Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Elliot - Dimming Disney Hall, Question 3

3. Look at Frank Gehry's building design both before and after 2003. What materials does he like to work with? post a picture.

After looking carefully at the pictures below, I think that he likes working with a lot of glass, very shiny metal and sometimes stone.

BEFORE 2003

I looked at some examples of Frank Gehry's work in Germany before 2003.

Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, 1989
Siedlung Goldstein, Frankfurt, 1994












Energie Forum, Bad Oeynhausen, 1995



Das Neue Zollhof, Düsseldorf, 1999



DG Bank, Berlin, 2000

Gehry Tower, Hannover, 2001
















AFTER 2003

Then I looked at an example of his work every year since 2004.


Stata Center, Massachusetts, 2004













Marta, Germany 2005

















Marques de Riscal Vineyard Hotel, Spain, 2006
















IAC Headquarters, New York, 2007
















Art Gallery, Ontario, 2008





















Novartis Pharma, Basel, 2009


















Lou Ruvo Center, Las Vegas, 2010
This is my favourite one!!

8 Spruce St., New York, 2011















Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Elliot - Thinking Prompt Three


Here's my drawing of the Sun, the Earth and the Moon




a closer look at the fine print on the bottom


Dimming Disney Hall

Using the visible thinking routine- Circle of Perspectives we explored the issue of a building which was too reflective!

We adopted different roles to help discuss the issue:
Architect
Professor of everything inc. Light
Neighbours
Metal expert
Mayor
Building Manager
Following  this we developed new lines of inquiry :

What can you find out?
1. Ask your parents, how does listening to different perspectives in your job help you to do a better job?
2. Have they experience of working with people from different cultural backgrounds, if so do they have to adapt their perspectives.
3. Look at Frank Gehry's building design both before and after 2003. What materials does he like to work with? post a picture.

4. Are solar panels reflective or as reflectve as polished stainless steel?

Monday, March 7, 2011

Elliot - WHY IS THE SKY BLUE AND THE SUN YELLOW?

I did an experiment at home to show how blue light scatters.

First I filled a transparent container with warm water.  Then I shone a torch through the container on to a white piece of paper.  The light on the paper looked white with a bit of blue around the edges.
Shining a Torch Through Clear Water

From the side the water was clear.
Side View



I then added some milk powder to make the water a bit cloudy so that the beam of light from the torch could be seen in the water.
Adding Some Milk Powder



It wasn't enough so I added even more.
Adding Even More Milk Powder



And then I stirred the milk powder so that it would dissolve in the water.  The water immediately appeared blue.
Stirring In the Powder



The light on the white paper appeared yellowish.
The Light on the White Paper



From the side you can see the contrast of the bluey water and the yellow spot on the white paper.
A Side View of the Milky Water and the White Paper



Explanation

When white light comes toward us through the earth’s atmosphere from the sun, it bumps into different gas molecules like oxygen and nitrogen and some of it gets absorbed.  Shorter-wavelength-light, like violet and blue, are absorbed more than longer-wavelength-light.  So the red, orange and yellow light pass straight through the atmosphere.  However, the absorbed violet and blue light are then radiated and get scattered all around the sky.  The sun puts out much more blue light than violet so the sky looks blue.  This is known as Rayleigh scattering, the English scientist who first described this.

Lord Rayleigh (1842-1919)


The sun appears yellow because when the shorter-wavelength-light, the blues and violets, are scattered from the direct rays of the sun the remaining colours together appear yellow.


Thursday, March 3, 2011

Fionúir: What is shadow

What is shadow?


Have you ever wondered where your shadow comes     from? Well, it doesn’t just pop out of your body, you hopefully know! Please do read on for more …

If you go for a walk on a sunny summer’s day and the
sun is shining beautifully behind you, you can see your shady shadow. Why? Because light only travels in straight lines. It cannot bend around you so it goes past you!!! You block the light. See picture for examples.




Children and their shadows


To make it easier to understand, you can say that anything that the Sun can’t shine through has a shadow. For examples, bicycles, trees, buildings.

But light can partly shine through things like paper, clear glass, some light plastics. Shadow is always black
because the object absorbs the light.















Night and Day

The Sun can just light up one half of the Earth at a time. 

As we already know the Earth spins around once every 24 hours. It is not still! Therefore on one side it is day-time and on the other side it is night-time. Please see picture for examples.


Day and night



















An example would be if your friend lives in America and you live in Germany and when you are at school working hard she or he is fast asleep in Noddyland having delightful dreams.

Our last teacher, Ms Howe is now sleeping 
lik
e a baby;=). 

She lives in Perth, Australia. 



Shadow Fun Activities



Shadow puppets

Try this out and have lots of fun!

It is easy to make your own puppet show.

You will need the following items:

a flat, light coloured wall
a torch
your hands


1. Shine the light on the wall.

2. Put your hand in front of the light and move it forwards until your hand makes a clear and  shadow.    

3.  Move your nimble little fingers into different shapes to look like animals.











Hope you all had 

fun trying out this simple little experiment to demonstrate shadows.



Thank you for reading my bit on shadows.

Cheers Fionúir
 





Fionúir: WHAT IS LIGHT


WHAT IS LIGHT

From the minute we wake up in the morning and open our sleepy, little eyes to the time we go to our cosy beds at night we can see delightful light.

We all enjoy looking at things like sunsets, cute cats, huge houses, fantastic flats, massive mountains, funny friends, sweet shops, lovely flowers!


Massive mountains














Light is a type of energy that lets us see. Light waves do not need a medium to travel through. But sound waves do. It can travel through a vacuun. So good news for Star War fans!!

Picture of light waves










We can’t touch light! We can’t smell it!!
When we see light we see bright and white light but we are actually wrong it is a mixture of yellow, red, green etc …


Well, if you don’t believe me try out this experiment …

Make your own rainbow 

Do this experiment on a sunny day.

You will need the following items:

a bowl filled with water
a mirror which should fit into the bowl
a piece of white paper

Instructions 
Put the mirror into the bowl and place it on a
window sill.
Hold the paper above the dish and mirror.
The mirror has to face the Sun so the reflected light shines onto the paper.
Now you can see the different colours.

What colours can you see? Does it look like a rainbow?

I can see a rainbow … 

(Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet)
A rainbow
the colors that make up the sun's white light 










Thank you for reading my contribution.

Cheers  Fionúir