A Ton of Crap (67 page)

Newton’s Third Law of Motion
Newton’s third law deals with more than one object. The law states that with every force, there is an opposite and equal force. In other words, for every
F
, there is a –
F
. If you push on something, it will push back. When two objects collide, an opposite and equal force is present.

JAPANESE

Dialects
Due to the mountainous terrain and a history of internal and external isolation, there are many dialects of Japanese. These differ in vocabulary, pitch accent, morphology of certain types of words, and sometimes pronunciation. Though there are dozens of dialects, they can be broken into two main categories: Eastern and Western. Eastern dialects emphasize the sounds of consonants more, and the Western dialects emphasize vowels more.

THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

An End to the Witch Trials
In response to the Massachusetts governor’s own wife being questioned for witchcraft, the governor halted further arrests, released many of the accused, and dissolved the court. In May of 1693, the governor pardoned all who were accused of witchcraft. All in all, nineteen people were hanged, one man was tortured to death, and others died in prison. Nearly 200 people had been accused of witchcraft. Many involved with the trials and accusations issued public apologies, and in 1702 the trials were declared unlawful. In 1957, the state of Massachusetts apologized for the events that had happened more than 250 years before.

POETRY

Sonnets
One of the most common forms of poetry is the sonnet, perhaps most famously written by William Shakespeare. Sonnets must be fourteen lines and written in iambic pentameter with one of the various rhyme schemes. The first quatrain of the poem must be expositional and discuss the main theme and metaphor. The second quatrain complicates or extends the theme. The third quatrain introduces a twist, and then finally the couplet summarizes the poem, leaving the reader with a new image to end on.

PRECALCULUS

Permutations
Permutations are all of the possible arrangements you can make of a set. For example:

The permutation of abc is: abc

bac

acb

cba

bca

cab

There are six permutations. The more letters you have, the more permutations there are. In order to solve these larger problems, this is where you use the factorials you learned about earlier. Permutations are set up like this:
₈
P
₃

The number on the left is the same thing as saying 8!, and the number on the right is how many number places you will go. So that really means 8 × 7 × 6 = 336.

ISAAC NEWTON

The Spectrum of Colors
Sir Isaac Newton also discovered that white light is made up of the variety of colors in the spectrum. With a prism, he separated the light into the spectrum, and then using another prism, he rejoined the colors to create white light. He theorized light was made up of particles, but to explain refraction, he associated the property of light with waves.

JAPANESE

Useful Japanese Phrases
Here are some useful phrases to use when traveling in Japan. Note, these are spelled out phonetically.

Hello/Good morning.
Konnichiwa.

How are you?
O genki desu ka?

Pleased to meet you.
Hajimemashite.

Good morning.
Ohayō gozaimasu.

Good evening.
Konbanwa.

Excuse me.
Sumimasen.

How much is this?
Ikura desu ka?

Thank you.
Dōmo.

Where’s the toilet?
Benjo wa doko desu ka?

Goodbye.
Sayōnara
.

1. During the initial arrests prior to the witch trials, who confessed that the Devil had visited her?
   

   1. Sarah Good
      
   2. The Parris’s slave, Tituba
      
   3. Sarah Osborne
      
   4. Bridget Bishop
      

2. How many people were killed as a result of the Salem witch trials?
   

   1. 11
      
   2. 9
      
   3. 19
      
   4. 21
      

3. Which of the following is the recurring pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in the lines of a poem?
   

   1. Rhythm
      
   2. Meter
      
   3. Sonnet
      
   4. Polynomial
      

4. Which of the following must be fourteen lines and written in iambic pentameter, using one of the various rhyme schemes?
   

   1. Sonnets
      
   2. Epic poetry
      
   3. Narrative poetry
      
   4. Stanzas
      

5. What does 8
   P
   3 equal?
   

   1. 24
      
   2. 512
      
   3. 6,561
      
   4. 336
      

6. Solve:
   x
   2 + 6
   x
    + 8
   

   1. (
      x
       + 2) (
      x
       + 2)
      
   2. (
      x
       + 4) (
      x
       + 2)
      
   3. (
      x
       + 4) (
      x
       + 4)
      
   4. (
      x
      ) (
      x
       + 8)
      

7. Which law states that for every force, there is an opposite and equal force?
   

   1. Newton’s first law of motion
      
   2. Newton’s second law of motion
      
   3. Newton’s third law of motion
      
   4. Newton’s law of universal gravitation
      

8. Which law states that objects at rest stay at rest, and objects in motion stay in a straight line at a constant speed, unless an unbalanced force acts on it?
   

   1. Newton’s first law of motion
      
   2. Newton’s second law of motion
      
   3. Newton’s third law of motion
      
   4. Newton’s law of universal gravitation
      

9. Teineigo, sonkeigo, and kenjˉogo are examples of:
   

   1. Eastern dialects
      
   2. Western dialects
      
   3. Monophthongs
      
   4. Politeness
      

10. Which of the following is true?
    

    1. There are only five vowels in Japanese
       
    2. Most of the syllables in Japanese end with a vowel sound
       
    3. Japanese has a pitched accent
       
    4. All of the above
       

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

HISTORY:
Gandhi
Gandhi’s Early Life, Gandhi in South Africa, Spiritual Development and Departure from South Africa, Nonviolent Civil Disobedience,
The Dandi March, Quit India

LANGUAGE ARTS:
Horror
Gothic Horror, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King

MATH:
Calculus
What Is Calculus?, Derivatives, Rules of Differentiation, Limits, Maxima and Minima, Integration

SCIENCE:
Quantum Mechanics
What Is Quantum Mechanics?, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, Black Body Radiation, Bohr’s Model, Schrödinger’s Cat, The Photoelectric Effect

FOREIGN LANGUAGE:
Mandarin
The Origins, Old Mandarin, The Language Becomes Standardized, Differences in Phonology, Dialects, Useful Mandarin Phrases

GANDHI

Gandhi’s Early Life
Mohandas Gandhi was born in a town north of Bombay on October 2, 1869. At thirteen years old, he was married under an arranged marriage. Though he wished to study medicine, this went against his caste, and his father urged him to study law. In September 1888, Gandhi went to England to study law. When he finished his studies, he returned to Bombay and Rajkot to practice law and briefly served as a lawyer for the prince of Porbandar.

HORROR

Gothic Horror
Gothic fiction is one of the most famous genres of horror fiction. It began with Horace Walpole’s
The Castle of Otranto, A Gothic Story
of 1765, and became incredibly popular during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Gothic fiction combined elements of horror, romance, and emotionalism, with an emphasis on atmosphere. Gothic fiction also focused on monsters, and it is from this genre that some of the most famous horror books ever written are descended.

CALCULUS

What Is Calculus?
Calculus is the study of change over time through using advanced forms of geometry and algebra, and it has many real-world applications. It provides the framework to understanding why things change, how to model things, and learning how to predict change in models. Calculus deals with the concept of infinity. If something is always changing, that means it is changing infinitely.

QUANTUM MECHANICS

What Is Quantum Mechanics?
Quantum mechanics is the study of particles at the atomic and subatomic level — such as protons, electrons, photons, and atoms — and their movements. According to quantum mechanics, particles at such microscopic levels behave counterintuitively. There are major differences between quantum mechanics and Newton’s laws, including the notion that a particle can only have one value for its energy, and only the probability of a particle’s location can be determined.

MANDARIN

The Origins
There are many variations in the Chinese language. Mandarin is spoken in southwestern and northern China and is a Sino-Tibetan language. It began as the language of the courts starting in the Ming Dynasty, with the dialect of Beijing being very influential. By the seventeenth century, schools were set up to teach the Beijing style, and this dialect was established as the national language in 1909. The Beijing style continued to be the national language when the Republic of China came to power and there was a greater need for a common language.

GANDHI