Saturn V / Teaching / Observations

Burnsland

2011-03-31

Saturn V

The first stage of a Saturn V rocket, the same type of rocket that took men to the moon, is the stage responsible for first getting the rocket off the ground. The five rocket engines are quite impressive in size when you stand underneath them, as you can at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as pictured here. Quite an amazing engineering feat, in my opinion.

Saturn V Rocket at U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama

Photo location: U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama
A three-exposure (-2, 0, +2) HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

Teaching

This morning, after Jaylin was ready to go to school, I was going over the information with him for his science test, which is tomorrow. They are studying about the planets and the solar system, which interests me. I can help him with that kind of stuff much more than I can help him when they are talking about plants. Plants just aren’t my thing – did I ever tell you about the times we tried to grow a garden?

One of the questions in Jaylin’s review packet asked how many days it takes to see all the phases of the moon. Jaylin said, “Um, 365 days?” I said no, and he thought about it a little more and said, “Oh, a month!”

“That’s right,” I said. “Do you know why they call it a month?”

“No,” Jaylin said. “It’s all because of the moon. A month is more or less determined by the time it takes for the moon to go through its phases. That’s why the words ‘moon’ and ‘month’ are so similar, because they come from the same root word.”

Jaylin said, “Oh, that makes sense! Our teacher didn’t tell us that!”

So I actually taught my child something today! And even before 7:00 AM! My day is complete. I can go back to bed now.

Observations of the Past Week (3/20-3/26)

Here are the Observations of the Past Week from Twitter and Facebook. Or maybe I’m just not that observant.

You know that song that everyone loves to sing? Well I’m not singing it. (So there.)

Well that’s just groovy! (How many times a day do you hear someone say that?)

Maybe they could make a special springtime car that runs on pollen. Or sneezes. (But I would have to turn off the automatic “Gesundheit” reply.)

At Jaylin’s baseball practice. I may have to move if they start batting. Or stop looking at my phone. (Even behind home plate isn’t safe!)

I can’t seem to remember where I parked my Lamborghini. (I’m sure it’s around here somewhere.)

This Windsday is certainly living up to its name. (It’s funny how they knew to name it that!)

Some days, it just isn’t worth it to be filthy rich. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. (Although if anyone wants to help me find out for certain, I’m always accepting donations.)

Happy Friday! Oh wait, saying “Happy Friday” is a bit redundant, isn’t it? (Not to say that all the other days can’t be happy, of course.)

For sale: one NCAA tournament bracket, slightly used. (It obviously isn’t much good for me any more.)

I checked the clock, just to make sure the battery wasn’t dead. It wasn’t. (That was another one of those slow afternoons.)

A rainy Saturday is sometimes a good Saturday. Like today. (I was really productive in the area of doing nothing.)

One good thing about driving in the rain: my car is once again red like it should be instead of yellow like it was. (It really doesn’t matter what color your car is in the spring.)

I looked at my bracket again, and it makes more sense now. No one told me before that you are supposed to pick the winners! (Maybe next year if I pick who I think will lose, then I will win!)