"You're in Radiator Springs, the cutest little town in Carburetor County." - Mater (Cars)Data

 "And we'll be counting CARS!"

Background

Image of Vineville Ave. facing West

For our traffic lab, we had to watch the vehicles that passed by a spot for a certain time. (In other words, we got our creeper licenses. Averi Hess was my partner and we watched the traffic from my sun porch on the corner of Vineville Ave. and Corbin Ave. We collected data for 5 minutes (there was a ton of traffic!) The following table shows what we saw. (It was hard to see what the people were doing, so most of the data does not have what the people are doing unless it was extremely clear what the drivers or passengers were doing.)

Data

Calculations

From our data, I broke down the data to see how many cars there were by color, type and direction. I found that there were 55 vehicles going west and 40 vehicles going east. There were 45 cars, 31 suvs, 17 trucks and 6 vans. There were 31 white, 25 silver, 12 black, 11 red, 7 blue, 4 grey, 3 of tan and green and 1 each of brown, yellow and gold vehicles.

From those, I calculated how many of each color and type would have passed by in an hour. I used the conversion 60/5=12 and then used 12*raw data = # per hour to find out the number of types of cars and color of cars that would pass by per hour. 

The following Tables show the number of cars that passed by in five minutes and the number expected to pass by in an hour.

Cars per 5 mins and 1 hour by color

Cars per 5 mins and 1 hour by style

Conclusions

From the data, it can be concluded that there are a lot of cars that pass by my sunporch. Most of the cars are colored white, black or silver and there are more cars and suvs than trucks and vans. 

We are Family! How all Humans are Related.

Who is Mitochondrial Eve and How is She Related to Us? 

Mitochondrial Eve is the oldest known women who is the closest known ancestor of all currently living humans. It is believe that she lived about 100,000- 200,000 years ago. Mitochondrial DNA  comes from the mothers side, and Mitochondrial Eve is the oldest women who shares common Mitochondrial DNA with current humans. Mitochondrial DNA is located in organelles called mitochondria. Since Mitochondrial DNA is past from mother to offspring without changing, every human being is directly descended from Mitochondrial Eve since they share the same Mitochondrial DNA.
The following are examples of how all the people on the earth could be related but look different. Over time, people relocated in different parts of the world and their features changed; therefore you have people who look differently all over the world. 


Jackie Chan: Chinese
Actor
Chinese people are characterized by fair and yellowish skin, small, dark eyes, dark hair, wide cheek bones, small noses, and shorter in height.

Sanya Richards-Ross: Jamaican

Athlete

Jamaicans are characterized by thin and muscular bodies, dark hair and eyes, darker toned skin, as well as by their cool accents. Many Jamaicans are of many ancestors, such as African, South American, Indian and Chinese. 

Mila Kunis: Russian

Actress

Russians are characterized by fair skin, dark hair, round faces straight noses and light grey-green/blue eyes.

Oluchi Onweagba: Nigerian

Model

Nigerians are characterized by dark hair, skin and eyes, pointed, large noses, large lips, large eyes.

 Adam Beach: Native American (Canadian Saulteux)

Actor

Native Americans are characterized by high cheek bones, tan colored skin, almond shaped eyes, large ear lobes and dark hair and eyes.

From all the different types of people presented, we can see how being form a different place in the world makes you look different, even though we all have one common ancestor. As humans have moved across the world and grown the population larger, there have been changes to our physical makeup and characteristics.

Nature is Beautiful

                           Trees

Southern Magnolia Tree (Magnoliaceae Family, 

Magnolia grandiflora)

The Southern Magnolia is found the the Southeastern U.S. It is an evergreen tree that has large leathery feeling leaves with large white flowers. The shape is pyramidal and Magnolias can grow up to 90 ft. tall! 

                                                                               Japanese Cherry Tree (Prunus serrulata)

Native to the Himalayas, this tree has been distributed all over the world in the Northern Hemispheres temperate zones. Lots of these trees can be found in Macon and give us the name for our annual festival, the Cherry Blossom Festival. These trees do not produce edible fruit like their name may suggest, and they are mostly hold oriental purposes. 

 Live Oak Tree (Quercus Virginiana) Also known as evergreen oak because it is an oak that does not loose its leaves in the winter. The term Live Oak is used for the tree in North America. Live Oak is used to build ships, especially for its curved branches to make curved structures on the boat. 

Shrubs/Bushes

Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)
Native to North America, Mountain Laurel is an evergreen bush that has clusters of white and rose colored flowers that bloom in the spring These bushes are found in mountain valley areas. This plant grows in thickets.

Hydrangea

Plants native to Asia and the Americas. Most of the types of deciduous, but some are evergreen. The common arrangement of this plant that we would see in Georgia are mophead arrangements. These are large round groups of flowers that resemble pompoms. The color of Hydrangeas can be a variety of colors and is dependent on the acidity of the soil in which the plant is growing in. 

The Tree Of Life

Palm Springs Tree

BACKGROUND
We were given two pictures of tree stumps (one of a Georgia Pine and the other of a Palm Springs tree) are were required to count the rings and try to determine how old the trees were. By counting the rings, I found the Georgia Pine to be about 63 years old, and I found the Palm Springs tree to be about 34 years old.  

Georgia Pine

DATA

We also had to measure the width of each of the rings. I measured the rings using photoshop's ruler guide. (I made sure the image was in inches, not pixels.) We also had to find the average temperature and precipitation of the area each tree was found in. For the average temperature and precipitation, I used the June, July and August Months. I used the data from the regional climate center's website. The following table shows the data that I collected from these methods.

I used this data to create graphs that showed the average precipitation and width of the rings and another that showed average temperature and the width of the rings.

We can conclude from the graph above that Georgia receives more rain, but that does not necessarily mean that the tree rings are bigger than the Palm Springs tree. The two groups of data points are centered around the same width measurements, therefore I would not conclude that the amount of rain is correlated to the width of the tree rings.

From this graph, we can see that Georgia and Palm Springs have different temperatures, but again like the precipitation, there are not drastic differences between the two trees tree ring widths. I would therefore conclude that the average temperature is not correlated to the width of the rings. 

WORLD EVENTS

We were also supposed to put major events on the picture of the tree. I borrowed these pictures from Jessica Byers because she did a fantastic job with them.

CONCLUSIONS

The two trees are different types and are from different environments so that could be why no correlations were found between the width of the rings and the precipitation and temperature. A different version of this lab could have been to take two trees of the same type in different parts of the country and see if temperature and precipitation affected the ring widths.

Lost!?!?!? No Fear! Maps are Here!

Maps are extremely important if you do not know where you are going. However, there are more than just road maps. Different types of maps can tell you different types of things. In class we learn about a couple of different types of maps and their functions.

Choropleth Map: a map that shows a certain thing for a state or region by assigning a different color shade that represents the amount of the thing the map is showing.

This choropleth map, to the right, shows the number of hazardous waste sites per each state in the U.S. The key at the bottom designates a color and the amount of hazardous waste sites that correspond to that color.




Dot Density Map: a map that uses dots to represent where something occurs. For example, the maps that Verizon uses in their commercials are examples of dot density maps.



The map to the left is a dot density map showing the locations of Florida's Citrus Production for a specific year. Each dot is equal to 200,000 boxes of citrus from the area the dot is located on the map.






Proportional Symbols Map: a map that indicates the amount of something by using a symbol and the symbol changes size to show the amount for a particular region.

The map to the right shows how many Wal-Marts there are for each state. The bigger the circle, the more the Wal-Marts located in the state.


Isopleth Map: an isopleth map is similar to a choropleth map, but it uses contour lines to show something instead of breaking the colors up by state or county.

The map to the left shows the average temperature for the U.S. during a certain time period. The lines show where the temperature occurs, as well as the different color that designates the average temperature.

ROCKS, ROCKS, ROCKS, ROCKS, ROCKS, ROCKS, ROCKS, EVERYBODY!!!

Rocks make up our earth, and they are found everywhere.

Igneous Rocks: formed by the cooling of lava.

Granite is a type of igneous rock. When I was a child, I accidentally thought that my birthstone was granite. not garnet. When we had rocks put down in our drive way I was excited that it was my birthstone, however I was confused that it was not red like my the stone in my birthstone ring. I later found out that I had confused the two stones. Granite is actually a stone make form feldspar, mica, and quartz. Granite can be a pinkish, or even a black and white color or multi-colored rocks. It has a speckled effect to it.
                                       

Sedimentary rocks are formed by participles that are deposited at the earths surface. Many of these sedimentary rocks are formed by other pieces of other rocks. Sedimentary rocks compose the crust of the earth, and you can find many natural resources such as coal and drinking water within sedimentary rocks. Below is an example of a sedimentary rock formation. The Delicate Arch found in Utah is composed of a sedimentary rock called sandstone.

I have had the opportunity to see for myself these beautiful sandstone arches found in the American Southwest and they are truly amazing and a wonder to see. These formations of rocks are one of my favorite due to the sheer mass and beauty that they hold in them.

The last type of rock is Metamorphic rock. Like its name suggest, metamorphic rocks are formed by the change of the original rock form. The original rock is heated extremely so that it physically and chemically changes. Marble is a type of metamorphic rock that is commonly used in sculpture and even in household structures. Marble's parent rock is limestone or dolostone.

Soil is also a hugh part of what makes up our earth. You can determine what type of soil is in a particular place by used in a soil triangle. There are 12 different types of soils found around the world. Soil is classified by its physical texture. 

I feel like a Pirate with this Barometer

I highly doubt that pirates actually used barometers, but barometers are used to measure the atmospheric pressure.

The following picture shows a barometer that is filled with liquid. 

We made homemade barometers that would measure the atmospheric pressure. The following picture shows how the barometer worked. We used a small glass bowl with a balloon over the top with a straw cut to a point tapped on top                                     of the balloon.                                         When there was high atmospheric pressure, the ballon would be pulled into the glass and the straw would rise; when there was low atmospheric pressure, the balloon would inflate and the straw would point downward. 

The following is the data collected from the calibration of the homemade barometer.

The following graph depicts the data that we collected. 

What do You Get When You Put a Rose in the Wind? A WIndrose Plots!

Wind rose plots help see wind patterns and which way the wind blows and how hard and fast for different periods of time. Looking at different wind rose plots for the same place during different years can help determine if and how the wind patterns have changed from year to year. They can also help determine which way the wind blows mostly for a certain place.

The following shows a wind rose plot for 1988 and following that 1990 for Atlanta.

1988

1990

                           

 These two wind rose plots are two years apart, but we can see that the wind patterns have stayed relatively the same for the entire year.

Below you can see the wind rose plot for Atlanta 1990 overlaid on a google earth image of the airport. You can see visually which directions the wind moved over the actual area that the wind rose plot reports data for.

Day 1: It's Going to be Twins/One Ate the Other

Day 1: Today I was given two sunflower seeds to grow. Here there are! Their first picture! Stay tuned for more on the "Twins!"

On 2/11/14, the twins were planted and I waited for Cruz and Ann to grow. 

2/15/14

Day 4: One of my twins (Cruz) has begun to sprout. I wait eagerly to see if the other (Ann) will sprout as well. 

Cruz is at a small 1 cm.

2/21/14

Day 10: Ann has not sprouted and I have come to terms that Cruz has eaten his sister and will be left handed. Cruz however is now at 1 in, and I fear that he may be a small, wee sunflower. 

2/24/14

Day 13: Cruz has hit a growth spurt and is now 3 1/2 inches tall! He loves his home on the sun porch and it has been extremely vital for his growth.  

3/16/14
Day 34: Cruz has been a little camera shy lately due to his growth spurt that has left him tall and lanky and awkwardly taller than all his plantmates. However, after a couple of weeks of awkward teen stages, he is now more mature and is ready for the spot light. He is not 6 1/4 inches tall.

4/8/14

Day 57: Cruz is now at 10 1/2 inches! He is standing up straight and his very bottom two leaves have wilted, but two more have sprouted higher up his stem. He still loves the sun porch and is thriving there. 

You Are My Sun Plot! My Only Sun Plot!

After much time spent waiting for the snow to melt, and the rain to go away I was finally able to find sunshine to create a sun plot. I collected data with three of my sorority sisters, Averi Hess, Sarah Brown and Jessica Byers, who are all in the class with me. We used a light post that we measured and measured the shadow of the post at different times of the day, as well as recording the direction of the shadow with a compass on an iphone.

Data Collected:

Time	Pole Height	Shadow Length	Degree of Shadow
9:45	210	274	217 SW
10:45	210	203	196 S
11:45	210	156	193 S
12:45	210	141	140 SE
1:45	210	158	116 SE
4:45	210	383	65 NE

SunCalc Sun Position Photo

SunPlot Graph Photo

Songs are the Best Way to Learn!

Even thought we are all in college, why can't we act like children? I find this song quite catchy and hopefully it will help me out for the test... Enjoy all others that need help with the periodic table!

Knowing the Amount of Rain that Fall on a Parking Lot Could Stop Protests

It is important to be able to calculate the amount of rainfall that falls on a parking lot when designing it so that you can design the lot to be able to handle the rainfall so that it does not affect the function of the parking lot. if you design a parking lot that cannot drain water then the parking lot becomes useless because it would flood and you would not be able to park. Considering the parking situation at Mercer is already bad, and students are on the cusp of potentially protesting the parking at Mercer, it is very important that Mercer maintains effective draining parking lots so that their students can park and riots do not break out about the horrid parking at Mercer. The students would like to park at Mercer, not go swimming in the parking lots. We have pools for that. Therefore, it is important to know the amount of rain fall that would fall on a parking lot to ensure that the lot could properly drain the water and not cause a flood in the parking lot hindering people from parking.