fandomhigh | Zen Computer Science - Period 3 - Tuesday

Flynn sat at his desk again, feet up, waiting for everyone to shuffle through and check in.

On the table near the front sat a small collection of shoeboxes, taped shut.

Once he was satisfied that everyone was present, he began class.

"Understanding computers is not just knowing how to click here, or click there. It's about knowing what your machine
can and cannot do, and it's history of why."

He grinned.

"Computers are logical. They use a system that dates back to the time of the Greeks and Aristotle, only modified
and tasked to suit the technology used today." Flynn got up and stood in front of his desk.

"So today, we're going to study logic. To that end, we're going to have a little fun." he grinned the patented Flynn boyish grin.

"I want you to partner off into groups of threes or twos, and every group gets a box from up here." He gestures to the box. "Inside each box is one
object. Using just your powers of observation and WITHOUT looking in the box, tell me what's inside it."

Flynn looked at their faces. "This means no powers as well, so don't get any bright ideas."

He watched the kids play with the boxes and waited for any of them to come up with an answer.

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Ami nodded. "Does it roll?" she asked, as Henry had the box currently.

She started carefully making a list in her notebook.

small
singular
hard
not weighty

Henry tipped the box, slowly, feeling no movement. "No, I don't think-"
*clunckclunkclunk*
There was a soft sound as whatever was in the box decided to roll. Henry smiled. "Yes, it does. But there is a delay and an uneven quality of the moment. I'd say that our object has multiple flat sides." He offered the box for Ami to try. "What do you think?"

Ami tipped the box so whatever it was went all the way to one side and then slooooowly tipped it the other way.

*clunk-clunk-clunk*

"I think you are right. Hang on." She pulled a ruler out, measured the distance the object would have to travel across the box and did the tipping again. "I think it clunks 10 times across the *handwavey* distance. So each side is *handwavey* divided by 10."

Henry grinned. This was too much fun. He picked the box back up, and tilted it the other way.
*sss-clunk*
and back.
*sss-clunk*
Again, it took a while to move, but when one moved it this direction, it slid a little, then hit the side of the box.
"Right," Henry said, and put the box back down, "it's longer one way than the other. Not only does it take less time to finish moving, but does not have the space to roll."

Ami made more notes.

many sided
each side is X in width
is oblong
is longer then length of box/2

She took the box from Henry, and keeping a hand palm up on it's bottom, raised it and sharply lowered it, causing the object inside to rise off it's 'floor' briefly. "Hmm, i think it is about this long." She indicated where she felt the object hit her palm through the box.

Henry nods, thinking. "And the material from which our object is constructed is probably not slick. When we tipped the box either way, there was a bit of time before it rolled or slid. Were it made of a polished material, it would've slid right away." He frowned. "But the surface itself cannot be too rough, because it was able to slide..."

Ami nodded. "And it does roll, so it has more then two sides. Probably more then three or four but no more then ten or it would not fit based on these numbers..."

not polished
not too rough
more then four sides
less then 10 sides

Henry pulled out a sheet of notebook paper, and began to do a simple sketch. "The object would be some kind of long prism, then." He scratched out his first shape, amending, "no, more like a rod or stick..." he wrote in Ami's previously calculated dimensions and showed it to her.

Ami looked over the drawing and nodded. "It is hard to tell this way what it is made of, but we have a rough size, and a vague shape. What else can we sort out? I wish we had a scale to weight it."

"We could try to tell if it's hollow," Henry suggested. "That could give us another clue as to the use of the object."

Ami ~~and her mun~~looked at him. "Alright, how?"

"I don't know if we can get it to work, but you can usually tell if an object is hollow by tapping it. If it was possible, we could tap the box against the desk so that the object hit it." He sighed. "The problem is that the box could muffle the hit, and then the whole thing would be moot." He shrugged.

"Well lets try." Ami took the box and dropped it onto the desk from about two feet up. She heard the box hit and a split second later the object inside hit and roll.

"I would say solid."

Henry nodded in agreement. "It did sound like it was hollow." He clapped his hands together. "Right, then. Shall we hazard a guess at the object's identity?"

"Hm. You may be right about it being a prism, though it is not very heavy so i would say not stone or crystal. Maybe wood or plastic?" She said thoughtfully "I am not sure what it could be. Maybe a bottle? or a very large pencil? What in the world is an oblong polyhedron?"

"I was wondering if it could be a large pencil. Do they commonly make them larger nowadays?" It was an earnest question, as Henry had only been using his square pencils, brought with him from the 1880's.

Ami pulled out a standard yellow number 2 pencil. "They usually look like this. So ok on a number of sides, but is small. This would be a giant pencil."

Henry nodded. "I believe it would be some object similar to that. A large pencil would be my best choice."

"Alright lets go with that then." SHe jotted down on her paper

Conclusion: Large thick pencil.

"I hope we are right."

"I do too." Henry looked a little excited. "Should we present our findings to Mr. Flynn?"

"I think so."

[talk to prof thread?]

[You got it. I see your post; Henry'll follow Ami's lead.]

Zen Computer Science - Period 3 - Tuesday - Week 2

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