Composing machinery music

We have been learning about physical science and simple machines. We used Garageband on Mac to compose a 1 minute soundtrack for an imagined mechanical process. It needed a start and be gearing up, a middle section, and a shutting down. We had to include an ostinato track (continuing throughout). Sounds were added from Garageband's loops library, but we also had to create one track using Garageband's Musical Typing keyboard, and to create and record at least one foley sound of our own. We also had to edit sounds in some way - eg: 

• Pitch
• Effects - eg echoes, distortions
• Length of notes
• Speed
• Volume

This is our first effort and we've made some very interesting soundtracks. We had fun exploring all the different possibilities for creating sound and putting it all together. The idea of becoming a sound engineer, or even a foley artist, appeals to some!

Life process

Living organisms have certain life processes in common. There are seven things that they need to do to count as alive. The phrase MRSGREN is one way to remember them. These letters stand for ...

M - movement - all livings things have to move.
R - respiration - getting energy from food.
S - sensitivity - detecting changes in the surroundings.
G - growth - all living things change from babies to adults.
R - reproduction - making more living things.
E - excretion - getting rid of waste. 
N - nutrition - taking and using food. 

It is very easy to tell if something is alive or not. A teddy bear might look like a bear, but it cannot do any of the seven things it needs to do to be alive. All it can do is sit there and look cute. 

On another hand, a car can move, it gets energy from petrol (like nutrition & respiration), it might have a car alarm (sensitivity), and it gets rid of waste through the exhaust pipe (excretion). But it cannot grow or reproduce. 

Movement, is one of the conditions of a living organism. Sometimes it is not that obvious in examples such as plants and fungus, but humans, you can see them grow and move.

Respiration, or being able to breathe is the next condition. Some living breathe oxygen in the air using lungs whilst others like fish use gills to take the oxygen out of the water.

Sensitivity, is all about being able to detect changes in the environment around the living organism. Examples of this include hairs on the human body and nerves in every living thing.

The "G" in MRSGREN stands for growth and all living things do this, even if it is extremely slowly. An example of this is the Coral Reef. It is extremely slow at growing.

All living things are capable of reproduction. There is also a huge amount of diversity in the number of offspring different speices produced. For example, fish lay millions of eggs as a survival strategy because they know that some are going to be eaten. 

Another thing that living things need to do is get rid of waste material and this process is called excretion. This comes in different forms such as manure, urine, gas, wee and poo. Some of these words are usually kept quiet.

Nutrition, or obtaining and consuming food, is the final letter of the mnenonic MRSGREN. This means all living things have to eat or they face death. I'm sure I'd rather eat than die. 

Overall, it is well known that the diversity of life on Earth is amazing. You have to do these seven things or else you will die, and death is not a great thing. 

My Planet Report - Neptune

All About 

Neptune

By Sam M

Neptune: Neptune means Roman mythology, Greek god Poseidon

Position in the Solar System: Neptune is 8th in the Solar System. It is beside Uranus and on the other side is Pluto. It orbits 4.498 billion kilometers from the Sun.

> The Planet Song <

Rotation on its Axis: Neptune’s day is only 16 hours unlike Earth which has 24 hours in a day.

Size: Neptune is almost 4 times the diameter of Earth which is about 12,500 wide.

Gravity: Neptune has 11.15 m/s2 of gravity. I would weigh about 68.76 kgs on Neptune.

Orbit: It takes 165 Earth years for Neptune to orbit the Sun.

Atmosphere: Neptune's atmosphere is made up predominately of hydrogen and helium, with some methane. The methane is part of what gives Neptune its brilliant blue tint, as it absorbs red light and reflects bluer colors.

Temperature: The temperature on Neptune is always -218 degrees Celsius.

Composition of Your Planet and its Appearance: Neptune is the last gas planet along with Uranus, Jupiter and Saturn.

Moons: Neptune has 14 moons. They are called Triton, Nereid, Larissa, Proteus, Naiad, Thalassa, Galatea, Despina, Laomedeia, Halimede, Sao, Neso, Psamathe and S/2004 N 1.

Rings: Neptune has 3 main rings that are very thin and dark, but there are several others.

How Would a Human Being Fare on Your Planet: They could only be in Neptune's atmosphere. Neptune is gas down as far as the core and so there is technically no surface. Therefore, a human could never be 'on' Neptune, on 'in' its atmosphere, and a human on Neptune would be a bit heavier, but not to much. There isn't anything to eat. It would be colder than most could imagine. Cold enough that nitrogen, which is an atmospheric gas here on earth, would be a liquid on Neptune. A person couldn't wear enough clothing to be protected outside on the surface. Any building there would have to be insulated in a way no building contractors here on earth have ever done. You'd need some serious heat in that building. Very serious heat. Oh, and with wind on Neptune ripping at something like 2100 kilometers per hour, it would be really tough to keep a structure in one place.

Something Special: Neptune is one of 4 gas giants. The storms on Neptune are 3 times as fast as the Hurricanes on Earth. Neptune is tilted 28.32% degrees, unlike Earth which is 23.5% tilted. Space crafts have never landed on Neptune and they probably will never because Neptune is gas so the Space crafts will fall right through.

Discovery of Your Planet: Neptune was discovered by mathematics and discovered by, John Couch Adams, Johann Gottfried Galle and Urbain Le Verrier in September 23 1846.
Your personal opinion: Overall, I think that Neptune is a damn cool planet and it is my favourite planet.