7th Grader mimics Nature. 13 year old copies Nature to Improve Solar Performance Thirteen year old Aidan Dwyer was walking in the woods in Upstate New York in the winter and noticed a spiral pattern to tree branches. Aidan realized the tree branches and leaves had a mathematical spiral pattern that could be shown as a fraction. After some research he also realized the mathematical fractions were the same numbers as the Fibonacci sequence. "On the oak tree, the Fibonacci fraction is 2/5, which means that the spiral takes five branches to spiral two times around the trunk to complete one pattern. Other trees with the Fibonacci leaf arrangement are the elm tree (1/2); the beech (1/3); the willow (3/8) and the almond tree (5/13) Aidan's backyard in Northport, NY.
The 7th grader next wondered why nature used such a pattern? Aidan discovered that the Fibonacci pattern helps deciduous trees, in higher latitudes, efficiently track the Sun and collect the most sunlight even in the thickest forest, on the cloudiest days. Plantduino Greenhouse | Revolt Lab. Introduction: This project is in the instructables microcontroller contest. If you enjoy it, please vote here! If we win we will begin construction on a solar earth roving robot. Disclaimer: This project uses high voltages! We are currently adapting the instructions to to run the control board and relays on DC power from batteries. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CONSTRUCT THE RELAY BOX AS SHOWN! New instructions will be up this weekend. This is the new schematic for DC relay control: The battery is over 12 volts. My name is Clover and I am in love with vascular plants and robots. This summer I wanted to combine my two loves of plant science and engineering. I have constructed an automated watering and temperature system.
I want to document this project on Revolt Lab so that anyone who is also in love with vascular (or nonvascular) plants can join me and we can nerd out together! Step 1: Plant Science One facet of this project is to grow my own vegetables and do some scientific experiments. Like this: Open source hardware 2009 – The definitive guide to open source hardware projects in 2009. Welcome to definitive guide to open source hardware projects in 2009.
First up – What is open source hardware? These are projects in which the creators have decided to completely publish all the source, schematics, firmware, software, bill of materials, parts list, drawings and “board” files to recreate the hardware – they also allow any use, including commercial. Similar to open source software like Linux, but this hardware centric. Each year we do a guide to all open source hardware and this year there are over 125 unique projects/kits in 19 categories, up from about 60 in 2008, more than doubling the projects out there! – it’s incredible! Many are familiar with Arduino (shipping over 100,000 units, estimated) but there are many other projects just as exciting and filled with amazing communities – we think we’ve captured nearly all of them in this list. 3D printing – Open source hardware is now making things.
A great year for OSH, have fun reading the guide! Phillip Torrone Related. Ubi-Camera: In the Future, Will We Take Photos with Our Fingers? This is version 1.0 of a technology that's a bit clunky now, but has the potential to be awesome at the 2.0 or 3.0 level. The Ubi-Camera is a working concept devised at Japan's Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences which allows you to take photos the way a pretentious art-house movie director frames shots: By framing them with your fingers. We say it's clunky because the current prototype requires you stick your fingers into that little box, but it's not difficult to imagine where this could go: 1.)
Picture the lens being something tiny that attaches to the fingernail of your pointer finger. 2.) Form the frame with your fingers and the camera turns on. 3.) As a shutter-triggering alternative to step 3, it would be cool if you just made the "Ch-KSHH" noise with your mouth, and an audio sensor in the camera then snapped the photo. Arduino - HomePage.
Projects. Software libre. Awesome milk trick!. - StumbleUpon. The Curiosity Shoppe. Thomas Edison | The Edison Innovation Foundation. A little town in Belgium gets a dramatic surprise! Guitar Oscillations Captured with iPhone 4. Critical and Creative Thinking - Critical Thinking. WHAT is it? – Critical Thinking is reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do.
This definition does not exclude creative thinking. WHO is it for? – Any person in any profession or any circumstance of life can practice critical thinking. From science to arts, from business to teaching, critical thinking skills create a more efficient thinker and problem solver. Critical Thinking Dispositions Seek a clear statement of the thesis or questionSeek reasonsTry to be well informedUse and mention credible sourcesTake into account the total situationTry to remain relevant to the main pointKeep in mind the original and/or basic concernLook for alternativesBe open minded: a.
Tendencies toward distinct patterns of thinking behaviors (See graphic 2)Disposition to be curious and questioningDisposition to think broadly and adventurouslyDisposition to reason clearly and carefullyDisposition to organize one’s thinkingDisposition to give thinking time.