Tuesday, September 11, 2007

A matter of very much more importance than that just discussed



is the extra unnecessary expense put upon education, viz
A matter of very much more importance than that just discussed
is the extra unnecessary expense put upon education, viz., two
thirds of a year for every child in the land. Presumably if the
metric system were in use with us, all our children would stay
in school as long as they now do, thus getting two thirds of a
year farther along in the course of study. Actually, if
arithmetic were made more simple, vast numbers would; stay
longer, since they would not be driven out of school by the
terrible inroads on their interest in school work by dull and
to them impossible arithmetic. If metric arithmetic texts were
substituted for our present texts, it is safe to say children
would average one full year more of education. What the
increased earning power would be from this it would be hard to
estimate, but clearly it would be a huge sum.




The problem is many sided and we must consider the motion of



the air vertically as well as horizontally
The problem is many sided and we must consider the motion of
the air vertically as well as horizontally. Air gains and loses
heat chiefly by convection, and any gain or loss by conduction
may be neglected. The plant gains heat by convection, radiation
and perhaps by conduction of an internal rather than surface
character. The ground gains and loses heat chiefly by
radiation. But the whole process is complicated and may not
even be uniform. Frosts generally are preceded by a loss of
heat from the lower air strata, due to convection and a
horizontal translation of the air. Then follows an equally
rapid and great loss of heat by free radiation. There are minor
changes such as the setting free of heat in condensation and
the utilization in evaporation, but these latent heats are of
less importance than the actual transference of the air and
vapor and the removal of the latter as an absorber and retainer
of heat.