[school-discuss] teach your students about the moon (experiments included)

[mike eschman <meschman@engima.com>]

Luna, by Mike Eschman, a. k. a.  "Trout", August twelfth two thousand two,  

copyright two thousand two by etc ..., Engima Technologies Corp., 
http://www.etc-edu.com
and Mike Eschman,  Gutenberg rules as of this date apply.
I can be reached at meschman@engima.com

Author's Notes: The scientific facts, upon which this fiction is based,
are to be found in :   

Lunar Sourcebook, A User's Guide to the Moon,
ISBN 0-521-33444-6 [out of print].
Section 3.2,  The Astronaut Experience,
which provides a synopsis of, and quotations from,
the personal diaries of the only men, to have set foot, 
upon the Moon.  If that's not nice, what is?  
Other sections are also referenced, in creating a "creation" 
scenario, for the Moon.  

Do you live, in a city? Or, on the third planet, from the Sun?
Dreams, may send you climbing lunar peaks, or hiking Martian
riverbeds, in search of fossils.   

It leaks, into your waking life.  Long, cold nights, in empty
fields, fixed upon an eyepiece, a floating, three dimensional 
body hovers, small, fleeting, it lay between your feet, Mars.  

To walk upon another world, to see the unseen, is an ache, 
an amputee's pain.   

A few men are complete. They have seen the unseeable, walked on land 
experiencing
the footprint of Man, for the first time.   Been really, truly, alone.  

They are finding their graves these days, the ones who walked, upon the Moon.  

It was an act of hope, a longing.  

It was a walk, and then a drive, across the Moon.  

In the guts of a computer, at an undisclosed nas-ah site, a smoldering Earth 
is struck by a rogue body in space, it is about the size of Mars.  

The impact triggers a nuclear reaction, which rips a hole into the Earth, 
creating the Pacific Basin.  

The gouged flesh of the Earth is flung, with the fragments of the rogue, a 
quarter million miles into the sky.    

It is a molten globe, surrounded by a halo of breakage from the explosion.  

The outer layers of the globe cools quickly, because it 
has much more surface area than the interior layers of the 
globe.   

This is important.    

Scientist think a little differently than the rest of us.   

Imagine that this globe is an onion.  With a knife you could 
peel each layer from the onion, one at a time.   

If you were to follow this procedure, you could measure the exact 
diameter of the onion, one layer at a time.   


First, cut the onion in half.  
Now, with a ruler, measure the diameter of the rings.   
If you don't get this measurement right, its not worth the trouble, to do the 
rest.  
If this measurement is incorrect, it is not science.  

here's what I do.  

take a picture of the open face of both onion halves.  
use a nuteral color felt background.  
use two 250 watt bulbs at 45 degrees incidence from the base the onion rests 
upon.
these bulbs should be equipped with polarizing filters.  

I recommend experimenting with dyes (food colors).  
Try to get the onions to "wick" acrylics, water colors and / or food coloring.
Do the rings show more clearly in one of the tests, than any of the others?   
why is that important?  

Place a ruler into the picture, below the onion.  
Tape, or glue, the onion, so it does not "roll about".  
Remember, the onion is being photographed, "open face".  
Use a tripod, for the camera.  
Use an a, s, a, 25 film, or the highest pixel resolution, available.  
Use a cable release, to trigger the exposure, or a remote control.  
The camera should be, at the same angle, and height, as the polarized light 
sources.  
The camera, and lighting, should be placed along the circumference of a 
circle, 120 degrees apart.  

Experiment with shadows.  
If you introduce a flash, at a lower incident angle, than the polarized 
lighting,
does the light create shadowing, that makes the rings easier to measure?

On a computer, I use GIMP, to experiment with changes in brightness, contrast, 
and color balance.  
I also try line etching, inversion and posterization.  
Iit is also useful, to use a lens filter, to magnify an important detail, such 
as ring composition, and regularity.  
while in gimp, text tags can also be added.  

if you take these procedural precautions seriously, and you achieve a well 
conceived result, then,
you will have "felt" science, for what it is.    

Science rests upon the back of two tools.   

The first, is the use of accounts, by trained field observers, who witness an 
event, first hand.  
The second is repeatability.    If I can repeat a procedure, and get a known 
result, anytime I please,
that, is repeatability.  

Remember this.  

The first, is the use of accounts, by trained field observers, who witness an 
event, first hand.  
The second is repeatability.    If I can repeat a procedure, and get a known 
result, anytime I please,
that, is repeatability.    

If you put this information in a table, then apply a little Geometry, 
and Algebra, then, you could prove that the outmost layer of the onion, has 
the 
greatest surface area, of any layer, of the onion.    With a set of 
theorems, and proofs, you can demonstrate, that the same holds true, for all 
globes,   and, with Calculus, you can make the layers.  whatever you please.  

Let's repeat that.  

The outer layers of the globe cools quickly, because it 
has much more surface area than the interior layers of the 
globe.   

This is important.    

Scientist think a little differently than the rest of us.   

Imagine that this globe is an onion.  With a knife you could 
peel each layer from the onion, one at a time.   

If you were to follow this procedure, you could measure the exact 
diameter of the onion, one layer at a time.   


First, cut the onion in half.  
Now, with a ruler, measure the diameter of the rings.   
If you don't get this measurement right, its not worth the trouble, to do the 
rest.  
If this measurement is incorrect, it is not science.  

here's what I do.  

take a picture of the open face of both onion halves.  
use a nuteral color felt background.  
use two 250 watt bulbs at 45 degrees incidence from the base the onion rests 
upon.
these bulbs should be equipped with polarizing filters.  

I recommend experimenting with dyes (food colors).  
Try to get the onions to "wick" acrylics, water colors and / or food coloring.
Do the rings show more clearly in one of the tests, than any of the others?   
why is that important?  

Place a ruler into the picture, below the onion.  
Tape, or glue, the onion, so it does not "roll about".  
Remember, the onion is being photographed, "open face".  
Use a tripod, for the camera.  
Use an a, s, a, 25 film, or the highest pixel resolution, available.  
Use a cable release, to trigger the exposure, or a remote control.  
The camera should be, at the same angle, and height, as the polarized light 
sources.  
The camera, and lighting, should be placed along the circumference of a 
circle, 120 degrees apart.  

Experiment with shadows.  
If you introduce a flash, at a lower incident angle, than the polarized 
lighting,
does the light create shadowing, that makes the rings easier to measure?

On a computer, I use GIMP, to experiment with changes in brightness, contrast, 
and color balance.  
I also try line etching, inversion and posterization.  
Iit is also useful, to use a lens filter, to magnify an important detail, such 
as ring composition, and regularity.  
while in gimp, text tags can also be added.  

if you take these procedural precautions seriously, and you achieve a well 
conceived result, then,
you will have "felt" science, for what it is.    

Science rests upon the back of two tools.   

The first, is the use of accounts, by trained field observers, who witness an 
event, first hand.  
The second is repeatability.    If I can repeat a procedure, and get a known 
result, anytime I please,
that, is repeatability.  

Remember this.  

The first, is the use of accounts, by trained field observers, who witness an 
event, first hand.  
The second is repeatability.    If I can repeat a procedure, and get a known 
result, anytime I please,
that, is repeatability.    

If you put this information in a table, then apply a little Geometry, 
and Algebra, then, you could prove that the outmost layer of the onion, has 
the 
greatest surface area, of any layer, of the onion.    With a set of 
theorems, and proofs, you can demonstrate, that the same holds true, for all 
globes,   and, with Calculus, you can make the layers.  whatever you please.  


O. K.  

Because the outside, of any globe you choose, has a greater surface area, than 
any interior
of that globe, our glowing globe forms a skin.   Because it is the first part 
of the globe, 
that begins to cool.    What is the relationship, between surface area and 
cooling?  
How could you determine the mass of the onion, from the mass of the outermost 
ring, and the onion's diameter?  
Can you really do this mass calculation?  
Because the outside, of any globe you choose, has a greater surface area, than 
any interior
of that globe, our glowing globe forms a skin.    Because it is the first part 
of the globe, 
that begins to cool.  

So our glowing globe is cooling, and forming a skin.  

The heat inside this forming Moon, builds up a pressure, and breaks the 
cooling skin.  

Immense craters cover the cooling skin of the Moon.  

Lava flows make great plains, as smooth as the top of a pool table.  

As this new Moon spins like a top, still in the grip of Earth, the skin 
becomes irregular,
that is, the skin loses its uniform thickness.  In some places, it is thicker, 
or thinner, 
than in other places.  

Escaping heat from the interior of the Moon cracks these thickened areas, 
pushing them upwards, 
creating mountains.   So the original skin, or crust, made craters, but, the 
thickened crust,
makes mountain ranges.  

Again, and again, skins form, and are ruptured.  

The forces of gravitation, the moments, and the masses, at each instant, 
create the Moon, not 
genetics, and weather, as has occured here, on Earth.   

But, in that vision, the computer screen shows a blank disk, when we look upon 
the Moon's hidden face.  

We can not see, the far side, of the Moon.  

The halo of fragments, around the Moon, has been falling on her face, 
throughout this time,
leaving a more irregular pattern, of scars, pock marks, on her face.  

Those who have gone to see, for themselves, the far side of the Moon, tell us 
that she
has no face on her backside, because the lava flows, in her smooth cheeks 
Earth side,
are nowhere to be found, on her backside.   The far side is just "crater 
wallpaper".  

Today her magma core is weak, and the Moon is slipping away, from the Earth.  

The Moon has slowed the spinning of the Earth, in making her escape.  

The only evidence of the Moon's creation, that remains to us today, is a 
rotation about her poles, like a
top slowing down, before it falls.   What I mean, is that the picture I am 
drawing, of the Moon's 
creation, is based upon a speculation, about the cause of the Moon's rotation, 
about her poles.  

This aspect of the "Creation" story offered here, should be discussed.  
Be sure to stay on topic.  
The topic is the limits of measurement.  

Layered cooling has made a Moon, that rings like a bell, a Moon made from 
glass.   
Small detonations can be heard, thousands of miles away.  
When on the Moon, do not put your ear, to the ground.  
You may lose an ear-drum, to a blast around, the other side!  

The Moon is quiet today, the largest quakes, register four, on the Richter 
scale.  

The atmosphere is seven times thinner than here, on Earth.  

Half of that, is Apollo exhaust.  

So it goes.  

This soup of gases has lots of neon and hydrogen, captured from the Solar 
Wind.  
The Moon has plenty of Neon in her, without any contribution from the Sun.  

On Earth, atmospheric gases are lost, through thermal escape.  
This happens because it can, our atmosphere is full of molecules,
bouncing into each other, and knocking some molecules away from Earth, 
with sufficient force, to knock them into space, beyond Earth's pull.  

On Earth, atmospheric gases are lost, through thermal escape.  

This happens because it can, our atmosphere is full of molecules,
bouncing into each other, and knocking some molecules away from Earth, 
with sufficient force, to knock them into space, beyond Earth's pull.  

The Moon's atmosphere is far too thin, for that to happen.  

Imagine a mushroom cloud, erupting from beneath the surface, of the Moon, 
and filling the air, with stuff you can breath, like in the movie, Total 
Recall, 
but on the Moon, instead of Mars.  

Why pretend, what might have been, or what may be, when some of us, have 
walked upon
the cool, dead plains, and stood in her shadows, beneath a ridge, or mountain, 
on some 
crater's edge, what did they see, what did they feel, what would I find, if 
it, were me.  

Pushing off on the balls of your feet, you find a loping gait, to cross the 
plain before you.
Bearinfs lost, you heel into the dust, stumbling, you flip about, cat like, 
you regain your 
feet, inside a cloud of dust.  

Eyes are the only escape, from the smell of plastic, sweat, deodorant, and, 
something sour.   

It pays to reflect on these times, in the suit, when you sit down, to 
breakfast, or dinner.  

The Sun hangs huge, and white, but weaker, and smaller, than memory serves.  

It does not move, in its pitch black sky.  

The land is as gray, as indistinct, as an old T. V. a black and white, with 
broken rabbit ears.  

You swing arond, putting the Sun over your shoulder.
Details resolve themselves, on the lunar surface, and shadows grow and 
blacken.  

A bolder lay a hundred yards to the left.  

A dust trail points, to the two mile peaks, of Apennine Alps.   

The trail may be yours, or some other traveller, who could say?  

You set sights for the boulder.  

An hour later, it appears to be just as far, as when you set out.  

But, reaching out, you find it in your grasp! 

You swing around, the Sun now at your back.  The landscape dissolves, brown, 
lumpy, indistinct.  

The falling Sun sends ripples through the lunar dust, raising a cloud into the 
air, thirty inches 
above, its former resting place.  

Vortices form, the dirt rushing towards horizon.  

At that point, along the horizon, where dust, and falling Sun, collide, bolts 
of light, blue, green, 
light the blackness of the sky.  

When the Sun falls, below horizon, the dust falls dead, suddenly inert.  

Earth rise fills the sky.  You continue looking, for the wreck of Luna 20, 
must be near.  

A radio for my personal use, Luna 20 won't miss it.  

The buggy sends blue snakes, electricity, in every direction, as it crushes 
the dust, 
beneath its wheels.  

As the wreck comes into sight, a swarm of human figures, flee from a growing 
crevice, 
its edges as neat, as a tailored suit. Dust rushes into the expanding hole, 
erasing 
months of work, and shattering years of planning.  

The ratio of depth to slope, it is like the slope, of a roof, is a source of 
danger, 
to those who would dig, upon the Moon.   

We have to learn, as we go, like poeple before us.  

Lunar dust compacts a good deal more, than anything seen on Earth.   

We can not make anything, in any lab on Earth, that will compact as much, and 
we have been trying,
since the ninteen sixtes.  

The particles are microscopic, and orient along an axis, changing visual, and 
electrical properties, 
as they are viewed, from different angles.  

Can you think of anything, here on earth, that changes its behavior, on one 
end, as distinct from 
the other end?  

This accounts for the fireworks in the sky, on the Moon, when the Sun rises or 
falls.  

Burying human habitats, under this "pixie" dust, would reduce temperature 
variation, by about 44 
degrees.  The same degrees the T. V. weather man uses. So, if the high was 100 
and the low was -20,
then the pixie dust would keep the low, up to as much as 24 degrees, which is 
a good deal warmer,
than -20.  

At midnight, the Moon is -113 degrees.  

At Noon, it is a balmy 68 degrees.  

Not to good to leave your equipment out, overnight.  

In an age when few have the courage to explore, to be alone, and are more 
inclined, to hide upon 
their rights, or upon the rights, of others, it is refreshing to look back, to 
a time when we 
pointed, to another way, than the way, of blood, or of human reason, which is 
not, and can never be, 
reason, in the broader sense.  A way full of Hope, for everyone, for all of 
us, we who sleep and dream, 
beneath the Moon, where we have walked.   

Apollo spanned our gifts, and our dreams, and we walked, in our own fables.  

If that isn't nice, what is?  

Moon Poems.  
From Mr. Carles' Fifth Grade Class.  

Inspired by the Lunar Eclipse, of September 26, 1996.  



Our class decided to meet, from 7:45-9:45, to watch the eclipse. We live at 
the base of mountains, that are approximately 8500 feet tall, so, even though 
the eclipse started earlier, we were not able to view it, until about 8:30, 
because the mountains, were hiding it.  

Please, let our students know, what you
think of their work.
All comments, should be sent to 5c.millville@cache.k12.us
 

Moon,  

Moon, comes with night.
Sun, comes with day.
   Night, is rest,
   Day, is work,
Better than sun, 
   Is moon.
Jessica,  


Big, Blue Moon!  

Oh, please come out,
   Big, Blue Moon.
Sky at night, needs you,
   For a little light.
At day, you go away, and
   Sun, takes your place.
Jessica,  


Dear Moon,  

I look out my window,
And see you there,
   Dear moon.
The lights are out,
But, I feel safe with you there,
   Watching over me.
Please stay,
   While I sleep.
Jessica,  


Moon Men,  

The moon has little men,
   here,
   and
   there.
They are very small,
      weigh less, than an ounce.
When they jump,
   They go higher, than high.
They land on Earth,
      then they die.

So,
   If you are a moon man,
      Don't jump!
Brittan,  


The Moon's Light,  

The moon shows the world,
   it is the strongest thing,
   in the sky. 
It lights the sky, 
   so we can see,
   how big,
      and powerful,
It is.
It takes care of us,
   Fighting darkness,
   Lighting our path,
To tomorrow. 
Brianne,  


The Halloween Moon,  

The Halloween Moon, is bright,
   on halloween night.
Kids dress up, as scary things,
   Ghosts,
   Vampires,
   Devils,
   Mummies.   
Gobbling up, all their candy.
Travis H.  


Moon,  

The moon,
   orbits the earth,
With the look, of creatures,
   and ashes.
It comes, and glows,
   at night,
With stars,
In the sky.
Anne,  


Lighthouse Moon,  

The moon, shows 
   the world, its brightness.
Like a lighthouse,
   it shows people, the way.
Amy,  


What Happens to a Moon,  

Comets hit the moon,
   Making huge craters,
      in its powdery surface.
Astronauts, walked on the moon,
   Leaving footprints,
      in its powdery surface.
Some interesting thing, can happen, 
   To the moon.
Kiara,  


Where the Moon Lives,  

The moon lives, in a dark place.
No one cares about it,
   until it shines.
It lights up the sky.
And peeking, through
   my bedroom curtains,
It, gets in my eyes.
Alex,  


Moon,  
The moon, is gray.
The moon, has spots.
The moon, is surounded
   by stars.
The moon, is big.
The moon, is round.
Sumer,  


Moon Awkward,  

Moons, can be 
   awkwards, at times.
But, all of them, explain
   what they do.
Peter,  


Peachy Moon,  

A peachy  moon,
   goes pitch black,
Then, peachy again.
There goes the eclisped moon,
Rick,  


My Bright Moon,  

My moon is bright,
He makes the sky
   bright for me,
So I can walk,
   and talk,
   with you.
The moon, is my friend.
He comes out, and 
   watches me,
   at night.
Ambrie,  


Untitled,  

The moon,
   big and bright,
Glows throughout,
   the darkest night.
Richard,  


Moon Castle,  

The moon, is a castle,
And the stars, are warriors,
   attacking the castle.
Zach,  


Moon eclipses,  

The amazing lunar eclipse,
      is rare,
Earths shadow, moves
   across the moon,
It's atmosphere,
Coloring the moon red.
Nicholas,  


A Rocket,to the moon,  

I would like to ride,
A rocket to the moon,
   see what is there,
   then, fly it back again,
      and, land on the runway.
Jeff,  


Untitled,  

The moon, is a big,
   gray ball, 
   in the sky.
It comes at night,
   where it is surrounded, 
      by stars.
But, in the morning, it goes,
   where nobody can see.
Erin,  

till next time.  Go forth and do science.