Friday, July 11, 2014

Intro and 1st Assignment

                                                                                                                                            07/11/2014
Hello All,

I would first like to say that it is a pleasure being a part of this class. Let me tell you all a bit about myself. My name is Daniela Baeza-Prepetit and I am originally from Chile. I am twenty four and I have called the United States my home for about thirteen years now. I received my Associate's degree in Criminal Justice at Bunker Hill Commmunity College and I am now pursuing my Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice here at BU. I will hopefully graduate by next year and if everything goes as planned I will be working on my Masters degree at Northeastern University. I work full time in the Insurance business (I know kind of boring) and also attend school full time. I enjoy expanding my horizon not only  intellectually, but also in a cultural level which is the reason I am taking this class. I honestly feel that this class will bring a lot to the table and I am extremely excited to learn about our Boston Harbor and our nature. Well enough said about me, let me start telling you about the assignment.

1. Tonight we were asked to observed the direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) in which the water drained in one of the women bathroom in our school. Let me first start by telling you where I was standing in order to understand the direction in which I saw the water moved. I was standing in front of  our classmate Sonja as she was standing next to the sink (to my right). My observation began when Sonja placed her hand in top of the drain. She opened the faucet and the water started to pour in to the sink. I immediately noticed how the water began to move to the right and the sink began to filled. Sonja looked up and asked if everyone was ready so she may take her hand out of the sink. We all agreed it was okay to do so. As she started to take her hand out, there was not an immediate response to the question asked by Professor Berman. We decided that the demonstration needed to be done again. This time when Sonja took her hand out of the sink, I payed closed attention to the drained, specifically when the water level was low, and noticed that the water was moving clockwise. After talking to my classmates, we all had the same answer. The water drained clockwise in the women bathroom in our school.

2. The third part of tonight's assignment was to discuss if the water drains in a sink differently depending on the Northern or Southern hemisphere. My response is simple. There is not an specific answer to this question. My first semester at BU I took a science class called Shoreline Environment with Professor Tary in which we learned about the Coriolis Effect. We one talks about this effect, we are referring to massive movements like a tornado or a cyclone. In this case, the amount of water that is drained from a sink, no matter in what hemisphere this is happening in, is too small to come up with a clear answer. There are many reasons in which the water in a sink can drain differently. It can be by the way the water filled the sink, the shape of the sink, or by any residual that has been left in the sink. Per my prior experience and readings there is not a precise answer to the question.

Sources:

1. Shoreline Environment Class- Anna Tary
2. http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html
3. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-somebody-finally-sett/

See you all tomorrow!

Daniela Baeza-Prepetit




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