A Ton of Crap (65 page)

Strange Occurrences with the Children
In January of 1692, the Puritan minister of Salem’s daughter, Elizabeth Parris, and niece, Abigail Williams, began having bizarre fits in which their bodies contorted, and they screamed, threw things, and uttered strange noises. Another girl, Ann Putnam, was also having these fits. The local doctor blamed it on supernatural causes. When pressured to give names, the children accused Tituba, the Parris’s slave; Sarah Good, a homeless woman; and Sarah Osborne, a poor elderly woman.

POETRY

Metrical Patterns
Meter is the recurring pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in lines of verse. For example, if a line of poetry contains fifteen syllables, the first syllable is unstressed, the second stressed, the next unstressed, and so on. A foot is a set combination of unstressed and stressed syllables. Different meters are used for different types of poetry. Iambic poetry has unstressed and then stressed syllables, while dactylic has a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.

PRECALCULUS

Functions
Functions are essential to mathematic equations, and even though you might not know what they are called, you have already seen and worked with examples of functions. For example, 7
x
 + 3 = 
y
. To find
y
, you need to find
x
. When
y
depends on finding
x
, and only one possible answer can be found, that is a function. No matter what
x
equals, there can only be one value for
y
.

ISAAC NEWTON

Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation
Newton’s law of universal gravitation is perhaps best known by the story of the apple falling from the tree. From noticing the apple fall, Newton concluded that a force, or gravity, must be acting on the apple. Even when the apple tree is the tallest apple tree, this force of gravity still applies. His law of universal gravitation states that every object attracts other objects with a force pointed along the line of centers for the objects. This is in proportion to the product of the masses, and is also inversely proportional to the square of the space between them.

His formula looks like this:

F
_g
= Gravitational force

m
₁
and
m
₂
= masses

r
= distance between the masses

G
= Gravitational constant

JAPANESE

The Writing System
The Japanese writing system of today is a blend of the Chinese writing system, two kana syllabaries (alphabets based on symbols developed during the ninth century to simplify writing), and Roman numerals and letters. From the third to the fifth century, Japanese used Classical Chinese as the official writing system. As the language evolved, several distinct differences separated the Japanese form of writing from the Chinese. One notable difference is that Chinese is a monosyllabic language (all words are one syllable), and Japanese is polysyllabic.

THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

The Witch Hunt Begins
Osborne and Good declared their innocence, but Tituba confessed that the Devil had come to her and made her serve him. She described images of a black man making her sign a book and she told them there were other witches seeking to destroy the Puritans. The three women were put in jail and paranoia spread throughout Salem. Dozens of villagers were brought in for questioning. While in prison, Tituba’s bail was paid by an unknown person, and Tituba disappeared, never being heard from again.

POETRY

Stanza
A stanza is two or more lines of a poem that form one of the divisions. They are usually the same length and follow the same patterns of meter and rhyme. Couplets are examples of stanzas that are only two lines and that rhyme. Tercets are made of three lines of poetry which may or may not rhyme. If they rhyme, that is known as a triplet. Quatrains have four lines and are written in any type of rhyme scheme.

PRECALCULUS

Polynomials
Polynomials are expressions that are the sum of exponents and variables. Each section of the polynomial is considered a term. To be considered a polynomial, terms must follow strict rules. There cannot be any square roots of variables, fractions, or fractional powers. There must be variables that are raised to a whole number exponent or a regular number. A polynomial looks like this:

7
x
²
 + 8
x
 – 9

And do not be fooled by the 8
x
. It still follows the rules of terms because that is just saying 8
x
1.

ISAAC NEWTON

Newton’s First Law of Motion
Newton’s first law of motion deals with inertia. It states that objects at rest stay at rest, and objects in motion stay in a straight line at a constant speed unless an unbalanced force acts on it. If the sum of all of the forces, or net force, is zero, there will be no acceleration or change in velocity. If the net force does not equal zero, there will be acceleration and a change in velocity.

JAPANESE