Once upon a time in a kingdom far far away lived the most glorious princess. Her name was Princess Shatz. Princess shatz was royalty, and royalty can do anything to anybody. She lived in a kingdom where science was a religion. But one day she dreamed of a peasant who was digging a hole to bury his dead sons belonging. In this hole, the man covered his sons things with soil and sand, to symbolize how his son will forever be apart of the earths surface. A very moving subject. Later in that dream the princess wondered which surface would ABSORB HEAT FASTER? Such confusion brought her out of her dream and back to reality. She assembled her finest knights in the Grand Hall, where she would select 4 worthy knights to go on a journey and collect sand and soil. It was not going to be an easy travel. There would be ants, birds and other tiny living creatures that would stand in our ways. But this was for Princess Shatz, it had to be done!
The 4 selected knights were Sir Evan (aka the tallest of all trees), Brittany(aka the brains and knowledge), and Livia and Lulli (aka THe Brazilian twins). Together they set off to find a cup of soil and a cup of sand.
…….
A year, two days and 10 hours later, the selected worthy knights arrived back at the castle where they finally were able to test their two different kinds of surfaces.
In order to do so we needed these instruments:
1. lamp
2. cup of soil & cup of sand
3. 2 temperature probes
4. NXT lego
5. computer
MInd you this is the year 985AD, so none of the tools even exist yet.
So we used:
1. The SUn in which we worshiped everyday
2. Our two cups of sand and soil
3. our fingers in order to recognize which surface got hotter faster
and
4. Memory
(3 trials each: 30 sec. for 10 min OF COURSE!)
After years and years of experimentation the Princess finally got her results. The young fisherman who lives on the docks of the kingdom delivered the final results. Princess Shatz was so overwhelmed by the results she gave the fisherman a brand new boat. Very nice of her. Also the 4 knights that captured the impossible, also recieved a life supply of gold and A+’s on the project. Great day to be a knight!
Sand WAS THE WINNER!!!!!!!!!!
Farwell from a land far far away ………………………..
BAAAACK TO REALITY:
In reality sand and soil essentially heated up at the same rate. Because we couldn’t conduct our experiment for an extended amount of time without fearing the entire thing would catch fire, our experiment is inconclusive because the numbers were so close. Although each time we ran the experiment sand was the winner, just by a little bit. Even when the other team conducted the experiment, they received the same results as us. Before we started the experiment we thought sand would heat up much faster because of the dessert and the fact that soil absorbs water. In the end we don’t know what to think without further experimentation.
This experiment has helped us understand sustainability because it got us thinking that the sun is a really resourceful thing that I think we take for granted sometimes. Although we used artificial light, we may have gotten different results with sunlight because of the uv rays emitted from it. We thought about, not just heating surfaces, but taking that heat and using it for energy. All semester we have been talking about different ways of harboring energy. One that really resonated with us was the use of solar panels. It is such a resourceful way to use energy. It is same, essentially cost efficient, and smart all around. This got us to thinking, what if we heated other surfaces? Thus, our experiment.
All Knights did a great job and really enjoyed conducting the experiment!!!
Adios!!!
A note on what we learned from the wind experiment:
On the knights journey they came across another caravan doing similar experiments for the Princess, which was weird cause they knights thought they were chosen ones, anywho, these new knights needed help testing out their experiment. Being the helpful and considerate knights that they were they said “Of course fine knights, if you would not mind testing ours”. With that a beautiful treaty was born between the knights. This new experiment was nothing like sand and soil, but perhaps sand and soils mortal enemy, WIND! The knights needed to aim the large fan (dragons’ breath) at the smaller one that was made from Lego Mindstorm (sticks and mud). At different speeds the Lego Mindstorm Wind Turbine tracked how many joules it created. The wondrous thing about it is that when it was done we could switch a cable and actually use the energy we harnessed. HUZZAH! T’was also a good day for knights.