Temperature sensing walk

Although Friday in physical science is often reserved for assessments of learning, I am always open to try something else. The division had recently acquired a remote surface temperature sensing device. Friday being a sunny day and the class meeting at noon, I thought there might be a chance to reinforce the sensation of different Celsius temperatures. The weather station here still reports in Fahrenheit, thus there is no sense of what a particular Celsius temperature means, what is hot, what is cold.

Pelida measures the top of a transformer in the midday sun: 64℃

On Wednesday I had demonstrated a 0° Celsius ice water bath, 100°C boiling water, 21°C melting coconut oil, 37°C human body temperature (an oral temperature of 34°C to 35°C actually), and indoor room temperature of 28°C.

Tristan measures the cooling fin temperatures as Tiffany, Pelida, Jeremiah, and Dannia look on.

Outdoors in the shade leaves and grass on the ground in the shade were registering 33°C on Friday. The highest temperatures seen were for asphalt which repeatedly came in with peak temperatures of 55°C and 56°C. Little wonder running on the road is challenging here: air temperatures above the road can be significantly elevated above ambient temperatures.

Vanessa measures water surface temperature. 

Water and wet surfaces consistently came in a few degrees Celsius lower than the 32°C to 33°C we were seeing for non-sunny surfaces. Cars were checked, with black cars coming in around 45°C and white cars roughly ten degrees Celsius cooler. Black t-shirts were hotter than white t-shirts. The tops of heads were also checked, with one student showing significantly hotter hair than others in the class. Someone hypothesized that coconut oil might be responsible.

I was pleasantly surprised at the interest the students showed in measuring everything around them. For homework I had them report the temperatures of the objects we measured during the class period in a follow-on homework assignment.

Some temperatures:
Ice water: 0℃
Melting coconut oil: 21℃
Room temperature: 28℃
Outdoor air temperature: 31℃
Boiling water: 100℃
Cement in the sun: 56℃
Metal sewer cover: 52℃
Grass in the sun: 37℃
Leaves in the sun: 36℃
Asphalt in the sun: 50℃
Black car in the sun: 54℃
White car in the sun: 52℃
Black cotton shirt: 40℃
White cotton shirt: 38℃
Tiffany's arm: 32℃
Johner's arm: 33℃
Dannia's hair on top of her head: 39℃
Inside a freezer: -12℃
Black cyanobacteria on top of a metal transformer in the sun: 64℃
Pool of water in the ditch in the sun: 46℃
Covered walkway roof in the sun: 49℃
Parking lot asphalt: 53℃
Dana: 33℃

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Plotting polar coordinates in Desmos and a vector addition demonstrator

Image
In an earlier post I noted that Desmos did not directly plot polar coordinates. Not only was I incorrect, but Desmos responded to my blog to correct me! Although I had at some point seen that one could define a function f(x)=3x+5 and then have Desmos calculate f(6), I had not absorbed how this might be used to plot polar coordinates. The above works beautifully . Realizing that I could effectively program Desmos, I applied this thinking to demonstrating how to add two vectors when given the magnitudes m and the direction angles theta. The graph calculates the i and j components for the two vectors and then adds the vectors, graphically displaying the result while also providing information on the magnitude and direction of the vector sum. m1 and theta1 are the magnitude and direction angle for one of the two vectors, m2 and theta2 are the magnitude and direction for the other vector. All four are dynamically interactive and can be changed. The diagram purports to illustra
Read more

Setting up a boxplot chart in Google Sheets with multiple boxplots on a single chart

Image
The  Google Statistics  add-on for Google Sheets can display multiple boxplots in a single chart. The key is the layout of the data. One column should be the variable by which the data is to be grouped, the other column should be the data to be box plotted. Set up the Statistics add-on with the data to be plotted as the variable, and the grouping column as the "by" variable. In this image I had deselected all but the boxplot option, the result was the appearance of the Moment, Standard errors, and Confidence intervals options. The default is apparently a 95% confidence interval for the mean. The result is multiple boxplots on a single chart with a common scale. The new tab that is created also quotes 95% confidence intervals for the mean. Note that as of 2018 the Google Statistics add-on cannot be found by search in the add-ons. In addition, as of May 2018 the add-on no longer verifies, possibly due to the add-on not having been updated since August 2017. One may ha
Read more

Traditional food dishes of Micronesia

Image
Clara, Jennette, and Joanie presented ground hard taro cooked in an umw, effectively a hot rock oven. Pohnpeian: rotama. Pingelapese: sero. Mwoakillese: rodma. Mortlockese: Amahd. Kosrae: rodoma. After cooking in an umw the rotama is pounded with the petiole of a palm frond. Rotama is made from hard or swamp taro, known as mwahng on Pohnpei, mweian on Pingalap, pula in Mortlockese, and pahsruhk on Kosrae. In traditional times on the outer islands the women had primary responsibility for tending the taro while the men handled fishing and climbing tasks. Joesen and Noeleen presented fermented breadfruit from the outer islands of Yap such as Woleai and Eauripik. The raw ingredients were actually brought in from Yap, Noeleen prepared the maare.  The leaf wrap is ti leaf - Cordyline fruticosa. Pauleen, Barnson, Trisha, Verginia, Con-ray, and Maylanda from Kitti, Pohnpei brought in mahi umw, koahpnoair koakihr, and uht sukusuk. Above is breadfruit umw, mahi umw, one o
Read more