Day 2 of Home School

Today we talked about the four seasons and read "The Ox Cart Man" (again). It does a nice job of showing what farmers did as the seasons change. Afterwards we went outside and found leaves that were changing colors. Not very many yet, but the Dogwood trees are changing.

Dogwood leaves - September 1, 2009

Then we went next door and picked crab apples. Picking fruit and harvesting are end of the summer/early fall activities.

Crab Apples

Then we did an activity from our Story of the World book. It shows how inventions were improving things and making things more efficient. The Eiflied Rifle revolutionized warfare by simplifying and speeding up loading a rifle. Previously the rifle was loaded by pouring a measured amount of powder in, ramming it in with a rod and then putting the ball/bullet in and ramming it in. Then it could be fired.

The new technique was to open the cartridge, pour in the powder, drop in the cartridge with the ball, ramming it all in and then firing. This activity shows that cartridges are faster then putting in powder and a ball in rifles.

Two cartridges on the left, two balls on the right. In the cartridge was the measure of powder (flour in this case) and a aluminum foil bullet.

Here Beryl is measuring in the powder.

Then she rams it in with a ruler. Then she puts the ball in and rams it in again. It took 52 seconds.

Here she is ripping the end of the cartridge off,

dumping the powder into the tube,

and ramming it in. 25 Seconds.

Janet's turn. She did both. It was definitely faster with the cartridge. Measuring out the powder took more time then just opening the cartridge.

She finished!

Here is what it looked like inside - that is an aluminum foil ball inside of the cartridge wrapper - wax paper, on top of a pile of powder - flour.

So if it takes 25 seconds with a cartridge and 52 seconds with the traditional method how long would it take to fire the gun one hundred times? Whoever shoots the most times probably has the best chance of winning a gun fight.