Physics with trees, Period 1, 17 Dec '08

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

The classroom was equipped with its standard array of desks, chairs and glassware. Mohinder was at the front of the room, going over paperwork as class assembled.

"All right, everyone," began Mohinder. "This is your final, and I hope you're all prepared or skilled at improvisation."

"There are a series of questions for you to answer," he handed out the papers, "Once you've completed them you can go."

[OCD is up!]

Comments

Re: Testing 15 (PWT)

[the_merriest]

Rikku cracked her knuckles and got down to it.

1. Rocks are clumps of minerals. Fossils are the remains of really old plants or animals that got stuck onto the rocks. So rocks can have fossils on them, but not all rocks have fossils.

2. Igneous rocks are made from lava. Rocks that look glassy or have pores or crystals in them are usually igneous rocks.

Sedimentary rocks are formed from lots of layers all smooshed together. If a rock has other little rocks in it, it's sedimentary.

Metamorphic rocks were one of the other two, at first, and then got lots of heat and pressure on them and changed. They have layers, too, but they're more likely to be curvy, and banded.

She selected one of each -- obsidian for the igneous, conglomerate for the sedimentary, and quartzite for the metamorphic.

3. Three of the factors would be: (1) access to clean water, such as a river bank. (2) Good defenses, so your geography makes it harder for people to attack you, like if you're living at the top of a hill. (3) Shelter, so you can survive the elements (cold or hot, or if it rains a lot).

Here, attached, were several illustrations.

4. Okay. From Fandom, Virginia to Santiago, Chile. Because that looks neat, and I've never been down to that South America, even with how Fandom jumps around. So! We'd start by driving down to Miami ...

The directions followed handwavily from there, covering a route that went from Miami to Cuba to Panama, and on land down the western coast of South America from there.

5. Fossil fuels are a great source of energy, and can help a growing civilization keep itself together, and warm, and can fuel the travel between areas.

But they can also pollute and they're not renewable and getting them does bad things to your planet, too.

So if you're really in a desperate situation, they're better than nothing, but they shouldn't ever be more than a temporary answer while you look for something better.

For extra credit, she took a vague stab at floods, and a process for safely evacuating a town's residents and moving them to temporary higher ground, with a few scribbled notes of thoughts on how to inhabit the area once again when the flood waters receded.