A Ton of Crap (78 page)

ANSWER KEY: d, d, b, a, c, b, d, a, c, b

HISTORY:
The Wright Brothers
Early Attempts at Flight Prior to the Wright Brothers, The Study of Birds, The Wright Brothers’ Gliders, The
Flyer
, The First Manned Flight, The
Vin Fiz

LANGUAGE ARTS:
Edgar Allan Poe
Poe’s Early Life, The American Romantic Movement, “The Raven,”
His Death, Griswold’s Obituary, The
Poe Toaster

MATH:
Probability
What Is Probability?, Probability of an Event, Complementary Events, Probability and Area, Coin Probability, Mutually Exclusive Events

SCIENCE:
String Theory
Theoretical Physics, Strings and Membranes, Quantum Gravity, Unification of Forces, Supersymmetry, Extra Dimensions

FOREIGN LANGUAGE:
Hebrew
The Origins, Revival of the Language, Modern Israeli Hebrew, Hebrew in Judaism, Writing System, Useful Hebrew Phrases

THE WRIGHT BROTHERS

Early Attempts at Flight Prior to the Wright Brothers
Humans have always had the desire to fly. In the 1480s, Leonardo da Vinci designed a concept for a machine that had birdlike wings called the ornithopter. In 1783, Joseph Michel and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier created the first hot-air balloon, and in the 1800s, Sir George Cayley created the first gliders capable of carrying humans. In 1891, German engineer Otto Lilienthal created the first glider that could fly long distances. That same year, Samuel Langley realized that in order to fly, power was needed. He built a model plane that ran on a steam-powered engine and flew for three-fourths of a mile. However when he created a full-sized version, the aerodrome was too heavy and crashed. In 1894, Octave Chanute created the biplane. This would become the basis for the Wright brothers’ design.

EDGAR ALLAN POE

Poe’s Early Life
Edgar Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe’s mother had left his father and had taken the kids with her. When Poe was only two years old, his mother died. Edgar was taken in by Frances and John Allan. Poe spent five years studying in England, and in 1826, he attended the University of Virginia. Less than a year later, Poe quit school due to drinking and being in heavy debt. The next year, he joined the army. By 1835, Poe was living in Baltimore, working as an editor of a newspaper. In 1836, Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin and moved to New York City. In 1845, his wife would die of tuberculosis two years after “The Raven” was published.

PROBABILITY

What Is Probability?
Probability is the study of the likelihood or chance of a particular event occurring. With problems regarding probability, identifying all of the different outcomes that can actually happen is crucial to understanding how to solve the problem. When you flip a coin, you want to know what the likelihood is that you’ll get heads. When you pick a card from a deck, you want to figure out the probability that the card is a seven, or that the card will be hearts. Probability is about how likely an event is to occur.

STRING THEORY

Theoretical Physics
In theoretical physics, math is used to explain aspects of nature. Often, the formulas that are designed cannot be tested with an actual model, and this is what separates theoretical physics from empirical physics. A theoretical physics theory should accurately explain and predict certain phenomena with support from known observations. String theory is one of the most well-known theories in theoretical physics, and it is often known as the “theory of everything.” String theory tries to explain how gravity fits with quantum physics.

HEBREW

The Origins
Hebrew is a Semitic language, and a member of the Afro-Asiatic family. According to Judaism, Hebrew was the first language. Hebrew is a Northwest Semitic language which began around the third century b.c. The first written evidence of the language was from around the tenth century b.c., and this is what is referred to as Classic Hebrew. Around 1,700 years ago, the spoken language was displaced by Aramaic, though it remained a written language. Not until the nineteenth century was the spoken language revived.

THE WRIGHT BROTHERS