Arlen Ward dot com

Scouting, Science, and Sarcasm

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Month: September, 2008

Changing your voice with different inhaled gasses

10 September, 2008 (14:45) | Science! | By: Arlen

Don’t try this at home. Seriously.

So everyone knows (or should know) about using helium to make your voice really high. In the following video, Adam Savage not only explains why, but demonstrates that with a higher density gas you can get the effect in reverse, making you sound like Satan instead of one of the chipmunks.

You can suffocate by overdoing it with either of these gasses, but SF6 is probably a little easier since it is heavier than air. But it still makes me laugh every time.



Hat tip to Phil at the Bad Astronomy Blog.

Fantastic Contraption

8 September, 2008 (15:28) | Engineering, Random Thought, Science! | By: Arlen

I am sharing this will all of you because if I get stuck playing this too much, you should too.

Fundraising Bleg Part II

6 September, 2008 (23:50) | Family, Fitness, Friends | By: Arlen

OK, you bunch of slackers.



I sent out the e-mail. I posted it on my blog. Told you all about the great causes that it will benefit. You know, things like the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Wounded Warrior Project. That’s right, the group that helps those that volunteered to defend you and got severely injured in the process. I also mentioned the good karma it would produce, just in case.

I even gave you a link to my page on the charity site, where you can see progress to date. Have we noticed the lack of progress?

I know what you are waiting for. You need someone to sweeten the pot! So here you go. El Hefe at Emergent Fitness, a.k.a. Chris, has offered a prize to the person that raises the most money for the event. It is an iPod shuffle that is engraved with the Fight Gone Bad III logo. So here’s what I was thinking:

I will provide said iPod to whoever donates the most help me with this cause!

This of course requires two things:

  1. Out of all the participants from EmerFit, I have the top dollar amount for donations.
  2. Out of the multitudes that are going to donate to help me, you have the top dollar amount for donations.

Remember, if someone beats you out, you can always add to your donation!

Even if you already have an MP3 player, don’t you think a shuffle would be great for your own fitness excursions? Plus, I will ship it to you for free, even if you live in Brazil!

Now how can you beat that?

Ahem, now click here please.

P.S.- The “Bleg” in the title is not a typo, just a combination of Blog and Beg. I don’t know where I saw it first, but thought it was fitting for this post. Kinda makes you want to donate, doesn’t it?

Nine Interesting Bridges

3 September, 2008 (21:41) | Engineering, Science!, Travel | By: Arlen

A tour of carbon fiber

1 September, 2008 (22:16) | Engineering, Research, School, Science! | By: Arlen


There are more videos from Weird Weird Science here, including tours of steel, brass, aluminum, concrete, and hair.

P = W / t

1 September, 2008 (21:07) | Engineering, Fitness, Science! | By: Arlen

Power is Work divided by Time.

I found a great site via the links at againfaster.com:

It is an work/power calculator for workouts!

Since I skipped out of town for the weekend, my last workout was from Friday.

So here’s the stats from Friday, and my less-than-stellar Fran time of 10:44:

Work Performed
66187.48 joules
6749.14 kg-m
48819.89 ft-lbs

Power Output
102.78 watts
0.14 horsepower
75.81 ft-lbs/sec

I am so geeking out over the data that are available via CrossFit. You all just wait until I start graphing all this stuff!