What is happening at Rails Farm in the summer months?
GCSEs and A-levels are done and we all are waiting for the two magic days in August, the 15th and the 22nd to find out your well-deserved results. Fingers crossed and touch wood and all of this to ensure that it will be a fantastic day. Meanwhile the Earth carries on spinning and orbiting around the sun and many things are happening on our smallholding.
Getting a trim
We were busy making hay and the boss of our smallholding, my dear wife Gaby, has acquired a new skill.
She is now a trained hand shearer to relieve our sweaty sheep from their winter coat also called fleece. Why can she cut the fleece with a pair of sharp blades? The secret is the incredible high pressure with which the blades attack the fibres of the fleece. The definition of pressure is force per area (pressure= Force/Area). To generate enough pressure to break, i.e. cut the fibres one needs either a large force or a very small surface area. The latter is the case for the shearing. Gaby does not have incredibly strong hands to close the shears, she rather uses very small surface areas of the two communicating blades. This pressure would be equivalent to water pressure diving more than 100 metre below the surface.
How many hay bales??
When we lifted our 133 hay bales, some were much heavier than others and that despite the fact that they had the same size, i.e. volume. How can this happen? Well the reason is its density. Density is how packed the hay is and the definition is Density = Mass / Volume. Hence the Mass (in Kilograms) is Density times Volume. So, if there is more hay in the same Volume the density is higher and therefore the mass is larger even though the size or Volume is the same. Simples.
Finally, I am still waiting for the answer of my last scientific Quiz question. Come on do it. The next one would be whether in Australia or New Zealand the water vortex in a drain would circulate in the opposite direction as it does in our, the northern hemisphere? Please go email us your answer.
Cheerio,
Christoph