Cars and Math
The world these days cannot live wothout cars and cars cannot exist without math. Therefore I chose this topic in math class for my project which was trying to find the application of Math in real life situations, such as cars. My whole life revolved and still revolves around cars, I cannot live without cars and the ability to study them. My favortie cars include Lamborghini Murcielago, Pagani Zonda R, Ferrari Enzo, Koenigsegg CXX, and much much more. However, when I found out that every inch in a car is actually there with the help of math, math was not somehting that could be ignored. The engine in cubic inches and CC (which means size, equivalent to metric Liters) are decided through math and the maximum output of energy is decided with graphs and functions. Torque is another huge part of the engine which is labelled with pounds as the unit of measure. Torque is how strong and fast the engine can make one rotation through its cylinders. That involves both mechanical math and momentum physics. Most importantly aero dynamics in a car is decided by math too. Let me ask you a question. Is it more aero dynamic to have the back part of a pick up truck closed or opened? Many people believe having the lid down is more aero dynamic however, it is the opposite. Having the lid up prevents the air from entering the back of the truck which prevent the down force created by the air hence lowering the weight of the truck. All of there factors contribute to the exciting mathematics related to cars.
Here is a link to the website I made for my Math project: http://www.wix.com/jaerhee/mathcars
Mrs. W
To be honest I was very anxious to attend a sophomore english class because although my speaking is well advanced, my grammar and the “educational” side is not so well developed. However, despite my fear, I lived through both semesters very well. The grade was higher than I expected it to be and I learned way more than I ever thought I would. I learned more technology in English class than my MAC IT club on Monday. Blogs, keynote presentation, and podcasts all came to me during English class and I was able to aplly that knowledge into other classes. This helped a lot since it was my first time ever working with an apple processing computer. For the books that we read, I enjoyed “Macbeth” by Shakespeare and “Dracula” by Bram Stoker the most. From the beginning of my middle school education I have always enjoyed reading Shakespeare; I read “Julius Caesar”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Merchant of Venice”, and “Twelft Night”. Macbeth was explained in depth and I had a clear understanding of the text when we finished the book. From Macbeth and all of the other books I completed the skill of quoting, explaining significant passages, and making brief and precise keynotes. Lastly, discussion leading was the most helpful because it built my courage and leadership in front of the class because I had full control of the class for that day. Leading the class was not so difficult after all, except when they do not do their homework which was what happened for my first discussion. Anyways, I gained a plethora of knowledge through English 10 such as technology, quoting, and understanding the text. I wish I could be as constructive as I was this year when I become a Junior.
Our Future
Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley is based on a futuristic society where all the citizens are satisfied with their lives. Also known as an utopia. However, there are similarities between the utopia and our society which is supposedly based on democracy and independence. The World State citizens are subjected to work without any complaints because they are not much more than robots programmed to do work. In our society, we have what is called human trafficking. This is the act of tricking or forcing an individual into a new environment where they have to work for their master if they want their lives to be spared. In addition, the propaganda that the World State uses to brain wash the citizens exist in our society too. We are the ones that created slogans, the main form of brainwashing used by the World State. The World State is not much different from societies we have for example North Korea and China because the World States is just a financially stable form of a communist government. I believe we our society now could become a government exactly like the World State in the distant future.
Skewed………….
Many books are turing into movies. This is beneficial to everthing and everyone creating a mutual relationship between us and the works of literature. A book not famous gets created into a movie and once people see the movie, many go to read the book or the book gets famous. If a movie is based on a famous book, people will see the movie to compare it with the book or people that want to know the plot of the book do not have the time to read the bok so they go to see the movie instead. For us, we just get to have fun with both! One specific case is Dracula by Bram Stoker. The movie was considerably different from the book; it had many details skewed and disfigured departing from the book. First of all, the real estate broker who visits Dracula in his mansion is not Renfield but Jonathan Harker. In the movie Renfield come to Dracula’s mansion to discuss a different issue than real estate as it was in the book. Second, the three female vampires come in the room Renfield is staying in, while in the book Dracula warns Harker to not sleep in other rooms. The three vampires are also not very seductive because Renfield easily stumbles out from their entanglement. Next, on the ship Demeter, Dracula kills the sailors and does not dispose their bodies as he does in the book. In the book, the sailors disappear except the sailor. Also another problem we encounter is that Dracula brings Renfield on the ship with him when he comes to England. Then there are the relationships. Jonathan is completely irrelevant with Dracula even after 40 minutes into the movie. Mina is the daughter of Dr. Seward and the three lovers of Lucy do not appear because she is dead after the first bite. This also does not happen in the book. From many reasons mentioned, the movie of Stoker’s Dracula differes greatly from the original book.
The Real Thing
Coming to think about it in depth, it is very difficult to “like” anything done in school. However, after considering this topic over and over again, talking to myself ‘What do I like about school?’ I came to a solution. I sometimes enjoy and like scientific experimetns I am able to do only in school in Chemistry class. Well some of this has to do with the teacher, Mr. J is relaxed and let’s us do the experiment in any way we want. Mr. J’s labs are different from other school labs where the teacher walks you through every step and tells you how to do everything. Mr. J gives us the assignment and sits at his computer to answer any questions that we have. If an experiment included a hot plate and some sugar why not throw in some sugar to burn on the plate? It does not affect anyone except the smell of burning sugar, I do not understand teachers who try to eliminate all the fun out of science labs. Well, at least I did find something I like about school.
Class I Want to Drop Most: Math
Parent teacher conferences for first semester almost put my mother to sleep forever becacuse of my incredibly low grade in Algebra 2. I do not have a firm understanding of the base of mathematics. Since I moved around from school to school so many times in America and in Korea, I had a fluctuating curriculum for mathematics. In KIS during my elementary school I propelled in math way beyond all of the other kids. However when I went to America in a boarding school for two years I did not study well because of a brand new environment. Therefore, my mathematics was slowed down. Now I am trying to fix this problem and become very advanced in math once again. For first semester it had worked very well however, math just gets harder and harder every day. During the first semester I always had my mac book open but since the beginning of the second semester to lessen my distraction and pay close attention to everything Mr. S lectures on. Trying to be responsible through homework and assignments. Through these factors I have improved my grade a little bit, but not by much.
Year of Festivity
Our school holds a festival made by students attending foreign language classes which included Spanish, Chinese, and French this year. The festivals sound very dull and another school however, it is quite the contrary. As a Spanish student I had to set up a tent containing information and decorations from Columbia. We had lights, posters, flags, and a computer set up with multiple presentations. Each group was to make food and activities from their country and have interactive plans with our audience. Our first food was mango salad which turned out be the worst failure because it became soggy after two days. The mango looked like rotten strings of rubber and did not taste any better. Our group did not have any activities (our Spanish teacher does not know!) because we could not find any authentic Columbian activities. The group next to us brought acrylic paint for face painting…. and that did not turn out well. Obviously. Students and teachers were running around trying to erase the acrylic paint. The Spanish 1 D block class sung a pop song however, not one person knew the meaning of the lyrics. To be honest all of the tents looked exactly the same and the whole festival was hilarious!!
Interesting?
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Our whole class has their own blogs and my duty was to look at two other blogs and find interesting aspects of them. I thought this would be difficult because after all this is a school assignment, but on the contrary I found many interesting articles and layouts of blogs. First off, the title and topics of mant blogs were interestin such as “Interesting, hmmmmmmm?????” or “Canada Wins Hockey!”. The topics were also great. My favorite out of all of the class was the article on Poker by R.H. because of my interest in Poker as well. His argument was whether Poker involves skill or if it is pure luck. Many students or grown up men would be interested in a topic as such. Secondly, the layouts were inriguing to look at. Some blogs left me wondering ‘Is this the work from a student in my grade?’ yes it is. There were dark themes, white themes, innocent themes, and coloful themes. Thirdly, the images and videos are eye catchers. Every image and video needs a second or two to be looked at. In one blog there were pictures of the most beautiful exotic cars. All of the blogs had their own taste and aura to it but some stood out the most with their topics, images, and videos! 
Transnational Education
Sociology is one of the new elective class that I am taking second semster. It is considerably similar with psychology because some of the famous psychologists also turned out to be sociologists too. Mr. D, my sociology teacher, organized many activities for our class to get a chance to communicate with students of all backgrounds in the United States of America. So far I have communicated with Jake, a student of black ethnicity and a fighter. He is of the lower social class and attends an interesting school; it is half public and half private. Some of the students have to apply formally similar to a private highschool, and the rest are chosen through a lottery system. Our next assignment, which we just received, involves going out in the public for the surveys. The objective is to carry out the same survey such as, who gets more hugs holding up a “Free Hugs” sign? Boys or girls? in Korea and the United States and compare the results of the two countries. We have yet to choose a topic because this project is still hot off the grill. Hope the project goes well!
Published and Unpublished Dracula Comparison
Dracula written by Bram Stoker is an interesting novel which has its theme around a count who is a vampire. There were many versions of this story other than the one published to the public. First of all, both are written including many Gothic elements of literature such as architecture, pathetic fallacy, setting, and death. In both of the versions the same pathetic fallacy exists because they talk about the weather and a doomed day. The weather contributes too because it is raining and dark, very dark. Architecture is not yet mentioned in the unpublished version but in the published version, Count Dracula’s castle exemplifies Gothic architectural themes. Setting is important in both stories, the first involves a graveyard and a haunted crossroad, while the second has a long hazardous route and an isolated castle. Death is common in both stories. Personally, I enjoyed reading the unpublished version rather than the other. The unpublished version has more suspense and the fact that the horses and the native child is scared out of their pants better shows the gravity of the situation.
Kara and Puppy Dogs 