Native American Astronomy Essays (1211 words) - Meteor Showers

Native American Astronomy For many years astronomers and people alike have constantly heard about the observations and records of the Chinese and Europeans. No other culture can provide as much information as that gathered by the Chinese and Europeans, but there are many other cultures that observed and recorded the night sky, one of those being the Native Americans. During the last fifteen to twenty years archaeoastronomers have uncovered much concerning the beliefs and records of Native Americans. Unfortunately, the methods of keeping records of astronomical events were not as straight forward as the Chinese and Europeans. The Native Americans had to use what they could to record what they observed. Their records were found on rock and cave drawings, stick notching, beadwork, pictures on animal skins and story telling. One of the few dateable events among the various records of Native Americans was the 1833 appearance of the Leonid meteor shower. The most obvious accounts of the Leonid storm appear among th e various bands of the Sioux of the North American plains. The Sioux kept records called winter counts, which were a chronological pictographic account of each year painted on animal skin. In 1984 Von Del Chamberlain listed the astronomical references for 50 Sioux, forty five out of fifty referred to an intense meteor shower during 1833/1834. He also listed nineteen winter counts kept by other plains Indian tribes, fourteen of which referred to the Leonid storm. The Leonids also appear among the Maricopa, who used calendar sticks with notches to represent the passage of a year, with the owner of the stick remembering the events. The owner of one stick claimed records had been kept that way since the stars fell. The first notch on the stick represented 1833. A member of the Papago, named Kutox, was born around 1847 or 1848. He claimed that 14 years prior to his birth the stars rained all over the sky. A less obvious Leonid reference was found in a journal kept by Alexander M. Stephen , which detailed his visit with the Hopi Indians and mentions a talk he had With Old Djasjini on December 11, 1892. That Hopi Indian said, How old am I? Fifty, maybe a hundred years, I cannot tell. When I was a young boy eight or ten years there was a great comet in the sky and at night all the above was full of shooting stars. (Stephen 37). During the lifetime of Old Djasini there was never a great comet and a sky full of meteors in the same year, but he might be referring to the comet in 1843 and the Leonid storm in 1833. The Pawnee have a story about a person named Pahokatawa, who was killed by an enemy and eaten by animals, and then brought back to life by the Gods. The legend goes that he fell to earth as a meteor and told the people that when meteors were seen falling in great numbers it was not a sign that the world would end. When the pawnee tribe witnessed the time the stars fell upon the earth, which was in 1833, there was a panic, but the leader said, remember the words o f Pahokatawa and the people were no longer afraid. This shows how powerful a role astronomy played in the Native American culture. Although the Pawnee learned not to be afraid there were Native Americans who feared meteors. The Blackfeet of Montana believed a meteor was a sign that sickness would come to the tribe in the winter the Kawaiisu thought a meteor started high and fell to the horizon was an omen of death. The Cahuilla thought a meteor was the spirit of their first shaman, takwich, who was disliked his people. Takwich wandered the sky at night looking for people far from their tribe. If he found a lost person he steal their spirit and the person home and eat them. The Shawnee believed meteors were beings fleeing from the wrath of some adversary, or from some anticipated danger.(Howard 178) Many Native Americans saw the stars as heavenly and mystical. The Wintu explained meteors as the spirits of shamans traveling to the after life. The Chumash referred to meteors

Creating a Vehicle Using Green Technology Essays

Creating a Vehicle Using Green Technology Essays Creating a Vehicle Using Green Technology Essay Creating a Vehicle Using Green Technology Essay Solar Vehicle EGR 100 12/3/2013 Introduction Living on Michigan States campus, one is constantly reminded to Be Spartan Green, whether it is turning off the lights or taking a shorter shower, Spartans are always striving to b e the most eco friendly students that any university could have. The problem at hand is to create a v ehicle using only green technology, such as solar panels, and have this car race up a ramp as fast as possible, with a shorter time being ideal. There are many requirements for this project, first of them being that the team itself eeds to be qualified to tackle such a task. With two members majoring in mechanical engineerin g, two members majoring in computer science, and one in biosystems engineering, the team has a wi de range of engineers that all pose a special skill that will aid in the creation of this solar car. An other requirement for this project is materials. Some needed are solar panels, which are provided, whee Is, gears, axles and some form of a structure. Each week the group needs to collaborate on new ideas an d be willing to share their opinions. A major constraint for this project would be time management. With so many different schedules it can be difficult to find the time to meet with the entire group at once. Each week group members would meet up to accomplish their goal. From starting out with prototypes and ending with a finished project. The desired end result will be a solar c ar that is light, efficient, and able to use its energy source in a way that will help it go as fast as possi ble up the ramp. Methods There are many different possible designs that would have fit within the constraints o f this roject. The designs that were created initially were later discarded after realizing th at transporting a load was no longer a requirement. This meant that the solar car would only need to go as fast as possible. This could be accomplished by either reducing weight or increasing power. Reducing weight was ultimately the key factor to the design decided upon. Many different designs we re thought through all with pros and cons that eventually led to the final design. The first alternative design was relatively similar to the primary design in that it had f our wheels, he motor on the front end of the car, and the solar panel placed on top, but it did no t incorporate any space to carry a load. The second alternative design for the solar car only had three wheels as to minimize weight. The axle of the third wheel would be connected to the axle of the fr ont two wheels by rubber bands so that the motor would still power the third wheel. Both of the design s were to be built upon a base constructed of 4 small long blocks of wood. These designs were created knowing that there would be future improvement. A basis was needed to start of the design proce The design of the prototype is roughly the same as the alternative design. It consists ofa simple structure and base that act as a housing for the parts of the motor and the solar pan el. The design is aimed to use the least amount of parts as possible so that the vehicle will be lightwei ght yet sturdy. The motor and solar panels are at opposite ends to balance the car. There is a spot to ad d a load if necessary. The power is being sent to the rear wheels via a rubber band and gears. This prototype was not functional because of various reasons. One of the reasons was because it was to bulky and heavy for the motor to move the vehicle. The elasticity in the rubber band caused the whee Is to have a hard time turning. It was decided that gears would work better because they are not goin g to have any elasticity damping the power of the motor. The final design was decided upon because it was lightweight and proved to be the most cost effective of all the designs. The base of the car is in a triangle shape that has a slit in the top of the triangle. The slit is big enough so that the back wheel can fit inside of it without touc hing the sides. On