June 19, 2019

Top 5 Things I’ve Learned This Year

Here are what I think are the most important topics I’ve learned so far in Math

#5 Polynomials

Although this may seem like a self-contained topic that doesn’t apply to much, this is still an important topic that applies to things like graphing and equations, you need to know how polynomials work for equations that contain variables and although much less important, graphing and t-charts utilize variables where polynomials could still apply.

#4 Exponents

This is quite an important topic that applies to certain topics like Polynomials and Square roots, alongside certain geometry formulas like solving for surface area and volume. You need to know how they work in order to get the right estimates for square roots, aligning like terms in Polynomials, finding out exponent values for variables, and so much more.

#3 Equations

Equations are what you use when finding the answer to any type of question, even basics like 1+1=2 are an equation, you’ll need them to find out answers in topics like values in t-charts and to solve polynomial questions, and even geometry can apply since finding out the formulas all equate to the final volume or surface area of an object.

#2 Fractions

Fractions are a topic that encompass a large variety of questions and topics, so wide that it’s difficult to pinpoint the topics it can encompass. Fractions can be used to answer scale factors that have reductions, fractions can be used to find out the unknown value in an equation if it’s larger than x (3x for example) fractions can be used to subtract and divide exponents, and quite a lot more. But because fractions are essentially division questions, they’ll show up in almost every other topic

#1 BEDMAS

This is by far one of the most important topics that I’ve learned this year, it applies to everything and is required for so many different topics. BEDMAS are the steps that you need to follow in order for you to get the correct answer, if you mess up in the order then you’re almost guaranteed to get the question wrong. This topic applies in so many different scenarios, from exponents to polynomials to rationals to geometry, this is one of the essential basics that the other topics build off of.

June 17, 2019

SMART Goals reflection

What was your goal?

My goal was to use as few single-use plastics as possible for the week.

Did you achieve it? How or how not?

I’d say that I did, since I avoided using food wrap as much as possible and reused any ziploc bags I had, and used my metal straw when I had the chance.

What was the most challenging part of achieving your goal?

Making sure my family didn’t end up giving me single-use plastics, since my parents always like to wrap my lunch in food wrap, I had to get a glass lunch container and make sure that my parents don’t end up wrapping my food again.

What will you do differently next time?

Perhaps broaden the types of plastics I avoid using, since I pretty much limited myself to ziploc bags and food wrap (I don’t really use any other plastic beyond that), perhaps I’ll make an effort to get a reusable cup or simply bring my water jug and metal straw around more often.

Will you continue on this goal? If you do, explain what you will do, if not explain why you are satisfied with where you are at.

I think I’ll try to keep going, since I feel as if I didn’t truly avoid enough plastics, just two types and that’s it. I’ll try to avoid plastic cups and straws, alongside plastic bags from supermarkets.

April 29, 2019

What I learned in Grade 9 Patterns and Graphing

What are patterns?

Linear Patterns, as the name suggests, are equations that have a consistent pattern when a number is plugged in. For example, 2x is an example of a linear equation since if you plug in any number, it will be accurate no matter what.

2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12

2(1) = 2. 2(4) = 8. 2(6) = 12

The next kind of linear equation is something slightly different, if we add a constant to the equation, like 2x+1, we’ll get a different result.

3, 5, 7, 9, ,11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21

2(1)+1 = 3. 2(4)+1 = 9. 2(6) = 13

It may not be immediate at first, but you can notice that it still goes up by 1. This type of equation is used for patterns that aren’t perfect multiples. Here’s another example, this time involving negatives.

29, 22, 15, 8, 1, -6, 13, -20

It’s clearly descending this time, so that always means the variable is negative, since no constant will stop it from going up, we can also tell that the pattern goes down by 7, so we continue from there.

-7x

Now that we know the variable, we can find out the constant as well by simply adding the variable to the first number in the pattern, in this case 29.

29+7=36

So our full equation is -7x +36, at this point we can plug in any number and it will work just fine

29, 22, 15, 8, 1, -6, 13, -20

-7(1) +36 = 29. -7(3) +36 = 15. -7(6)+36 = -6

Another method for finding the answers to a pattern equation is by using what’s called a T-chart, this chart allows you to look for the pattern if a number is missing. So let’s say our pattern is this:

We can put it into a T-chart, which is a simple chart that splits the amount of multiples and the values themselves like this:

The X value represents the multiples while the Y value represents the values of the numbers themselves, from here on out we can look for the equation by looking at clues. We can clearly tell that it goes up by 6 right off the bat, so we already have the variable 6x, then we can trial and error to look for something that matches our table:

Here we simply look for what matches, 1 to 3 is too low and 5 and above is too high, but 4 matches our chart perfectly, so now we have our equation – 6x+4.

Our next topic is graphing, in graphing you simply put the equation into a graph using dots, so if we had an equation like x+2 it would look like this on a graph

I’ll be covering how to accurately plot the dots on the line to make a correct graph. So here there are two intersecting lines, the Y axis and the X axis, and just like in the T-chart, the X axis controls the multiples while the Y represents the values themselves, the upper boxes represent the positive end and the bottom represents the negative end.

Let’s have a demonstration with 2x+4. The way you put an equation into a graph is like this, first you go up on the Y axis according to the constant which is +4

Then you go up by the variable while moving a tile to the right which is 2x, so you go up by 2 and move to the right

Keep doing this until you achieve the desired amount of dots on the graph.

Just remember to move the dots according to their signs as well. If the equation is something like -x-5 I would have to go down the Y axis like this:

Then go down by 5 and then move down and to the right by 1 like this:

A quick side note is that negative patterns always slant downhill, this is because even if the equation is something like -x+100, it WILL become negative at some point, and sometimes the Y axis is higher than the limit of the graph you have, like x+10

If you can’t go any further, simply move to the left, since this still counts since it’s now multiplying by negatives: x+10 = -1+10

And that’s what I learned in Grade 9 Patterns and Graphing

April 18, 2019

How Things Work

1. What problem is your technology trying to solve?

Solar Panels try to solve our issue of finding a clean, efficient, and cheap renewable energy source.

2. Form and Function: What are its main parts and what do the parts do? How does it use or generate electricity? How do electrons move through it?

Solar Panels are mainly comprised of photo-voltaic cells made of silicon. These cells are separated into two layers which are doped with two different elements, phosphorous and boron, this results in one layer being positively charged while the other is negative, so electrons are in a constant state of movement. Additional components like wires and conductive plates allow the charges to be controlled, thus resulting in direct current.

3. What are the social implications? (How does it affect people?) Consider less developed countries and locations with different climates or geography.

Solar panels can help people in almost every inch of the world, since sunlight is constantly shining everywhere (except certain places like the poles). Although some areas may get less sun and therefore less energy, it’s still a much cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, and as production costs of solar panels decrease, it will be more easily accessible to less developed countries that have energy crises or no access to electricity at all.

4. What are the environmental implications? (How does it affects the natural world?)

As is with any other energy source, Solar panels have costs and require time and effort to create and use, but unlike other energy sources, Solar panels could be one of the easiest to produce and cleanest by comparison. The silicon that the panels are made of can be taken from sand, dirt, and any other material that contains silica, which is much more abundant and much faster to reproduce than fossil fuels.

5. Evaluate. Given the strengths and weakness of your technology, is it a satisfactory solution to the problem it is trying to solve?

It’s arguably one of the best solutions to our energy issue, it has a lot of positives going it’s way like how clean it is, how accessible it is, and as time goes on, how cheap it is in comparison to other energy sources. The only negatives it has is that not much people are using it, due to lack of knowledge or skepticism for a brand new technology meant to replace the more commonplace fossil fuels in use now.

Sources:

https://www.livescience.com/41995-how-do-solar-panels-work.html

https://news.energysage.com/solar-energy-vs-fossil-fuels/

April 17, 2019

Horizontal and Vertical Line

Here is my horizontal and vertical line activity. My letters are meant to spell out “Mahoutsukai No Yome” which is the Japanese name for my favorite book and show series: The Ancient Magus’ Bride.

Here are the equations used for writing it all out.

March 15, 2019

What I learned in Grade 9 Inequalities

So, what is an inequality? An inequality is an equation wherein the two values could or could not be equal to each other, but we should know what the symbols make an inequality equation and a normal equation.

These are the four symbols that will define how an inequality question shall play out.< (less than) > (greater than) ≤ (less than or equal to) ≥ (greater than or equal to).

Usually in an inequality equation the unknown variable is on the left side of the equation with the other value is on the right, like so:

x > 5

This equation denotes that x is greater than 5, and this can be anything so long as it’s higher than 5, its obviously impossible for us to list out every single individual number that is higher than 5, so we graph it on a number line

The arrow faces wherever the inequality is, so if it’s less than it points to the left, and if it’s greater than it’s to the right. If the inequality has a dash beneath it, denoting an “or equal to” equation, then it will instead turn out like this:

The reason why the normal inequalities are open in are because they are the boundary point between what is a correct value or not, while the “or equal to” is shaded because the number is included in the values that could be the correct answer.

With that out of the way, let’s solve a normal inequality question and check if our answers are correct. Let’s say our equation is x+2.5<-6

We do the standard legal move procedure until we find an equation where one side has the variable and the other has a value.

Afterwards we can graph it on a number line, but what we’re focusing on here is how to check if our answer is correct, so the best thing to do is plug in the answer we got into the x and solve as per usual.

This shows that our dashed inequality is correct, but we should also check if the inequality is facing the right direction, so we pick a number according to the inequality, in this case we will be using -9.

This confirms that the inequality symbol is now facing in the right direction.

That’s what I’ve learned in Grade 9 Inequalities

March 14, 2019

A Fresh Look at the Periodic Table

Our periodic table is a circle shaped table that has elements coming from the center going clockwise in direction, starting from Hydrogen, we go from 1 to 118. It still retains all of the core features and even goes in the same amount of elements by period, each ring represents a valence shell, with it increasing with every ring, all families are also colored in one color to differentiate them.

March 2, 2019

What I learned in Grade 9 Equations

So, what is an equation? We usually associate equations with problems that need to be solved, something like 5+5=10, but equations boiled down are statements wherein both sides are equal, 5+5 is equal to 10. The equations that we’ll be dealing with are comprised of variables, coefficients and constants, for the sake of distinction we’ll call them “linear” equations and our main goal is to find the answer, or the equivalent, of the variable.

So a simple linear equation would be something like 2x-3 = x+4

Our main goal is to find the value of x, to do that we need to place the variable on one side of the equation and the answer on the other. In order to do this we need to make zero pairs, zero pairs are pairs of like terms that are combined to cancel each other out, like terms must only be made with like terms, so -3 can’t be combined with 2x, and whatever we do to one side also has to be done to the other, this is called a legal move.

3x-2=x+2

-x +2 = -x +2

2x = 4

If the variable doesn’t have a value of 1, divide both sides by the coefficient and simplify further if needed.

$\frac{2x}{2}$ = $\frac{4}{2}$ = x-2

And that’s the basics of solving a linear equation, but sometimes questions won’t appear like this, and have fractions, brackets and decimals that make solving much harder than usual, but everything can be made easier if we know what to do. So our tougher problem is this:

We can use a tactic called BFSD (Brackets, Fractions, Sort, Divide)

12( $\frac{m}{4}$ – $\frac{2-m}{3}$ ) = 12( $\frac{1}{4}$ )

So first we have to get rid of the brackets, to do that we have to distribute the constant behind the brackets

12 x $\frac{m}{4}$ – 12( $\frac{2-m}{3}$ ) = 12( $\frac{1}{4}$ )

Then we apply what we did earlier, and combine all like terms and distribute further if needed.

3m-4(2-m)=3

3m-8+4m = 3

7m-8 = 3

Then we do a legal move and add 8 to -8 and 3

7m-8 = 3

+8 +8

7m=11

Afterwards we divide the variable by it’s coefficient, and do the same to 11

$\frac{7m}{7}$ = $\frac{11}{7}$

m= $\frac{11}{7}$

If the final answer is a fraction and can’t be simplified further, simply leave the fraction as is, but if you’d like you can convert it into a mixed fraction if it’s easier for you, and that’s it, that’s the algebraic way of solving linear equations, another way to do this is visually using algebra tiles. This is practically identical to the algebraic way, but personally I prefer the algebraic way since I can display more information more easily without having to cut up my algebra tiles when a fraction comes in.

Let’s say our problem was 2x-5=3

In this case you would still apply the same rules to the algebra tiles as you have done algebraically.

First we add 5 to the -5 on the left side, and add 5 to the right side in order to make a zero pair

Now that the zero pair is in place, we can get rid of the -5

Now we can more easily find out the value of x, we simply have to arrange the tiles so that we can divide more easily. 8 divided by 2 is 4, so our answer would be x = 4

And there you have it, that’s how you use algebra tiles to solve linear equations. Be wary that you can do these equations provided that you have enough tiles, sometimes the problem has more numbers than you have tiles, so know when to use algebra and when to use tiles.

But there are a few things that I’d like to mention that could prove helpful when dealing with certain linear equations. Like this

$\frac{1}{12}$ x +2 = $\frac{3}{4}$

You can make this question easier by looking for the lowest common denominator in the equation and multiplying it to the fractions.

12( $\frac{1}{12}$ +2) = 12( $\frac{3}{4}$ )

x+24 =9

x=-15

You could do this to any linear equation that contains a fraction by simply multiplying the denominator and the fraction itself, as long as you maintain legal moves and multiply the other side.

$\frac{1}{2}$ x +1 = 6

2( $\frac{1}{2}$ x +1) = 6

x + 2 =6

-2 -2

x=4

And that’s what I learned in Grade 9 Equations.

February 14, 2019

Community Connections

“Everybody loves a good story. whether it’s tales of heroes set once upon a time: or villainous drama, downfall and redemption” – Stuart “Ahoy” Brown

Ever since I was little I always adored stories, I loved how they create lovable characters and memorable interactions, I loved anticipating how the plot turns out and how the climax’s ultimate fate would become. I made my own characters and tried inserting them into these amazing worlds that are full of life and personality, but I never really took it seriously until last year, when I encountered a show that would change my perspective on writing forever.

I was simply browsing the internet, minding my own business when I found a clip of a show, the clip comprised of a young redheaded girl and a large, foreboding gentleman who had a wolf skull in place of his head. It showed them talking of mages and magic, it piqued my curiosity and I decided to look for the show. It was named the “Ancient Magus’ Bride” and the story is of a young Japanese girl named Chise Hatori, who is sold off in a secret mage auction due to her having ties with magic, a mysterious mage by the name of Elias Ainsworth then buys her for 5 Million Euros and adopts her in hopes of making her his apprentice and successor.

This was interesting because it had faeries, dragons, and mythological beings all seamlessly put into a modern urban setting. It captivated me so much to the point of me saying “That was amazing, I want to make something just as good as this story right here” and that’s when I decided that I will become a writer in the future.

As such, I decided to reach out to writers around Port Coquitlam, in hopes of finding someone who is experienced in the profession and has written in the past. That’s when I met my Interviewee, Jennifer Pownall.

Ms. Pownall is an editor, blogger and article writer. She actively pursues opportunities to develop her craft, writes reviews for her local bookstore, and is employed as the blog content manager and editor of an internationally best-selling author. She is also published in and shortlisted for a growing number of local, national, and international electronic and print publications, is a regular reader in literary events and co-facilitates a writing group.

She was the first to reach out, and up until now I was having difficulty finding someone who was willing to be interviewed for a rather niche occupation. I went down to her building and interviewed her, and i knew that it was a good decision from what I learned.

Here are the questions I asked her and her responses:

Why are you passionate about your job?

I love writing, I wrote my first poem at age 6 and I think that there’s a lot of nuance in language, the way it can move people, and have you experience emotions like grief or joy, or in a business style where you convince someone from advertising your product to buy sales. It also has a lot of power, it’s where the saying the pen is mightier than the sword comes from, it’s the passion of writing and communicating that changes things, words are like mothers singing to their babies, like fathers teaching their sons to drive, like a boss yelling at their employees breaking them down or building them up to be great leaders, words are simply…magical.

What obstacles have you faced to get you where you are today?

I’ve lost three pregnancies, I’ve been through reproductive treatments with hormone injections, I experienced a lot of grief and trauma, and I had a sister that died at an early age. With all of this combined, even when my son was born, I was simply paranoid and in a constant state of anxiety, which made anything other than survival impossible. When my son turned one I returned to writing, I made a book that had mythological creatures and my own poems to compliment them, that was the turning point, where I decided things were right.

What advice would you pass on to someone interested in what you are doing?

One thing I can say is, write true to yourself. What I mean by this is you should always try to write what’s true to you, don’t try to appeal to the masses or write only to become popular, it will affect you quite a lot since you will simply be pretending to agree with what’s popular, even if you disagree or don’t associate with it, people are going to notice that you aren’t really being true to yourself, and you can only pretend for so long. If you’re going to write something, write as if it was an extension of your own voice, since you can send a deep message from what you write, do not cave in to mindless hate, but take in well-written and well thought out criticism. You should always consider all the criticism you get, not everyone is perfect, and criticism can help you change and improve in the long run as a writer.

Would you be open to further contact from Riverside students and if so, how can someone contact you?

Yes, absolutely, although there are other methods, the best way to reach out to me is via my Facebook (facebook.com/jenniferpownallauthor), my email (write@jenniferpownallauthor.com), and my website (jenniferpownallauthor.com)

Is it possible to financially support yourself in this profession?

It is, but there is a catch, it isn’t as simple as writing a best-selling book and earning millions, then living off that success and then writing on the side for sequels. You need to supplement that novel writing with other things that are related to writing, such as working for a publisher, at a bookstore, making workshops and lessons, anything that can help you both broaden your experience and help you earn more money while you write whatever is your next big project. But while you don’t have to write 24/7, you should find the time and energy to commit and write what you will put onto the page, because without that, you won’t be able to get the rush of fulfillment that makes you want to keep doing what you love.

What do you do when you have writer’s block?

There are a lot of different ways that can help you alleviate this, one of these is doing boring mundane tasks don’t take up much mental effort like folding clothes, cleaning a room, washing the dishes, or playing a game that has repetitive tasks (like farming games), these keep you busy but allow the creative part of your brain to work in the background. Walking is also a good idea, since the change in setting can help your brain think. Once I was having a block myself, and to fix this I decided to go out and get some fresh air, when I got outside my building, instead of air, I was hit by the scent of sweet box, a flower that grew outside. 10 seconds after I went outside and I already had an idea, I rushed back inside and went on to write a 750-word post that I sent to a magazine, this is a great example and I’d suggest you do it too. Visual prompts are also a fun way to alleviate writer’s block, things like writing prompts that tell you to do something like “Write your entire biography in 6 sentences”, it’s crazy but it helps you wrack your brain for the bits of creativity from the restrictions the prompt said. Photo prompts like tarot cards and highly detailed landscapes can also help you, since your eyes drift towards the more interesting details that can give you ideas. But with all these suggestions there’s a lot to be said about simply writing anything that comes to mind, when you pull yourself into a chair and start writing or typing – no matter what you are doing – you are still writing, and regardless of how absurd or crazy your ideas may be, they are the steps to the next big idea.

After the interview, I’d say I came out much more enlightened on my profession, since I was having doubts and was not very knowledgeable on the professional side of writing, I was simply thinking of how to make a good story rather than the technical part of being a writer. I have now considered how I can be a writer and still be able to pursue the big novel projects I had planned before. I am grateful for this opportunity and will have it be the basis of my writing career.

February 7, 2019

Wonder Project – How have Guns evolved?

Guns, one of the most revolutionary advances in small arms, a spiritual successor to long bows and crossbows, guns are a staple weapon used by armies, law enforcement, hunters, and recreational shooters alike. But how? How has this wild concept replaced the simple but effective bow and arrow? How did it change the art of warfare for centuries? In this post, we’ll be learning about the science and history of firearms.

But first, we should learn how gunpowder works on the chemical scale.

Chemistry of Gunpowder v3

Gunpowder is comprised of 75% Potassium Nitrate, 15% Charcoal, and 15% Sulfur. The Potassium Nitrate provides oxygen for the reaction, while the Sulfur and Charcoal act as a fuel. When ignited, the gunpowder reacts and burns rapidly, producing a lot of gas, in an enclosed space like the barrel of a gun, it will try to escape through any openings, and in a gun’s case it would be the muzzle, but if it was ignited on an open space like a table, the gas can easily disperse without issue.

At it’s simplest, the concept of a firearm is a projectile, inside a vessel, or barrel, and propellant to launch it. The earliest use of a true firearm was somewhere around the 1300’s-1400’s, with the Arquebus, a long gun that was designed to be used by infantry soldiers. There are three different actions that were used by old Muskets. The earliest action used by guns in the past was the matchlock.

Matchlock guns mainly comprise of a hammer with a piece of match cord, a pan to place the gunpowder into and a cover to prevent any accidental misfires. The reloading process starts off like this:

Withdraw a paper cartridge filled with gunpowder and bite the end off
Put a small amount into the pan, and the rest into the end of the barrel
Close the Pan cover
Insert musket ball into the barrel
Ram the ball down the barrel using a ramrod
Place burning match cord into the serpentine
Aim the match towards the pan
Remove the Pan cover
Take aim
Fire

These Muzzle-Loaders, as you can tell, take a long and painstaking process, usually one to two balls fired per minute, there are even problems with the match since it could sometimes not even hit the pan and ignite the gunpowder at all, the process could also vary from person to person since some people carried paper cartridges whilst others had canisters filled with gunpowder. The matchlock was eventually succeeded by the Flintlock.

The flintlock, as the name suggests, replaces the match cord with a piece of flint clamped down in the hammer, the difference between the matchlock and the flintlock is that the flint strikes against the Frizzen (a steel plate,which also acts as the pan cover) causing sparks to ignite the gunpowder and fire the weapon,using flint-and-steel. This action too, however, had issues, due to the reliance on the spark created from the flint, you could have issues firing the weapon in rainy conditions. This lead to the further rise of the percussion lock, or cap-lock action.

The percussion lock used a percussion cap, which was a small copper cylinder filled with a sensitive material like Mercury Fulminate, to ignite the gunpowder. Despite percussion lock being the fastest action to rearm, it still required the 10-step reloading process from earlier, despite the advancements in technology, but unlike the Flintlock and Matchlock actions however, the percussion cap went on to be a critical component for the next step in firearm development.

The Metal Cartridge

Metal cartridges are essentially the predecessor to modern day bullets, they are made of four components, a shell or cartridge to hold everything together, gunpowder for the fuel, a primer to ignite said gunpowder, and a projectile to be fired. All of this was made to fix the main problem with muzzle-loading guns, the lengthy loading time, now that all the necessary parts needed to fire a gun are inside a convenient package, guns became more ergonomic and reliable with the advent of breech-loading guns.

Now we’re getting into more recent topics, in the late 1800’s breech loaders became prevalent in the world of firearms, with weapons like the rifle and the shotgun taking place.

Rifles are the same as muskets, except they have a new feature called barrel rifling, rifling is a circular groove that extends from the chamber to the muzzle, and it’s purpose is to spin the bullet in order to create a straight trajectory, a trait absent in early muskets.

Shotguns however, are a different story, they use what’s called smooth-bore barrels, these barrels are what muskets were using, which caused the inaccurate fire, but the purpose of a shotgun is to have a more spread out trajectory, which makes them suitable for firing multiple projectiles at once. Some early muskets called “Fowlers” used this concept earlier.

Since this is a brand new innovative concept at the time, soldiers were still being issued smoothbore muzzle-loaded muskets, newer rifles were usually breech-loaded, meaning that the chamber had to be opened in order to reload. But even now, we were looking for ways to increase ready firepower.

Enter, The Lebel 1886

Lebel 1886

This French rifle was a revolutionary weapon that put us one step further to modern day weapons, because it introduced a new propellant load called smokeless powder, it was called this because it no longer produced a massive cloud of smoke when fired unlike normal gunpowder, and could send lead faster and harder than normal gunpowder. This was so important, it ended up in an arms race in order to compete with the French, it was considered the best rifle in the world for two years until rival guns managed to outperform the weapon.

This also caused gunpowder to be relabeled as “Black Powder” for the sake of distinction.

With smokeless powder, fully automatic weapons were now feasible since black powder could make a barrel dirty too quickly with automatic fire, and here we have the arguable first ever “Assault Rifle” that would evolve to be a standard infantry weapon today.

The Sturmgewehr-44 (StG-44)

Image result for sturmgewehr 44

German for “Storm rifle 44”, this automatic weapon uses the most modern features of any weapon I have discussed so far. This weapon was gas operated, meaning that when the weapon is fired, any residual gas from the bullet is sent back to the bolt, pushing it backwards and preparing another round. This all happens so quickly that it allows for fully automatic fire, and by today’s criteria counts as an assault rifle since it’s :

Capable of fully-automatic or semi-automatic fire (one pew vs. pew pew pew)
Has an intermediate cartridge (is in between a pistol bullet and a machine gun bullet)
Is select fire (can choose whether its pew or pew pew pew)

This gun led to the creation of the iconic AK-47, one of the most prolific small arms in the entire world.

I know I have been going on a while about how guns work and how they evolved, but I also wanted to discuss how they evolved in purpose, Are they meant for war? Are they designed for hunting? Should gun laws be stricter? I’ll try to be as cohesive as possible here, but this is mainly my opinion.

Guns have evolved quite a lot in purpose, instead of inaccurate weapons meant to be used in large formations, now they’re used for a much more tactical purpose in the military, with less soldiers needed for fighting, nowadays a small squad of 3 well armed soldiers can take on a group of 30 with the right tactics and equipment. They do have other purposes like hunting and recreational shooting, but guns have always but from the 1500’s they’ve always been used for warfare

And here has been a brief review on the evolution of firearms, the most important ones in history.

Sources :

Matchlock Image:

http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/2011/04/for-doc-from-alaska-how-to-use.html

Gunpowder:

http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=4130

(https://www.compoundchem.com/2014/07/02/the-chemistry-of-gunpowder/)

Percussion:

http://guns.wikia.com/wiki/Percussion_rifle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caplock.gif

Flintlock:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Illustration-of-the-firing-mechanism-for-the-M1816-standard-issue-flintlock-musket_fig6_309101812

Metal Cartridges

The Bullet Cartridge

Rifling and Smoothbore

https://science.howstuffworks.com/shotgun8.htm

Breech-Loading

https://civilwarweaponstech.weebly.com/breech-loading-rifles.html

https://www.nps.gov/vafo/learn/historyculture/upload/Muskets-and-Rifles-with-arrowhead.pdf

Lebel 1886

(http://www.thefirearms.guide/ammo/ammo-101)

What questions did you need to research in order to research your topic?

For the most part, how the old muskets worked and the actions for muzzle loading rifles since I wasn’t versed in musket technology, how gunpowder worked since that was a scientific question that I didn’t know, and what brass cartridges are made of.

What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?

Nothing new, other than the document adding used for placing images into the post itself.

What was the process you used to investigate the topic?

I searched the information I didn’t know, like the musket actions, and tried to double check if it was accurate, but since it was complicated due to the massive variety in the actions and models I decided to generalize and look for the most used and common musket designs. For the more modern topics like the StG 44, barrel rifling and bullet composition, I decided to be more lenient since these are so broad and widespread that there isn’t really a way to fake how a barrel works or what a bullet is made of, I was also exposed to the StG 44 quite often in my free time since I like to watch videos of gun channels explaining and shooting these weapons.

How did you verify and cite the information you found?

I looked at multiple sources and tried looking for inconsistencies in the information, luckily almost all sources I had were either simplified information for the scientific and mechanical portion, while the inconsistencies could be ironed out since date estimates aren’t entirely true or false.

How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?

It was quite difficult for me to find out what to say or put into the post, because I tend to keep on rambling and rambling on the minute details of certain things like the battle doctrine, tactics used, caliber names, things that don’t really add to the research, but were interesting to know. In the end I could have improved by giving more visual evidence rather than pictures, and the flow of the questions, since at one point I jumped from 1886 to 1944 without discussing WW1 era rifles, but I felt like I did well since I didn’t go onto a tangent about the small little details when this was a post researching about the evolution, evolution is usually the big changes rather than the small details.

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Category Archives: Grade 9