Cubic Measurements

Common measurements

I recently had the opportunity to go shopping for a new stove. Sometimes when we are looking at certain appliances or yard work, we come across references to cubic measurements. Most people can get very flustered. Measurements can be confusing. When we are in a store looking at stoves for instance, some measurements will say 30 inches, and some will say 5 cu ft. What do these measurements mean?

This is a graphic of what a standalone or a slide in stove looks like.

When you see a stove advertised in inches, this refers to the width of the stove. This is good for those who need a slide in unit that will only fit in a certain space. Measure across the front of the space, this tells you how big a unit will fit.

Cubic Feet

When you see a unit measured in cubic feet. This refers to the inside measurements of length, width, and height, or the volume of your unit. The important thing to remember is that you need to get the measurements inside the unit. This works for both stoves and refrigerators.

Remember that area refers to length x width. To get the cubic measurement, you need to multiply length x width x height. If you have measured in inches, this will give you cubic inches. To get cubic feet, simply divide your answer by 1728. 1728 is 12" x 12" x 12",

For example:

You want a free standing stove. Your current stove measurements inside the oven area are 18" for the length, 16" for the width, and 23" for the height.

Multiply. 18 x 16 x 23 = 6624 cubic inches. Divide. 6624/1728 = 3.8 cubic feet. This is how big your current stove volume is. Now you can decide how big you would like your new stove to be. If you have measured in feet, make sure you measure to the second decimal or the hundredths place.

For example:

16 inches = 1.33 feet

18 inches = 1.5 feet

23 inches = 1.91 feet

If you just multiply 1.3 x 1.5 x 1.9, you will get 3.7 cubic feet which is close, but not quite accurate enough. The second decimal is important. 1.33 x 1.5 x 1.91 = 3.81 which rounds to 3.8. This is more accurate and will give you a much better idea of the measurements inside your oven. This can be especially important if you are ordering online. Amazon.com. In the title of the item you may see 5 cu ft. When you look for more information however, the product dimensions tell you the outside dimensions of the stove such as 27.7 x 29.9 x 46.9. The outside dimensions come to 22.5 cu feet. The 5 cu ft refers to the inside volume of the oven.

Remember that a stove can have the same dimensions outside, and yet have different volume dimensions inside the oven. Each manufacturer can be different.

Hopefully, this information helps you understand more about what you are looking at when you go hunting for your new appliance. 

Carbonation

Carbonation. We all know it happens. But do we talk about it much? Well, maybe beer geeks do.
I recently had someone on Google Plus circle me, found out I post about beer and food and quickly uncircle me. They were looking for more "Science" posts. But what happens in beer making IS science. The exchange of ions, the fermentation process. the transformation of proteins and sugars. Mmm...beer.
Ok, so I decided to take a little more "sciency...sciencey...science..ee...?" approach today. Lets talk about carbonation.
My beer is currently undergoing fermentation. The yeast that I put in the beer is changing sugars to alcohol. A byproduct of that is CO2. (Hey, can we find a scientific notation app for Blogger???)
Now note in the video that when we ferment, we allow that CO2 to escape.

Yes, I know, I know, "Why do you let it escape if you need the beer to carbonate anyway?"
I let the gas escape, because far too much CO2 would be produced and my whole bucket of beer would go...boom. It's what happens when you build up a lot of gas in a confined space. I don't want my beer to be evil, so, I set my CO2 free.
AFTER the fermentation has been done and I let the beer rest for awhile - it's hard work making alcohol after all, I then put the beer in bottles. In the bottles is a teeeny tiiiiny amount of yeast that was left in the bucket after fermentation. It's all I need. I add a measured amount of sugar to the bottles too.
Now what do you think happens when the yeast and the sugar come together in the same environment again? You've got it, they start cha-cha ing. Even as tired as that yeast is, it still has enough dance moves left to produce more CO2 even if it doesn't have enough to produce more alcohol. Just enough in fact, to carbonate those bottles nicely. Yes, the CO2 IS the carbonation that makes the bottle go HISS when you pop the cap off.
In the end, you have a lovely, bubbly bottle of ale or lager to enjoy at your leisure.

Meal in a Can

I recall quite vividly the last time that I was too tired to cook. Too tired to bake fish, to steam veg, to dust potatoes artfully with paprika and salt. Too tired to wait 3 hours for a roast. It was yesterday. I have learned, therefore, to be prudent when I do have the energy to do these things.

I buy whole fish on sale. I buy large cuts of meat for buy one get one prices. I use veggies and herbs from the garden. This year has been good to us, all the newly planted herbs survived, the mint, the sage, the marjoram, the thyme, the lemon balm, the parsley, the basil. We had a bumper crop of container snow peas!

The difference this year, is that I looked at the prices for ziploc baggies. Which for some reason have gone sky high! It galls me to use baggies anyway. All that plastic going to waste..and I started thinking, "Hey, plenty of freezer space. I have quart jars. What if I just froze a meal in a canning jar? A quart jar can usually contain enough food for one to two people. So this is what I did.

Tonight I cooked a whole salmon. Marinated it in apple cider vinegar, sprinkled it with salt and paprika, rubbed olive oil all over it, and stuffed it with sage and mint. That fish turned out really tasty! After we had dinner, I was still left with enough servings for six people. I put two servings of fish in a quart size canning jar with a wide mouth, then two handfuls of snow peas, and sliced potatoes on top of that.

The next time I stop work or school, weary unto death and think "I do NOT want to slice a potato tonight." I will remember that lovely fish meal and break out the can from the freezer. I'll dump the entire contents into a square baking dish, top with with some butter or instant sauce, bake it for 20 to 25 minutes at 350F and I won't have to worry whether my meal is going to cause me to die of cancer or give me high blood pressure from the amount of salt and preservatives that went into it.

I still have an entire crate of quart jars..and a whole shoulder of lamb.......

Half Mast

Half-Mast

Put not the flag at half mast for me

I am alive, not dead, in you

As long as you remember me.

I have not fallen.

I fought, and fight still,

in those that I inspired.

I did not cry when I died, I smiled,

for it was not an end,

only a changing of the guard.

-Linda Teppler

And now for something completely unexpected. The Unit Circle

The Unit Circle
The first time you look at this fat..hodgepodge of unrelenting chaos, all you can think is “My god, numbers EVERYWHERE, I'm supposed to remember THIS?”

Well, if you're using Trigonometry, it helps. It really does, please believe me.
Today I want to explain something about the Unit Circle. For all you types who have seizures at the thought of doing high school math, it may not be your cup of tea, but for even a small portion of us, it will become invaluable and maybe even a liiiiiittle interesting. When you want to know how tall something is for instance... or how many stones you will have to buy for that brand new ^%^%ing path from the house to the gate that you have to put in yourself because the estimates from the "pros" would have put your retirement at 103.

I will explain only one part of the Unit Circle. It's called the First Quadrant. I will restrict my explanation to only the angles, not the values that they are associated with.
Plain and simple, the Unit Circle has degrees and radians that are the angles you see inside a triangle. Each quarter of the circle is called a Quadrant. In each quadrant there are points that have both a degree, and a radian. Don't be intimidated by the name "radian" it just means that it has a pi symbol.
The circumference of a circle is 2 times pi, times r. The Unit circle always has a radius (from the middle of the circle to anywhere on the outer edge) of 1. This means the circumference of the whole Unit Circle is 2pi. The very first point we put on the circle is 0. It always starts at the right of the circle, and is the beginning of Quadrant I. The end of Quadrant one is the 90 degree angle right at the top of the circle.
Trigonometry tells us the story of the sides and the angles of triangles. So to get the points of Quadrant 1, we look at two "special triangles." The first is called a 45-45-90 triangle 

 and the second is a 30-60-90 triangle.

 These are both right triangles in which we place one 90 degree angle, and that makes the points that describe the angles on the Unit circle. One 30 degree point right after 0, one 45 degree point in the middle, one 60 degree point, and of course 90 degrees at the end of our first quadrant.

Now we have all the degrees we need. So what else do we need? Well, degrees, believe it or not, are not very accurate. Yes yes, I hear you yelling now "But ships and planes and stuff use them!" Yes, and they do a very fine job. But can you imagine trying to measure the tip of your pencil with a yardstick? This is what it is like for those who are using Trigonometry with sciences in which they need smaller numbers, finer, more exacting detail. Degrees sometimes just won't cut the mustard. So we have Radians. Radians is like using a fine tip sharpie to paint that moustache on Amerigo Vespucci's butt in your textbook, instead of that massive, thick nubbed pen which makes it look like he's...well..incontinent. con..ti..nent....get it? oh never mind.

At any rate, here we are. We know all our degrees, how do we get our radians? Well. We know that the entire circumference of a circle is 2pi. Try cutting that in half. Go ahead. Good!! it's pi. This is half a circle. 
Now, to get to the end of the first quadrant, or a quarter of the Unit circle cut pi in half.. ah yes, pi/2. This equals 90 degrees.

Well, we have two points already. We nearly have the whole thing solved. This may become...a little...tricky.
Cut pi in half again. Don't be shy. Just divide pi/2 by 2. Remember that when you divide a fraction by a number, you can get the answer by multiplying that fraction by the reciprocal of the the other number!

Did you get pi/4? So did I!! Guess what, that equals 45 degrees.

So what now? we have two angles left. How do we get 30 degrees? Well there are 3 points separating 90 degrees or pi/2 from 30 degrees just as there are two points separating 90 degrees from 45 degrees. So lets divide pi/2 by 3.
pi/2 divided by 3 = pi/6. Good job!

We have only one more radian to go to get all the degrees and all the radians on this quadrant of the unit circle. Stick with me, it's a brain teaser.
There is a difference of 30 degrees between 0 and 30, and 15 degrees between 30 to 45, then 15 degrees between 45 to 60. So if we add 30 degrees and 30 degrees, we come up with 60 degrees. Since we already know that 30 degrees equals pi/6, we should be able to add pi/6 to itself, and we will get....pi/3. When you go "but wait...I got 2pi/6!" Remember that 2pi/6 is a fraction and we must reduce. 2 goes into 6 a whole 3 times giving us pi/3.

Now you know the radians and the degrees for the first quadrant. By remembering the changes in the first quadrant of the unit circle, you can figure out every quadrant there after by adding multiples of pi/6, pi/4, and pi/3. But just in case you get stuck with radians, here is a tip. After you figure out all your degrees for each quadrant, you can change those degrees to radians, by simply multiplying the degree by pi/180. for instance,  Multiply 30 degrees times pi/180 degrees. The degrees cancel, 60 goes into 160 six times, and you are left with...

You can do this for any degree on the Unit circle and it will work. But do try to add multiples of pi/3, pi/4, and pi/6. Learn to see the patterns that occur between the fractions, and you will also reinforce your basic math skills. 
By the way ... you won't buy enough stone for the path to the gate. You'll go back twice before you do, then it will rain, making work impossible for two weeks. You'll stare broodily out the window wondering how the gods could hate you so much. You should probably quit your job and become a writer with all those violent thoughts. Make a million bucks.

---

A party formed

"Well...look who's awake."

Lycosia grunted and sat up. "How long?"

"How long were you asleep? A few days. That scorpion bite really hurt you."

Lycosia reached up and touched her shoulder. It didn't hurt.

"Here..drink this.."

Lycosia took the carved cup that was handed to her and looked at the man across from her.

"I..don't understand.."

"You're thirsty aren't you? I was told you would be."

Lycosia stared into the cup without drinking it though her mouth was dry as a bone.

"Who are you? What is this? ...the stalker! Who healed me?"

The broad shouldered man leaned forward to rescue the cup before Lycosia dumped it out. He grasped her other hand as well.

"I promise, if you drink it, I will answer your questions. If I wanted to kill you, I would have let the scorpion do it."

Lycosia gave in and drank it. The man sat back.

"My name is Cormac. I was watching you kill those giant scorpions. Nice shooting."

She ignored the compliment and the introduction, "Where did the stalker go?"

Cormac motioned with his broad square jaw to a tree where the stalker lay hung over a branch like a toy. His eyes glittered like black diamonds as he kept his gaze on the stranger.

"He wasn't very happy with me."

"I'll bet. I'm surprised he didn't try to take a mouthful out of you."

"I was wearing armor."

Lycosia couldn't help it, she laughed.

"You are a funny sort Cormac. Where are you headed?"

"Anywhere those monsters are. I was asked by the Prince to find and kill any I saw. How about you?"

"The same. I need experience."

"You'll get plenty of it out here. Past the Fort, high up in the hills I hear there are creatures created from ice. They walk around, attacking the humans in the area. Amylon would be well rid of them."

"So who healed me? You?"

"Kind of." Cormac pulled out a stone and tossed it to her. "It's a summoning stone."

"You summoned a healing spirit..."

Cormac nodded. Lycosia smiled and stretched, feeling energy return to her through the stone. She handed the stone back then got up and with a few movements wrapped up the blankets she had been laying on. Cormac looked surprised.

"What are you doing?"

She slapped Cormac on the shoulder.

"Come on then! Lets go kill some ice demons! You do want to go don't you?"

Her laughter led the way down the road as Cormac scrambled back into his armor and stamped out the smoldering remains of the fire and dumped water on it. His freshly sharpened axe winked brightly in the sunshine and he smiled to himself.

"Wait! I don't even know your name!" he called after her. In response he saw the stalker jump off the branch and bump him purposefully in the back. When he didn't move forward fast enough, the stalker pushed him forward. He heard Lycosia whistle lightly somewhere up ahead and hurried along. Apparently he'd joined a party.

Cormac

The stalker looked a little taken aback with his ears flat against his head, but a sudden burst of true blood-lust hit Lycosia and she knew the feline was just getting worked up. Lycosia leaped for the rocky cliff and made it up onto an unwieldy branching tree root sticking out of the dusty side of the canyon. The stalker began leaping on the backs of the giant scorpions, swatting at their eyes and biting at the antennae that waved from their tiny heads. Lycosia took a brief moment to mutter the spell that gave her arrows a forceful draw and taking a deep breath, put herself into a deep frame of mind where she drew and fired without ceasing. She heard her arrows thump into their targets one after another. The last on the ground she took great pleasure in aiming right for its tiny brain.

She did not see the scorpion above her. Neither did the stalker. Seconds after the last bow left Lycosia's arrow she felt the weight of a monster bear her off the tree root and right to the ground. She dropped the bow and wriggled, but could not get free. She heard the stalker above her screaming angrily.

She heard, rather than felt, the scissored jaws sink into the bone of her shoulder. The crunch of her shoulder collapsing preceded the terrible pain. She screamed and pushed with all her might against the thick shell. Above her she could see the stalker had ripped off both the monsters antennae and was digging into its eyes. She felt the breath being squeezed out of her as the rest of the legs began an inexorable advance around her body in what promised to be a fatal hug.

As she began to see spots in front of her eyes from lack of air she felt the scorpion shudder. Another voice joined the stalker.

"Let go! Let go foul creature!"

Two hits. Three. Faintly, Lycosia thought it sounded like a woodcutter, chopping his ration for the day. Then the monster relaxed and she sucked in a wheeze of breath. Another breath began to bring her vision back. Her throat felt tight and dry as she struggled to regain her air. The monstrous scorpion was yanked off her and Lycosia stared up at quite possibly the biggest man she'd ever seen. He was dressed in a set of slightly used plate armor and a massive axe was laying by his feet. Lycosia could see bright red tendrils of hair sticking out from the edges of his helmet.

"Are you alright?"

Lycosia blinked. "what?"

The man knelt down and removed his helmet. His wild red hair captured almost all her dizzy attention.

"Are you..alright?"

Lycosia smiled, "When I grow up, I want to be just like you....." she breathed.

The man looked confused, then looked down at her shoulder, "You've been bitten! No wonder you aren't making any sense.. the poison, we have to purge the poison. I've got wormwood, or was it althea..?"

Lycosia drifted off to the sounds of the man making a fire and taking pouches out of a pack. She felt warm and sleepy and content. Except for that nagging sensation that there was something she needed to deal with.

Then came the pain.