Month: November 2017

Physics 11 – Archimedes Challenge

seanh2015 on

Sean Hruswicki

Physics 11

Ms. Jackson

27 November 2017

For the “Archimedes Challenge” we had to build an ancient machine, the machine me and my group constructed over a course of 4 days is called a trebuchet. The trebuchet was invented in China in 300 BC. It is unknown who exactly invented the trebuchet but the machine was used by the Mohists as early as the 4th century BC, Mohism was an influential philosophical, social, and religious movement in ancient China. The trebuchet was invented for the purpose of war but more specifically sieging. Sieging is when military forces surround a town or city with the purpose of cutting off supplies, forcing a surrender. The trebuchet was not invented simultaneously in different places but eventually made its way to the west due to the Avars. The Pannonian Avars were a group of Eurasian nomads of unknown origin during the early Middle Ages. The short term effect was that whoever had access to the trebuchet had a great advantage when sieging because nobody would have prepared for such a weapon yet. Long term effect is that cities were forced strategized against the trebuchet like maybe building walls differently which could lead to some new discoveries in engineering.

The trebuchet we made in class is a little different than a traditional ancient trebuchet. Instead of a rotating axis for the throwing are to slide on, we used a hinge instead to attach the arm to the beam and still give it a very large throwing radius. We have elastic bands attached to one side of the throwing arm, on the opposite side of the payload basket. When the side of the payload basket is pulled down, more and more potential energy builds up the farther you pull it down. When you let go, all that potential energy turns into kinetic energy and the throwing arm throws whatever object with great force.

Day 1:

We spend the class discussing as a group what we would like to build, we settle on a catapult and plan to fully design our catapult the next day.

Day 2:

We have a bit of a debate wether or not we should make a catapult because we notice a lot of other groups have the same idea as us. We make our idea more unique by making a trebuchet, which is sort of a catapult but really isn’t and our idea will be totally original. We make a very rough sketch of what our trebuchet will look like.

Day 3:

We secure 4 pieces of wood into a frame very strongly together using a hot glue gun, it is crucial we get this part perfectly or our trebuchet will not be strong enough to handle the recoil of the force it is putting out.

Day 4:

We use nails to make the rest of the body, we then attach the beam using a hot glue gun, we attach the throwing arm to the beam using a hinge and nails. we test the trebuchet out and the beam fails or straight up flies off so we decide to use nails to secure the beam instead, we test out the trebuchet several times and it is fully functional. The building process is now complete.

Sources:

http://www.historyextra.com/article/premium/qa-when-and-where-was-trebuchet-invented
http://www.lordsandladies.org/trebuchet.htm
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mohism/
https://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/trebuchet2.html
http://www.lordsandladies.org/trebuchet.htm

“A Place at The Table”, Question Responses

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Sean Hruswicki
Foods 12
8 November 2017
Mr. Brett

“A Place at The Table” Questions responses

One example of food insecurity in this film is of an unemployed single mother of two named Barbie. Like so many other unfortunate Americans they had to live off of junk food like chips and ramen noodles because they are cheaper than actual fresh foods like fruits and vegetables. After one whole year of looking for a job Barbie finally found a full time job, this should make her fine now right? Since she now has an income that exceeds the one required in order to receive food stamps. She wasn’t even given time to get on her feet, she just lost her assistance from the government right away even though she has been employed for barely any time at all, and probably, hasn’t even received her first paycheck yet. Another example of a person with food insecurity in the movie was a girl who’s father worked on a ranch, but also had to work as a janitor at a school because he wasn’t getting enough money from his ranching career. To cope with food insecurity the girl had lunch made by the school and went to a food kitchen hosted by the church that took place every Wednesday evening. Like so many other unfortunate Americans she and her family has to resort to buying junk food which is much more affordable that fresh fruits and vegetables that actually have a good nutritional value. I think people who are uneducated are more at risk of being food insecure. Mainly because they have a lower chance of getting a great job to supply themselves with adequate nutrition, but also because if they are in a struggle for money they may not know how to acquire resources and help from the government and other food assistance programs such as food banks. Young single parents are also at high risk because they can’t just leave their children and go to school in order to seek a better future for his or her family. My personal reaction to the move is I felt bad for a lot of the people but I was not surprised that so many people are food insecure in America. I am well aware there is a huge amount of people that don’t have enough to eat even though America has more than enough food to feed its people. I was not really surprised by any of the information presented. If I was in a position to directly influence food insecurity I would do a few things, first I would find a way to cut down on food waste, in 2014 a study by the USDA revealed that 31 percent or 133 BILLION pounds of the 430 billion pounds of food went to waste. If we cut down the food waste by only 25 percent we could still be saving billions of pounds of food. The second thing I would do is make fresh fruits and vegetables more affordable. I understand it kind of makes sense that fresh fruits and vegetables are more expensive because they actually have a good amount of nutrients but the prices are ridiculous. Fresh fruits and vegetables need to be more affordable of people who are not fortunate enough to afford them will just keep eating junk food and going down the road of diabetes, obesity, and early death

October Foods Lab Reflection

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Sean Hruswicki

2nd October 2017

Foods 12

Mr. Brett

 

I chose to reflect on our buttermilk biscuits lab because although simple, they were the second most enjoyable thing we made this October. The process of making these was no challenge but they still tasted like it took a couple of hours to make. I enjoyed this lab because it was very straight forward and or simple, it was just satisfying to overall. The final product turned out better than i had hoped, I honestly wasn’t expecting much because of the simplicity but they were very delicious. My partner for this lab worked relatively well, there was a little but of a language barrier but we were fine. I in fact already recreated this recipe at home and they turned out just as fluffy, golden brown and flavorful.

 

I chose to reflect on the chocolate almond Biscotti because in my opinion they were the most delightful food we have made all month. some may disagree and say the waffles were the best but im not much of a waffle guy. I enjoyed this lab very much, like the buttermilk biscuits it didn’t take a rocket scientist to make the ideal Biscottis. My group worked very well during this lab, we just put in all the required work as a team and executed all of our tasks with no problems. I would maybe make this lab again during the winter to go with a nice cup of hot chocolate, i don’t know for sure but I think you can keep them in a container in your cupboard for an alright amount of time which is a major plus for me.