This is the study of the way objects move through gases such as air. An object can be considered highly aerodynamic if it meets with little resistance, or 'drag,' as it moves through the air.
Also known as a tree surgeon. They are lucky people who get to climb trees all day and care for them. Kind of like vets for plants.
The rotating coil in electric motors and generators. In our motor it's the 10 loops of copper wound around the battery.
When you bend a piece of rope to make a knot, it is called a bight. This U-shaped section of rope is useful in forming many knots. Threading the end of the rope around or through the bight is what creates the knot.
Describes a system that has two parts or modes (on or off, black or white, 1 or 0). Binary describes the base 2 counting system employed at the heart of modern computers.
This is the fundamental unit of computation as we know it. It is the name for the 1, or the 0, in binary digits.
Boob tube:This is an antiquated derogatory term that the artist's mother used to describe a television to those who watched too much.
Braid:Three or more things can be interwoven into a braid. Ropes and hair are often braided, but rarely together!
1/100th of a meter. It is a commonly used unit in metric measurement. There are 2.54 centimeters in one inch.
The device that switches the direction of current in the armature of an electric motor so that it always goes one way.
This term is used in science to describe movement through things. Heat conduction describes the movement of heat through a material. Electrical conduction is the movement of charge (or current) through a material.
In the same way that current describes the flow of water in a river, it describes the flow of charge in an electric circuit.
The process of draining the liquid from something. Allowing the water to flow to the bottom of your terrarium is drainage for the soil on top.
In ecology, an ecosystem describes all the living and non-living things in an area. The bacteria and dust in your navel (or belly button) might be described as its own ecosystem.
Embouchure:The shaping of the lips and movement of face muscles required to make wind instruments work.
Foot:12 inches long, or 12 * 2.54 = 30.48 centimeters. Very few people have feet that are a foot long.
Fossil Record:In the layers of earth beneath us lie the amoeba, plants and dinosaurs that used to live on earth. The order in which they lie tells us much about our origins. The fossil record resembles a layered cake of history with the oldest layer on the bottom.
A tool for making measurements, like a pressure gauge, or a strain gauge, or a fuel or gas gauge.
The force between two masses. The earth has a huge mass, which means it has a very strong force that pulls your small mass towards it. This has an unfortunate tendency to make you fall towards the ground.
Also known as burlap, hessian is a heavy woven fabric made principally from jute and other vegetable fibers.
Thermal insulation slows the flow of heat while electrical insulation slows the flow of electricity.
A short and generally humorous poem with a strict format. It's typically five lines long, with an A-A-B-B-A rhyming pattern (this means that the first, second and last lines rhyme with each other, and that the third and fourth lines rhyme with each other).
Magnet:Originally found in Magnesia in ancient greece, the word magnet came to describe materials where a magnetic polarity could be stored. The magnetic poles act upon each other to exert force, either attracting or repelling each other.
Mass:The mass of an object is kind of like the weight, except that it doesn't change if you move to planets with less gravity, whereas your weight does.
A nutrient is food for an organism. The marshmallow in your navel is a nutrient for the bacteria there...
Nuts:Nuts screw onto screws, or bolts. They are the often hexagonally-shaped donuts with a screw thread in the middle. Like donuts, the right one can be hard to find when you need it.
This is the study of the oceans and the seas of the world. It is becoming increasingly important in terms of understanding global warming and the heating of the oceans. More than 70% of the earth is covered in water - most of it is in the oceans.
Piccolo:This is a fancy Italian word for a small flute , but can refer to any tiny musical instrument.
Plane:Mathematically a plane is a two-dimensional surface, like a sheet of paper. A plain sheet of planar paper can be folded into a paper plane. A three-dimensional paper plane can fly.
A foreign or toxic item in an ecosystem is a pollutant. Pollution should be avoided. Things like soda bottles should be recycled or reused rather than tossed into the environment where they pollute.
Polyvinylchloride is the plastic material more commonly known as PVC. It is used a lot in construction, and sometimes in the construction of toys.
Scope:This is the suffix for many technical instruments used to look at or observe something. Like micro-scopes, and tele-scopes.
Is the general term for big scissor-type things. Because of their large handles with lots of leverage, they can cut thick things.
Sign Language:Combines handshapes and positions into an entire language which is often used by deaf people.
If you were to braid ropes and hair together, it would be called a splice. Splicing joins two ropes.
An object is symmetrical, or has symmetry, when it is a reflection through a plane or a rotation around an axis. Your face is mostly symmetrical about the plane of your nose. A soda bottle is symmetrical about the axis that runs from the center of the base to the center of the cap.
This is the branch of physics that studies the movement of energy, often in the form of heat, in a system.
The gas phase of water. Solid Ice melts into liquid water which evaporates into gaseous water vapour.
Weaving:Two sets of threads are woven together to create fabric - the process is called weaving. The warp is the direction the weave comes out of the weaving loom, and the weft is the thread that passes along the length of the loom. You can remember that the weft goes west (if the warp goes North to South!).
Wood Grain:The patterns in a piece of wood caused by the alignment or growth direction of the wood fibers.
3 feet or 36 inches long. A yard can also be a great place to play in, and should be many yards long.
