The latter park has towering madrona trees (see above - and can you spot Annabelle?), which a long ago Navy geographer mistook for magnolias, hence our neighborhood and the park's name. It's a lovely place we don't get to often, and after tonight, we probably won't go there much. Apparently some locals have decided to turn the place into their de facto off leash area.
Within 60 seconds of us arriving at the park, our dogs (on leashes) were each "greeted" by a charging off-leash dog, growling and teeth bared. Nice doggie! Its elderly owner stood by and smiled, as if this was a friendly 'hello.' When Christian told the dog to stop and stuck his foot out between our dog and the aggressive one, pushing it away, the woman was aghast and told Christian, "Don't do that!" to which he immediately replied, "You're dog's supposed to be on a leash." Without hesitation she replied, "I know," but then continued to make noises about how he should be nice to her dog. Um, NO, bite me (and I don't mean that literally). I don't think we have to be nice to a growling, charging dog showing its teeth.
That said, of course, it's not the dog's fault that it has a stupid owner.
Despite dumb people, we were able to enjoy the view. The kids had fun swinging and rolling down the grassy hills. :)
A few minutes after we got back home, I look over at the couch and see this ...
"Look, we're Type III levers!" Annabelle announced, and then she and CJ proceeded to explain how their 'effort' was between the pivot (fulcrum) and the load.
GAMMA RAYS: Here's how we spent part of our morning.
That's the Lorentz factor, or gamma factor, take your pick. It figures prominently in Einstein's theory of relativity work.
The Einstein-related lectures we listened to today were about the relativity of light clocks. We learned that moving clocks run slow, which is oh-so-interesting, don't you think?
Today also involved deriving equations (like the Lorentz factor). At one point, I told the kids to put their pencils down and forget about trying to write it all down. Instead, just listen to professor Larry Randles Langerstrom and follow what he's doing mentally, so that you can understand it (rather than just copy it).
That must have worked because they both aced their chapter assessment test. w00t!
WORLD'S SMALLEST MOVIE: This evening we watched a film that is the the Guinness World Record book as the smallest stop motion film. It was made by IBM, who reports that "the ability to move single atoms-the smallest particles of any element in the universe-is crucial to IBM's research in the field of atomic memory."
But you know those wacky nanophysicists. They like to have their fun, so "A Boy and His Atom" was born.
Perhaps even more interesting than the wee little film itself is the story of how it was made. http://youtu.be/xA4QWwaweWA
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