STEM and Politics

While this is a controversial subject, I would like to give my opinion on this matter. The world has changed dramatically under his presidency, and he has only been the president for 5 months. He is trying to reverse what Barack Obama did. This is normal when a president of a different party than before is sworn into office, but he has done much more than just that. We have never seen a president like Donald Trump before. Even before his presidency, he changed the world forever. He is the first president to not be involved in the government or the military. No other president has run casinos, golf courses, and hotels before. If things go his way, he will run the United States like a business. Businesses are not democracies or republics. If they were, they would look a lot like the government. This will make it so more businessmen will run for office, slowly changing the shape of the government. (Of course, there is the constitution, which might put a stop to that. He is also the f...

     People are always talking about air pollution caused by cars, deforestation, and stuff like that. But what about something simple, like a BLT sandwich? Check it out.      Let's start with the bread. All you need for those slices of bread is just some flour, right? Well, you are sort of on the right track. You need flour, sugar, and many other ingredients. But that isn't the end of it either. Let's go back, all the way to the roots. For these slices of bread, you need a 10 by 10 inch square of soil, a single serving field. You would also need a tractor to plow the field. There goes some fuel, and some carbon dioxide released into the air, about enough to fit a pint glass. The tractor comes back to plant the seeds. Another drop of fuel, another puff of carbon dioxide. Now it's time for some fertilizer. You would want to use a tractor to spread the fertilizer. Some of this fertilizer helps the plants grow but some are swallowed by microbes and "burped o...

     First of all, this post was inspired by ViHart, if you don't know who she is, she's got some pretty interesting mathematical videos on youtube, so check that out.      Ok. Go back to when you were in elementary school and you had to memorize all these equations with pi, and you sort of got it, but you didn't really understand. Well, that's not your problem. It's not the teacher's problem either. It's pi's problem. The problem with pi and pi day is just like the problem with Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day. Sure, he was a real man that did some stuff, but he DIDN'T discover America, he DIDN'T discover that the world was round, and, let's face it, he was kind of a bad person.      Radians are a very convenient way of measuring angles. Two pi radians in a circle, pi radians a half circle. Now say I'm baking I pie, and I invite my friends over to have some. "How much pi do you want?" Your friend wants a tenth of the p...

      This is a sequel to your life. The average American wastes their "blocks" of life. We have about 67 blocks (15 minutes each) to ourselves. This is when we are not sleeping, which takes about 34 blocks of our time. The breakdown of how the average adult American uses their time is: Leisure/Sports: 20.84 Blocks Sleeping/Personal Care:38.56 Blocks Working: 14.12 Blocks Household Activities: 7.36 Blocks Caring for People: 2.8 Blocks Eating and Drinking: 4.72 Blocks Education: 1.84 Blocks Shopping: 3 Blocks Civic/Religious Activities: 1.32 Blocks Other: 1.4 Blocks Now, is any of this worth your time? As Americans grow older, we sleep more and work less, but I find it hard to believe that Americans spend 45 minutes shopping. Also, people seem to waste a lot of precious time. Not everything is worth your time or dedication, but people seem to think leisure is, with 5 hours and 13 minutes of it every day. This might be the reason that people seem to never h...

It's happened to all of us - your teacher makes you write a long, boring, essay, and you have to HANDWRITE it, with no exceptions. A lot of people (me included) grope and whine, all saying something along the lines of "Why can't I type it?" Yup, that's right. If you type way faster than you write, then you would prefer typing over writing, but if you're a person who loves to write, you'll consequently love the feeling of the pencil in your hand as you elegantly write out the word. Us, as admins/authors, all type at 50-100 words per minute, and I can confidently say that we all type faster than we write. However, that's just us. How does writing stack up against typing in a global scale? Well, I did some research about this, and it turns out that a typical adult can write about 20 words per minute, while they can type 50-80 words per minute. However, that's far from being the end of the story. Let's see the pros and cons of typing and writing:...

Here's how much time is left in Donald Trump's presidency, in case you were wondering:

     You might live a long life, or a short life. But whatever happens, all humans (at least for now), eventually die. The average US citizen has a lifespan of around 80 years old. That may seem like a lot, but it's not. Let's get your life (assuming you live to be around 80) viewed in a more understandable way. Years in your life: ()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()() In a year, what can you do? You could do a lot of things, if you make a good use of your life. Start keeping track of the things you do - are they really worth your time? Months in your life: ()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(...

Climate change has always been debated because some argue it is not happening right now, or is thought to be a hoax. Of course, there will always be people who deny that the world is changing. They have many arguments, though none of them really work. Argument 1:"The climate's changed before." Yes, that's true, but the climate has never changed so rapidly or quickly. According to NASA, carbon dioxide is up to 400 parts per million. Carbon dioxide has never risen above 300 ppm for millions of years. And this is all human work. It's not a "natural change in the climate that humans totally don't play a role in." Argument 2:"In the 1970's, scientists predicted cooling. Why can't they just say they don't know what they're talking about?" Yes, there were a few papers in the 1970's predicting cooling. But there are 6 times as many papers predicting warming in that same time period. Argument 3: "But the globe isn...

Fidget spinner To teachers, fidget spinners are the new classroom menace. They are a constant distraction to the learning environment, but for kids, it's a completely different story. Kids carry them around where ever they go. Fidget spinners claim to help with anxiety and ADHD. Some fidget spinners in Amazon are called stress relievers. The problem is, there is no concrete evidence showing so. Even if the claim about helping with anxiety and ADHD is true, most students that use fidget spinners don't use them in a stressful environment. Instead, they use them in places like the lunchroom, home, and during recess. Fidget spinners are also dangerous. There are lots of stories that you can find saying that a fidget spinner can choke someone. The metal part can spring out when you spin it. A ten year old girl in Indiana accidentally swallowed the metal part and nearly choked to death. The metal part vs Quarter Who made it though? Michael McCrudden says that the fidget...

     Before we get on to bigger numbers, let's have a small competition on who can come up with the biggest number. Now, some ground rules here, obviously: 1. The number has to have meaning. (Can not be a random number like 529348579823475892, but it could be Graham's number, number of atoms in the universe, etc.) 2. No copying a number that's already been written. And that's it. (Trust me, this game isn't easy.) Ready to start? Okay. Level 1: (Set your timer to 3 minutes) Try to beat the number googol, or 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000, which is 1 followed by 100 zeroes, or 10 to the 100th power. (Correct me if I put less or more than 100 zeroes). If you succeed within 3 minutes, please comment down below on which number you used. And if you didn't, that's okay, scroll down for the answer. All right, if you are all the way down here, you e...

The UK election is surprisingly early, but the race isn't even close to done. The polls show that the incumbent prime minister, Theresa May, is just one point ahead of the Labor party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. As voters scramble to pour over information about the two candidates, there is a great deal of uncertainty over who to elect -- not just because of political turmoil but because there have been some disturbing attacks over the last couple months, including the car on Westminster Bridge and the bomb in Manchester. Here is a quick overview of the two leading candidates: Theresa May:  Wants a hard Brexit, so that England will have no ties with the EU Has plans to cut down on immigration  Tackle the social care crisis Pledges to boost school funding  Plans to build a stronger economy  Go from triple-lock pensions to double-lock Build 1.5 million extra homes Jeremy Corbyn:  Wants railroads fixed, and in better shape than before Believes that to wi...

     Okay, let's face it. A big problem in modern society, that has been spreading like a virus all through the United States of America, obesity. I remembered reading a 2001 almanac when I little, stating 10-11 (5th graders), weighed about 75-80 pounds. I thought that even someone like me could live up to those expectations. But only last year, in 2016, someone told me the average fourth grader weighs nearly 90 pounds. That is quite some difference in 15 years. Even many images if you search up of human "evolution", you see in Japan, people become robots, in Europe, people become all slumped over on a computer, but their doing something. But when it comes to United States, you see an ape like creature evolve into a human. But suddenly they turn into this fat blob weighing approximately 400-ish pounds, riding on a disabled cart, with a burger in one hand, and soda in another. Even in Wall-E, they show in the future all the humans are fat obese creatures that depend on f...

     Let's get started... with this week's number talk! Yep, that's right, today, we'll be talking all about numbers. Okay, get your thinking caps on, and we'll start. Numbers: 1 million (10 to the power of 6) 10 million (10 to the power of 7): This brings us to the number of steps it would take to walk around the earth, 40 million steps. Still pretty small and imaginable (wait until we get to Graham's number) 100 million (10 to the power of 8); Finally, we get to the number of books ever written in human history (130 million) and the average amount of words a human speaks in a lifetime (860 million). And... this is getting boring, but for more, visit this site . Now for a googol, which is 1 followed by 100 zeroes, which is also 10 to the power of 100. And some more: 10 to the power of 113 is the number of hydrogen atoms that would fit in the universe when packed tightly. 10 to the power of 122 is the number of protons you could fit...