I was going to blog on something else, but we had a surprise hail and snowstorm (?? in Seattle??- see some branches outside our window -->) so a change in plan!
There was no warning at all about this storm. How can we have such sophisticated technology, but miss something as big as this (our area is a confluence zone so we may get 4 to 6 inches)? Even Aristotle brooded about his failure to understand the patterns of weather: "But we must go on to collect the facts bearing on the origin of it, both those which raise no difficulties and those which seem paradoxical. Hail is ice, and water freezes in winter; yet hailstorms occur chiefly in spring and autumn and less often in the late summer, but rarely in winter and then only when the cold is less intense..."
Supposedly the Seattle area is particularly difficult to predict for snow and fog (Snow, Who Knows), so there are plenty of future research opportunities for budding weather or atmospheric scientists. On a different note, see how a mathematician used crocheting to realize a weather pattern based on Lorenz equations here.
Aristotle's Metereologica
Weather Forecasting Through the Ages
Mathematicians and the Weather
The Numbers Guy - Grading Weather Forecasts
Hailstone Pictures
Weather Map Lesson Plan at Discovery.com
Eide NL Blog: Snow Crystals and Snowflake Links
Technorati tags: homeschooling, snow, hail, weather, lesson plans, classical education, science, math
No comments:
Post a Comment