ag (1130) - Lettuce: introduced & native plants

there was a lot of little bits of info today, so instead of ranting about all of it and wasting my time, i'll just say refer to "comparison of introduced and native pasture species/pastures"

its a big table with 3 columns.

the general geist is that introduced pastures are more tasty, digestible, nutritious and contain more energy, however native plants are more resistant to weeds, extreme climate and dont necessarily need re-sowing after grazing. however they dont withstand heavy grazing as well as introduced species do.

overall native species are more sustainable coz they dont cost as much and you dont need to pay for things to protect them from weeds and climate and such as much.

one last thing we did was seeing the relationsb etween pasture quality and animal production quality.

eg. irrigating pasture will maximize photosynthesis, thus growth & nutrient uptake, making more nutritious and delicious plants, and so cows produce more milk

phys (1130) - Space: conservation of momentum

man i shouldve been paying more attention instead of doing maths, but i had tests to prepare for.. but i managed to get SMOEthing into my head.

we all know newton's second law, F = ma, now rockets move because there's a net force. that is, a netforce acting upwards, that's higher than gravity (something different to reaction force coz thats only enough to counter gravity, not push the rocket further)

the rocket burns fuel, it pushes it out, and as a result the fuel pushes the rocket upwards (newton's third law)

robson derrived the formula for momentum (p) from F = ma today, it goes like this

F = ma [where a = (v-u)/t]
F = m((v-u)/t)
F = (mv-mu)/t
Ft = mv - mu = /\p

see?

phys (1127) - satellites to planets 2

today.. we went over.. just one concept i think.. one concept with multiple aspects.

it's that the movement of the earth affects the movement of the satellites that we launch.

mr robson described the axis spinning sort of like jumping off a moving train. when we jump, we still have the velocity from when we were on the train (aka, we're moving sideways though we dont realize)

that is why, launches are preferably done near the equator (rotational veloctiy is at its max there) and using the earth's rotational velocity to give the rocket extra speed is a good idea. 11km/s is the requried escape velocity to get out of the earth's gravity.

the earth is going anticlockwise (from looking above the north pole) around the sun, at a speed of approx 29km/s, so in theory.. satellites we launch are also following that same path, with that same speed. so to fire rockets in the opposite direction, unless they exceed 29km/s, the result wuold just be the rocket slows down and is pulled towards the sun. if its fired in the same direction, it escapes earth's orbit and goes elsewhere.

also.. i asked if all the planets were on the same plane.. turns out they are.. with the exception of pluto. i suppose they're in line with the sun's.. "equator"

also, before the lesson, as a question of gerenal interest i asked what fire is. no full explanation as yuet, it's not something that can be easily explained. but what we see and feel of the fire is energy for sure, but fire itself is more like.. a reaction.

ag (1127) - Lettuce: kgDM

using the data we've collceted, we calculated the the amount of dry matter (kgDM) in the two paddocks (1.8ha of ryegrass, 1.5ha of lucerne)

dry matter is everything in the plant that is not water (plants are 70-80% water) so this includes vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, sugars, oils, etc.

for both, we calculated approx how long each paddock would be able to feed 20x 500kg beef cows (leaving approx 15cm of the pasture leftover to regrow)

i cant rememember fully coz i dont have the sheet, it was collected.

but we had to match up our average (-15 for reserve) with a graph that deteremined the DM in each pasture plant (depending on density)

after that.. we know that beef cows eat approx 3.5% of their weight a day, so we had to work that out.. and put the total DM we get over the required DM

the result was the amount of days that the paddock could last.

thing was that not all of the pasture would be eaten though, much of it would be trampled. so these readings arent always as accurate as they can be

math (1127) - Quad: quadratic identities

pretty straight forward, if two expressions are equivalent, all the corresponding coefficients must be equal.

you can use this to solve retarded versions of the quadratic function y = ax^2 + bx + c

i dont know what i can say.. its so weird

ext2 (1124) - day 5: concept

in my confusion yesterday of double-day note-making, i forgot that i in fact was present at extension 2 on tuesday.

the teacher let me be coz i was unable to complete the tasks assigned coz i got sick last friday 'til monday, but at least i got to hear everyone elses.

however, if i did mine i found out it would've been lacking anyway. even though we were meant to write from the perspective of that random character again, we neeeded a concept.

the teacher explained that concept is a thematic thing, and its based on values of the time of the story, to give the story a meaning, make a comment on something, etc.

well i was told to do it anyway, even though i don't necessarily submit it.

our next task is using the setting we described last week, write about an event. and give one of the characters a voice, take their role; their persona.

also, i got to talk about my ideas for my movie more. the two ideas, either about the two peoples lives, or the one guy's life split into his past self and his present self. an issue would be time restraint. i've noticed for the other movies (i've been looking through the scripts) made, the scripts are like 7 pages, with hardly any talking.

but it's alright, i didnt wanna have much talking anyway.. but somehow i need to find a relevant and good story, and tell it within 8 minutes. hmm..

its like a minute a page approx, i need to really think about this.

first things first, if i cant think of a story for now, i'll at least look up how to write a script. that's a good starting point

math (1126) - Quad: discriminant

got rather scared today when i found out our marks will always be compared to the rest of the grade from now on.

eep -.-

and theres so many more 3u people than us.

gay.

anyway.. besides seeing the proof of how the quadratic formula came to be, we worked with just one simple rule with discriminants.

let y = ax^2 + bx + c

if /\ < 0, y has no real roots, aka doenst collide witht he x-axis

now in terms of taht

if a > 0, and /\ <> 0 for all x values (aka the graph is concave up and above the x-axis)

if a < 0, and /\ < 0, the function is negative definite, and y < 0 for all x values (aka the graph is concave down and below the x-axis

phys (1126) - satellites to planets

we were split into random groups today based on randomly given out cards. in each group, we had to work on a particular question, of how to get a satellite to a particular planet.

for us, that was mercury.

we had to decide how to aim the rocket at mercury, whether or not to slingshot it around venus, and how the earth's orbit, other planets' orbit, and the sun's gravity affected the movement of the satellite.

from the north pole (looking down on it), we divised that the earth's axis and all the orbits were going anti-clockwise.

we havent yet reached a conclusion.. but i decided i'd want to be accurate with the answer, and proposed to my teammates tommy & bob that we should measure the orbit.

i got approx 0.3cm = 1 day (assuming earth's orbit is 365 days)

using this, and the estimated speed of the rockets (udit said 30-40km/s, so i said 35) we should be able to calculate the time it would take for the satellite to get to mercury, and using that info, see where the planets will be (assuming the planets are in line when we launched them)

hopefully my idea works.

meanwhile, tommy did a lot of the devising in terms of trajectory & parabola and whatnot

bio (1126) - MaB: plant transport systems

fouzeh wasnt here today, we had brucie again. so once again he was walking us through plant-based info.

mosto f the lesson for me was spent sleeping, but i got down with what he was saying before-hand.

xylem are found towards the centre of the plant, and draw water (and minerals dissolved in it) up from the ground.

phloem are found towards the external of the plant, and transport products of photosynthesis (glucose & oxygen) around the plant (up and down) from the leaves, where they are produced. the products are used for respiration, for growth, can glucose can be stored as more complicated molecules.

re-barking a tree could potentially kill it coz you could be cutting off all the phloem on the outside.

ag (1126) - Lettuce: [p] pasture densities 2

like tuesday how we measured the density of a rye grass paddock, today we measured teh density of lucerne.

same method.

we chucked the 1m ruler at random in the paddock, wherever it landed we took a rough estimate of the height of the area of lucerne, and recorded.. then chucked again.

we have yet to compare it with the graph thingo, but lucerne could either be grown in dense or thin density, we said this crop was thin.

lucerne may not be considered to be a pasture plant due to the fact that it is not grazed, it is typically collected for making hay

math (1125) - Quad: quadratic inequalities

went over a few examples of quadratic inequalities today.

we highlight different parts depending on the sign

lets say

y = ax^2 + bx + c

if y = 0, highlights are on x-axis

if y > 0, highlights are above x-axis (arrows)

if y < 0, highlights are below x-axis (vertex)

concavity will change the graph, keep that in mind.

ooh i see how it goes. for negative numbers, y <> 0 is highlighted on the vertex.. so its still above/below

ok thats awesome.

notes finished for tonight ^^

ag (1024) - Lettuce: pasture densities

today we did a prac/experiment.

we headed out to a paddock (one of the three rotational kept-in-good dairy paddocks near the dair, oh they do taht so the cows dont kill so much energy walking heaps far) and so we measured some random grass samples.

schippers estimated that the field was like 90% grass (most of which was rye grass, what we wanted) and about 5% white clover.

so we measured some rye grass, taking approximate measurements of areas of grass at a time.

we're yet to compile and calculate

phys (1124) - G forces

first day with robson as a tacher today. he's alright. he explained the g force things well at least, and a few other things.

g force is a ratio of normal weight against reaction weight. the reaction being an acceleration.

to calculate vertical g-force, we go

(9.8 + a) / 9.8

the 9.8 coming from the earth's gravity.

now since gravity has no effect on us in a horizontal direciotn, when calculating horizontal g-force, its just a/9.8.

the thing about standing on the ground, is that we have a reaction force lifting us off the ground. that would be equal to gravity (9.8). so, our weight would be 1x normal, we experience 1g. apparently normal people can experience more than 3g (evident on rollercoasters and such). they target rockets and shuttles to only have around 3g for safety of astronauts and equipment.

if we fell off a plane though, there's no floor pushing us off, we fall to gravity, thats called freefall.

the thing about g-forces, is that they're independent of peoples mass. its the same ratio, but used on different people.

eg.

a 50kg guy, and a 100kg guy experience 2g.

the first guy experiences 100kg as his weight, and the other guy, 200kg.

the amount increases depding on how much the person weighs to begin with

i asked mr robson what would happen if two planets were really close to each other. he said that there would be a point in between where we would just be stationary in the middle, otherwise it'd be up to the stronger planet.

he explained what spaghettification is. he said that in a black hole, if we fell feet first, our feet would be closer to the black hole than our head, so our feet would be pulled faster, making it stretch. catch it?

math (1124) - Quad: roots in graphs

the discriminant (/\ - err.. this is meant to be at riangle), as we know is taken from the quadratic formula (its the bit under the root sign)

/\ = b^2 - 4ac

if /\ < 0
there will be no solution for ax^2 + bx + c = 0 so that means there will be no x-intercepts

if /\ = 0
there will only be one solution, and the graph will touch the x-axis once (at its vertex)

if /\ > 0
the graph would go through x-axis, intercepting at two points

eng (1124) - CST: pearson 1

i missed the first 2 pages of pearson's speech in my sickness, but i caught the drift quickly.

we've studied noel pearson before, in yr9. i haev to dig up those notes.. about the other speech he made that we analyzed, and his context etc.

in his speech he makes a lot of quotes made by other politicians.

also, he makes a lot of references to his own lecture, which im yet to fully understand.. i must go back and read the other 2 pages.

bio (1124) - MaB: organ blood

first of all.. to catch up on what i missed the day before.. we talked about (without me) donated blood and artificial blood.

turns out not all of the blood that is donated is used, only parts of it. like anemic people need the red blood cells, people with severe bacterial infections need white, etc.

as for arteficial blood, it is a chemical that can actually last longer than normal blood. however, it only does the role of delivering oxygen and taking carbon dioxide, it does not fight any infections.

anyway.. onto today's topic. blood in organs, would be composed of different things. besides oxygen that comes out of blood, and carbon dioxide that goes in.. it depends where you are really.

eg. blood would be loaded with nutrients after leaving the intestines.

blood would have heaps of waste products on its way to the kidneys, and heaps of water. it'll dump all that off, and some water and nutrients could be returned.

blood from the lungs obviously would have heaps of oxygen in it.

blood from the liver would have glycogen in it, or it could carry toxins to the liver such as alcohol.

and of course, blood would carry carbon dioxide from any tissue that it passes through, after leaving some oxygen behind.

bio (1120) - MaB: blood vessels

we related the structure of blood vessels to the function today.

arteries are large, and have thick elastic walls. they can expand and contract, but are restricted by cologens, and they are thick so taht they can withstand the pressure of pulses. the pulses drive blood through the arteries. small arteries that branch off arteries are called arterioles.

veins are smaller, and have smaller holes than arteries, but bigger in proportion. there is no pump pushing the blood through veins, but they have valves which preevnt blood from going backwards (they close up if blood goes backwards) smaller veins are called venules.

capillaries are the tiny in between ones. they have walls, once cell thick, for easy diffusion, and dont fit much blood in. they are used to deliver blood to and from the cells.

lymph is a white substance found deep within tissue (whereas blood is not found deep in the tissue coz capillaries dont go there). lymph is a white liquid with dissolved substances from the body in it, and goes through lymph vessels to go back to the heart. lymph is also a rich source of white blood cells, so its a way white blood cells get around to fight off infection. lymph vessels meet around the shoulders in lymph nodes, and the tonsils are used to fight infections in the throat (coz white blood cells are abundant in lymph). people whos tonsils cannot fight infection anymore, have them removed.

math (1120) - Quad: y=a(x-u)^2

y=a(x+u)^2 or y=a(u-x)^2

with equations that look like this, we discovered thaat:

- a determines the concavity (if its negative it will point down)
- a also determines the steepness (wideness)
- u determines teh vertex (-u, 0)
solve bx + u = 0 for vertex (-u/b, 0)

phys (1119) - Space: space scientists

just a few vague outlines on some space scientists.

there was galileo of course, he used his own made telescope to observe things.

newton actually thought of the idea that chucking an object at the right speed will make it orbit the planet, and chucking it more could let it escape gravity. it turns out that the speed required for this is 11000km/s. newton also suggested that the same principles of gravity on earth, were the principles of celestial gravity as well (which was weird coz people thought they were two different things)

von braun was a german scientist. after WWII, the scientists who made rockets to attack the UK were split and sent to either USA or USSR. von braun was sent to USA. he worked on space program there. von braun designed the original rockets.

oh there was this dude who propose a 3stage rocket, but i forget who. but usually.. rockets were lauched in 3 stages, and that included the recent shuttles, except the shuttles dropped the liquid fuel part so high up that it burnt up on the way back in.

rockets are mostly fuel. fuel to keep going.

oh we talked about satellites.. and how usualy satellites are designed to come, and yet there are some that we sent off out past our solar system (voyager I and voyager II) we still get faint signals from them.. the mars rovers are still going around even though they were meant to die yearsa go.

oh and mr pitt said something weird.. i forget what it is. something like.. to slow a satellite down, you have to speed it up twice. i forget how it works.

bio (1119) - MaB: oximeters

the lesson was spent watching quite a few youtube videos, little theory behind it.

we were talking about the different ways of measuring gases in the blood. there are two major ways.

the first, uses those thingies that they clip onto your thumb in hospital, a pulse oximeter. it measures the pulse because there are large arteries near the edge of the skin there. the way it measures gas is like this:

light (infrared and ultraviolet) is sent through the finger, and detectors on the other side pick up the signal. if the haemoglobin has oxygen, the signal will be more distorted. this is used to measure the % of oxygen in blood.

this can fail if there is carbon monoxide in the area. carbon monoxide attaches to haemoglobin, and it actually has higher priority than oxygen, and it cannot be dumped off like oxygen can. that's why high amounts of carbon monoxide is dangerous.

the other method of measuring blood gases is by simply using a blood test. blood is drawn from the second major artery in the radius of the non-dominant hand. it is taken to a lab for testing after.

bio (1118) - Mab: [p] exhaled air pH cont.

the last bit of this prac done today, using data loggers, pH probes and pH amplifiers.. which looked like transformer cables for the probes.

using a straw i blew into a small beaker filled with 40mL of water for 2min (120sec) and the data logger recorded progress.

it started at around 7.62, and by the end.. right at the end, it hit 4.97.

so that was that

ag (1118) - Lettuce: plant breeding

i dont know what i can say thats not already on the sheet/s. the sheets have a lot of examples on it.

inbred plants are all genetically the same pretty much, and after a few generations, are homozygous. ie. they all have the exact same characteristics as the parent plants

hybrid plants are bred from 2 inbred plants, and they have superior performance to their parents

open pollination is just when two selected plant varieties are just allowed to inter-breed

wide crosses takes two different species to artificially create new species. they have to be fertile to be worthwhile though.

genetic engineering is asexual, and involves direct manupularion of genes on chromosomes. this is contraversial coz some people support making plants better, others argue its not natural.

ext2 (1117) - day 4: setting

today's lesson seemed rather brief, coz much of the time was spent afterwards with the teacher discussing withe veryone their plans for stories and whatnot.

but first we went through feedback of more stories we read over the week, and presented our stories about setting the scene.

apparently mine was better than i thought, as it appealed to all senses and integrated them (eg. as genvin said, the sound of echoes gave the room a visual appearance that it was large and empty)

good stuff i guess ^^

we have 2 tasks for next week:

the first is to critique smoeone else's work, preferably one that's been subscribed, so others know what we're tlaking about.

the second is to take on the persona of a character's (eg the one from last week) point of view and write as them.

this should be interesting.

i really should read those previous works more properly though.. it would help.

and i gained another idea for my story today.

a relatively old dude, his story, and at the same time a young boy's story. integrated of course. what we dont reveal is that they are the same person, we dont reveal this until like the end. when the child puts a book down, and the old guy picks it up after, all dusty etc. something like that.

and of course there's my original idea, which should be easier than other ideas. 2 people (around our age im guessing, coz its easier to get actors), from different schools (obviously one would be from ours to make it easier) and somehow how they are connected. i still think the idea of the web conversation is good. but i cant think of a story.. just the concept.

how frustrating.

phys (1117) Space: [c] analyzing flm

we were in computer room 11 today, after mr pitt arrived late. i couldnt tell my epic tale of how i put a fire out in the boys toilets -.- some juniors lit heaps of paper towel on fire.

anyway.

we used the program logger pro, to put dots on each frame of our video, and graph the resuts.

as expcted, the y displacement vs time was parabolic, and x displacement vs time was a straight line.

woohoo for accurate predictions! must get that file now.

bio (1117) - Mab: [p] exhaled air pH

so.

one of the products of respiration is CO2, which we breathe out when we exhale. now they move around the body through the blood as well, and they are bumped around by hydrogen. so when we exhale, we're actually exhaling hydrogen too. therefore, our breath should be slightly acidic. we tested this today.

first of all, we got limewater, and blew into it using a straw. of course it turned milky, proving that we exhale CO2

the second part, the probe was being dodgy, so we skipped ahead to using universal indicator, which was also dodgy.

first it said our distilled water was acidic, so we had to change bottles.

so anyway.. it started off green (pH 7) and thompson blew into it for 2min. within the first 30 seconds though, it changed colour and came down to pinky-orange (pH 5) and that's where it stayed 'til the end pretty much

math (1116) - Quad: quadratic polynomial

new topic started today: the quadratic polynomial

its pretty straight forward, today we just went through dot points and the basics, revision from all that parabola stuff we did earlier in the year.

man i did not miss them -.-

take forever to do.. so much space

anyway.. terms we have to get to know and use properly:

monic - quadratic where the value before x^2 is 1
coeffcient - the number before the pronumeral basically
leading term - the term with the highest power (x^2)
constant term - the one with no pronumeral
root - x co-ordinates where y = 0 (ie. the x-intercept)
zero - the same thing as root

we all know the quadratic funcion:

y = ax^2 + bx + c

got it memorized?

and if the coeffcient of x^2 is positive, the graph will be concave up, if negative it'll be concave down.

note that as the coeffcient of x^2 gets larger, the graph becomes narrower, and as the coefficient becomes smaller, the graph becomes wider

all basic stuff really.

phys (1116) Space: [p] filming trajectory

today we did a prac, a familiar prac, about throwing a basketball and filming it. we'll analyze it and further work with it later.. but for now.. we discussed things about it first, then filmed it.

we decided to use the big pipe thing coz it measured up to be 2m long, and it would be totally visible in the video.

the thing was the scale had to be in the same plane as the trajectory (in order to produce accurate results/readings)

oh and apparently the scale might not have been exactly 2m accorind to zhou and monger

wth monger is an english word? haha

and i suggested the camera has to be at the right angle, it cant be looking up or side on of the ball, the lense has to be parallel to the plane of the trajectory (in terms of x and y movement)

catch me?

so we went out, and i filmed udit and tommy throwing the ball back and forth.. hopefully we got some good shots

eng (1116) - CST: atwood 2

not much to say here. but we finished the speech today.

today's section, we basically read about more examples of women characters, this time how they are bad and either murderers or seducers. there was a lot of talk about sex. about adultery, trading military secrets for sex, and "using men as ambulatory bank-accounts" and the many times that people have tried to have these books banned.

but as we discussed last week, having something secret, makes people more curious about it.

atwood concluded the speech with a few aphorisms (sayings) such as:

- life is short
- art is long
- motives are complex
- human nature is endlessly fascinating

those were the 4. notice the last one about human nature is the longest and most well-worded there, making it all the more interesting.

she talked about for whoever reads this, what lies beyond the door that is begging to be unlocked? for men it might be their anima (noone in the class knew what that was excpet me, i dont know if i should be proud of that) and for women it might be their shadow.

everyone has "subterrranean depths", everyone has something underneath, their mind or whatever.

evil women exist in real life so they should exist in literature.

she even quotes an old feminist from 1912, dame rebecca west: "ladies of great britain... we have not enough evil in us"

then atwood says "note where she locates the desired evil. in us"

bio (1116) - MaB: haemoglobin

letsee.. a lot to talk about in today's post.

today's subject of discussion was haemoglobin, the substance within red blood cells that attracts oxygen and takes it to cells in the body.

haemoglobin is composed of haem (made of iron, thus is red) and globin, which is a helix of proteins that is folded around 5-7 times.

mr mahfouz explained that there is approx 2-3 million molecules of haemoglobin in a single RBC (red blood cell), and remember there are 4-7million RBCs in 1mL of blood, and on average 5L of blood in a person. so that's a crapload of haemoglobin, and considering they each fit 4 oxygen molecules, thats a lot of oxygen.

thing is the book said 200-300 million, i dunno where the error is there.. i have to clear that up tomorrow.

so. once again fouzeh described haemoglobin's oxygen capacity to be like car seats. 4 seats. and once one is fillled, all 4 must be filled immediately. so that haemoglobin carries either 4 or 0 oxygen molecules.

fouzeh used a brilliant analogy of the haemoglobin's ability to easily obtain oxygen from the alveoli as a "beautiful blonde girl". someone who can really easily attract/pick up a guy (oxygen) and a few minutes later.. just as easily dump him (somewhere in the cells hahaha)

fouzeh talked about something called partial pressure, which is basically air pressure. air pressure is measured in mmHg (mm of mercury) i dont know why.. i'll ask that tomorrow too. but it basically means, in 1cm^2 of land on the earth, all the way upwards 'til the end of the atmosphere, what is the concentration of air. it turns out to be 760mmHg. and approx 21% is oxygen, so we get something like 160.

we looked at a diagram to haev a look at the PO2 (P = partial pressure, O2 = oxygen) and PCO2. the oxygen moved around quite abit, i suppose tahts coz haemoglobin is made for carrying oxygen. the way it transports this is simple, it's all diffusion. oxygen moves from an area of high concentration (lungs) to areas of low concentration (blood vessels) to be carried around. when it eventually reaches capillaries (very narrow vessels, like 1 cell wide in diameter) oxygen is dumped in the cells and the liquid surrounding them.

around 98% of oxygen is carried around by blood cells, the other 2% is dissolved in the blood's plasma.

fouzeh used an example.

8 years ago when the socceroos were going to south america for the world cup, they were told that it wouldnt be good for them, coz they would be playing 1000m above sea level (where air pressure/concentration) is lower. so to fix that, they were sent there two weeks prior to the game, to adapt. so that their body could produce more blood cells, and wider vessels to fit them.

apparently mountain folk have wide vessels.

last thing, haemoglobin saturation. if there are 4 haemoglobin molecules, and 2 of them haev oxygen attached, it would be 50% saturation. etc

ag (1113) - Lettuce: affecting growth

at first, we were analyzing graphs, pretty straight forward.

as temp increases, both photosynthesis and respiration increase.. but like after 40 it drops. and photosynthesis increases as light intensity increases, except over 30000lux

also.. plants mostly use indigo and orange light to photosynthesize, hardly use blue, green or yellow, and done use red at all.

we also talked about P = G + E again

phenotype = genotype + environment

its mostly environmental factors that affect a plant's growth.. mostly management in fact, and competition actually affects plants the least.

and letsee.. to ensure heaps of glucose is there for respiration.. just keep the plant healthy and free of pests and diseases.. understandable i guess.

heat beds in greenhouses can regulate soil temperature and irrigation still controls water levels and temperature

ext1 (1113) - behind the badge

today we finished watching "hollywood: behind the badge" and so i shall jot down a summary of notes.. (check book for full list)

- early 20th century crime was due to poverty
- 1920s based in new york, busy streets etc
- 1930s had gangs etc, and also asian detectives
- 1940s hardboiled cop and sherlock holmes, different story but same time
- 1950s after WWII, heaps of international enemies, and all-american heroes
- 1960s first car chase, new kinds of cops including black and female
- 1970s heaps of police TV shows, instead of movies, also shows that were more real
- 1980s people started questioning cops.. shows about personal lives
- 1990s included international terrorism, action-heroes and reality, real crimes which scared people

eng (1113) - CST: atwood 1

we've been doing atwood for the past few days, but not mcuh to say that's not already on the sheets.

she's talking about how many feminists are trying to censor and really narrow the roles of females in literature, especially back in the 1970s. but atwood (speaking in the 1990s) says how that's boring and just like having breakfast, not very exciting.

she argues (and uses a lot of examples from texts) that people need to be bad in order for awesome stories to come about. she talks about being bad being human, and that's what makes life interesting, and that's why men are usually the interesting characters coz they're usually the villains.

today, we reached the point where she lists a bunch of female villains, talking about medea (jason's [as in argonauts] wife) medusa, delilah (as in sampson) goneril and regan lady macbeth and one.. sula.

she also made reference to fairy tales such as snow white, that glorify housekeeping.. but there's also the evil queen whom atwood seems highly interested in, and she talks of cinderella.. we talked about the original story todya in class.. funny coz on a black friday back in feb we talked about the same thing too hahaha.

bio (1112) - MaB: [p] size of blood cells

i missed out on half the lesson coz of prefect meeting.. but i got the general geist.

it goes like this..

at 100x zoom (10 in the lens x 10 in the thingy) we measure (using a transparent ruler) the diameter of the field of view (circle that we see) getting around 1.8 - 2mm, which is converted to 180-200 micrometers

then we zoom into 400x zoom and count the amount of red blood cells seen in an imaginary diameter (around 50) and compare it to the length of the diameter to obtain the size of red blood cells.

white blood cells to measure size, are measured in porportion to the red, (about 1.5 times the red)

their nucleus appeared big and purple

ag (1112) - Lettuce: photosynthesis & respiration

this was our last lesson on working with the plant production topic.

first we talked about what overspraying (pesticides) can do.. it was mainly impact the enfironment.. in 4 ways:

- kills worms and other decomposers in the soil
- kills beneficial insects such as ladybird beetles, bees and predatory wasps
- kills aquatic organisms such as fish and seaweed (if getting into waterways)
- harms humans (if they drink from these waterways) and grazing livestock like cows or sheep

then we talked about photosynthesis and respiration, which we know that are pretty much each other's opposite processes.

water + CO2 -> (light energy goes in) -> glucose + oxygen

the glucose is the main product and oxygen is the byproduct

cellular respiration is the opposite

glucose + oxygen -> (ATPs released) -> water + CO2

coz oxygen is needed to release ATPs from glucose

the net assimiliation rate (NAR) refers to the rate at, which the plant grows. ie. the difference between photosynthesis and respiration. if its equal to 0, the plant just survives.. it doesnt grow.

photosynthesis and respiration is most easily controlled in greenhouses.

to control PHOTOSYNTHESIS:
- CO2 sensors detect when to pump gas into greenhouse
- temperature can be regulated with irrigation (water cools things) and airconditioning in greenhouses
- irrigation (eg drip irrigation) helps control water, and ground cover (eg mulch) helps to reduce waterloss
- light wavelength. this one is confusing. greenhouses are green to reflect green wavelength light out. plants dont need green wavelength light to photosynthesize (probably why plants are green too) and so the greenhouse reflects green light away and the rest comes in.
- to control light exposure (it cant really be controlled for field crops) but indoor crops it can be controlled by using artificial lights (to extend or control day length) tricking plants into fruiting (flowering out of season)

we didnt talk about respiration yet.. i take it we will tomorrow

math (1112) - Calc: tangents & normals

the last bit of introductory calculus O.O

time flies when you're having fun.

we know how to work out the tangent of a curve at a certain point already, correct?

its basically the derivative of the function, when subbing the x coordinate into where x is.

that will give us the tangent.

and to get the normal

we remember that

m1 x m2 = -1

where the m's are the gradients of the tangent and normal

that's the rule for perpendicular lines with COORDINATE GEOMETRY which i must.. re-go over

phys (1112) - Space: projectile motion

so talking about projectile motion today, after watching a few random videos of projectile motion in action in real life.. ie people jumping, flying around etc. a lot of ski bail videos too haha.

when talking about projectile motion, horizontal velocity is constant, but vertical is not. this can be shown with a diagram that follows an object being for example thrown, and ruled from the centre.

usually we get a parabola-like shape for these kinds of diagrams, and they are symmetrical about a vertical line somewhere in the middle, this is assuming air resistance doesn't really affect the throw (like it would with say a ping pong ball) also the time it takes on either side of that vertical should be equal.

i cant remember much else we talked about.. but mr pitt said he would send us an email witht he powerpoint that we used today.

ext2 (1110) - day 3: character

the day was pretty much dedicated to checking our many pieces of hw

to start off the day.. we talked about the random characters we encountered on the train or bus last week. i shared my story about the random girl on the train with the ipod and cosmetics bag, and though my story was mainly about figuring out what her story was, many other people assumed a story from the person they saw, which i think what the task was really asking for -.-

apparently.. i've been told that i have to start thinking as if it were a movie, even though films start with the narrative.. but i guess it makes sense... perhaps next task such as this i'll write it like a play script.

then we talked about places of inspiration this week. i talked about my encounters on niceshorts.com. strange movies there.. particularly the soviet satire one.. i didnt think that was funny.. and explained to the teacher that i now understand that what might be funny for us, wouldnt be funny for other people.

the teacher handed me a dvd to check out for next time.

we went through the A range stories and how people marked them etc, this was mainly time for the critical response people to shine. i guess it gives us a good view of what kind of work we should be doing to get into that A range, even if some people do find it weird.

ooh i smell dinner. smells like victory.

oh and on that note.. yesterday when someone asked about describing smells when setting the scene, smells are generally associated with taste, so words such as sweet or sour could work. poems such as "country towns" are good sources for inspiration on setting, any good poem is i suppose.. i remember reading one about london in the early morning that was excellent.

our task for next week is to describe something, a setting, so its all imagery.. this should be good for me, i can do this kind of stuff. im thinking of describing somewhere quiet and meant to be peaceful, like a church.. like last year when a friend of mine stepped in for the first time in years

math (1110) - Calc: quotient rule

if y = v/u

then

y` = (vu` - uv`)/v^2

do yo ucatch that?

thats pretty much it

not necessary all the time to use it.. but it comes in handy

bio (1110) - MaB: transport systems

we talked about transport systems today.. in particular.. blood.

normal people on average have around 5L of blood.

blood is around 45% blood cells and 55% plasma methinks, and 90% of that plasma is water.. the rest is anything random at all in your body that oculd be floating around in the blood.

blood is produced in the bone marrow, and is replaced every few weeks or so by new blood.

blood consists of 3 main types of cells.

RED BLOOD CELLS (around 7 million in 1mL)
- used to carry oxygen to cells.
- red substance haemoglobin attaches oxygen, becoming oxyhaemoglobin
- mature red blood cells have no nucleus
- they are disc shaped, thicker around the outside

WHITE BLOOD CELLS (around 4000 in 1mL)
- soldiers of body, produce antibodies
- fight of disease by engulfing them
- bigger than red cells, and are spherical
- sick people, or diseased people tend to have more white blood cells, particularly leukaemia

PLATELETS (around 40000 in 1mL)
- formed from cell fragments
- clot blood when exposed to air
- clotting prevents us from bleeding to death
- platelets can clot in long air travel, new disease
- much smaller than red or white cells

math (1109) - Calc: product rule

its a simple rule:

if y = uv

then

y` = uv` + vu`

ie.

(dy/dx) = u(dv/dx) + v (du/dx)

ag (1109) - Lettuce: pest triangles

we had a look at these pest triangle thingies.

the pest or disease would be in the middle of the triangle, the host at the top, the source on the bottom left, and the preferred environment of the pest on the right

using these, we deduced things which are all in written in my book, things like coz sowthistle weeds host sowthistle aphids, clearing the weeds can reduce aphid popultions.

then we had a look at the resistance of pests.

it works like this

an insecticide is sprayed, not all pests are killed.. and the survivors breed and pass on that trait.. after a while, they will be immune.

to reduce this, one could alternate between chemicals, or use IPM so its not always necessary to use chemicals.

spraying more often or more concentrated could work better though.

but things that oculd lead to higher speed of development of resistance include:
- spraying many times in a season
- underspraying or overspraying
- not rotating chemmicals
- or too high/low concentration of chemical

math (1106) - Calc: short function of function

didn't have much lesson time, it was mostly reviewing differentiation.

the one thing we learned:

if we get another

(ax +b)^n

where n > 2

then all we have to do is differntiate that as a whole, then differentiate the thing on the inside and add it to the end

phys (1106) - skiing parabola

not much to note here, we were calculating the x and y displacement of a guy skiiing.

the most efficient way to do this is to make lines from the centre of gravity off to the side somewhere, to measure to scale.

me and amanda did the wrong thing -.- but oh wellers.. it's right now.

plotting our results will just give us a parabola, so plotting y against x^2 should give us a straight line if we were correct

bio (1106) - MaB: plant temp. regulation

its mostly written on the sheets anyway.. but plants regulate temp in a number of ways..

in extreme heat, plants adapt bbbbyyy:

- having leaves that droop down like eucalypts, they get less direct hits from the sun.
- leaves with zig-zaggy edges lose more heat, coz edges are where the most heat is lost. zigzaggy edges lose more heat coz of higher length to surface area ratio
- heat is lost naturally through radiation and transpiration
- there are heat-shock proteins in some plants that protect the enzymes
- some plants actually drop leaves during summer

in extreme cold, they adapt bbbbyyyy:

- some plants have anti-freeze systems, ie. the cells are highly concentrated and so difficult to freeze.
- some plants dont release seeds until the temperature is warm enough
- some plants just die completely, then regenerate when its time

bio (1105) - MaB: temperature adaptations

talked about adaptations for native animals today, in particular about temperature moderation.

bringing back our friend the kangaroo

structural adaptations for heatloss include long ears (like the bilby has as well)

and behavioural to lose heat include licking forelimbs (evaporation, and there are heaps of blood vesselsa round here, just like the bilby's ears) and they sit in the shade when its hot

physiological adaptations include the fact they have really concentrated urine, to reduce waterloss as much as possible.

reptiles come out in the sunlight when its cold, and burrow when its hot.

dark colours absorb light, but we all knew that, but it almost means they absorb more heat.

and talking about the difference between torpor and hibernation:

- hibernation lasts for months (usually whole winter)
- hibernation greatly drops metabolism, heart rate and breathing
- temperature drops a little, but stays constant

- torpor only lasts for a week or two
- is common in bats
- their temperature drops greatly

also note that smaller animals lose heat faster because they have a higher surface area to volume ratio

math (1105) - Calc: function of a function

went over something else first.. just revision but into differentiation.

square root x is like x ^ 1/2 basically.. so cube root is x ^ 1/3 etc. and of course x ^ -2 equals x/2

so yeah.. went by that with differentiation.

then.. we learned somehting new.. function of a function.. which was easier than i thought it would be. its for big powers. eg..

differentiate: (x+7)^9

you let u = the number, and y equal u to the pwoer of crap.. observe:

let u = x+7

(du)/(dx) (x+7)
= 1

let y = u^9

(dy)/(du) (u^9)
= 9u^8

then you multiply together.. and the two du cancel each other out.

(dy)/(dx) (1 x 9u^8)
= 9u^8

then you sub in the value of u that we let it equal coz it has to be x

so its 9(x+7)^8

so there ^^

phys (1105) - Space: motion detecting pendulum

we walked in, puzzled from our homework about the motion sensor prac thingo, to find that mr pitt had it all set up alerady.

the pendulum was hanging off a force detector, and in front of a motion detector.

so we timed the period using the motion detector, then calculated it using the formula to see if it was consistent.

then using the force results, there were 10 high force readings within 7.5 seconds. what happened was.. the kinetic energy is highest at the equilibrium point, coz thats when its at its fastest before it slows down while going upwards. and it hits that point twice peroscillation. so we end up with 1.5 as the period, consistent again.

then timing it again.. we all started getting 1.3, and the force said 12N suggesting that gravity in creased.. it took the class i while to realize mr pitt shoved a supermagnet under the desk to rig that last set of results -.-

eng (1105) - CST: suu kyi 2

there's never much i can write about in english these days, not that's not already on the sheets in the booklet.

in the next few pages, suu kyi talks about how women have all these positive qualities and crap and that the home is their realm.

she talks about if women can handle doing all this stuff int he home, then they can bring it to the world and make the world awesome.

she talks abot even men acknowledge tat women should be more involved with government crap.

also, a little on history, burmese girls often flee the country to thailand and become prostitutes.. and somehow tahts a life thats better than staying in burma. shall dig into this further soon

ag (1104) - Lettuce: [p] aphid under microscope

not really much theory behind today's lesson, we just looked at aphids that we picked up on the farm under microscopes.

up close they're actually pretty gross, and green ones look weird.

but we could see them movnig around, but not really sapsucking.. but yeah.

the spider was intersting though haha. eating its own leg? or cleaning it or something..

bio (1104) - MaB: temperature adaptations

today we talked about different animals living in different temperatures.

on earth, species can survive in temperatures as low as -50, all the way up to 250.

except, each individual species has a narrow bracket thing in which they can survive. eg, we humans can live in say 15 to around 30/40 without any major adaptations (eg clothes or aircon or whatnot)

we talked about endotherms like people, who produce their own heat, therefore must eat everyday. and ectotherms like crocs who acutally only eat like once a week O_O

so like.. its coz we regulate our temperature.

for animals that hibernate, what they do is in their sleep (which they only breathe like once per 5min, its really really hardcore sleep) what they do is they burn off their fat, and they have like a body clcok that wakes them up after winter.

adaptations for diff temps include ears, which are larger/longer in hot areas to lose more heat, like with kangaroos or dogs. likewise, arctic foxes have small ears.

marine mammals like whales can live in icy cold waters due to their layers of blubber keeping the heat that they produce from escaping. what happens with whales and dolphins in their blood, is they have countercurrents, which means their veins and arteries are like right next to each other, so the should-be cold used blood gets warmed up before it hits the heart again.

eng (1104) - CST: suu kyi 1

we started with suu kyi's speech today, more about justice etc.

but we went through contextual things first.. about suu kyi, and her house arrest, and inability to see her children and husband and all that.

i actually dont have much to say on this.. what notes can you make that arent arleady scribbled into the book? x.x

just go check it.. waste to double up notes.

ext2 (1103) - day 2: inspiration

after going through what we can expect over the next few terms.. we began talking about where we've been getting inspiration over the past week.

a lot of people read books, coz thats what they're meant to do, but me i said my inspiration came from mary & max.

i still dont know what to do about my story.

should i really go for one of those touching-ish stories like that peek-a-boo one? or should i go for something funny?

dont know..

in an attempt to ask ms what NOT to do.. as in in terms of it being crap, she just said dont do teenage romance. i was gonna do some kind of teenage connectiont hing, but i dunno about romance, i was more gonna do some kind of outer-school connection thing, inspired by mary & max, and my own experience with friends outside of school.

she also said not to do things coz we're not really meant to: rape, suicide, drugs, all that dodgy stuff.

but yeah.. we had to try describe random people we saw on the train/bus in the next week, and i wrote my story about the first person i saw, a girl from all saints casula? i didnt even know there WAS an all saints in casula, but yeah.. at least i did my hw already.. less to worrya bout.

oh and apparently i should check out a site known ass

niceshorts.com.au

coz it has mad short movies there.. when i haev time probably friday.

and to have a look at entrants in recent comps.. josh is arranging that for me.. so awesome.

i just needa think better about my story and stuff.

6-8min

i've decided i'm actually gonna make the movie.. coz script is boring and too long. 20-30min? x_x seriously.. gay..

soo..

video it is ^^

phys (1103) - Space: pendulum formula cont

we went overthe pendulum formula again today, but instead.. we did it for T^2

which is like...

T^2 = 4(pi) l/g

something like that.

now graphing that would result in a line, as opposed to the curvy thing of the other formula.

we also watched videos from julius sumner miller.

hahaha good stuff.

he wasnt much on demonstrating, but basiclaly its only length that makes a difference in period, not really mass or angle.

bio (1103) - MaB: feedback flowcharts

went over our unsure charts from yesterday.

the actual diagram had "change" in the middle, and going around in ilke a figure of 8, the top would be the opposite of the bottom.

eg. the top would go.. sense increase in heat -> sends message -> control centre at top -> thingy that does change -> change (negative feedback)

thats a crappy example coz i forget and i cbf getting my book behind me, but you get the point. the bottom would be for decrease in temp.

we compared an oven to a human. ovens have thermostats that detect overheat or underheat? haha and a switch that triggers it to warm up or stop.. this is like a human homeostasis system.

the thing is about these charts though.. is that they focus on only one change, and sensing ambient changes.. but not internal changes.

ext1 (1103) - detectives

talking about different kinds of detectives.. should read the stories and go through questions ont he thingo.

but the story that ms sproule read to us, it was surprising to find out that the detective was a woman and not a dude.

coz she full got up hangover style in a crappy apartment and all.. so as a result of this shock.. our homework is to make a 1page intro for a detective for monday

today was just talking about diff kinds of detectives, qualities of detectives, like the pro office guy or the hobby modern lady thing.

read stories it'll make more sense

math (1102) - Calc: short differentiation

talked about shortcuts for differentiation today

if f(x) = x^n then f`(x) = nx^(n-1)

chyeah boi.

its all written down in the booklet thingy

usually what we do is when we're asked to differentiate

we write it like this.. say the question was

differentiate x^2

we would write

d/dx (x^2) = 2x^(1)
=2

right?

the x on the d/dx means thats what we're doing it in relation to, if there was a t in the question isntead, the bottom would say t. the top, represents the other thing.. if the question was

y = 5x^4 - 3x

then we would put dy/dx in instead. catch it?

also, any number without the number we're focusing on (next to the d at the bottom) just turns into a 0 when working it out

phys (1102) - Space: pendulum period formula

before we got stuck into more formula stuff, we first did a few HSC 2008 questions, which i did correct.

we talked about energy conversion in a rocket taking off.

chemical energy decreases, coz it is burnt up and converted to kinetic energy (which increases) and gravitational potential energy (which also increases)

even though its a negative value, it increases coz it gets closer to 0

as for kinetic energy, the movement of the rocket is because a net force acts on it, caused by the thrust of the engine.

if the rocket kept the same thrust, the rocket would keep accelerating, coz mass decreases, so for force to stay the same, acceleration increases (F = ma) full metal alchemist broz

so to slow down the rocket, the thrust is reduced (its important to keep an eye on acceleration coz some rocket equipment can die to pressure, so can people)

then we talekd about pendulums, the formula for period iiiiiisss..

T = 2(pi) root:(l/g)

yes thats crappy -.- but i have no symbols here haha.

and the gravitational force between any two masses isss..

F = G(m1m2)/r^2

yeah..

then we talked about weighto n other planets, which we did not finish this lesson

bio (1102) - MaB: [c] feedback mechanisms

today we sort of compared a simple feedback mechanism to other things.. like temperature regulation in computers and people.

two sites that i found most handy today though were:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/~cmallery/150/physiol/sf38x17.jpg

http://www.bio.miami.edu/~cmallery/150/physiol/c44x10thermo-reg.jpg

ag (1102) - Lettuce: healthy plants

talked about a few things today

first we talked about what research does in terms of impacting plant production.

research its used to find new plant varieties (eg downy mildew resistant lettuce), machines (eg olive harvester), insecticides (eg fungal sprays), management tactics (like IPM) and planting densities and fertilizer rates.

we talked about qualitative and quantitative measurements for plants

a few qualitative factors for lettuce:

FREE OF INSECT PESTS, SNAILS AND SLUGS

- this can be achieved using pellets and insecticides

- one can clear typical hiding places of snailes etc, or use IPM which could include predatory insects such as wasps

- companion crops / aphid repellants such as parsley can be planted to keep aphids away (they dont like the smell)

UNIFORM SIZE AND HEALTHY APPEARANCE (COLOUR)

this can only be done with adequate nutrients (biggest determiner of healthy colour) and lots of water.

the last thing we did was look at pesticide labels, they all basicaly say the same thing in terms of safety. use only as directed, keep out of reach of children, call poisons info centre if you ingest it, if possible try force vomitting.

phys (1030) - Space: [p] pendulum length

the class split into groups to do one length of string for the pendulum each.

our group did 0.8m.

each group measured the period for 4 trials then took an average.

all groups used the same mass ball on the end of the string to not rig up the results.

the experiment was to test whether length had an effect on the period of a pendulum swinging.

my prediction was longer ones would take longer, and thats what the class' results show.

bio (1030) - MaB: response pathways

not much talk during this lesson coz we were talking about assessments etc for a lot of it.

we just touched on response pathways, which we've been basically tlaking about so far anyway.

the receptors send pulse signals through nerves and up the spinal cord and to the brain. the brain returns a signal to the corresponding muscles to do an action (eg secrete sweat if its too hot)

also, i asked a rnadom question of interest.. coz our body temp likes being 37, but on a day of 37deg, we find it too hot already.

apparently theres no optimum temperature for the outside of our bodies, but it still likes to regulate temperature.. to adapt.

and the reason why its our arms and legs and face that goes red when it gets hot.. its because blodo vessels are close to the outside in these locations, tahts why they thicken when its hot.. its easiest for the heat to get out through here

ag (1030) - Lettuce: randomization & standardization

today was discussion of the frequency distribution curve, as well as randomization and standardization.

we discussed that our frequency distribution curves kept the basic normal shape, coz they were tallest in the middle, and results were fewer on either end.

apparently randomization and standardization can alwayus be improved, thus we can always mention it when a question asks how we could improve an experiment

randomization colld have been improved by increasing the number of beds for each density we had. (eg 6 or 10 instead of 3)

standardization could have been improved if we measures precisely the amount of water/fertilizer/snail pellets we used.. since it was all estimated.

the rest of the lesson was spent killing our beds, that included our prized cabbage.