Our Snow Day Studies began on Spencer Street Hill, a favorite sledding spot for those who prioritize break-neck speed over guaranteed safety.
Here we confirmed the basic principles of gravity, momentum, and friction, and developed several new proposals for peer review, including:
Keilen's Law: The force of gravity is doubled on your very first trip down the hill, causing your eyes and mouth to open twice as wide as they ever have before. (Mikala's Corollary: This effect is transferable to the heart of the lucky adult who accompanies you.)
Natalie's Theorem: Screaming at the top of your lungs produces specially-oriented sound waves that propel you away from obstacles such as garbage cans, mailbox poles, and parked cars.
Photographer's Fallacy: When an Irresistible Force is bearing down upon you in a snowsuit, the iPhone camera will not magically transform you into an Immovable Object.
Indoor Discoveries
Leila's Density Experiment: If you start with a base of barbells, and use Yam Mass and Harry Potter novels to cantilever a couple of dinner plates over the edge, it is possible to balance a pile of household objects on a bathroom scale that is smaller than you, but heavier than your mom.
The Colin Effect: Useless though it may be on the sledding hill, the camera proves indispensable when one is faced with an Irresistible Object.
Snowballistics
The Element of Surprise: A carload of bundled-up Hillman City warriors springing as one from a battered vehicle and sprinting down the hill with a rebel yell, can seize an immediate (if temporary) advantage over the snowball-throwing Citizenry of Columbia City.
(Relative) Size Matters: Ioan learned the hard way that while you can keep adding to the mass of a snowball indefinitely, eventually the Law of Diminishing Returns sets in and its value as a projectile is significantly reduced.
The Fearless Observer Effect: We noticed one member of the Fourth Estate cowering behind a tree during the Great Columbia City Snowball Fight, but brave Danny Gawlowski of the Seattle Times got right in there with his video camera, with entertaining results.
Late Night Lessons: Spaces in the Silence
The silence of a midnight snowfall opens up empty spaces in the neighborhood...
...and stirs up something mysterious and comforting deep inside a resident walking home late from The Bourbon.
Amid the world's many woes, we're extra grateful for all the joyful discoveries this snow has brought -- and for dear friends and family to share them with. Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
1 comment:
Smiling wide Mikala. It appears everyone survived the Snow Day Studies ... I particularly appreciate Natalie's Theorem and the Late Night Lessons. Cheers to many more such studies!
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