Week Three Review

I started off week three at an all day Junior Rangers camp learning several different ways to start fire.  This is a picture of me starting fire with flint and metal.  I also started fire with a battery, the sun, and a foil bubble gum wrapper.  It was a fun day, and I earned my Deer Badge as a Junior Ranger.

Later in the week, I went to my homeschool nature club at Reed Creek and learned about camouflage and adaptations.  I like the friends I am making in my homeschool group.

Also for science, my mom and I started reading a book about the physics of baseball, called, Why a Curveball Curves.

Here are some interesting scientific facts I learned from the book:

• An increase in bat mass will increase batted ball speed (BBS), but swing speed is a greater factor in increasing BBS.  
• Using Newton's 2nd Law of Motion, scientists have determined that the average pro swing imparts 4,145 pounds of force to the ball, with peak forces up to 8,300 pounds.
• A bat vibrates at multiple frequencies when it collides with a ball.
• You want to hit the ball in the "sweet spot" to transfer energy to the ball instead of down the bat and back through your body.  (That hurts!!!)  
• Scientists have discovered that the sweet spot is between two nodes on the bat.  Node 1 is 6.5 inches from the barrel end, and Node 2 is 4.5 inches down the barrel.  Hit between the two nodes for zero vibration. 
• A 90mph fastball reaches home plate in 400 milliseconds.  The batter has 100 ms to see the ball, 75 ms to identify the type of pitch, 50 ms to decide wether or not to swing, and 25 ms for the brain signal to activate the swing - leaving 150 ms to swing.  That's some quick thinking!

I wrote the rough draft of a report I am doing on Woods Runner.  More on that in Week Four.  Here is the story I wrote using my second round of vocabulary words from Woods Runner:

When I was writing a note, I looked up to find a mercenary staring at me.  When he saw me, he tried to run, but his injured leg abated his progress.  I chased after after him and flung myself on him, tackling him to the ground.  He screamed, "Ouch!  Me leg!"  Upon searching him, I found he was a covert spy intercepting my notes to George Washington.  A dirty scoundrel.  I found one note, and he said he had no others, but I figured he was in for a penny, in for a pound.  I searched again and discovered more notes.  The liar!  He ran away, fearing for his life, but I did not chase him because that horse was gone from the barn.  

I continue to progress on IXL, Kahn Academy, and Code.org.  I watched some more of John Adams.  I wish I could watch it EVERY day, but my mom says no :(  I also played two basketball games.  We won both of them!

Catch my next post about Martin Luther King, Jr., and my I Have A Dream writing assignment.  

Until next time - 

Ollie and Mom