What is Friction?

Research Reading
LI:Reading for meaning and understanding.

Friction is actually a force that appears whenever two things rub against each other. Although two objects might look smooth, microscopically, they're very rough and jagged.

Every time you go up a steep hill it feels like you are going to fall down the hill. Air resistance is a big concern of designers of cars, planes,and boats.

These designers try to reduce friction so that a car will travel across the road,a plane will fly through the air,and a boat will move through the water as easily as possible.

You can slide much faster down the water slide because water reduces friction.

Samuel Pierpont Langley

Samu l Pierpont Langley was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on August 22, 1834. He was educated in the Boston public schools but taught himself engineering as a young adult. He was an expert in astronomy, physics, and aeronautics and contributed to the knowledge of solar phenomena. He is best known for his attempts to build the first heavier-than-air flying machine. After several years at jobs as a qualified engineer and architect, he went back to his childhood love of studying astronomy and science. He taught mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy, became director of the Allegheny Observatory, and taught physics and astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh though he had never earned a college degree.

The first ever plane that Samuel Pierpont Langley built. It looked a bit funny but it could fly.

Amazing facts about rugby

There are 20 teams coming from others countries.

There are two goal posts.

There are 15 players in each team.

First T3 Post

I have come back from a lovely holiday for two weeks and I am feeling good and ready to start a new term. I am looking forward to the science fair this term because we get to experiment and make things. I am looking forward for the Rugby World Cup 2011 because I have tickets to see one of the games.

Emotions Slideshow

The Hatchet

Brian Robertson, sole passenger on a Cessna 406, is on his way to visit his father when the tiny bush plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness. With nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present, Brian finds himself completely alone.
Challenged by his fear and despair — and plagued with the weight of a dreadful secret he's been keeping since his parent's divorce — Brian must tame his inner demons in order to survive. It will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed.

Hatchets are often described as a small axe that can be utilized with the use of one hand rather than two. Featuring a handle that is often half the length of a standard axe handle, the hatchet is a handy tool that can be used for a number of smaller jobs, such as cutting through thick shrubs or small limbs. Along with use in woodcutting, the hatchet has historically been used for other tasks around the home, as well as a weapon.

Matariki

Matariki is the Maori name for the group of stars also known as the Pleiades star cluster or the Seven Sisters and what is referred to as the traditional Maori New Year. The Maori New Year is marked by the rise of Matariki and the sighting of the next new moon. The pre-dawn rise of Matariki can be seen in the last few days of May every year and the New Year is marked at the sighting of the next new moon which occurs during June. Matariki events occur throughout New Zealand and the timing of the events varies depending on Iwi and geographical differences.

When is matariki?
In the final days of May each year, a cluster of tiny stars intermittently twinkles as it rises on the north east horizon. To astronomers this constellation is known as Pleiades but to the Māori people of New Zealand, it is Matariki - a celestial signal of an ending and a beginning.

Why is it celebrated?
Matariki is the Māori name for the small cluster of stars also known as the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters, in the Taurus constellation. In New Zealand it comes into view low on the north-eastern horizon, appearing in the tail of the Milky Way in the last days of May or in early June, just before dawn. This heralds the Māori New Year.
Various Māori tribes celebrated Matariki at different times. Some held festivities when Matariki was first seen in the dawn sky; others celebrated after the full moon rose or at the beginning of the next new moon.

For all tribes, the importance of Matariki has been captured in proverbs and songs, which link it with the bright star