Significant Figures

Audrey and I are taking physics together. Neither one of us has ever taken physics before, so this could get interesting. The home school instructor is definitely not the teacher this time around, but maybe we can learn together.

Of course, Audrey and I took chemistry together last year, which means I kept up with her for the first three or four units. I had a pretty good grade until I quit reading the chapters and quit doing the assignments. Nonetheless, I had to drop out. Incomplete. Withdrawn due to lack of time.

I also started Spanish when the girls began studying foreign language. That lasted about two weeks. My daughters are beginning to speak to each other, just a little, in this foreign tongue, but I still only know one Spanish phrase.

I love learning new things, but learning takes time. Too often I have too many other responsibilities and joys calling my name, so I wind up leaving the bulk of academic studies to my children.

And now it's physics. Audrey and I sat down last night for a review of the mathematical concepts used in physics. One of the topics was significant figures.

My brain has never been really good at comprehending scientific definitions. I want scientific definitions to explain what I have seen and experienced, but the steps between the definitions and the observable world are often long and seem convoluted. Take significant figures, for example. The scientific community defines significant figures as "the digits of the decimal form of a number beginning with the leftmost nonzero digit and extending to the right to include all digits warranted by the accuracy of measuring devices used to obtain the numbers."

But to me, when you say "significant figures," I think of these:

I am thankful for so very many significant figures in my life. I could never put them all up here. This is merely a random sampling, a representative grouping, a collection of specimens, a subset of a larger set.

Note for family members: You are conspicuous by your absence. But don't feel badly - if even my own children are missing from the "sig figs" list, you know I just decided that posting the people I love in my family was too big of a task. Isn't that a great problem to have?

I love you all.

Help for Homeschoolers

Someone recently asked me to explain the difference between "affect" and "effect."

Part of my job description is to teach my children how to comunicate effectively (that's correct usage), since clear and correct writing can affect (right-O!) who gets the job or scholarship, and who is left paging through the grammar book, wondering why. So I dug around the internet until I found a cute way to remember which word to use when.

Most of the time, affect is a verb. It means to influence. Effect is a usually a noun that means a result.

This cartoon can help you remember, since the arrow (starts with a) did a verb-job ("affected"-starts with a) the aardvark (you get the idea). Affect is an action - a verb.

If you remember that the effect (noun beginning with e) was eye-popping (yes, another e), then you'll know that effect with an e is usually a noun.

That'll do for most situations--upwards of 90% of the time. However, since English is not science, the rule doesn't always apply. You can get by with thinking that "affect" is a verb and "effect" is a noun, or graduate to the next grammar level by mastering the following quirks:

1. Affect is occasionally used as a noun when you're talking about psychology. It means the mood someone appears to have. The psychologist on the witness stand noted the alleged murderer’s disturbing affect during the confession.

2. Effect can be used as a verb, when it means to cause to come into being; to bring about. If you want to use effect as a verb, ask yourself if you can replace it with "to bring about." The trade embargo effected a rise in oil prices. Notice that you could have written, The trade embargo brought about a rise in oil prices. (Or, you could just go back to the 90% usage, and write that The trade embargo affected oil prices. In this case, you don't mean that the trade embargo brought about or brought into being oil prices, just that it influenced them.)

Refer back to this post often--whenever you teeter on the brink of misusing "affect" or "effect." If this sort of thing really trips your trigger, or if you can't remember the cartoon that's supposed to help you remember the rule, you can wear your grammar on your sleeve, so to speak, until it is cemented in your mind.

A New Kind of Goodbye

After two years of tearful goodbyes, bidding farewell to Rachel has suddenly gotten easy again.

Omaha is a stone's throw away, especially compared to anywhere in Georgia.

See you next weekend.

Do you want to meet for lunch on Thursday?

No tears, no rent heart, no bittersweet. Just a hug, and a prayer as the tail lights diminish.

"Au revoir" is so much nicer when the next meeting doesn't involve plane tickets and suitcases.

Ciao, Rachel. See you later sooner.

The Way to a Man's Heart

A friend of John's is home tonight with his three nearly-grown sons. Mama is out of town for three weeks, so the guys are on their own for supper, and several more suppers after that. John called the man to talk about some farm business, and stumbled onto a desperate dad. "I'm trying to teach these boys how to make spaghetti," the man said. "One of them is ruining the pasta, one of them is ruining the sauce, and the third one is eating chips and salsa because he sees the handwriting on the wall."

I think it's going to be a long three weeks. I think Mama is going to be mighty welcome when she gets back home.

Breakfast

Welcome to breakfast in my happy winter world.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Back to School

This gal's been around. Two years ago, she hopped into this car and rode halfway across the continent with a college freshman who'd never been to school a day in her life.

They checked into a bare dorm room together, met the roommates, and settled into a good life and lots of adventures.

Last week found the bear back in her car seat between the towels and laundry soap, headed for adventure's next stop: Omaha.

She and her college junior checked into a bare dorm room together, where they wait to meet the roommates, and settle into a good life and lots of adventures.

Have a good semester, little bear! I'm looking forward to seeing you more often!

On Tour

We twirled our way through the Nebraska panhandle last week, a road trip coming home from our visit with the relatives. All six of us were packed into John's big black pickup, pillows and coats piled in laps, backpacks under our feet. When it was time to eat, we kept rolling, passing around water bottles and crackers and salmon on bagels. When it was time to sleep, we kept rolling, sharing pillows and blankets and shoulders.

Our panhandle tour took us through the hills and bluffs of Western Nebraska. Did you know there were hills and bluffs in our state?

These internet photos were taken near Scottsbluff.

Travelers on the Oregon Trail used to pass this area on their way west. Their most famous landmark in these parts was Chimney Rock, a lone tower in the bluffs that often had covered wagons parked in its shade.

Times have changed, but travelers still park their vehicles by Chimney Rock, this time to review history, rather than to make it.

We laughed hardest when we got to Carhenge, a structure reminscent of England's Stonehenge. Perhaps you are familiar with Stonehenge, the ancient momument in England, constructed from monolithic boulders, probably around 4200 years ago.

STONEHENGE, Wiltshire County, England                      CARHENGE, Alliance, Nebraska, USA

There's something quite cozy about traveling together, packed into truck with no DVD player. Passing the miles is not all bad, and can be peppered with sweet treasures.

Like listening, really listening, to a daughter pour out her joys and fears about moving to a new place.

Like listening, really listening, to the solo mandolin lick in a bluegrass song, and then singing together when the chorus comes around.

Like listening and laughing together as someone reads out loud several chapters from a Jeeves and Wooster tale. Or having the back seat put up a blanket screen to shield them from the front, and then hearing laughter creep around the screen.

And sometimes, after staying up late and getting up early every day of vacation, and after taking in a few of Nebraska's tourist attractions, even catching up on sleep is not a bad idea as the miles bring you closer to home.