Friday, January 28, 2011

Metric Units

Length - m (meters)
Time - s (seconds)
Mass - kg (kilograms)
Area - m^2 (meters squared)
Velocity - m/s (meters per second)
Density - kg/m^3 (kilograms per meters cubed)
Gravity - m/s^2 (meters per second squared)
Force - N (newtons) = [kg(m)]/s^2
Energy - J (jules) = [(kg(m)/s^2)]m
Power - W (watts) = [kg(m^2)]/s^3

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Survival Activity

Survival Activity:
We were given the situation that we were on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific (in groups), and we were given a list of 15 items that we had on our lifeboat. The items were:

A sextant 10,15
A shaving mirror 12,1
A quantity of mosquito netting 6,14
A 25 liter container of water 1,3
A case of army rations 3,4
Maps of the Pacific Ocean 11,13
A floating seat cushion 14,9
A 10 liter can of oil/petrol mixture 9,2
A small transistor radio 7,12
20 square feet of opaque plastic sheeting 4,5
A can of shark repellent 8,10
One bottle of 160 per cent proof rum 13,11
15ft nylon rope 5,8
2 boxes of chocolate bars 15,6
A fishing kit 2,7

The first number after the listing is my team's rating of the item (1-15), and the second number is the U.S. Coast Guard's opinion. As you can see, we misjudged the sextant, shaving mirror, and the transistor radio. We didn't realize that the sextant would be of no use regarding the fact that we would have no tools to use it including star charts, and none of us would know how to use it. We didn't realize that the shaving mirror was paramore for signaling, and we picked the transistor radio as rank 7 because we figured that we would use it for entertainment, but the coast guard said that there would be no radio reception in the middle of the Pacific. I do think the Coast Guard underestimated the fishing kit, however. If six people are in a life raft, one case of army rations and some chocolate won't last very long, and of course, the fishing kit is the only way to obtain food once we exhaust our other resources.

Our plan for survival was first to eliminate one of our group members (who shall remain nameless) who would eat our supplies and suck up too much of our air. We planned to execute him three different ways. 1) Lasso a seagull and turn it into a makeshift gallows, and lynch him from the seagull. 2) Pour shark repellant down his throat, ultimately poisoning him, then using him as a bobber to keep the sharks away. 3) Lighting him on fire with the oil and using him as a signal fire. I know it seems a bit harsh, but I assure you it was completely necessary for our survival. I personally planned to lasso a whale shark and use it to tow our boat and to be our pet.