Larry Scheckel

QUESTION:

How are volcanoes formed?

ANSWER: 

The Earth’s surface consists for huge plates that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.  These plates float on a liquid-like layer called the mantle. These large tectonic plates are in very slow but constant motion. Sometimes these plates move toward each other and sometimes they’re moving apart. The friction causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions near the edges of the plates.

Periodically, a tectonic plate will sink down into the mantle layer and become so hot that the rock melts. Scientists call this material magma. This molten rock eventually makes it way to the surface through cracks.  When it reaches the surface, we call it lava. When layer after lava builds up a volcano is formed.

There are various types of volcanoes, depending on what kinds of material make up the lava, the amount of gas trapped in the lava, and how much pressure builds up. When the molten rock moves to the surface through the Earth’s crust, and releases the pent-up gases, volcanoes erupt.

Volcanoes occur most often at plate boundaries. The most common is the Ring of Fire, a horseshoe shaped string stretching from the western side of South America, western side of North America, across the Bering Sea, down to Japan, Philippines, and into Southeast Asia. This Ring of Fire contains about two-thirds of the active volcanoes today.

The most active volcano in the world is Kilauea in Hawaii. It’s a great tourist attraction with a beautiful Visitor Center.  Adventurous souls can walk over the hot lava ‘till their soles get start to melt and also watch lava fall into the Pacific Ocean. Kilauea, inside Volcano National Park, has been in constant eruption since 1983.

There are more than 1500 active volcanoes on Earth. The one we are most familiar is Mt. St. Helens, in southwest Washington State, that erupted on Sunday, May 18, 1980 killing 57 people. Good portions of Washington and Oregon were covered with ash. Esquire Magazine named Mt. St. Helens  “ash hole of the year”.

Mt. St. Helens has two do-not-miss attractions. The Forest Learning Center has an unforgettable “eruption chamber”, life-like forests, beautiful views of the mountain, and many exhibits.

The Johnson Ridge Observatory, open only during the summer months, has a big-screen movie presentation.  When finished, the curtains open and the visitor enjoys a spectacular view of Mt. St. Helens.  David Johnson, a volcanologist, was camped out on this ridge when the volcano blew. His final words were “Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it”. His body has never been found. The Johnson Ridge Observatory is named in his honor.

Visited the Benelux countries. My wife, Ann, and I just returned from two weeks visiting Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg. We did the Trafalgar bus tour of about 50 people- one third from the United States, one third from Canada, and one third from Australia. They were a very congenial and friendly group. We had a great tour guide, Jeanine, a native of Belgium, and a top notch driver, Rudy, also from Belgium.

We started in Amsterdam. Toured the house of Anne Frank. I had read so much about the young Jewish girl and her family hiding out from the Nazi for nearly two years before they were discovered, arrested, and taken to the death camps.

To go through the house, climb the stairs, view the cots, stoves, pictures, clothing, etc. was very sobering and moving. I highly recommend it to anyone who can travel to Europe.

Visited the Kerkenhof Gardens in Amsterdam and enjoyed the ultimate spring feeling, the wonderful works of art, the surprising gardens and the many flower shows.

Went to the Floriade, the  World Horticultural Expo at Venlo – The Netherlands. Traveled to Luxembourg, the Scheckel ancestral home, and went inside the Norte Dame Cathedral. The two week Octave was in process. Every parish in Luxembourg organizes a pilgrimage to the Church.

Ann and I visited Junglinster, a small village about 8 miles northeast of Luxembourg City. Went inside the Church where my great grandfather, Peter Scheckel, was baptized in 1828. Walked through both the old and new cemeteries.

Bastogne and the war memorial to the men who fought in the Battle of the Bulge was our next stop. When to the American Cemetery, 5000 soldiers interred there along with Gen George Patton.

Traveled into Belgium. At Bruges, we saw Michelangelo’s  Madonna and Child. We walked through some of the trenches from WWI, toured Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, and saw where Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo.

Good traveling companions, great food, beautiful sights, wonderful tour.

QUESTION:

Is there any way to predict when we can see good Northern Lights?

ANSWER:

Predictions are good for a few hours or one day at best.  Predictions are based on satellite observations of sunspots and solar flares. The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, issues aurora forecasts. Magnetometers and particle detectors in satellites can tell if a “space weather storm” is approaching in a few hours.

The Northern Lights, scientific name is Aurora Borealis, have their origin in the Sun. Solar activity causes a huge ejection of particles. These ions and atoms take 2 or 3 days to get to the Earth, where they get caught in the Earth’s magnetic field.  The flow of charged particles is termed the solar wind. These charged particles flow along the lines of the magnetic field in both polar regions of the Earth. The collisions with oxygen and nitrogen atoms produce the dazzling light displays.

The vivid colors produced by the Northern Lights is very much akin to the colors formed in those neon type advertising signs we see in bars, barbershops, and stores.

The physics is the same. Atoms are energized. Electrons going around the nucleus are made to go to orbits further away from the nucleus. When the electrons go back to their normal orbit, the atom gives up its energy by emitting a little bit of visible light.

Collisions with oxygen yields green, the most common of all the aurora colors. Nitrogen gives red colors. The next most prominent color is a mixture of light green and red, pure red, then yellow, a mixture of red and green. Then lastly there is pure blue.

The best time to observe northern lights is from 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM and best months are March, April, August, and September. The closer an observer is to the pole regions, the better the view. People living in Alaska and Greenland find the Northern Lights are visible most nights of the year.

The earliest accounts of the Aurora Borealis date back to 600 BC and appear on Babylonian clay tablets. The most spectacular display in modern times was on September 2, 1859, and seen over the entire Earth and was recorded in ship’s logs.  The New York and Boston newspapers reported at the time that the Northern Lights were so brilliant that newspapers could be read at one o’clock in the morning.

Our good planet Earth has an atmosphere and magnetic field to protect us from those particles emanating from the sun. The moon has neither an atmosphere nor a magnetic field. Astronauts working on the surface of the moon would be in grave danger when a big solar flare occurs.

Astronauts  in the International Space Station are sometimes alerted to violent solar activity. In December, 2006 a huge flare made the astronauts move to a more protected module inside the ISS. The Northern lights can damage the electrical power grid on Earth and satellites in space.

Magnetic activity on the sun follows an eleven year cycle.  The period of low activity is ended and an upturn in solar flares and sunspot activity is beginning. Experts say we should expect more “colored lights in the sky” this April and again in August of  2012. Look for nature to produce a most exquisite light show.

QUESTION:

Why are raindrops round?

ANSWER:

Ah, an excellent question. So simple and graceful.  During his Miracle Year (Annus Mirabilis) of 1905, Albert Einstein  wrote four major papers: the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and mass-energy equivalence.

His 1921 Nobel Prize was for his explanation of the photoelectric effect.

Decades later, Einstein was asked, why he, rather than other scientists, was successful in uncovering the secrets of the universe. He gave two reasons. First, “I never gave up, I was as stubborn as a mule” and secondly, “I always asked the simplest questions, the kind that children ask. I ask them still”. It is these “children’s questions” that underlie some the most deep and profound mysteries of the world around us.

In the case of raindrops, the secret is surface tension, the cohesion of water. Molecules that are alike tend to stick together. The cause is the weak hydrogen bonds that occur between water molecules. The surface tension of water acts as a thin film-like membrane. This allows a person to place a needle or paper clip on water and not have it fall through, even though steel is eight times more dense than water. Surface tension also allows those water strider or water skeeter bugs to stay atop the water surface.

Surface tension always wants to make the smallest area possible. There’s some neat math here. A sphere is the geometric figure that has the least surface area for any given volume.  Surface tension, same as cohesion, will pull any liquid into a round or spherical shape.

Raindrops start out high in the sky as water vapor condenses and collects on dust, smoke, or oxygen molecules. Tiny falling raindrops are round. But raindrops  collide  on the way down, and become bigger. Falling through the air and encountering air resistance, raindrops lose their round shape. They become more like the top half of a hamburger bun, flattened on the bottom, with a curved dome top.

That teardrop shape, popular with artists, weather forecast maps, and television weather reports, is clearly wrong.

The Earth and other planets have a round spherical shape for the same reason that raindrops are round. The Earth and the other solid planets were liquid when they formed. Surface tension and gravity force fluids, including planets and stars into round spheres. Stars, like the Sun, are round for the same reason. A sphere, or ball, is the figure that has the least surface area.

Some of the smaller moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and the rocks that make up the rings of planets, plus asteroids, are not spherical. They are misshapen and deformed chunks of material. They were never liquid when they formed.

The beauty and elegance of science is using the same physical principles to explain a variety of phenomena that are seemingly unrelated.

My wife, Ann, and I just returned from a 10 day trip to the South. We toured  the giant John Deere Harvester factory in Moline, Illinois where they make those big green combines you see all over the United States. Viewed an introductory film, then rode an open wagon, pulled by a John Deere Gator,  wearing a headset, and went around the entire factory, listening and watched as the 2400 employees were busily working away. Then we went to the John Deere World Headquarters a short distance away and viewed their display area. Combines, tractors, lawn equipment, and some original John Deere plows and farm equipment.

Traveled to Galesburg, Illinois and visited Knox College, site of the fifth debate between Lincoln and Douglas that took place on Oct 6, 1858. An estimated 10,000 people listened to the 3 hour debate in cold and windy weather. The platform in front of the college hall was built so high that the building occupants couldn’t come out the door. Lincoln and others had to crawl out one of the lower floor windows. Rumor has it that Lincoln remarked that “he had now been through college”.

Motored down to Hannibal, Missouri, home of Mark Twain, toured the waterfront, coffee and rolls at a restaurant. They’re done a nice job on the restored historic riverfront, but the streets around the historic district are torn up and not in good shape and will not be passable when the tourist season starts. Bad move on Hannibal’s part.

More about Branson and Nashville on next post.

Larry Scheckel

QUESTION:

Why are the letters on a typewriter or keyboard all mixed up?

ANSWER:

The first typewriters were made in the mid 1870’s by the Remington Company. Mark Twain was one of the first writers to use one. The standard keyboard (QWERTY) was designed by Christopher  Scholes in 1872. Scholes sold his interest to Remington, the same company that later made rifles.

Typewriters use a mechanism in which the alphabet letters are on the end of a long bar. When a key is struck, the linkage swings the lettered bar into contact with a tape coated with ink. The ink is transferred to paper that is positioned right behind the tape.

Scholes  arranged the keys so that the most commonly used letters were on opposites sides of the keyboard. This array tended to cause less jamming.

Typewriters have gone the way of the horse and buggy. Schools now have keyboarding classes,  instead of typing classes.  Computer keyboards are laid out much like typewriters, but with a lot more function keys.

The United States keyboard on computers is pretty much the standard for the world. Ireland and the UK have some very slight differences. In Germany, as well as much of Central Europe, the  Y and Z are swapped. In France, the A and Q are swapped as well as the Z and W.

Most European keyboards have the  €  symbol for the Euro.  Some newer keyboards in the United States have the Euro  (€ ) symbol, but older models  do not. If you want to look at the symbol, hold down Alt, while typing the numbers  0128. When you let up on the Alt key, the Euro (€) symbol appears on your screen.

By the way, this Christopher Sholes fellow has a Wisconsin connection. He moved from Pennsylvania to Milwaukee as a teen, became a newspaper publisher, served in the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly, and campaigned successfully to abolish capital punishment in Wisconsin. Sholes died of TB in 1890.

His daughter, Lillian, became known as the world’s first typist. She worked in her father’s office. Those first machines only did capital letters.

The “fastest typist in the world” title goes to Barbara Blackburn of Salem, Oregon who was clocked in 2005 at 150 words per minute for 50 minutes.  Her top speed was 212 wpm.

QUESTION:

Did Thomas Jefferson ever invent anything?

ANSWER:

The third president of the United States was a busy and creative genius. Jefferson was an esteemed politician, statesman, farmer, writer, educator, and architect. He loved making things. “Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight”, he wrote.

A steward of the soil, Jefferson made a huge improvement on the moldboard of the plow. The wooden plowshares of the time only dug down two or three inches into the soil. His improvement of the Dutch moldboard, based on a mathematical design, could dig down six  inches. The plow also turned the soil over better which helped prevent erosion. He never patented the improvements he made to the plow. Later steel plows were based on Jefferson’s design.

While serving as George Washington’s Secretary of State from 1790 to 1793, Jefferson needed a means of secretly communicating with his colleagues. Correspondence was frequently intercepted by foreign governments and read.  Jefferson devised a wheel cipher that had 26 cylindrical wooden pieces, that looks like large Oreo cookies, and threaded onto an iron rod. The letters of the alphabet were written in random order on the edge of each wheel. Turning these wheels, words could be scrambled and unscrambled. Variations of this code device were used by governments all the way up to WWII.

Jefferson devised a rotating stand that held 5 books. The book rests could be folded to make a box that would attach to a base. This ingenious book stand has been copied by libraries worldwide.

Jefferson’s Great Clock can be seen at Monticello, Virginia. It’s powered by cannonballs that were left over from the Revolutionary War. The cannonball weights hang from both sides of the doorway. The days of the week can be read from markings on the wall. The great clock face can be seen from both inside and outside the house.

To service the Great Clock, Jefferson devised a folding ladder that could also be used to prune trees. This kind of ladder is still used in many libraries to reach up to high book shelves.

John Isaac Hawkins made a “polygraph” machine consisting of two connecting pens that moved synchronously to produce an exact and immediate copy of anything he wrote. Jefferson acquired one of the machines in 1804 and used it up to his death in 1826. He had one installed in the now White House and one at his Monticello home. Jefferson made several improvements on the machine. (The term “polygraph” is used today to mean lie detector. Hawkins and Jefferson machines should really be called pantographs).

The gifted visionary made a mechanical dumb waiter which permitted servants to send wine bottles up from the cellar.

Jefferson produced a sundial that was shaped like a globe. The original was lost but reproductions are based on his 1816 letter to architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe.

In 1804, Jefferson had glass doors installed between the hall and the parlor in his home. A mechanism, with two wheels joined by a chain in a figure eight arrangement, and hidden under the floor, allowed both doors to move when one was opened or closed.

Thomas Jefferson also invented the swivel chair, a pedometer, and a hemp-treating machine.

QUESTION:

Where is the Black Box carried on an airplane?

ANSWER:

Those data recording Black Boxes are actually painted orange, so that they will show up better in any wreckage. There are usually two of them and they are stored in the tail of the airplane. Stored back there in the tail improves their chances of survivability. Did you ever hear of an airplane backing into a mountain?  Doesn’t happen.

The casing of a Black Box consists of two shells of stainless steel with a heat protective material between the shells. The case must withstand a temperature of 2,000 Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.

Inside the case, on shockproof mounts, are the plane’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders. The flight data recorder is continually fed information on the speed, direction, altitude, acceleration, engine thrust, engine performance, and position of the flight controls.  A total of about 100 different parameters. The data is recorded on stainless steel tape which has the thickness of aluminum foil. When the tape is played back, it generates a computer printout.

The cockpit voice recorder records the previous 30 minutes of the crew’s conversation and radio transmissions. This is a continuous loop tape, so only the last 30 minutes is saved.

New planes joining the airline fleets are using solid-state recorders, essentially stacked arrays of computer chip boards about 2 inches by 1 inch. No moving parts, greater reliability, less maintenance, and less chance of anything breaking in a crash. These newer units record 25 hours of flight data and 2 hours of cockpit conversations. Up to 700 sets of data can be recorded.

The cockpit voice recorder has 4 microphones; one in the pilot’s headset, one in the co-pilot’s (first officer) headset, one in the third crewmember’s headset, and one mounted in the center of the cockpit, so it can pick up alerts and alarms. Many modern planes have a cockpit crew of 2, instead of 3.

Black Boxes are also equipped with an underwater locator beacon. If the plane crashes into water, the beacon sends out an ultrasonic pulse that can be detected by sonar and acoustical locating equipment. A sensor is activated when touched by water. It pings once per second for 30 days.

Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, a wide body Airbus A330,  crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in June, 2009, killing all 228 people abroad. It took nearly 2 years to find the Black Boxes in deep water. It required an advanced robotic submersible and millions of dollars to find and retrieve the Black Boxes.

So now the thinking has changed. Why not stream the data in real time to either satellites or ground stations? The technology already exists. Anyone with a smart phone can receive streaming data from the stock markets.

The Canadian airplane maker, Bombardier, announced recently that their jets, starting in 2013, will transmit telemetry data in real time, as well as record it the traditional way on Black Boxes.

A recent patent, called Safelander, would enable a ground-based pilot to take remote control of an airplane in flight. This system, had it been in place, could have foiled the 9/11 hijackers. The military routinely flies drones in surveillance and combat missions. There are now discussions about cargo-only aircraft, such as United Parcel and Fed Ex, being flown by remote control, with no cockpit crew whatsoever. We are living in truly exciting times!

QUESTION:

How are volcanoes formed?

ANSWER: 

The Earth’s surface consists for huge plates that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.  These plates float on a liquid-like layer called the mantle. These large tectonic plates are in very slow but constant motion. Sometimes these plates move toward each other and sometimes they’re moving apart. The friction causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions near the edges of the plates.

Periodically, a tectonic plate will sink down into the mantle layer and become so hot that the rock melts. Scientists call this material magma. This molten rock eventually makes it way to the surface through cracks.  When it reaches the surface, we call it lava. When layer after lava builds up a volcano is formed.

There are various types of volcanoes, depending on what kinds of material make up the lava, the amount of gas trapped in the lava, and how much pressure builds up. When the molten rock moves to the surface through the Earth’s crust, and releases the pent-up gases, volcanoes erupt.

Volcanoes occur most often at plate boundaries. The most common is the Ring of Fire, a horseshoe shaped string stretching from the western side of South America, western side of North America, across the Bering Sea, down to Japan, Philippines, and into Southeast Asia. This Ring of Fire contains about two-thirds of the active volcanoes today.

The most active volcano in the world is Kilauea in Hawaii. It’s a great tourist attraction with a beautiful Visitor Center.  Adventurous souls can walk over the hot lava ‘till their soles get start to melt and also watch lava fall into the Pacific Ocean. Kilauea, inside Volcano National Park, has been in constant eruption since 1983.

There are more than 1500 active volcanoes on Earth. The one we are most familiar is Mt. St. Helens, in southwest Washington State, that erupted on Sunday, May 18, 1980 killing 57 people. Good portions of Washington and Oregon were covered with ash. Esquire Magazine named Mt. St. Helens  “ash hole of the year”.

Mt. St. Helens has two do-not-miss attractions. The Forest Learning Center has an unforgettable “eruption chamber”, life-like forests, beautiful views of the mountain, and many exhibits.

The Johnson Ridge Observatory, open only during the summer months, has a big-screen movie presentation.  When finished, the curtains open and the visitors enjoys a spectacular view of Mt. St. Helens.  David Johnson, a volcanologist, was camped out on this ridge when the volcano blew. His final words were “Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it”. His body has never been found. The Johnson Ridge Observatory is named in his honor.