A few factors Essay Example for Free

A few factors Essay Investigation A few factors (the gradient/height of ramp, the mass of the object, friction, gravity, the energy act on the object or the length of object) can affect the final speed of an object at the end of the ramp. Planning I am going to do my investigation on mass of the object which I think it is one of the factors that will affect the final speed of an object at the end of the ramp because when gravitational potential energy equals to mass times gravity times height, so if mass is increased, the gravitational potential energy will increase in proportionally. I will do the experiment by adding weights on top of a wooden cart to increase the mass, and then I will time how long it takes to fall down from the ramp and calculate the final speed by: Diagram Weight add to the cart (grams) 0 100 200 300 400 Time (sec) 678 607 721 686 693 Weight add to the cart (grams) 500 600 700 800 900 Time (sec) 719 703 661 677 657 My experiment results are: According to the results, mass does not affect the final speed of an object at the end of the ramp. I think this is because when something is dropped, it will transfer from gravitational potential energy to kenetic energy So I am going to change my investigation on the height of the ramp. I think height of the ramp will affect the final speed of an object when height of the ramp is increased, the gravitational potential energy will increase proportionally due to: G. P. E. = mass x gravity x height Method of doing the experiment I am going to do it by using a ramp that I can increase the height. Then I will release the cart at the top of the ramp and time how long it will take for the cart to come down. I will increase the height by 5cm each time (5cm, 10cm, 15cm, 20cm, 25cm and 30cm). I will take down the time thrice to get the average time of it because it is more reliable. Then I will work out the average speed. I will divide the length of the ramp by the time taken and work out the final speed by doubling the average speed. The length of the ramp is one metre and the weight of the cart is 900 grams. I can make this a fair test by not pushing the cart, doing average on the time, and keeping the mass the same. Apparatus I will need. A clamp to hold the ramp, A ramp, A wooden cart as the object and A stopwatch for timing for the experiment. Safety features I will make sure it is safe by putting books at the end to stop the cart from bumping into others feet and I will make sure no one is standing near it. I will do the whole experiment on the ground because this can stop things from falling down the table and hit peoples feet. Diagram Evidence/results I have my experiment results after all of this and they are: Height(cm) 5 10 15 20 25 30 Average Time(sec) 409 231. 180 154 137 110 According to the results, there seems to be a trend. So, I think I will calculate the final speed. Height(cm) 5 10 15 20 25 30 Final speed(cm/s) 0. 489 0. 865 1. 111 1. 299 1. 46 1. 818 The trend is obvious now. It shows that whenever the height is increased, the time taken will decrease and the final speed of the cart will increase. From we calculate gravitational energy (mass x gravity/acceleration x height), height seems to be one of the main factors that can affect the G. P. E. because as height increases, the G. P. E.will be affected by it. Example: if an object with constant gravity (x), constant mass (y) but falls from changing heights (5 and 10), the outcome will be 5xy and 10xy and this also proved that when the height is increased, the G. P. E. will increase. The forces of gravity pulls down on all objects have on Earth. If objects are allowed to fall, they accelerate downwards. Therefore, if an object is allowed to fall from a higher place, the gravity will pulls down the object with a greater force and the object will accelerate faster as it comes down. If the object falls from a higher place, there will be more time for the object to accelerate, so the final speed of the object will be faster, and as the gravitational force is greater, the object is being pulled harder and quicker. Therefore, this explains why an object will have a faster final speed at the end of the ramp whenever the height of the ramp is increased. At first, I did an experiment on mass of the object that the experiment doesnt work. I have found out that mass doesnt affect the final speed of an object. When an object is held at a certain point, gravitational potential energy is stored; when it is dropped, it will transfer gravitational potential energy to kenetic energy. So that means: Gravitational potential energy = kenetic energy Mass x gravity x height = 0. 5 x mass x velocity This shows that mass exists on both sides of the equation, that means it can be cancel out to simplified the equation. So the equation will become: Gravity x height = 0. 5 x velocity That means mass does not affect the velocity on the right side of the equation. Graph I have also plotted a graph of height against final speed, and after that, I have drawn a line of best fit. The graph shows a straight line of best fit. The graph shows a straight line of best fit and this shows height and final speed are in direct proportion. This proves when the height of the ramp is increased, the final speed is increased and this means the object accelerates faster. Evaluations My results are quite accurate because on the graph, all of the results go very near the best-fit line. My results are quite reliable, as I do every height for three times and take the average of it. I can make the results more accurate by using a light sensor with the computer. This will be more accurate then using a stop watch because human need a time to react before their brain do what it is told to do which is the reaction time. I think my method of doing the experiment is quite good because I can get accurate results from it. I can improve it by putting the ramp more stable and firmer because the ramp keeps on sliding down the slide. I think the method of doing the experiment is quite good because it gives me a quite accurate result and it takes less than half an hour to finish the experiment. At first, I did an experiment on mass of the object that takes about 45 minutes but I got results that are not appropriate for my experiment. So I quickly change the investigation on another topic. Although it wastes lots of time, I learn that mass of an object will not affect the final speed of a falling object.

Stowaways :: essays research papers fc

Stowaways Stowaways have been a problem to shipowners for about as long as there have been ships in the sea. In the early days of sailing ships and looser maritime legislation, this was a relatively minor problem. This probably had to due with the fact that the ships were smaller in comparison to today's standards, and were comparatively heavily crewed. Thus the chances for a stowaway to get on board and go undiscovered for any length of time were fairly small. Also in that age, the concept of "human rights" was not what it is today, and any stowaways that were found often became involuntary members of the crew. There was, therefore, little incentive to become an unpaying passenger on a merchant ship. Today, however, ships have become ever larger, the maritime world has become increasingly regulated, and the issue of stowaways has become a major problem. There are really several reasons why stowaways have become more of a problem. The real driving factor is really an economic one (Wiener). With all of the political and economic strife in the world today, there is a huge population of people who are just tired of being on the rock bottom of the economic ladder, and are desperate for a better life in a different place. This is really the basic reason why someone would want to spend a week or so crammed into a stuffy container or other similarly uncomfortable accommodations in order to get from wherever they are to somewhere else. It isn't because they just didn't have the money for a plane ticket, but it is the fact that they are being lured by the prospect of a better life. They are willing to leave their homelands and endure uncertain conditions in order to get there. There is, of course, the possibility of applying to another country, such as the United States or any other world economic superpower, for admission as an immigrant. This is a very long and difficult process, and the likelihood of actually getting in is slim. Even if it was possible, few third world citizens can actually afford transportation overseas, let alone find and afford housing, meals, and so forth, once they get there. The fact of the matter is that may desperately poor people who would like to immigrate to another country simply lack the resources to make the trip legally. Therefore, alternative measures, such as stealing rides on merchant ships, become very attractive (Wiener). Another component is the ever increasing size of today's merchant ships, coupled with the gradual decrease in the size of the crews sailing in them.

“Reading Blind” by Margaret Atwood Essay

1. In her commentary â€Å"Reading Blind,† Margaret Atwood gives her opinions on factors that make a short story good. She writes that a good story has to have a voice that moves not only across pages but also through time. Most people are first introduced to stories at a young age by the â€Å"scandalous gossips† and â€Å"family secrets† that children overhear their mothers discussing in the kitchen, or the oral tales with â€Å"talking donkeys† and â€Å"definite endings† that their grandmother recites to them. All these stories come by voice; and they influence the way each and every person expects from or brings to stories. According to Atwood, a good story has, in many ways, qualities that are similar to those that children want in the tales they are told or overhear. For a story to be successful, it needs to have elements of mystery, proper buildup, unexpected twists, and an â€Å"impeccable sense of timing.† It also has to effectively hold the attention of the readers, and gives them a sense of urgency and excitement in the narration. Toni Cade Bambara’s short story â€Å"The Lesson† is one that effectively embodies the voice that Margaret Atwood mentions in her essay. This short story is told through the voice of the main character—a girl from the ghetto named Sylvia. Sylvia’s narration of the events in this story is as raw and as true to life as any fiction can be. In â€Å"Reading Blind,† Atwood quotes from Raymond Chandler: â€Å"All language begins with speech, and the speech of common men at that.† The voice in â€Å"The Lesson† precisely portraits the speech of a black girl living in the poor urban area with sentences that lack auxiliary or conjugations, and by doing so, reveals the reality like it truly is. In order to closely picture the setting in her story, Bambara has sacrificed the proper and boring ways of the English language and stay faithful to the speech and voices of the people whose stories she depicts. Only with this unmasked honesty can Bambara create a short story that is so appealing and speaks powerfully to the readers. Intentionally or not, Bambara’s story â€Å"The Lesson† closely observes Margaret Atwood’s qualities of a good story; and therefore, it is one that captures the attention of the readers and maintains their interest until the end. 2. In her essay â€Å"Writing Short Stories,† Flannery O’Connor stresses the importance of meaning in a short story. It is, she writes, what â€Å"keeps a short story from being short.† She goes on further to explain that the meaning drawn from a story are from experiences, and by making statements about the meaning, a person can experience it even more deeply. She uses her own â€Å"Good Country People† to demonstrate this point. The plot of this story, a bible salesman stealing the wooden leg of a faithless lady who tries to seduce him, can simply be nothing more than a â€Å"low joke. † However, as the meaning of the wooden leg is explored, and the act of stealing the leg is looked into further, it is revealed that this story deals with much deeper issues. In O’Connor’s opinion, no formula, technique, or theory can really provide guidance for a story. In order to learn to write a story, a person must first write one, then â€Å"try to discover what [he has] done.† She also discusses the two qualities of fiction: the sense of mystery and the sense of manners. She stresses that manners collected from the surrounding environments can provide insights into a work of fiction, and also the importance in the depth of personality in the characters. In Eudora Welty’s short story â€Å"Why I Live at the P.O.,† the author explores the problems buried deep beneath the surface sibling rivalry of a Southern family. Both Sister—the overlooked older daughter—and Stella-Rondo—the beloved younger one—has troubled stories that prevent them from committing themselves to a â€Å"peaceful† family life. A shallow reader might summarize the plot of the story in one sentence: â€Å"A woman is angry at the return of her sister—Stella—when her family turns from her to embrace Stella and her child—Shirley T.; and after a while she leaves home and leaves at the Post Office,† making it an unsophisticated and even somewhat comical drama. However, as the readers ponders more about the meanings lying deep under each character’s actions: their argument about the nature of Shirley T.’s adoption, the competition for attention of the elderly in the family, and most important of all, the act of breaking away of Sister. When the readers have got past that initial stage of merely comprehending the story, they can start unraveling its hidden meaning and draw their own conclusion and make their own statements about these meanings. â€Å"Why I Live at the P.O.† is also a story that draws plentifully from the Southern culture of Mississippi from which the author is from. Welty utilizes her knowledge of the people and environment around her to create characters that are realistic while at the same time mystifying, and thus achieves success in her craft. 3. In his essay â€Å"Looking for Raymond Carver,† A. O. Scott makes a statement saying that â€Å"More often than not, the big talkers in Carverâ€⠄¢s stories are in possession of a degree of class privilege†¦ People who carry on as if they know what they are talking about are regarded with suspicion. Carver’s greatest sympathy is reserved for those characters who struggle to use language to make sense of things, but who founder in the attempt.† By studying Carver’s two short stories â€Å"Cathedral† and â€Å"What We Talk about When We Talk about Love,† the readers will soon come to the conclusion that this statement is very true indeed. The very first line of â€Å"What We Talk about When We Talk about Love† reads: â€Å"My friend Mel McGinnis was talking. Mel McGinnis is a cardiologist, and sometimes that gives him the right.† It is made clear that Mel is one of the people of the first group, the ones who talk and flaunt their ability to talk in front of other people. Being a cardiologist might have given Mel a position superior to his friends’, but that fact still does not justify the fact that he talks on. His wife—Terri—does not seem as enthusiastic to discuss the matter of love as he did, however. In the w hole conversation, the only idea she is insistent about is the fact that Ed—her ex-lover—loves her. The dialogues in this story are dominated by Mel, who constantly denies this information. For Mel—a character that â€Å"carries on as if he knows what he is talking about,† Carver’s approach for him has not been generous. He describes them with a filter that exposes the flaws and imperfection in their personalities. Mel has a medical degree, and also a past in the seminary. He is certain that the extent of his knowledge gives him the authority to talk; and he utilizes that power with no reluctance. He has a set of ideology of what love should be, and expects that only things that closely follow his criteria can be called love. He deems the actions of Terri’s ex- husband as not only violent and threatening, which they are, but also not love, which they can be. His prejudice on life and love makes him appear less reliable to the readers than the other characters, and therefore, he is viewed with â€Å"suspicion.† The narrator in â€Å"Cathedral,â₠¬  on the other hand, falls into the second category of characters. Even from the beginning of the story, he has always had little to say. He struggles to make a connection in communication with the blind friend of his wife, but does so unsuccessfully and with a lot of troubles. The barrier between him and the blind man is formed not only by their inability to reach each other, but also because of the superior position he has put himself above his wife’s friend. Throughout the whole story, the readers witness his efforts to be relevant to the guest and his wife as well; but he fails to do so. His attempts to communicate with the other characters fall flat, because he is too caught up in his own world. He does not want a person from the outside to come in and interrupt the life he is living, much less a man who knows his wife all too well. He is reluctant and uncertain of this visit and the effects it will have on his life; and that is what causes him in the attempt to make sense of things. The empathy that Carver reserves for the narrator in â€Å"Cathedral† can be seen throughout the whole story. Even with his cynical but ignorant outlook in life, the narrator still possesses some qualities that are admirable to the readers. This character is a man who has the typical characteristics of an alpha-male. He is protective of his wife, and becomes jealous of another man who has gotten close to her. His inability to connect with Robert—the blind man—ultimately boils down to the competition for his wife’s compassion, and even though his thinking is flawed, his desire to keep his wife evokes empathy in the readers. Any person would have felt the same jealousy towards another one who can potentially take what are theirs, and the narrator’s failure to communicate with the friend of his wife, no matter how pathetic, is understood by a universal audience and Raymond Carver himself. The narrator in â€Å"Cathedral† and Mel in â€Å"What We Talk about When We Talk about Love† are two types of characters created by Raymond Carver. Mel is a man who can talk a lot about many things, particularly love; he comes across as a man who is judgmental and closed-minded. The other one, the narrator, while having his own struggles with jealousy and compassion, portraits a more universal and understandable kind of person, and therefore reserves more empathy from the readers and the author himself. By studying these two characters, it can be concluded that A. O. Scott’s observation that â€Å"the big talkers are in possession of a degree of class privilege†¦ People who carry on as if they know what they are talking about are regarded with suspicion. Carver’s greatest empathy is reserved for those characters who struggle to use language to make sense of things, but who founder in the attempt† is a true and accurate statement. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. â€Å"Reading Blind.† The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999. 1408-11. Bambara, Toni Cade. â€Å"The Lesson.† The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999. 71-6. Carver, Raymond. â€Å"Cathedral.† The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999. 168-78. Carver, Raymond. â€Å"What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.† The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999. 187-95. O’Connor, Flannery. â€Å"Writing Short Stories.† The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999. 1619-24. Scott, A. O. â€Å"Looking for Raymond Carver.† The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999. 1595-9. Welty, Eudora. â€Å"Why I Live at the P.O.† The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999. 1317-26.

Confucianism - 1583 Words

Confucius-Summary Master Kung, also known as Kung Fu-tzu is known to be the Confucius of the west. He is one of the most well known philosophers in Chinese history. Confucianism has evolved so much over the years that no one knows the original thoughts of the master. Master Kung established a tradition of cultural values. Confucius wanted to attain a position in government so he could influence the ruler, thus helping him make wiser decisions. He was appointed to a governmental position in Lu but it was brief. So he traveled the neighboring states hoping to attain another position, and he did but he often spoke his mind when he shouldnt have and was forced to leave again. When he returned home he realized that through his†¦show more content†¦(Lunyu 2.4). Confucius was also careful to instruct his followers that they should never neglect the offerings due Heaven. (Lunyu 3.13) Some scholars have seen a contradiction between Confucius reverence for Heaven and what they believe to be his skepticism with regard to the existence of ‘the spirits. But the Analects passages that reveal Confuciuss attitudes toward spiritual forces (Lunyu 3.12, 6.20, and 11.11) do not suggest that he was skeptical. Rather they show that Confucius revered and respected the spirits, thought that they should be worshipped with utmost sincerity, and taught that serving the spirits was a far more difficult and complicated matter than serving mere mortals. Confucius social philosophy largely revolves around the concept of ren, compassion or loving others. Cultivating or practicing such concern for others involved deprecating oneself. Those who have cultivated ren are, on the contrary, simple in manner and slow of speech. (Lunyu 13.27). For Confucius, such concern for others is demonstrated through the practice of forms of the Golden Rule: What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others; Since you yourself desire standing then help others achieve it, since you yourse lf desire success then help others attain it. (Lunyu 12.2, 6.30). He regards devotion to parents and older siblings as the most basic form of promoting the interests of others before ones own and teaches that such altruism can be accomplished onlyShow MoreRelatedConfucianism : Taoism, Confucianism, And Confucianism1156 Words   |  5 PagesRaymond Cho EALC 350 October 29, 2014 Professor Birge Which philosophy: Taoism, Confucianism, or Legalism would be best in your opinion for maintaining a peaceful society? Why? Perhaps there is no single philosophy that can create a truly peaceful society. 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