A visual review of our year...
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
From the North Pole to the Equator and Around the World.
Lizzy and I had a productive dinner time conversation. Through the help of Wikipedia and my trusty iPod touch, we determined, first of all, that Santa's house cannot be exactly at the North Pole and that there could not be an actual pole there for the following reasons:
1. The north pole is actually in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, which is covered by ice. If you put a pole in the ice, there's no guaranteeing that the ice will stay put.
2. If you tried to put the pole through the ice and anchor it in the earth's crust, it would have to be a really long pole because the ocean is more than 2 miles deep at the north pole. And it would have to be an impossibly strong pole for the top of it to stay directly over the bottom of it with all that ice moving around on the surface.
3. The north pole doesn't stay put. It wobbles around a little due to the wobble of the earth's axis. So even if you did have a pole anchored in the earth's crust at the north pole, it wouldn't be the north pole all the time... sometimes it would be the almost-north pole.
4. Because of reason #3, Santa's house cannot be exactly at the north pole unless he has a mobile home.
5. Santa's house cannot be at the north pole because, well, Santa isn't real and doesn't have a house.
While learning about the north pole, we also learned that the ice at the north pole is only 10 feet thick (or less). And we learned that, yes, a submarine has crossed under the north pole. In the summer of 1958, the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear powered sub, passed from the Bering Sea, under the north pole, to the Greenland Sea.
We also explored the equator and learned that the equator is about 24,901 miles long. If you wanted to travel around the world at the equator, this is how long it would take you:
Walking: If there were a walking path all the way around the world at the equator, and if you walked 2 miles an hour, 12 hours a day (9 hours for sleeping, 3 hours for meals), it would take you about 2 years and 10 months to circumnavigate the globe.
Driving: If there were an equator highway on which you could drive 75 miles an hour (with gas stations placed strategically), and if you could sleep in your car, and if you drove 12 hours a day, you could drive around the world within the month of February (about 27-point-something days).
Flying: If there were a nonstop airline flight that followed the equator around the world (note: in-air refueling would be necessary, as would rotating teams of pilots who could take turns flying without having to land to change crews), you could leave after work on Friday and get back in time for work on Monday, with time to sleep in your own bed when you return Sunday night (49 hours of flying). The catch in this equation is that we didn't count the security lines at the airport, the fruitless search for lost baggage, or the time waiting on the tarmac...
1. The north pole is actually in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, which is covered by ice. If you put a pole in the ice, there's no guaranteeing that the ice will stay put.
2. If you tried to put the pole through the ice and anchor it in the earth's crust, it would have to be a really long pole because the ocean is more than 2 miles deep at the north pole. And it would have to be an impossibly strong pole for the top of it to stay directly over the bottom of it with all that ice moving around on the surface.
3. The north pole doesn't stay put. It wobbles around a little due to the wobble of the earth's axis. So even if you did have a pole anchored in the earth's crust at the north pole, it wouldn't be the north pole all the time... sometimes it would be the almost-north pole.
4. Because of reason #3, Santa's house cannot be exactly at the north pole unless he has a mobile home.
5. Santa's house cannot be at the north pole because, well, Santa isn't real and doesn't have a house.
While learning about the north pole, we also learned that the ice at the north pole is only 10 feet thick (or less). And we learned that, yes, a submarine has crossed under the north pole. In the summer of 1958, the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear powered sub, passed from the Bering Sea, under the north pole, to the Greenland Sea.
We also explored the equator and learned that the equator is about 24,901 miles long. If you wanted to travel around the world at the equator, this is how long it would take you:
Walking: If there were a walking path all the way around the world at the equator, and if you walked 2 miles an hour, 12 hours a day (9 hours for sleeping, 3 hours for meals), it would take you about 2 years and 10 months to circumnavigate the globe.
Driving: If there were an equator highway on which you could drive 75 miles an hour (with gas stations placed strategically), and if you could sleep in your car, and if you drove 12 hours a day, you could drive around the world within the month of February (about 27-point-something days).
Flying: If there were a nonstop airline flight that followed the equator around the world (note: in-air refueling would be necessary, as would rotating teams of pilots who could take turns flying without having to land to change crews), you could leave after work on Friday and get back in time for work on Monday, with time to sleep in your own bed when you return Sunday night (49 hours of flying). The catch in this equation is that we didn't count the security lines at the airport, the fruitless search for lost baggage, or the time waiting on the tarmac...
Friday, December 17, 2010
Remembering the Tabernacle
As I mourn the loss of the Provo Tabernacle, which burned last night, I remember something I wrote a decade ago about the structure:
On a warm Sunday afternoon, I studied the stained-glass windows of the Provo Tabernacle. Columns of blue rise to meet arcs of green that shelter open books. Green and purple frame candles on fields of white and gold. Colors glow from every corner, and the windows' beauty is reflected in the entire structure, as cream-colored stones accent lancet windows and cone-shaped roofs cap corner turrets. Surveying the building that day, I was awed by the feat of its creation.
Completed in 1898, the tabernacle grew, orange brick on orange brick, out of the unpolished childhood of Provo. During the same period, the town's less than 6,000 residents also erected the imposing Brigham Young Academy building; religion and education were important to the early residents of Provo.
As I considered their works, I was humbled at the sacrifice of those who raised grace and elegance in a coarse context. The Provo Tabernacle, like other such buildings, is a monument to the faith of its builders.
On a warm Sunday afternoon, I studied the stained-glass windows of the Provo Tabernacle. Columns of blue rise to meet arcs of green that shelter open books. Green and purple frame candles on fields of white and gold. Colors glow from every corner, and the windows' beauty is reflected in the entire structure, as cream-colored stones accent lancet windows and cone-shaped roofs cap corner turrets. Surveying the building that day, I was awed by the feat of its creation.
Completed in 1898, the tabernacle grew, orange brick on orange brick, out of the unpolished childhood of Provo. During the same period, the town's less than 6,000 residents also erected the imposing Brigham Young Academy building; religion and education were important to the early residents of Provo.
As I considered their works, I was humbled at the sacrifice of those who raised grace and elegance in a coarse context. The Provo Tabernacle, like other such buildings, is a monument to the faith of its builders.
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