Matthew Lin

Ms Isaacs

English 9 Period 7

23 March 2010

Career Research Paper: The Master of the Metal Wing

            People have often called the sky the limit. The sky is often seen as the ceiling of the world, as seen by many words attributed to the skies, including the Spanish “cielo”, which could alternately be translated as the ceiling. However, as an aerospace engineer, the sky, ironically, is a ground to base everything on; the ground, on the other hand, is the limit. Aerospace engineers, as described by the average American person, are very smart people who build airplanes. They do not actually build the aircraft themselves, but rather design the technology and blueprints that keep the aircraft aloft in the air. They develop the technology that makes it possible for planes to be faster, larger, and/or more energy efficient than their predecessors. Being on the cutting edge of technology, aerospace engineers face an extremely challenging yet rewarding white collar job.

                Aerospace engineering has its roots with the first contemplations of human flight and the passion of some humans to copy their winged counterparts, the birds. These experiments often ended disastrously, and many would-be aviators soon realized that they were not going to be successful. Later, Leonardo Da Vinci drawn up many sketches of flying machines, though when built they did not seem to leave the ground for any amount of time. Then, during 1783, flight was reached when aviators built a hot air balloon that floated across Paris. Then, during the 19^th century, many people tried making their own lighter than air aircrafts and parachutes, though these developments generally ended when the Hindenburg blew up in 1936, after which most commercial uses and heavy research on lighter than air aircraft stopped. On the other hand, gliders were designed, but sustained and controlled flight, as most people know it today, was not a reality until the Wright Brothers’ first flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Then, aircraft progressed, being larger and faster until they are what they are today.

            This career is one of the more interesting ones. Most aerospace engineers are skilled in many disciplines, including those of writing, designing, and prototyping, alternately called building. These skills facilitate the design of aircraft. During a typical day for an aerospace engineer, he would wake up and go to the office. There, there typically would be an untested model floating around somewhere inside his office. The model would then be rendered and inputted into a specialized program that does the physics of flight and mechanics and emulates the part, showing what it could do. Once the computer tests are complete, then he, or some assistant waiting down in the shop, would make a model of the prototype while the main designer is generally out having lunch or taking a break. When the prototype is finished, then the designer would go into the shop and test out the prototype, generally by using it in a wind tunnel or something akin to this, eventually fine tuning the model just enough as to make it the optimal shape and size. This would then be rendered back onto the computer, and another team would pick up the work.

                Like all engineering jobs, aerospace engineering has its own share of quirks and irks. Though it is one of the lesser known engineering jobs, one that is typically not thought about often.

            To begin with, like all engineering jobs, being an aerospace engineer has its own positive quirks. Engineers in the most part deal with the cutting edge of technology, whether it is the newest spacecraft that has the potential to bring people to Mars and back or simply Apple’s new iThing, whatever it may be. They also have the access to many tools that people generally do not have access to, including a machine shop that is typically owned by the company and software such as computer aided modeling. Also, this job has quite a good job outlook, and the starting salary is quite high, with a median of about 79,100 a year. Like most engineers, aerospace engineers enjoy an easy forty hour workweek, with a slightly shifted time table from normal, starting from seven or eight in the morning and having the workday end at around four or five in the afternoon. There is also an opportunity to try many different projects and some exploration to some extent. As said before, this job will pay extremely well and has many benefits such as health insurance. (Scott)

            However, being an aerospace engineer is not just all playing around on the computer. Because the main work of an engineer is to meet deadlines, anything, and absolutely anything, goes to meeting those deadlines. Though an average work day may only be forty hours long, they will typically extend their hours by nearly doubling their hours to meet the deadlines, sometimes even to the extent of coming in late at night and/or staying overnight to finish some crucial project before the deadlines approaches. Also, like all engineering jobs, this job has many moments of frustration. It has been a joke that many senior engineers are bald simply because they pulled all their hair out simply out of frustration (Thompson). Also, since many companies have their fair share of trade secrets, quitting jobs or switching jobs would be quite difficult, as the previous employer generally does not want the engineer to go to another company, especially one of their rivals, and dump many of their trade secrets into the wrong hands. Finally, being an aerospace engineer means that any slip up falls onto the engineer’s hands. Because of the rigid hierarchy of the company, it is extremely easy to find out who built what on which models and which parts of which models. If anything goes untested and fails, for which the failure is not just a freak accident, later when the product is released into the market, the engineers that made that part would be at responsibility. (Scott)

            Though this career has usually been considered a very vague career that has been out of the reach of the general public for over a decade, there are still many ways to get into this career.

            To begin with, this career nearly always demands education and training.

Education focuses on what you know. It involves broad-based learning, which tends to urge the learner to sample many fields of knowledge, concentrating in the latter stages of one specific field, such as physics or engineering. Education prepares you more for the future in general… Training involves something you do. This may be a natural aptitude in mechanics, which allows you… Or it may involve a very different skill that helps you to control numerous airplanes within a finite airspace – sight unseen. Training prepares you for exceptional performance in a skilled position. (Maples 2)

This shows that just being in the classroom learning is not enough for this career, but rather requires the student or the future engineer to apprentice him/herself into the field and learn through a more hands on approach. They also require a college education of at least a bachelor’s degree, and some require even more work in graduate school. They generally take more than four years to complete, and some “allow students to alternate between going to school and working at an aerospace engineering job.” (Ferguson) If the prospective engineer decides to work with certain companies, they should think about staying in the job for quite a while if they decide not to resign early into the job, as getting out of the job after staying for a while or becoming more senior becomes progressively more difficult as the engineer knows more and more government secrets or trade secrets, which means that after a while, the engineer is basically stuck inside the job for life as a result of this secrecy.

            Throughout the ages, people have been looking up towards the sky, looked at birds, and thought “Gee, I wish I could fly!” People have been always making their own apparatuses attempting to do that, but few have succeeded. However, as of 2010, people have been flying for nearly a century. Aerospace engineers are responsible for keeping these metal birds up and aloft, as well as making advances to the metal of the sky, making them faster, safer, larger, and, most importantly, more fuel efficient. Though they themselves are “grounded”, their creations, the metal birds of the heavens, are free to fly wherever their pilot takes them.

Works Cited

Bittorrent Monster. h33t - Career Discovery Encyclopedia, 7th Edition, 8 Vol. set [h33t][mkrandow] - torrent. 15 March 2010 <http://www.h33t.com/ details.php?id=3fff36c65ceb7e9a44d8ba0057f8a01dc6708dfd>. Magnet link only!

Maples, Wallace. “Education Versus Training.” Google Books, McGrawHill Companies. Opportunities in Aerospace Careers. New York City: McGraw Hills Companies, obtained through Google Books, 2003. 2.

Scott, Jeff. Aerospaceweb.org| Ask us- aerospace engineering 2- Mozilla firefox. 10 February 2002. 17 March 2010 <http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/careers/q0065a.shtml>.

—. Aerospaceweb.org| Ask us- aerospace engineering 2- Mozilla firefox. <http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/careers/q0065.shtml>.

Thompson, Bruce. Various conversation pieces.

Question:

Where does the creature gets shot?

In the shoulder

Question:

Who is the first victim of strangulation by the monster?

William

Question:

What is the word that experience is the idea experiences in life shape the personality?

Nurture

Question:

What religion is Felix?

Christian

Question:

What is the name of Victor’s dad?

Alphonse

Question:

What does the monster say that he will go if Victor creates a she-monster?

South America

Question:

What is the name of Mary Shelley’s husband’s name?

Percy

Question:

What mistake does William make that costs him his life?

Says who his father is

Question:

Spelled correctly, the name of Victor’s university

Ingolstadt

Question:

Where does Walton first meets victor?

The North Pole

Question:

What is the interval of time that Victor does not see the monster after he creates him

2 years

Question:

What country does Victor go with Clerval to?

England

Question:

What language does the monster learn to speak first?

French

Question:

The name of the woman the monster sees inside the locket

Caroline

Question:

What is the name of the second person that monster kills with his own hands?

Henry

Question:

According to the romantics, what two things must be in the place in order to experience the sublime?

Nature, solitude

Question:

What is Caroline’s relation to Beaufort?

Daughter

Question:

When Elizabeth was a little girl, what color was her hair?

Golden

Question:

What does the monster normally eat?

Fruits

Question:

What does Walton wish he have on the ship?

Friends

Question:

In the novel Frankenstein, what does fire represent?

Knowledge

Question:

What is safie’s native country?

Turkey

Question:

What is Justine Moritz’s cause of death?

Execution by hanging

Question:

What is the name of Victor’s favorite professor at Ingolstadt?

Waldman

Question:

Why does the monster talk to De Lacey first?

He is blind

Question:

What is the name of DeLacey’s daughter?

Agatha

Question:

How tall is the monster?

2.6 M

emi-lee:

been doing aleks all day -__- & an assessment again. i hate you aleks.

Touché. That’s why the smart kids don’t actually do all the math in their heads, they use mathway to do it. And then the dæmon inside of Aleks is quelled…

Isn’t technology great? It’s, simply put, fighting fire with fire.

Clan – group of people related by blood or marriage
Nok – first culture in Africa that figured out how to do metalworking and how to melt metal
Griot – storyteller that also acts as the historian and librarian in a typical African society
Sahara – the largest desert in the world in North Africa
Savanna – grasslands of Africa
Djenne-Djeno – biggest city of the Nok culture, booming trade center
Iron working – the skill of making iron ore into something earlier
Africa’s diverse geography – desert, savanna, and desert from north to south, and some rainforests in the west
What are push-pull factors in regards to migration?
Push factors are factors that motivate people to move out of a place, and pull factors are factors that motivate people to move to a certain region
West Africa’s earliest known culture – nok culture
What are the three categories that cause migration?
The three categories that cause migration are sociopolitical reasons, socioeconomic reasons, and environmental reasons.
What are the six effects of migration?
The six effects of migration are that it can change population density, cultural blending of languages or ways of life may occur, ideas and technologies may be shared, people’s qualities of life may be improved as a result of moving, clashes between groups may create unrest, persecution, or war, and employment opportunities may dry up, creating unemployment and poverty.
Empire of Ghana – first empire to set up the gold-salt trade and profit from it
Tsetse fly and their impact on the reason – fly that carried the African sleeping sickness, kept the population from approaching the rainforest and prevented colonization of Africa for a while
Camels and their impact
Camels: desert traveling machine that allowed regular travel across the sahara
Trade in west Africa – did by camels across the sahara when traders bought south salt and north gold
Songhai empire – muslim empire that succeeded the Ghana empire in terms of being the wealthiest empire in the region
Almoravids – muslim warriors that conquered the Songhai empire

African civilizations
West African civilizations
Empire of Ghana
The Ghana Empire was located in West Africa directly below the Sahara desert
Until AD 200, trade across the Sahara had existed, however, it was infrequent and irregular
This was because the harsh desert conditions
Most people used animals like oxen, donkey and horses to travel. These animals could not travel long distances without rest or water
This all changed by the third century with the discovery of the camel (the ultimate traveling machine)
The camel could travel as much as 60 miles in one day. It could also travel more than 10 days without water (more than twice as much as other animals)
With the camel, the Sahara was nowhere near the monster it was before and thus allowed traders to freely make their way to Ghana
By 700 Ghana became a kingdom and its rulers were growing rich by taxing the goods that traders carried through the territory
Gold salt trade
The 2 most important trade items were gold and salt
West Africa had gold, in fact it was estimated to have 2/3 of the world’s gold supply, however, west Africa’s savanna and forest lacked salt, a mineral essential to human life
But the Sahara contained deposits of salt all over the place. In fact some Sahara village workers built their houses from salt blocks
This trade marriage gained Ghana great wealth through trade and taxes up to 1076. The almoravids of north Africa conquered Ghana
And although they eventually withdrew from Ghana it had disrupted the salt/gold trade so severely that Ghana was never able to regain its power in the west again
Empire of Mali
Nobody seized power again in West Africa until 1235 when the kingdom of Mali had emerged
Its founders were a mande-speaking people who lived just south of Ghana
Surprise, surprise the Mali kingdom was built on gold and trade
As Ghana remained weak, trade routes that had once gone to Ghana shifted eastward to Mali, which allowed them to grow rich and powerful
Sundiata conquers an empire
Mali’s first great leader was sundiata
He came to power by crushing a cruel, unpopular leader and quickly expanded the empire by conquering the kingdom of Ghana and several other trade routes along west Africa
Sundiata’s reforms
He placed able administrators in charge of Mali’s finances, defense, and foreign affairs
He changed the capital to niani and made it an important trade and commerce center
He reestablished the gold-salt trade
Sundiata died in 1255 and an African Muslim named mansa musa claimed power
He nearly doubled the size of the empire and kept the peace at home by putting down every small rebellion
He also divided the empire into provinces and appointed governors who ruled fairly and effectively
Unfortunately his successors lacked ability to govern and the empire fell apart after his death
Empire of Songhai
The Songhai empire had two extraordinary rulers, both of whom were Muslims
Sunni ali
He built a vast empire by military conquest. Ali’s rule began in 1463 and lasted almost 30 years
He built a professional army that had a riverboat fleet of war canoes and men on horseback
He conquered most of West Africa before his death in 1492
His son took over after his death, but did not last long because
A devote Muslim named askia Muhammad drove him from power because he felt he did not practice his religion faithfully
Under Muhammad the empire flourished for many years until being taken over by a group of Moroccan fighters
The end of the Songhai empire ended a 1000 year period in which powerful kingdom and empires ruled west Africa
North and Central Africa
Hunting gathering societies
Forest dwellers
The efe are one of several hunting gathering societies in Africa
They make their homes in the ituri forest in the democratic republic of congo
Like their ancestors, modern day efe live in small groups of 10-100 members
A single family would live in a grass and brush shelter within a camp, but their homes are rarely permanent
They move camps once they have used up the resources in the surrounding areas
Supplement their diets through trading with farmers
Social structure
A respect order male typically serves as a group leader and although tribe members value this man’s opinion, he does not give orders or act as chief
Each family within the band makes it own decision and is free to come and go
Group members settle arguments through long discussions and if conflicts cannot be settled group members may decide to move to different hunting bands
Daily life for the efe is not governed by formal written laws
Stateless societies
Families are organized into lineages – this includes living family members, past generations (in spirit form), future generations (children not yet born)
Lineage members feel strong loyalties to one another
Stateless societies are societies that you do not have a centralized system of power, instead authority was balanced
Muslim states
While stateless societies developed south of the Sahara, Islam played a vital role in north Africa
After Muhammad’s death in 632 Muslims swept across Africa. They converted many b sword
By 670 Muslims ruled Egypt and the Mediterranean coast of North Africa

Migration
People on the move
Migration is a permanent move from one country or region to another
Causes of migration
Aside from general human desire for change, the causes of migration can fall into one of three categories
Environmental
Economic
Political
In early history of human life, environmental factors were the main cause, but as time wore on economic and political reasons played a greater and greater role in migration
When looking at migration you must look at the push-pull factors
Like its name these can either push people out of an area or pull them into an area
Lack of employment in your region
Economic push example
Little rain fall in your dry land
Environmental push example
Political freedom in neighboring land
Political pull example
Effects of migration
Migration changes the lives of those who migrate and also of the people in communities they settle
Both groups may need to make adjustments and the results of these migrations may be positive or negative
It can change population density
Cultural blending of languages or ways of life may occur
Ideas and technologies may be shared
Peoples qualities of life may be improved as a result of moving
Clashes between groups may create unrest, persecution, or war
Employment opportunities may dry up, creating unemployment and poverty
Bantu speaking peoples
Bantu speakers were not just one people, but instead a group of people who shared certain cultural characteristics
They were farmers and nomadic people who developed the iron working skills
Many experts believe they were related to the Nok
They used slash and burn farming techniques and thus were forced to move frequently because soil wore out quickly
They followed the congo river through the rainforest before moving eastward to the savannas
With every stop they made they brought with them the iron smelting and farming technology
With all their stops around Africa the Bantu migrations produced a great diversity of cultures, language and skills to the continents
Homework:

Diverse societies in Africa
A land of geographic contrast
Africa is the 2nd largest continent in the world
It stretches 4600 miles from east to west and 5000 miles from north to south
Challenging environments
Each of Africa’s environments present their own challenges
The deserts: largest unsuitable for human life and hamper peoples’ movements
The largest desert is the Sahara in the North and the Kalahari in the south
The rain forests
Also called Nature’s greenhouse got its name because all the trees, branches and leaves form such a dense canopy that sunlight never reaches the forest floor
The rain forest is home to the tsetse fly and its presence had two major effects on African society
It prevented Africans from using cattle, donkeys, and horses for farming near the forests
It also prevented invaders (especially Europeans) colonizing near fly infested territories
Welcoming lands
Most people in Africa live on the savannas, or grassy plains
They are located on the southern and Northern tips of Africa and experience Mediterranean-type climates and fertile soil
Cover over 40 percent of the continent and alternate between dry seasons and rainy ones (about 2 each year)
The topsoil is thin and heavy and heavy rain strips it away minerals
However, in most years savannas support abundant agricultural production
Early humans adapt to their environments
Nomadic lifestyle
Africa’s earliest peoples were nomadic hunter-gatherers. They would travel in small bands of a few related families.
The men would hunt with spears and bows and the women and children would gather roots and berries along the savannas
In fact, many tribes in the Congo of Africa still live as hunter-gatherers.
Transition to a settled lifestyle
African tribes eventually learned to take advantage of the rainy seasons of the savannas
They learned to grow grain and discovered that root crops, such as yams, could grow in the rain forest with limited sunlight
They even began raising cattle where the tsetse fly could not be found
This increased food supply allowed community members to practice activities such as making pottery and crafting jewelry
Early societies in Africa
Lived with families with shared common ancestors called clans
Most clan religions had a belief in one creator, or god and generally had elements on animism: a religion in which spirits play an important role in regulating daily life
Spirits are present in animals, plants and natural forces
African societies had no written languages so instead storytellers called griots kept their history alive, passing it from generation to generation
West African Iron Age
West Africa’s earliest known culture was the Nok people. They lived in modern day Nigeria between 500 BC and 200 AD
They were the first West African people known to smelt iron
They fashioned it into tools for farming and weapons for hunting
As most Africans lived in small villages there was one city that developed near the Niger River
At its height djenne djeno had 50 000 residents and was a booming trade center
They lived in round reed huts plastered with mud and fished in the Niger River, herded cattle, and grew rice
Scientists had found thousands of artifacts such as pottery, copper, clay toys, glass beads, stone bracelets and iron knives

Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals - the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all.

Rome and the Roots of Western Civilization

Setting the stage

Despite its fall, Rome’s legacy to the world lived on with their advancements in art, architecture, language, literature, engineering and law

The legacy of Greco-Roman civilization

Greco-Roman culture is the mixing of elements of Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman cultures

Roman fine arts

Romans learned the art of sculpture from the Greeks

Greek sculptures were known for beauty and idealization

Roman sculptors created realistic portraits

Roman art was practical and intended for public education

Roman artists also were particularly skilled in creating mosaics

Mosaics were pictures or designs made by setting small pieces of stone, glass, or tile onto a surface

Most wealthy homes had at least one colorful mosaics

The Latin Language

Latin was the language of the Romans and remained the language of learning long after the fall of Rome

It was the official language of the Roman Catholic Church well into the 20^th century

Latin was adopted and developed into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian language

These languages are called the Romance languages because of their common Roman heritage

More than half of the words in English have a basis in Latin

Master builders

Visitors from all over the empire marveled at the architecture of Rome

The arch, dome, and concrete were combined to build spectacular structures

Aqueducts were designed by Roman engineers to bring water into the cities and towns

Thomas Jefferson began Roman Revival in the US in the 18^th century

Many large public buildings, such as the US Capitol and numerous state capitols, included Roman features

Roman system of law

Most lasting and widespread contribution from Rome was its law

Some of the most important principles of Roman law were

All persons had the right to equal treatment under the law

A person was considered innocent until proven guilty

The burden of proof rested with the accuser rather than the accused

A person should be punished only for actions, not thoughts

Any law that seemed unreasonable or grossly unfair could be set aside

The principles of Roman law endured to form the basis of legal systems in many European countries, including the United States of America

Rome’s enduring influence

RH Barrow a historian and biographer stated

Rome never fell because it turned into something greater, an idea that achieved immortality

You always find something in the last place you look.