is not a traditional hero. He is full of self doubt and he doesn't win in the end. However, he
shows bravery first through questioning the world he lives in and not accepting it as others do
around him. Once he begins to...
Sunday, October 28, 2012
What makes Winston a heroic figure in 1984?
Saturday, October 27, 2012
What are the similarities and differences between speed and velocity?
Speed is the distance
covered by a moving object in a single unit of time, for instance 1 second. On a distance-time
graph, speed is the gradient of the graph, or the derivative of the equation of distance against
time with respect to time.
Speed, however, has no
direction associated with it. It is said to be a scalar quantity as it has
zero dimensions. The speed of a moving object is calculated by measuring how far from a starting
point A the object gets (say it gets to point B) in 1 unit of time. If A and B are say 3m apart,
then we know that the object is moving at 3m per second say. To calculate speed, we only need to
know how far A and B are apart in 3D (Euclidean) space (the space that we experience around us
that is), or in 2D space if we are considering travel on the flat only. We do not need to know
what direction B is from A.
Whereas, velocity has both
direction and magnitude (as the character Vector says in Despicable Me), and not just magnitude
as is the case with speed. It is said to be a vector quantity
because it has more than zero dimensions. So velocity has a speed associated with it,
measuring how far the object gets from point A (say it gets to point B) in 1 unit of time,
but also has a direction associated with it. For velocity, unlike speed, we
need to know what direction B is from A. For this, we could say how many degrees the direction
of B from A is off North - if it is directly East of A, this would be 90 degrees clockwise off
North; or, we could say what direction to go in in gridded 3D (or 2D if on the flat plane) space
- say, to get to B from A go sideways 2, forwards 3 and upwards (towards the sky) 1, which we
could write as a vector (2,3,1). Velocities are usually written in speed and vector form, so we
would say the object is travelling at eg 3m per second in the direction (x,y,z) eg (x,y,z) =
(2,3,1). The length of the vector determines the number of dimensions of space we are travelling
in, which in the real spatial world is at most 3.
What is the irony of the title "Marriage is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe?
The title
is also ironic because it uses the word "affair," which can mean several different
things.
The word "affair" can refer to an incident or an
occurrence. As the other educators pointed out, it can also refer to a private matter or
concern. However, another meaning of the word is understood as, "an illicit relationship or
dalliance."
The title states that "marriage is a private
affair." Normally, no one would refer to a marriage as an illicit dalliance. In fact,
marriage is a public declaration of fidelity. As is the usual practice, "forbidden"
affairs are often conducted in secret, and the parties involved are usually not too keen on
their secret being discovered. Much is at stake in such an arrangement.
In
Achebe's story, the title indicates what is made clear in the story. The groom's father (Okeke)
makes his disgust with his son Nnaemeka's impending marriage to Nene public knowledge in his
community. The men from Okeke's community unequivocally sympathize with Okeke's
grief...
Friday, October 26, 2012
Compare and contrast ancient Persian civilization to ancient Greece. Did Persia influence Greece or vice versa?
Maureen Powlowski
Ancient Greek and Persian civilization were both long lived. The history of ancient
Greece can be divided into fairly distinct periods ranging over several thousands of years, and
the history of ancient Persia spanned nearly a millennium. Both civilizations were also diverse.
Minoans and Mycenaeans of the Bronze Age and Athenians and Spartans of the Classical Age all
belong to ancient Greece. An empire is, by its essence, multiethnic and multilingual, and such
was the Persian Empire. The Persian army at the time of Xerxes's invasion of Greece in 480 B.C.
included Persians, Medes, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Ethiopians, and dozens of other ethnic groups,
including Greeks. For these reasons, generalizations are problematic.
That
being said, certain comparisons can be made. For example, around the time of the Persian Wars,
there were many different political entities in Greece, ranging from democracy to oligarchy to
monarchy, but they had all developed a sense of the rule of law. By contrast,...
Is Call of the Wild an appropriate teaching novel for grade 12 wherein English is a 2nd/3rd language? Is this novel too simplistic?
Regardless of the
"reading level" The Call of the Wild would provide lots of
challenges for 12th graders-challenges in stretching, learning and discovering. As pohnpei said,
this should not be a major concern with this novel. In all honesty, I completed a Frye
Readability assessment on an Albert Camus novel, and it assessed at a 5th or 6th grade
level.
What prompts the madness in Lord of the Flies?
One of
the primaryin is examining what provokes a community to abandon their
humanity and revert to savagery and madness in times of serious crisis. Some might argue that
it's simply the boys' removal from society that causes them to descend into madness and that
civilization's rules help us keep our sanity in check. Others might suggest that it's the trauma
caused by having to fend for themselves on the desert island and the plane crash that cause them
to lose their inner decency.
Finally, it can be argued that every person is
suppressing madness and animalistic urges just underneath the surface. Some characters, like ,
succumb to their primitive instincts earlier than others. But even , who's able to hold onto his
humanity longer than some of the others, eventually goes insane and aids in 's
murder.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
What are the major social issues in "The Lovely Bones" that you can support with three examples from the novel?
The two
other social issues in the novel are violent sexual crimes against children and the difficulty
of identifying pedophile sex offenders.
Let's discuss the social problem of
pedophile sex offenders. What is the typical profile of a child predator? It's often difficult
for children to identify who these predators may be. The book addresses this problem. Mr. Harvey
is portrayed as an eccentric character, but he betrays nothing about his depraved intentions to
Susie.
Often, such predators succeed in deceiving even the adults around
him. After he kills Susie, Mr. Harvey expresses his sympathy and condolences to Susie's mother.
He tells her: "I hope they get the bastard. I'm sorry for your loss." At this point,
Franny and Susie (who are in heaven) agree that Mr. Harvey has no shame. Therein lies the
problem: pedophile sex offenders may not be readily identifiable based on their exterior
behavior alone. Meanwhile, Mr. Harvey is able to leverage the natural curiosity of a child to
lure her...
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