Physics of a Spudgun :: physics potato gun cannon

Well it's quite simple actually. Spudguns use some of the same principles as internal combustion engines. Just as burning gas forces a piston out of a cylinder it can also force out a potato. A spudgun is a device that uses some form of propellant to project a potato across the sky. Usually these devices are made of ABS plastic sewer pipe. There are several major parts of the spud gun that these pages will refer to. These parts are the firing chamber, the igniter, and the barrel. The ignition device of a spud gun is simply put the spark generator that causes the combustion of the fuel in the firing chamber. This device is usually a charcoal grill lighter. The button on the sparker is depressed and a spark arcs across a wire lead and a ground wire. The grill sparker is installed in to the back of the firing chamber by means of threading, epoxy, and bolts. This sparker becomes a projectile if it is not well seated in the end cap of the firing chamber. It must be held firmly in place withstanding any pressure produced by the fuels being burned in the chamber. This type or igniter will work in most conditions including when it becomes wet with fuel. Other igniters exist but are not recommended as highly as the charcoal grill sparker. The Colmen lantern spin lighter which use a flint and striker can become gummed up with some fuels and is not recommended for use in spud guns which will use hairspray as a primary fuel. This lighter must have new flints installed when they run out. This type of lighter also will fail to function when wet with fuel. The flame style barbecue lighter is a click lighter that produces a small-sustained flame. This lighter rarely misfires but is very hard to install given the high pressures it would be subjected to. Also the fuel in the lighter it self must be refilled. Some Spud Guns use a spark plug and battery setup that involves more work as well as more components. The benefits of this style of ignition system is that you have the ability to remote detonate the fuel from a safe distance. By far the push button charcoal grill sparker is the recommended igniter. It is cheap, effective, relatively easy to install and long lasting.

William Faulkners A Rose for Emily : Her Father is to Blame :: A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner

A Rose for Emily - Her Father is to Blame  Ã‚  Ã‚   William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily tells a story of a young woman who is violated by her father’s strict mentality. After being the only man in her life Emily’s father dies and she finds it hard to let go. Like her father Emily possesses a stubborn outlook towards life, and she refused to change. While having this attitude about life Emily practically secluded herself from society for the remainder of her life. She was alone for the very first time and her reaction to this situation was solitude. This story takes place throughout the Reconstruction Era from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s in Jefferson, Mississippi. Emily was raised in the period before the Civil War. Her father who was the only person in her life with the exception of a former lover who soon left her as well raised her. The plot of this story is mainly about Miss Emily’s attitude about change. While growing up Emily was raised in a comfortable environment because her father possessed a lot of money. Considering that her father was a very wealthy person who occasionally loaned the town money Emily had everything a child could want. This caused Emily to be very spoiled and selfish and she never knew the value of a dollar until her father left her with nothing but a run down home that started to decay after a period of time. She began to ignore the surrounding decay of the house and her appearance. These lies continued as she denied her father’s death, refused to pay taxes, ignore s town gossip about her being a fallen woman, and does not tell the druggist why she purchased rat poison. Her life, like the decaying house suffered from a lack of genuine love and care. Her physical appearance is brought about by years of neglect. As time went on pieces from Emily started to drift away and also the home that she confined herself to. The town grew a great deal of sympathy towards Emily, although she never hears it. She was slightly aware of the faint whispers that began when her presence was near. Gossip and whispers may have been the cause of her hideous behavior. The town couldn’t wait to pity Ms. Emily because of the way she looked down on people because she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and she never thought she would be alone the way her father left her.

Essay --

The movement toward legalization of marijuana for medical purposes is based in part on the belief that the substance has beneficial medicinal effects. But there is a lot of debate on this subject. The debate over legalizing medical marijuana centers squarely on the definition of a Schedule I drug and whether cannabis should still be considered as such. The federal prohibition of marijuana was enacted when the Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970. Marijuana was included in the â€Å"Hallucinogenic Substances† category as a Schedule I substance, so the sale, purchase, or consumption of marijuana became illegal. Thus the legal status of medical marijuana is determined by whether or not it has an â€Å"accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.† (U.S Food and Drug Administration, 2009) Public opinion trends greater towards acceptance for the use of marijuana, while most politicians, including the president continue to oppose the legalization of medical marijuana. While the White House and most politicians continue to oppose the use of marijuana, the vast majority of Americans (77%) believe that doctors should be allowed to prescribe marijuana for serious illnesses. However, full legalization of marijuana enjoys less public support, with a slight majority of Americans (52%) supporting it. Public support for marijuana legalization has grown in recent years, as â€Å"most Americans no longer see marijuana as a ‘gateway’ to more dangerous drugs and most no longer see its use as immoral.† Moreover, most Americans believe that the federal government’s enforcement of its marijuana policies â€Å"cost more than they are worth.† (Thompson, 2013) Of the 50 states, nearly half of them have already established laws regarding medical ma... ... to six marijuana plants for him. My patient, who had quit using addictive substances after a near-death experience, is back to smoking marijuana daily, along with his caregiver.† (Thompson, 2013) Critics of medical cannabis cite its high potential for abuse and the many studies showing its harmful effects on the brain; they also object to the practice of smoking in general as carcinogenic. One response to this criticism has been to develop other methods of administering the drug. The most widespread of these is as inhaling it through a vaporizer, which extracts and heats the active constituents in marijuana without reaching the temperature at which they ignite so that no toxic compounds or irritants are generated. An adequate amount of THC is still delivered into the bloodstream by the vaporization method. (Debate.org, 2013) Being as it is a state-run policy now,

Character of Nicholas in Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale Essay

Nicholas, with his outrageous sense of humour and eager pursuit of love, functions as the charming, likeable hero in Miller’s Tale. He is introduced as â€Å"hende Nicholas†, and his conduct does not at all answer to the usual sense of the adjective which implies great courtesy, but its suggestion of approval is repeatedly invoked as the Miller refers to his hero by this formula. We learn at once that he is knowledgeable and of his interest in astrology. This is seen as a respectable branch of learning, but Nicholas is aware of its power to impress others, while he is able to supplement his income by weather-forecasting. He is also helped financially by friends. The imaginary flood of which Nicholas tells John shows us his cunning, his confident attitude, his inventiveness and especially his contempt for the stupid tradesman: ‘Don’t worry about that,’ said Nicholas, / ‘His time’s been badly wasted, if a scholar / Can’t get the bet ter of a carpenter.’ (lines 191-193) In spite of this, however, the Miller presents the astrologer in a way that makes the audience like Nicholas. He does this by making John seem deserving of punishment for his unwise marriage and subsequent jealousy. Nicholas’s youth and attractiveness makes us less critical of his boldness, and the comic manner of the tale’s telling makes his conduct seem less worthy of censure than would be the case with real people. Nicholas seems a more appropriate partner for Alison than does John, and the Miller’s repetition of the formula â€Å"hende Nicholas† encourages us to be more sympathetic. However, it is important to note that Nicholas does not escape his daring plan without any consequences. His over-confidence and lack of prudence earn him a punishment appropriate to his offence, and in keeping with the farcical spirit of the tale he is â€Å"scalded in the towte† by his rival, who mistakes him for Alison. Thus, Nicholas may be the character that has the audience rooting for him by being likeable and providing good laughs, but his charming yet arrogant attitude does not prevent him from suffering the consequences of his actions. The Canterbury Tales [Oxford guides to Chaucer]. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

How Do Cell Phones Affect Society? Essay

Mobile phones have changed how we negotiate our relationships with family, spouses and close friends. Increased levels of mobile phone subscriptions are linked with improvements in education, gender equality and political participation, particularly in developing countries. They are also associated with higher economic growth. These are among the findings of a research report by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research, which explores the ways in which mobile technologies influence economics, society and people’s private lives across 10 countries – the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, China, India, Turkey, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa. The report – ‘Mobile Technologies: The Digital Fabric of Our Lives’, commissioned and published by the Vodafone Institute for Society and Communications – bases its findings on numerous sources, including interviews with 10 top academic researchers and a worldwide survey of Vodafone country experts. Among the findings: Relationships: Mobile phones have altered our relationships with family, spouses and close friends. But while they seem to promise a wider social network, more than half of the average person’s calls and texts go to only four to six different people. Health: Mobile phones significantly help to maintain physical and psychological health when family members move away from home. And they enable women to maintain three roles within the household, simultaneously being wives, mothers and wage earners. Political participation: More mobile phone subscriptions are correlated with more democratic participation, less gender inequality and longer time spent in education. In all three areas, the impact of mobiles on social development indicators is stronger in developing countries. Economic growth: Mobile technologies contribute significantly to GDP growth, with a forecast range of between 1. 8% in the UK and 24. 9% in Egypt over the years 2010-2020, compared with today’s GDP. Again, the effects will be larger in developing countries.

My utopian society Essay

The paper describes a utopian society that is created using Skinner’s principles of operant conditioning. The basic principles and norms of family and community relationships are discussed. The paper evaluates the basics of the community’s economic and criminal justice system. My Personal Utopian Society B. F. Skinner is fairly regarded as one of the most prominent figures in behavioral psychology. His experiments and theoretical elaborations resulted in the development of a new theory of operant conditioning – the turning point in the human understanding of psychology and human behaviors. In his writings on behaviorism and operant conditioning, B. F. Skinner openly voted against punishment: even before he became a well-known psychologist, Skinner had been opposing to punishment by all possible means (O’Donohue & Ferguson, 2001). With time, Skinner came to recognize the usefulness of punishment in particular conditions an in relation to particular subjects. In his statement on punishment, Skinner wrote that â€Å"punishment is usually used to the advantage of the punisher, but there are exceptions, and they are sometimes justified† (Griffin et al, 1988). Yet, I believe that positive reinforcement is an excellent way to encourage desired/ positive behavioral reactions. According to Skinner, positive reinforcement is a superior form of modifying human behaviors compared with punishment (O’Donohue & Ferguson, 2001). That is why my utopian society will apply to positive reinforcement to promote human behaviors that are desirable and benefit the community. A utopian society based on positive reinforcement will seek to reward its members for desirable behaviors. In positive reinforcement, the reward follows behaviors and decisions which the community considers as desirable and appropriate (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2009). Positive reinforcement will keep individuals from engaging in negative / undesirable behaviors (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2009). In my society, positive reinforcement will stimulate individuals to repeat desirable behaviors. My society will have its own constitution, which will list all desirable behaviors and the ways of rewarding community members for displaying and repeating these behaviors. The society will not distinguish between different types of desirable behaviors and all rewards will be equal. Equal rewards are necessary to ensure that community members are equally committed to all types of desirable behaviors. For example, a society member who decides to work additional hours on Friday and a society member who decides to share his profits with a poor neighbor will receive equal rewards. According to the constitution, desirable behaviors will include work, participation in music and fine arts, charity and medical assistance, marriage, birth control, and collective childrearing. To avoid overpopulation, my utopian society will encourage marriages and strict birth control. Every family that manages to have no more than 2 children during the first 10 years of its marriage will receive a small material compensation. The society will not reward abortions. Families that do not have children will be able to use a surrogate mother. Surrogate mothers will serve a form of reward to families that do not have a child and desire to have one. This is the rare case where the utopian society will apply to intangible benefits to reinforce desirable behaviors in community members – surrogate mothers will be a natural reinforcement for families that do not have children but want to become parents. Children will grow in collective facilities without parents. No formal education will exist. My utopian society will make children learn from the natural environment in which they live, from their relationships with other children and the constitution. Children will return to families after they are 16 years old. By that time, they will have to learn the basic professional skills and will become the full members of the community workforce. Children who actively engage in labor activities will receive a small material compensation. The society will reward parents who send their children to the collective facilities. The society will encourage and reward human relationships and unions that are based on mutual profits and benefit community rather than promote romance or friendship. The society will organize marriages based on reason. The society will reward only reasonable marriages organized around a common professional or productive goal. Such families will receive a small material compensation. Agriculture and unskilled labor will shape the basis of the society’s economy. My society will not reward education and related activities. The society will reward only unskilled labor. Individuals will have to work 6 hours every day. Saturdays and Sundays will be free. Longer hours at work will be desirable, and the society will materially reward members’ participation in various labor activities. The society will encourage its members to participate in music and fine arts. The society will stimulate individuals to avoid unhealthy and harmful behaviors. No formal criminal justice system will exist because, due to positive reinforcement, individuals will refrain from the criminal activity. Individuals that have never committed an illegal or immoral action by the time they reach their 40th birthday will receive a small material reward. The perspective of a reward will inspire individuals to avoid behaviors that can harm the society or its members. No formal authority will exist. Because authority empowers only a small group of individuals, it may disrupt the peace and balance in the society. My utopian society will encourage self-expression and open opinions and will stimulate community members’ participation in public discussions. Participation will become a form of positive (active) reinforcement for anyone who decides to express his view. Society members will have an opportunity to test their ideas and suggestions in practice. The society will gather once a week to monitor the progress of various experiments and to judge their results. The society will reward individual participation in experiments. The society will stimulate other members to sponsor such activities. The society will refrain from applying to punishment or negative stimuli. My utopian society will promote positive reinforcement as the basic element of modifying individual behaviors. Positive reinforcement will help the members of my utopian society to refrain from harmful or undesirable behaviors. Conclusion My utopian society will utilize positive reinforcement to stimulate desirable behaviors. Positive reinforcement will ensure that community members display and repeat behaviors that benefit them and their community and, simultaneously, refrain from behaviors that can harm other society members. All rewards will be immediate and will follow the desirable behaviors. All rewards will be equal, regardless of the specific form of desirable behavior and the amount of effort put in it. In this way, the community will guarantee that residents are equally committed to all types of desirable behaviors listed in the community constitution. Positive reinforcement will help the members of my utopian society to refrain from undesirable behaviors. References Griffin, J. C. , Paisey, T. J. , Stark, M. T. & Emerson, J. H. (1988). B. F. Skinner’s position on aversive treatment. AJHR, 7, 104-105. Retrieved from http://www. judgerc. org/Griffin1988SkinnerpunishmentstatementAJMR. pdf O’Donohue, W. T. & Ferguson, K. E. (2001). The psychology of B. F. Skinner. SAGE. Zastrow, C. & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2009). Understanding human behavior and social environment. Boston: Cengage Learning.

English Literature Commentary Essay

‘The Crystal Cabinet’ is an outstanding example of Blake’s use of an alternative reality to evoke readers to contemplate the boundaries of their society in light of knowledge about another world where these boundaries do not exist. Through the poem which was written just after the French Revolution, Blake offers the extreme of human experiences; as the central metaphor of the poem symbolizes a deep human truth which can be adopted with his poem, ‘London’. The poem’s simple goal is to tell a story and share a wisdom. The poem contains seven stanzas, several stanzas containing a different world and a different boundary; within each stanza one is able to find a rhyme scheme which closely follows a broken dactylic tetrameter. The Crystal Cabinet’s seven stanzas forms a superstructure upon which the story elements can be intertwined, and imagination can be overlaid as deeper themes of Blake’s philosophy can be also be embedded. The first stanza is the main and central metaphor which one should focus on as it unfolds line by line before connecting with the second stanza to further evoke readers on the different dimensions and boundaries. The first two lines in the first stanza seemingly represent’s a form of innocence, a new born into a new world that deserved a celebration which is where and why Blake uses the term â€Å"merrily†. However, one notices the semi-colon after the â€Å"merrily† as it drifts further away from the supposed celebration, as the narrator’s ‘Maiden’ puts the persona into a cabinet and â€Å"lock’d me up with a golden key†; the poems happiness and joy thus comes to a dramatic halt. The broken dactylic meter in the first stanza seems to be contradicting, as ‘merrily’ representing a form of happiness and freedom, is partnered with ‘key’ which in terms symbolizes a place where freedom is lacked and limited, where one is locked. The cabinet in which the narrator/Blake finds himself in is â€Å"form’d of gold, and pearl and crystal shining bright†, a contrast to the large and dull world of nineteenth century London. The second stanza, from lines 5-9, Blake is using the cabinet for which the narrator is locked in to emphasize an escape to a different world as opposed to a world for which he lives in, a dull and fearful nineteenth century world, in London. The second stanza contains two broken rhymes/dactylic meters as Blake rhymes â€Å"gold† and â€Å"world†, and â€Å"bright† and â€Å"night† together. Inside the cabinet is where we find â€Å"another London with its tower† – Blake uses to represent a temporarily forgotten evil of which the real city contained and the imaginary one within the cabinet was freed from. The cabinet that is described through the second stanza is a cabinet full of dreams and light, of beauty and no fright. A â€Å"world† that is surrounded by â€Å"gold†, a â€Å"night† that has a â€Å"crystal shining bright† light; this as opposed to a world where the narrator/persona is captured dancing merrily and locked up into a world of limits. The images inside this crystal cabinet â€Å"translucent, lovely, shining clear†; all of the people and places are presented in their perfect forms. Here, Blake comes to an agreement with Plato’s philosophy ‘that a world of ideal forms only exists beyond our perception’. His poem presents an encounter with the world, as the fourth stanza seems to be Blake pleading in hope that his readers will one day realize the possibility and potential which one can escape from their repressed society. â€Å"O, what a pleasant trembling fear!† is not necessarily speaking of fear itself, but the fear that this translucent, lovely and shining clear world of his will dissipate and once again, be ruined by repression – in contrast to the French Revolution and its impact on England and the people of England. Here, Blake uses another broken dactylic meter of ‘clear’ and ‘fear’; the ‘clear’ representing/symbolizing a form of clarity, purity, innocence, and happiness and the ‘fear’ that represents the loss of that clarity. Thus, allowing one to see the desperate desire that the narrator must have towards a peaceful world, a peaceful life that is not full of danger and fearfulness. Through this poem which catapults the reader into a realm of the persona’s imagination, Blake description and different realm throughout the fifth stanza is a world containing ‘love’, for which was given and returned. This particular stanza differs from the first four as it is filled with joy, happiness and love, without having a halt. ‘O, the happiness and joy for which fulfilled my soul as though a flame being burnt, no composition, no question, I seek the love as I kiss the lovely ‘Maid’ and found that the love I seek was returned.’ Notice the ‘Maid’ in the third line of this stanza, is capitalized, which in terms represents something more than just a maid we understand in modern day, for this ‘Maid’ is not one who cleans up after our mess, but a context used metaphorically to describe a woman in particular, a woman whom the persona is trapped with respects and cares about, perhaps a lover. Linking to Blake as the poet of this poem, must represent a time in his human experience of a lover which made him burn like a flame and smile ‘threefold smiles’. Another point for which one notices while reading this poem is the broken rhyme of ‘burn’d’ and ‘return’d’; the burn’d here represents a fire (danger), a wrath, however symbolizing much more than just a fire object itself, as it symbolizes a warmth, the warmth of love, which in contrast was ‘return’d’. Here in this new world of The Crystal Cabinet, the persona trapped is happy and is in a world where his desires are fulfilled, as is the desire of his lover, his ‘Maid’. When the persona suddenly breaks the crystal cabinet in the fifth stanza, after having tried to â€Å"seize the inmost form†, the world was ‘fierce’ and shattered; and the reader is convinced that both imagination and reason are incompatible to one another. Here, the poem suggests that our lives have been so dominated by the doctrines of society that if we do try to find any reason in anything beyond the confines of the familiar lives for which we’ve been put in, we will not succeed, but will fail. In terms of Blake during his time, this particular part of the poem suggests that people during this time, their lives, are so dominated by not only the doctrines of society, but the doctrines of the Church, that if they do find reasoning and truth beyond those lines that have been drawn for them, they will die, and that truth does not prevail because of the imposed laws and rules. Therefore, the realm of the imagination that is transcended can not be quantified by either science or mathematics, nor can it be philosophized according to the laws of the State or the Church’s teachings, limiting the human minds, locking each human up with a golden key, only allowing the locked up humans to use their ‘alternative reality’ minds to go into other realms of the world. The last stanza, striking to the reader as to the narrator, basically states that ‘although one has been locked up into a crystal cabinet with a golden key, having experienced different realms of the world and having loved and loved back, one opens their eyes (†¦seize the inmost form†¦ but burst the Crystal Cabinet†¦) they break through the cabinet and once again, is back into the reality of fear and danger, back to the fearful nineteenth century world of London. As babies crying because their births are of no happy events as it only represents a continuation of this ‘woe’ (linking to ‘London’ as well as last line of ‘The Crystal Cabinet’), and ‘weeping Woman pale reclin’d’, representing the ‘plague’ from the Sexually Transmitted Diseases woman get from their husbands; there is no happiness, no other dimension that is capable of allowing one to escape reality forever, as the persona is born i nto a world ‘fill’d with woes the passing wind’. In conclusion, this crystal cabinet symbolizes a unique opportunity to unfold meaning and explore further into those minds of the nineteenth century. Using the metaphorical visionary/images to help set a stage for a greater understanding of the environment, situation and journey for which is also a realization of the philosophy of William Blake. This poem is independent, yet linked through the narrative, using color scheme and the re-use of objects and words from other narrative elements, these different realms of world’s and spaces produces a unique, harmonic, and fearful resonance to viewers. It is when the four-fold vision is sought as the Crystal Cabinet breaks, in the seventh and final stanza, summing up everything the poem means and has stood for, is returned back to the original place and location for which they had entered, in the town squares of London. Here, the readers experience has thus triggered a new perception of London, as this perception is the perception seen through the eyes of William Blake himself.