Science, Football, Showers, and Garage Doors

The Science Fair was Thursday. I spent seven hours at school on Wednesday, and was there most of the day between 8:15 am and 9:00 pm on Thursday. We had about 110 projects made by about 150 students, which was a great turnout, although less than last time. I know a few reasons why there were fewer entries this year, so I think there is a reasonable explanation for the drop-off.

For K's project, he measured the voltages produced by various fruits and vegetables. He also created a cell battery out of coins and paper towels. He used a multimeter to read the voltages from each item and recorded it. At the Science Fair, he created a three-lemon battery that powered a watch-sized digital clock.


Lemon battery

For his project, M soldered a burglar alarm from a kit. There are two parts: a transmitter, which uses an infrared LED, and a receiver, which checks for the transmitter's IR signal. When the IR signal is broken, the receiver switches on a circuit connected to whatever you want (audio alarm, flashing light, etc.). M hooked up a "danger light" to the receiver, which would flash when the alarm is tripped.

M soldering the receiver circuit board.


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M has had two flag football games since the last update. He's caught some passes, made a few tackles, and generally performed well for his team. After two wins to start the season, the team has lost two. Next week is the playoff game, and if they win, they'll play in the championship game.

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Our big home improvement this year is refinishing the master bath shower, which has needed attention for some time. We hired a company to cover the old tile walls with acrylic, and we got a new sliding door and glass wall. It didn't go very smoothly; there were a lot of starts and stops, but we're hoping the shower is finally finished. And it looks great.

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Yesterday, we paid a local company to install a new garage door opener for us. I wish I could say that home improvement was planned, but it wasn't. Garage doors are in the category of Machines That Stop Working With No Warning.

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A few months ago, I bought a cheap subscription to Esquire magazine for a fund-raiser at J's school. Each month they have a feature "Funny Joke from a Beautiful Woman", in which a beautiful woman tells a joke, accompanied by her picture and short biography. (Oddly enough, she's always very attractive and not dressed for cold weather.) This month's joke cracked up M and K so much, I thought I better pass it on.

From Esquire:
A guy is walking past an insane asylum when he hears the residents inside chanting "Thirteen! Thirteen! Thirteen!" Curious, he finds a hole in the wall and looks in. Immediately he's poked in the eye, then everyone inside starts chanting "Fourteen! Fourteen! Fourteen!"

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1 comment:

Fred said...

Congratulations to M and K. Their projects look great. Sorry Grandma and I couldn't make it this year. The battery project looks interesting. When the lemons quit generating, you can squeeze them and drink the juice.

Love to all.

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