Hooray, Pi Day!

IRRATIONAL DAY: We spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen today, with Pi Day festivities. We've been 'celebrating' Pi Day (March 14, for 3.14159 et cetera) for a couple years now. The fun almost always involves pies of some sort. 

This morning, we set about making mini apple pies on a stick (because all food's more fun on a stick, right?).  Wielding knives, the kids peeled apples. 

Then, we flavored them up with brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and some nutmeg.

Then, we plopped 'em on lil pie crusts, stuck a stick in there, and smooshed 'em together. 

Fortunately, they baked up just fine and the kids report they are delicious. We had homemade pizza pie for dinner. 

This afternoon, we did a couple of pi experiments that we found on Exploratorium's Pi Day Activities Web page.

The first involved carefully wrapping string around the circumference of a circular object. We chose a dinner plate. The kids traced its circumference and cut the yarn.  Next, they took the string circumference and stretched it across the diameter of the plate. The goal was to cut as many “string diameters” they could get from their “string circumference.”  In news that won't surprise pi fans, they each got three complete diameters, and just a smidgen (say about .14 of a diameter) left over. We talked about the math a little bit. I reminded them that if they knew the radius of their plates, they could figure out its circumference. So we measured the 10-inch across plates, and found the radius to be 5. You take 2*pi*r(adius), and you'll get the circumference - and it worked.  The plate had a radius of 5, and using the formula, we came up with a circumference of 31.42, and that's just about what the sum of their yarn pieces was. Yay, math! We did a second task involving pi - and this time their circumference of the kids' heads. Today I learned that hat sizes typically range between 6 and 8, which I knew, but what I didn't know until now was that those sizes come from taking the circumference of a person's head and dividing it by pi. Wow!  The average adult's head ranges between 21 and 25 inches (per Exploratorium).  CJ and Annabelle took turns measuring each other.  CJ's head was 24 inches. Dividing that by 3.14159 gives him a hat size of 7.64, so a 7 5/8 would be just right for him.   Annabelle's head was 21.5. Dividing that by pi gave her 6.8, so a 6 3/4 would likely work for her.  And last but not least, the kids came up with a little song for Pi Day. It just so happens they've been working on learning "American Pie" on their guitars for the last week, so I suggested they come up with a different kind of Pi song. They watched the BrainPOP video about pi to get some ideas for lyrics, and then spent about an hour writing, refining and practicing.  Here are the lyrics A long, long, time ago, on a continent far away, ancient Egyptians did some math around 1700 B.C.E, they calculated pi to be "256 over 81" - on the right path But in 300 B.C.E There was this guy Archimedes "3 and one seventh's" what he said He was close, but now he's long dead But in 263 C.E Chinese Liu Hui calculated to 3 decimal places for you and me And now, we have, our pi [Chorus] So we were singing, "My, my, this irrational pi, 3.14159 and on towards the sky I could say more but I'm too tired to try why you have to be so big, pi? why you have to be so big, pi? INSPIRED: This morning started off rainy, but by midday, it was downright gorgeous.  A photo I'd happen to have seen on a Ballard news blog prompted me to take the kids to the Ballard Locks for our stroll. From the Seattle Municipal Archives, this photo from the 1930s shows the old railroad bridge between Magnolia and Ballard.  It was taken from the Magnolia end, and that's where we started our journey.  We walked around under the bridge for a bit ... as well as just west of it, where we had a lovely view out to Puget Sound. We walked our way to the fish ladder and made our way across the top of the dam to the locks, where pleasure craft and big working boats go through. The Viking Storm made its way to open waters as we watched. On the Ballard side of the locks, we strolled through the lovely gardens. There's not much blooming yet, but soon, very soon! The kids were itching to roll down the terraced hillside (it's much steeper than it looks in this photo). I gave them a go ahead, but told them I wasn't responsible if they hit any goose droppings along the way (there were dozens of Canada geese in the park, wishing we would go away). Below, CJ makes a beeline for a bunch of 'em. Annabelle followed soon after. They changed their clothes when we got home. :) Crossing back to the south side, we noted swirly shadows the wave sculptures were casting.  LIVE, FROM LEO:  Early this evening, we watched a two-hour program on the National Geographic Channel, "Live From Space."  We have seen hundreds of hours of NASA TV, including lots of live broadcasts from the ISS, but this show was worth watching. It was nicely produced, especially for ISS 'newbies." There was lots of great footage from on board the station, explaining its parts and, of course, sharing its breathtaking vantage point of the Earth. We learned about the station's systems (recycling, sanitation, laundry, crew quarters, and more).  There was a segment about Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano's scary spacewalk, when his helmet started filling with water. Poor guy darn near drowned. And what's really disconcerting is they're still not sure why his helmet started filling with water.  The broadcast featured several live interviews with Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata. Five years ago he was the first Japanese astronaut aboard the ISS and right now, he's the first Japanese commander of the ISS.                                                            Photo: NASA/JSC During the show, I tried to access the interactive Web site livefromspace.com, but it was having trouble loading. I'd like to think that was because so many people are interested. Apparently #LiveFromSpace was the number one trend on Twitter during the broadcast. If that's the case, mission accomplished. I'm glad NASA and the other space agencies are making efforts to reach a broader audience.

Tulips and Such

A FIRST: We went for an hour-long walk this morning and lo and behold, we saw our first tulips. Sweet!

Our destination was Terminal 91 - soon to be where all the cruise ships will be coming in. But this morning, it was just us, some seagulls, yachts and a few working boats. 

To get there, we had to walk under the Magnolia/Garfield St/Suicide bridge.

Elliott Bay was calm again today. The kids spent a good half hour plopping rocks into the water. What is it that's so satisfying about that activity? It's right up there with watching a fire burn.

Every once in awhile we'd get buzzed by a jet overhead. That's one of the (many) things I love about living in this city. I wonder how many times a day I gaze up at the sky.

I could ID the sound of a 787 with my eyes closed, for sure. 

Today also involved some science homework, watching the latest episode of "Live from Daryl's House" featuring Brett Dennen, and shopping in preparation for "Hunger Action Week" (much more on that later).

LIVE, FROM LOW EARTH ORBIT!!:   Tomorrow evening - 5 Left Coast USA time - National Geographic will feature a two-hour special program originating from Johnson Space Center and featuring live appearnces by the International Space Station crew.
                              
The broadcast will feature stories about science being conducted aboard the ISS, plus include several live interviews with astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata.

I do like how they're promoting this event and trying to capture the attention and fancy of people, but truth be told, you can see stuff like this on a near daily basis on NASA TV, which doesn't require a cable package that includes the Nat Geo channel. You just need the good ol' World Wide Web and a browser pointed the right direction: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

POSTPONED: On our 'to do' list for this weekend was watching the third SpaceX resupply mission to the ISS. It was originally scheduled for Sept. 16, but late today, I saw notice that it's been pushed back to the 30th. Bummer. 

Rover Over

READY TO ROLL: Today, the kids finished their Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover LEGO kit. 

They've been working on it for a few days now, carefully chipping away at the pages and pages of instructions ... 

... and keeping track of all the parts.

When it was complete, we took the time to review the nicely produced instruction-plus book. It contained many factoids about MSL scattered throughout its pages, and it had a schematic listing the rover's various parts.

We've been keeping pretty close tabs on Curiosity since I was lucky enough to see it launch in person back in November of 2011. 

Lately, we've been concerned about news that MSL's wheels are showing signs of wear. 

You can see a number of pings, dings and such in this (NASA-JPL) photo of MSL's left front wheel, taken by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI),

And if you look really closely, down at the bottom, toward the first series of three (by design!) holes, there's an all-the-way-through tear.  (photo: NASA/JPL/MSSS)

                         

More photographic evidence of wheel damage is available on these links:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00490/mhli/0490MH0262000003E1_DXXX.jpg

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00490/mhli/0490MH0262000001E1_DXXX.jpg

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00494/mcam/0494ML1964004000E1_DXXX.jpg

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00411/mhli/0411MH0262001000C0_DXXX.jpg

During pre-launch sessions at Kennedy Space Center, I got to see an MSL wheel up close!

The big black wheel is MSL's. It's not rubber (though you might think that, based on its color). Rather, it's made of. The silver wheel in the center is like those found on Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. And the tiniest one, with little nubs, was like that found on Pathfinder. 

Here's a cool NASA/JPL photo of prototypes of each of those rovers in the "Mars Yard" at JPL - apparently not as hostile an environment as the surface of Mars! 

Reading up on MSL's six aluminum wheels, each is 20 inches in diameter and has its own driven motor spinning it, and there are six-spoke titanium spindles in the center. Each front and rear wheel can be steered independently, and MSL's suspension is a rocker-bogie system (something our LEGO model reproduced nicely, BTW.) 

From what I can glean online, MSL's wheels aren't anywhere near failing at this point, so fingers crossed Curiosity will continue to roam for a good, long time. 

Back in this photo, when the rover's wheels were all shiny and new, you can see holes put into the aluminum on purpose. 
                          
The holes create a pattern in the Martian soil, as seen below.

The patterns are helpful, as the rover can use them as a visual reference when driving. I learned at the NASA Tweetup/MSL launch that the pattern is Morse code for JPL, the abbreviation for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is where Curiosity was designed, built and the mission is managed.

NASA/JPL (cropped from http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/gallery/PIA13385.html

In poking around today, looking for answers as to why MSL's wheels are wearing out, I found a fascinating (well, at least to me, LOL) Reddit thread all about it here: http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1wnb8s/why_are_the_wheels_of_nasas_mars_rover_curiosity/

But back to LEGOS! While visiting KSC for the launch, I got to see a super duper big LEGO MSL.

It was about the size of a Smart Car, ha ha.

For some reason, I decided to take a close up of its wheel. Maybe I was worried about its design back then. It looked, a little blocky to me. ;)

So Sunny

BRIGHT START: This is how I found CJ this morning at his computer. We had lovely, full sunshine right from the start today, and it was apparently more than the blue eyed Seattleite could handle. Too funny.

MARCH FORTH: Because it was so sunny, we got a nice long walk in this a.m.

We decided to head down toward the waterfront, but instead of our usual haunts, we parked near the east end of the Magnolia/Garfield bridge, and then walked a path along the east shore of Elliott Bay.

It was a little hazy out, but still gorgeous, with water nearly as smooth as glass. 

We made our way to Centennial Park, where there's an 80-foot long fishing pier - but no fishermen today. 

We have big plans to get rods and fish from those piers in the near future.

We made many stops along our way today, including pondering this wood for a moment. To me, it looked like someone sitting down on the bank. 

The Terminal 86 grain processing facility features prominently along the waterfront we visited.

Operated by Louis Dreyfus, the facility includes 16 acres and a 3.99-million-bushel grain elevator. In all, there are 68 130-foot high silos on site. Each is 28 feet in diameter, holding 54,000 bushels. 

Normally, we stay on the waterfront trail, but near the grain silos, I spotted a sign pointing toward the "Helix Bridge." We've driven by it hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Today, we finally walked across it.

The bridge was built by private funds from the Amgen corporation, a science and biotech firm, 
which has a huge campus at its west end. The bridge spans busy railroad tracks between Amgen and 15th Avenue, a main north-south thoroughfare in the area, and likely where Amgen employees who are mass transit riders catch their bus.

So now we can cross 'crossing the Helix bridge' off our 'to do' list!

During our morning walk, the kids and I stumbled upon an out of the way, tiny parking lot that would be a great jump off point for future walks. This evening, we took Christian there to show him (as it's hard to explain how to get there). So we got a two-fer on the waterfront today!

MATH AND MORE: We spent an hour plus on the roof(deck) today. The kids worked on math, and I scrubbed the deck of its winter coat of algae.

LIBRARY: The kids read an issue of "Time for Kids" this afternoon. Its cover story was "Reinventing the Library," which covered public libraries moving toward electronic books and other tech innovations. They completed some worksheets corresponding to the story, and one question asked what kind of unique space they'd put in a library they ran. Annabelle wrote, "An art studio, where everyone could make their own book illustrations." 

CJ said, "I would make an area dedicated to political books." 

LEAPIN' ROCKET!: Today NASA's hopping rocket passed another test with flying colors!

PHOTO: NASA
Today's test was "Free Flight 9," at Kennedy Space Center. It was Morpheus' highest flight to date. The vehicle soared to 581 feet, higher than the Washington Monument. It was also its fastest flight (30 MPH vertically and horizontally), and its furthest flight to date, 837 feet. Check it out here: http://youtu.be/GWx8SgmAZNA
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