a mirror image of a mirror image; so how far away does the object appear to be? No wonder you need a magnifying glass.
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