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The Project
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August 19 , 2005
Patience with a Geometric Puzzler It’s morning; there are smells of breakfast in the air as the New Horizon sails north to Monterey Bay. The seas are smooth rolling swells, a good day to see signs of sea mammals along the horizon. Pods of dolphins are seen feeding in large groups to every side of the ship. Within the groups, the dolphin splash and jump as they capture their prey. Sea birds are flying over the dolphins, occasionally diving to the surface to scavenge from the dolphin’s plate or to capture small fish trying to get away from the speedy dolphins. The ship soon comes to a group of dolphins traveling northeast. The dolphins take a few minutes to swim alongside the ship that is steaming along at about 9 knots. The dolphins are fast swimmers yet they soon peel away from the boat and continue along on their previous course. Yesterday the acoustic group asked the ships captain to pause the boats progress so that the acoustic (sound) device could be tested. The plan was to position a small metal ball under the device and take several readings. The device is positioned about 5 feet under water and the ball needed to be about 30 feet under it, this was no easy task since the science team had to stay on board the ship. The plan involved three fishing rods with lines attached to the metal ball that was wrapped in a small net. Kurt, Russ, and Amanda held fishing poles that had lines extended so that they looked like they had caught a very large fish. One line was supposed to go completely under the boat but it kept getting snagged. The team tried again and again but they were unable to position the ball correctly as planned. A new plan had to be tried. Chad now held the ball under the device with one rod. Kelly watched the computer screen from inside the ship’s main lab. As hours went by, the sea got rougher, the dinner break time was approaching, and the ship needed to sail onward; it was time to quit. This morning the waters were calmer and the team ended up good results after a few more trials. Patience and determination paid off. The information gathered during this part of the project will serve as a baseline measure for future SONAR (SOund Navigation and Ranging) measurements that will be taken when the ship gets to its station in the Monterey Bay. Geometric puzzler: The team stood like points along the circumference of a circle holding fishing lines like the radii of a circle, the center for them was the small steel ball. You can work on a similar task. Draw a circle and mark the center point. Divide the circle into three equal parts with lines drawn from the center point to the outside edge of the circle. The straight lines are called the radii of the circle. Two of these lines form an angle. The measure of all three of the angles formed by the three lines that were drawn will equal 360 degrees. (Remember that if something spins around in a circle, that something has just spun 360 degrees.) If all three angles within the circle are equal then what is the angle measure of each angle?
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