How Many Seconds Are In A Century?

Today I asked my dad how many seconds are in a century.

So he took out a piece of paper and we figured it out.

And here is our equation:

60sec/1minute · 60min/1hour · 24hours/1day · 365days/1year · 100years/1century = seconds in a century

This is called the factor-label method. All those fractions after the first one are actually equal to one.

When we multiply it out, most of the labels cancel out:

60sec/1minute · 60min/1hour · 24hours/1day · 365days/1year · 100years/1century = seconds in a century


Now we have to do the arithmetic:

60 · 60 · 24 · 365 · 100 = seconds in a century


We tried doing it on a calculator, but the answer was too big!

So we factored it:

36 · 24 · 365 · 10⁴


And multiplied the first part on the calculator:

315,360 · 10<sup>4

Then we added four zeroes:</sup>


3,153,600,000

There are over 3 billion seconds of  in a one hundred year period!

Gadgets!

I added fun new gadgets to my blog.

They are on the right margin and you might need to scroll down a little to see them.

Move your mouse over the "fish" one, and they will try to eat your cursor.   Left-click to leave food.

Use the mouse to strum the "guitar", or you can click on it play it with the keyboard.

And you can click the the strings on the guitar.
Have fun!

My New Instrument

This is my guitar ↑. It is acoustic, not electric.

It cost $99 at Guitar Center.

It has 6 strings. This is how it makes music:

The vibration of the strings causes the soundboard (top) of the guitar to vibrate in a similar manner. The vibration of the soundboard then causes the air inside (and around) the guitar to vibrate...the vibrations of the air is what you hear and what you hear is known as a sound wave or sound waves.

My 14 year-old cousin knows how to play; and he's going to teach me a little bit.

Summer Camp

Yesterday it was my first day of camp.

The school bus came to pick me up.

The ride was very long and I made a new friend named Tyler who sat right next to me.

I was part of the yellow tag group.

And I was on the the green table.

And I made a windmill for a craft.

Rate * Time = Distance

If you go 70mph for one hour....you'll go 70 miles.

If you go 70mph for two hours....you'll go 140 miles.

If you go 70mph for half an hour.... you'll go 35 miles.

The rule is:

rate * time = distance

In my algebra book sometimes they mix it up.

Sometimes they give the distance and the rate and have to solve for time.

Sometimes they give the distance and the time and have to solve for rate.

That is easy:

rate = distance / time

time = distance / rate

Another thing they want me to do is to find the average speed:

average speed = total distance / total time