PLN 27

The article “The Personal Air and Land Vehicle” by Allan Bellows discusses an air and land vehicle. This vehicle transforms into a helicopter type plane. There is a rear propeller, on the car which propels the vehicle forward and a top rotor that turns with the wind for stability. It needs 165 feet to take off and only 16 feet to land. The plane has three wheels so it’s kind of like a motorcycle in the way it leans into the turns. There has been no price set for the Personal Air and Land Vehicle, yet but it is estimated to cost around that of a luxury sedan. This matters to me because if I bought a Personal Air and Land Vehicle, I could teach people how to fly these types of plane/cars. This matters to the world because it demonstrates that we can perfect more efficient airborne cars and not have to build so many roads.

PLN 26

The article “Did Extra Terrestrial Rain over India” by Anthony Kendall talks about an odd event that happened in India. Once when it rained, it was an odd red rain. After further examination by scientists, they found bacteria and microorganisms living in the rain. Their first thought was the microorganisms were alien. Scientists believed the organisms were introduced into the atmosphere when a meteor burned upon entering the atmosphere, then rained down on India. Scientist that made this discovery published their findings in two magazines. Other scientists that read or heard about what happened were skeptical over the two scientist’s conclusions, after all, skepticism is the nature of scientists. After further investigation, scientists discovered the rain and microorganisms originated from coastal South Africa dust storms. This matters to me because I think it would be very cool if there was extra terrestrial life on Earth. This matters to the world and education because if extra terrestrial life existed we could learn a lot from it.

PLN 25

The article “Motorcycle Airbags” by Cynthia Wood talks about the day when Kenji Takeuchi viewed a motorcycle accident and thought how helpful it would be if motorcyclist had airbags with their bikes. His first idea was to add airbags to the chest on the jacket and on the upper back, but when he put his product on the market it was rejected by most companies because they weren’t convinced it wouldn’t save motorcyclists. Kenji Takeuchi then focused on how bikers usually fell off of motorcycles in crashes and made his system with pull cord attached to the bike’s frame so airbags would inflate if the motorcyclist is separated from the bike. This system sold very well internationally and Takeuchi flooded with calls from people who had been saved by this invention. To this day though, the biker airbag is not sold in the US because of complications to bring his invention in compliance with U.S. standards. If and when Takeuchi’s safety invention does come into compliance it will be a huge hit. This matters to me because if I ever get a motorcycle I would order an airbag jacket from Japan and know that it could save my life. This matters to the world because Takeuchi’s invention has saved many motorcyclists lives.

PLN 24

The article "The Falkirk Wheel" by Alan Bellows introduces the idea of using a pulley system instead of using locks to get a boat from one water height to another. This wheel uses gravity to lower boats from the bridge to the river below. There are two arms on the wheel which are both filled with water and can hold four, 20 yard long boats at a time. The two wheels are very energy efficient using mostly gravity and as a result they only use 1.5 kilowatts per hour. This matters to me because this is a great idea and will inspire future creativity. This matters to the world and education because it should inspire other countries to try to integrate this idea into other countries.

PLN 23

The article "Germany's Pleasure Dome" by Allan Bellows evaluates a dome in Germany that stands 350 feet tall, and encloses 194 million cubic feet of space. Inside this dome is an imitation beach environment with water, a large beach and palm trees. The air temperature is always between 77 and 82 degrees. The combination of heat and water, forms condensation on the inside of the roof and when there is enough condensation it actually rains creating quite an intricate atmosphere inside the dome. The windows allow UV light rays through, mixed with the water and oxygen, let plants grow. This matters to me because if I am ever in Germany and want to go to the beach, I can go to the dome because they let everybody in. This matters to education and the world because this German experiment has furthered our knowledge of growing plants indoors if something happens to our atmosphere that doesn't allow plants to grow.

PLN 22

The article “Flying Rams” by Greg Bjerg reviews the wartime invention of a specially armored plane designed to crash into and destroy enemy planes without damaging our planes. These planes were tested during WWII. The idea was that it was easier to fly into another plane and destroy it rather than use bullets and missiles. This tactic was also a lot “stealthier” because it could fly above the enemy plane and take it down before the enemy saw it. This invention failed because the pilot couldn’t eject if anything went wrong while flying. This matters to me because I would be interested in helping engineers perfect this design to help make our military better. This matters to the world and education because this experience can help us learn from our mistakes.

PLN 21

The article, “Dream Car: The Ariel Atom 2” by Alan Bellows reviews the performance of the Ariel Atom 2 car, which is like a supercharged go-cart. This little car has about 600 horse power per ton and weighs around .6 tons. The car manufacturer believes that, “if the car doesn’t need it, it hasn’t got it”, meaning that the car doesn’t have a windshield, doors, a roof, windows, but it does have seatbelts. This car can also go from 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds, if you can shift fast enough. It is a British made car and straight out of the box it costs around $36,000 (£20,000). It is not street legal in the United States without the “road pack”, which adds tail lights, head lights, blinkers, windshield and wipers. This matters to me because when I’m older I would like to try to buy one of these cars. This matters to the world and education because we can learn how to better engineer cars to have better gas mileage and better all around physics.

PLN 19

The article “Free fall from near space” by Daniel Lew reviews the story of Joseph Kittinger and his amazing free falls from near space. He first started out in the aviation by joining the Air Force and became an experimental pilot. While with the Air Force he flew high altitude balloons as high as 102,000 feet, which is almost out of the atmosphere. While piloting these hot air balloons he would take measurements and when he finished he would have his co-pilot float the balloon back down to Earth while he jumped and parachuted to the ground. He would free fall for about 55,000 feet until he pulled his ripcord and landed. Joseph Kittinger broke many aerial records and free-fall records. He helped the United States discover many things about the atmosphere, while exploring ways people could live in space. As a test pilot, he flew at 632 mph to test the gravitational stress on the human body. This is important to me because Joseph Kittinger showed me that preconceived ideas of human limits are often wrong. This matters to education because it proves there are no limits to the capabilities of man. This matters to the world because Joseph Kittinger provided valuable insights as to the unlimited capabilities of mankind.

PLN 20

Don't, Don't, Don't vs. Do, Do, Do by Will Richardson describes how the author made a presentation at a school to help teachers with their teaching methods. When he read the packet the school provides their students, it described what students couldn’t do with the computers at the school. As he read it, he thought that if he were a student at the school he would “beg” not to use the computers, because you could barely do anything with them according to the packet. The author’s position is the student packet shouldn't talk about what you can't do, but what you can do on the computers. A positive message will inspire students to think of what they can do rather than what they can’t do. For example you can publish your work on websites and you can edit your papers to make them better and help students learn. The author pointed out to the school they should try to encourage rather then discourage. Some say “use the carrot not the stick”. Inspiring people by pointing out what is possible and emphasizing the positive side of things will produce better results, instead of having students think what they can’t do. Students will think of how much they can accomplish and how to improve their computer skills. This matters to education because it can teach us how to better educate students today. This matters to the world because all people need to learn to lead in a more positive way to produce better results. This matters to me because to become a successful leader I must learn to lead in a positive way.