Science Fun

Here is some spacefun for you on this New Year’s Eve.  Escape your parties and celebrations of the New Year and have a look toward the heavens to view a beautiful conjunction as Venus and the slender crescent Moon will gather together in the southwest sky for a few hours after sunset.  These two objects will be bright enough that you will be able to enjoy them, even through the city lights and fireworks (sorry, if it is snowing or cloudy in your area, like it is here in New England, you will have to resort to the internet to view them). 

Another convergence that will take place on the evening of December 31^st will be between Mercury and Jupiter.  This event will not be as easy to see, however, it will be rewarding for those who can see the two planets shining through the rosy glow of sunset.  Visit www.spaceweather.com for sky maps and photos of the converging planets.  Happy New Year and farewell to 2008!

Today’s History Lesson - On this day in 1873, the American Metrological Society is created to improve upon the U. S. system of weights, measures, and money.   

The blog post from yesterday presented the case of being sure that you use the correct units of measure or unintended events may happen.  Metrology is the science of measurement and has historical elements that go back to early civilization. 

Today, our systems of measurement have quality standards that must be met and are monitored by government and industry bodies that are charged with this responsibility.   In the United States, metrology is monitored by the National Institute of Science and Technology; however it does not enforce measurement accuracy.   

Here in the U.S., commercial measurements and accuracy of those measurements is regulated by the laws of each state.  These measurements deal with the way we buy goods and services such as electricity (measured by the wattmeter) and gasoline (measured by the meter in the gas pump). 

Learn more about Metrology with a visit to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrology and also visit http://www.callabmag.com/metrologylinks.html for links to additional resources on the science of Metrology.

Units of measure are all around us - we use them every day and we may not even realize it, for example, if you drive, the unit of measure for your speed is mile or kilometer per hour.  Watch out for those units of measure and how you use them or interesting things could happen.  Imagine cooking brownies and using a tablespoon of salt instead of a teaspoon of salt - the brownies might come out looking ok, however, they will have an unusual taste.   

10 years ago this month, the Mars Polar Orbiter was launched, upon reaching Mars; it was destroyed as it unexpectedly plunged into the Martian atmosphere and crashed.  What was the cause of this accident?  Incorrect units of measure - the contractor supplied a table of navigation data in units of “pounds per second” to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory when they were expecting “grams per second”.

On this day in 1945, the U.S. Congress (Public Law 79-287) officially recognizes the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States.  The pledge is an oath of loyalty to the country and is recited at many public events, schools, programs, and public gatherings across this great nation.  Originally written in 1892 by school children, the pledge has had several revisions over its life.  Visit www.historychannel.com for additional information on the pledge and on the flag of the United States. 

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” When reciting the pledge of allegiance, civilians should stand at attention, face the flag and place their hand over their heart, and men should remove their hats.  Military personnel will stand at attention, face the flag and give the military salute.

Forty years ago today, Apollo 8 returned to Earth after a successful seven day mission to travel to the moon, orbit, and return home.  Launched on December 21, 1968 at 7:51:00 am from Cape Canaveral, arriving at the moon on Christmas Eve, completing 10 orbits in the twenty hours it circled the moon (and a live Christmas Eve television message), and the return trip to Earth with splashdown on December 27, 1968 at 10:51:42 am for a total mission time of 147 hours, 0 minutes, and 42 seconds. 

Frank F. Borman, James A. Lovell Jr., and William A. Anders, the crew of Apollo 8 paved the way for the Apollo 11 mission by being the first to fly the Saturn V rocket, being the first crew to leave Earth orbit and travel to another celestial body, being the first to orbit and leave and another celestial body, and the first to enter into Earth orbit from space, as opposed to entering Earth orbit from the Earth’s atmosphere.  A mission of ‘firsts’ was a huge success for the Apollo spaceflight program!

Life is slowly returning to normal for those affected in the northeast by the ice storm of December 11th and 12th.  In New Hampshire, the storm knocked out power to over 400,000 homes and businesses, and as of today, there remains about 1,000 that still do not have power.  Crews continue to work to get power restored and hope to have the remaining returned as quickly as possible.  Only a handful of individuals were still in the shelters, and therefore, the Red Cross closed the community shelters in the area today -they will still be providing assistance to those in need with different accommodations.

Work still remains to reinforce the electrical systems and to clear trees and brush, etc.  The phone company still has work to restore phone service as they did not have the manpower that the electric utility company had.  Several snow storms that dropped significant accumulations of snow last weekend did not hinder operations and the crews continued work despite the weather.   This weekend, it is forecasted for a warm up with snow to rain tomorrow (Saturday) and then temperatures approaching 60 on Sunday.