Sunday, February 06, 2011

Curiosity- Möbius strip

Hello everyone!

I want to post you this video, because I think is really interesting.

The video is about Möbius strip.

A Möbius strip is a surface with only one side. And we say it is "handedness" (it is nor right-handed nor left-handed). Möbius is the surname of a 19th Century mathematician. He discovered that this special figure had some curious properties. Some of them you will find them in the video.



You can try in your houses if you like. You can do a model by taking a paper strip and giving it a half-twist, and then joining the ends of the strip together to form a loop.

I am sure you can ask in class about this string in science classes and maybe someone could explain you more things. If you want more info you can look here.

This figures are also related with an artist called Escher. Here you have some information about him. And I post you some images I like:

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Listen to music while studying, writing, or reading

What do you listen to when you are studying?

Something relaxing or that makes you move?

Have you ever noticed how your favorite music can make you feel better?

Well, new research studies now show how music can make you smarter too!

This is what experts think about music while studying or reading:

"Music stabilizes mental, physical and emotional rhythms to attain a state of deep concentration and focus in which large amounts of content information can be processed and learned. Baroque music, such as that composed by Bach, Handel or Telemann, that is 50 to 80 beats per minute creates an atmosphere of focus that leads students into deep concentration in the alpha brain wave state. Learning vocabulary, memorizing facts or reading to this music is highly effective."

If you want to read more: click here It is a teacher's article, but it is really interesting and I think it will be useful for you also. And, of course, after reading it, you could pass the info to your friends and your parents!

In this article they also mention another composer, Mozart: "Energizing Mozart music assists in holding attention during sleepy times of day and helps students stay alert while reading or working on projects." And in this other page they say about Mozart: Scientists at Stanford University, in California, have recently revealed a molecular basis for the "Mozart Effect", but not other music.

For further information you can also look here.

Here you have the web page I showed you in class today about Baroque music:



http://www.baroquemusic.org/


I really encourage you to listen to baroque music!!!

Love this sentence I found about music: "Music is so naturally united with us that we cannot be free from it even if we so desired" (Boethius cited by Storr).