A Ton of Crap (52 page)

The Cotton Gin
In America, the cotton gin, created by Eli Whitney, was revolutionary in the American cotton industry. Prior to his invention, farming cotton required hundreds of hours separating the raw fibers from the cottonseed, which was all done by hand. With this new invention however, up to 50 pounds of cotton could be cleaned in one day. Though its technological advancement was great, the cotton gin would ultimately revitalize slavery in the South.

LITERARY ELEMENTS

Setting
The setting of a story is more than just a backdrop for the actions to occur. It also sets the mood and tone of the entire story, as well as any context that needs to be understood. The setting establishes the time period, the culture, and the geography, and in some cases the setting can be just as important as the characters.

GEOMETRY

Surface Area
The surface area is the sum of all of the areas. For rectangular prisms, finding the surface area requires finding the area of each side and adding them together (this of course can be simplified by finding the area of one side and then multiplying it by two because there are two sides, and then doing the same thing for the other sides). To find the surface area of a cylinder, the formula is: 2πr2 + 2πrh

THE PERIODIC TABLE

Names of the Elements
The naming of the elements is complex. Sometimes it is just the first letter of the element (such as oxygen, O; or hydrogen, H), sometimes it’s the beginning of the Latin word (gold is Au, from the Latin
aurum
), while other times it is named for the person who discovered it or for a whole slew of other reasons (polonium is Po, which stands for Poland, named after the country that the people who discovered the element were from).

CROATIAN

Useful Croatian Phrases
Here are some helpful phrases to use when traveling to Croatia:

Hello.
Zdravo.

Pleased to meet you.
Drago mi je.

Good morning.
Dobro jutro.

Good day.
Dobar dan.

Good night.
Laku noć.

Yes.
Da.

No.
Ne.

Please.
Molim.

Thank you.
Hvala.

Excuse me.
Oprostite.

I don’t understand.
Je ne razumijem.

How much is it?
Koliko kosjta?

Where’s the toilet?
Gdje je zahod?

Goodbye.
Zbogom.

1. One result of the Industrial Revolution was:
   

   1. A shift from urban and industrial to rural and agricultural
      
   2. A shift from rural and agricultural to urban and industrial
      
   3. A shift from rural and industrial to urban and agricultural
      
   4. A shift from industrial and rural to industrial and agricultural
      

2. One reason Great Britain became the first industrialized nation was due to their:
   

   1. Use of steam
      
   2. Large amount of spinning jennies
      
   3. Large amount of cotton gins
      
   4. Large coal and iron ore deposits
      

3. If the narrator says “I” in the story and is talking about his or her own experience, this is an example of:
   

   1. First person
      
   2. Third person
      
   3. Omniscient narrator
      
   4. Limited omniscient narrator
      

4. What is a red herring?
   

   1. When you only know the perspective of one or two characters
      
   2. Where the story takes place
      
   3. A hint given to the reader with the intention of misleading the reader
      
   4. The character in opposition of the protagonist
      

5. What is the perimeter of a square with sides that measure 6 inches?
   

   1. 12 inches
      
   2. 24 inches
      
   3. 36 inches
      
   4. 18 inches
      

6. What is the area of a rectangle with sides that measure 7 inches and 9 inches?
   

   1. 63
      
   2. 32
      
   3. 58
      
   4. 16
      

7. What is the atomic number?
   

   1. The number of neutrons found in the atom’s nucleus
      
   2. The number of atoms
      
   3. The number of protons found in the atom’s nucleus
      
   4. The number of electrons found in the atom’s nucleus
      

8. A set of adjacent groups is called:
   

   1. A period
      
   2. A block
      
   3. A chalcogen
      
   4. A and C
      

9. What was the Illyrian movement?
   

   1. Turning the alphabet into only thirty letters
      
   2. An effort by the Holy Roman Emperor to make Latin the official language
      
   3. Uniting of the two dynasties
      
   4. An attempt to create a common South Slavic literary language
      

10. How do you say “Hello” in
    Croatian?
    

    1. Hvala
       
    2. Zbogom
       
    3. Molim
       
    4. Zdravo
       

ANSWER KEY: b, d, a, c, b, a, c, b, d, d

HISTORY:
The French Revolution
The Tennis Court Oath, Storming of the Bastille, Women’s March on Versailles, Overthrow of the Monarchy, The September Massacres, A New Republic

LANGUAGE ARTS:
Developing a Paragraph
What Is a Paragraph?, The Topic Sentence, Supporting Sentences, The Concluding Sentence, Making Sure Your Paragraph Is Well Developed, When to Start a New Paragraph

MATH:
Basic Algebra
What Is Algebra?, Addition and Subtraction with Algebraic Expressions, Multiplication with Algebraic Expressions, Division with Algebraic Expressions, Solving for
x
, Rearranging Formulas

SCIENCE:
Chemical Formulas
What Is a Chemical Formula?, Polymers, Ions, Isotopes, The Empirical Formula, The Hill System

FOREIGN LANGUAGE:
Belarusian
The Origins, Grammar Reforms, The Impact of World War II, Dialects, Alphabets, Useful Belarusian Phrases

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

The Tennis Court Oath
Pre-Revolutionary France practiced a class system. The higher classes were given special privileges, such as not paying taxes. At a time of great debt, King Louis XVI refused to change the system. The Third Estate, which represented the underprivileged class, formed a National Assembly. On June 20, 1789, when the Third Estate was locked out of their meeting hall, they moved to a nearby tennis court. There, they took an oath to never separate until there was a constitution in France.

DEVELOPING A PARAGRAPH

What Is a Paragraph?
A paragraph is a group of sentences that are related in the subject they are discussing. Good paragraphs are crucial to being a good writer or just having your writing make sense to the reader. Paragraphs organize sentences so that the main idea can get across in an easy and coherent way. A good rule of thumb to follow is to always keep one idea for every paragraph.

BASIC ALGEBRA

What Is Algebra?
In algebra, equations are given with unknown numbers. These unknown numbers are represented with letters. Based on the equation laid out, one has to figure out the missing value. The letters can be variables, where the value of the letter can change, or they can be constants, which have a fixed value (such as π).

CHEMICAL FORMULAS

What Is a Chemical Formula?
A chemical formula is a method of expressing how a chemical appears in a simple and easy-to-understand way based on the atoms that make up chemical compounds. When writing out the elements involved in a chemical, if there is more than one atom present in a particular element, then it is indicated by a subscript number after the symbol, showing how many atoms there are. For example, water is H2O. This means there are two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom present in water.

BELARUSIAN

The Origins
Belarusian is an East Slavic language, and is a predecessor of Old Belarusian. Old Belarusian was spoken from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. The modern form of Belarusian was based on the vernacular of Old Belarusian. The development of the modern language was a result of increased political conflict in the surrounding area of Belarus, and the language, once considered a peasant’s language, started appearing in state offices in the nineteenth century.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION