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To
determine the correct coordinates, first solve this
puzzle:
Clues:
Solve just like a crossword puzzle, but instead
of letters each square should contain a single
digit
There are no zeros
E-Across is 4 times
D-Across
The 3-digit number in A-Across is evenly
divisible by 5
The single digit in box-A is equal to the digit
in box-F times the digit in box-D
The single digit in box-B is equal to the digit
in box-C minus the digit in box-E
D-Across is the square root of
9
No two digits in the solved puzzle are the
same
Once you are finished solving the
puzzle above, consider the following:
42°
33.888' N, 92° 27.999' W
Replace the 888 with the
three-letter abbreviation for "Department of Consumer
Affairs."
Next, replace the 999 with the
three-letter abbreviation for the name of the second month in each
year.
Finally, using the letters you just
supplied, replace each letter with the digit that is found in the
box with that letter in the puzzle above.
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This
is a 6-in-1 science experiment cache. The swag compartment is small
but can hold a few coins etc. The cache box is locked. To open it
you will have to locate the key! That will depend upon your finding
a note that tells you where to look for it. Please do not try to
open or reach into the home this cache is associated with. The note
is NOT in there! The force of a 10-year old could retrieve the
note. Once you do locate it, please make sure to replace it
correctly. Fiddle with whatever doesn't seem to work; 180
degrees comes to mind sometimes. I glued a powerful magnet to the
top of the cache box; Store small parts there. If any thing gets
lost, don’t fret, just let me know ASAP. I have
extras.
About
the cache: indeed, humans are fearfully and wonderfully made! For
example, our postage stamp sized retinas and our brains process
visual information billions of times faster than the most powerful
supercomputer. This cache is eco-friendly. I do not believe that a
20 minute presence at the cache will harm anything. Use your
discretion however.
There
are many things about the eye and vision that I find particularly
fascinating and like to share with my students. In this puzzle
cache you will have the opportunity to experience six of them
yourself.
Experiment 1 involves seeing
that each eye has a blind spot or more technically, an optic disc,
in the peripheral part of our vision, about 20 degrees to the left
or right, depending upon the eye, from your sharpest vision. The
areas are in the side away from your nose. It’s at the point where
the optic nerve and the retina join; there are no photoreceptors
there. So how can you see what you cannot see? Sounds like an
oxymoron doesn’t it? Actually you’ll simply detect it. You cannot
really see the spot as a spot.
The
reason we don’t spontaneously see it (wouldn’t that be annoying?)
is because our brain makes up a picture to put in that area. The
brain copies the pattern immediately around it and makes spreads it
across the optic disc. For example, if you are surrounded by a
checkerboard, you will see an uninterrupted checkerboard all the
way to the edge of your visual field.
At
the cache I built in a way to find this area that you probably have
never noticed before. No matter how hard you try you would never
detect it if you have both eyes open. With both eyes open, one eye
should see what the other one doesn’t. The cache is built for your
left eye only. At the cache your left eye blind spot will be about
20 degrees to the left of your straight on vision. Laminated
instructions are included inside the cache. I’ve included an
electrical component to the blind spot experiment too. [Note: I
doubt this ,will work anymore.]
Experiment 2 involves the
saccade type
movements of your eyes. When looking around, like when reading this
page, your eyes never turn smoothly. Instead they jerk from one
image to the next, very quickly. Those are saccades. The second
experiment will require you to use the mirror itself. It’ll show
you something fascinating about what your brain does to keep you
from getting dizzy when the eyes jump from one place to
another.
Experiment 3 will employ a
penlight that should be in the box. With it you will attempt to
momentarily see the shadows of the tree-like (dendritic) pattern of
blood
vessels situated directly on top of your photoreceptors. We
literally look through those thin vessels and a very
look
through that cover the retina.
Experiment 4 will enable you
to see that the image on your retinas is actually
upside
down and backwards. When you are born you see everything this
way! Fortunately your brain eventually sees the image as flipped
over and converts it left to right.
Experiment 5 is designed to
teach you how to momentarily see blood cells coursing through the
blood vessels directly on top of your retinas. If you feel the
carotid arteries in the sides of your neck you can tell that they
move faster when your heart makes a sound. Some of them also are
seen to take one vessel or another at a junction between two of
them. The directions on how to see them are in the
box.
Experiment 6 is the
Pulfrich Illusion. It’s seen when one
eye is darkened but both eyes are used. You will look at an
object moving across your field of view. The object is built
into the cache; it’s a pendulum. The dark filter is in the
box but the pendulum is for you to find and figure out how to
let down. Follow the instructions as given.
Have
fun!
I am always fascinated with tiny things, including the
complexity of thin layers of materials in the body. I find this to
be an interesting tidbit of that type of information
that I just
found on the Net. All of these layers make up the retina and
are within about 1/100 of an inch!
- pigmented epithelium,
- photoreceptors; bacillary layer (outer and inner segments of
cone and rod photoreceptors),
- external (outer) limiting membrane,
- outer nuclear (cell bodies of cones and rods),
- outer plexiform (cone and rod axons, horizontal cell dendrites,
bipolar dendrites),
- inner nuclear (nuclei of horizontal cells, bipolar cells,
amacrine cells, and Müller cells),
- inner plexiform (axons of bipolar cells and amacrine cells,
dendrites of ganglion cells),
- ganglion cells (nuclei of ganglion cells and displaced amacrine
cells),
- nerve fiber layer (axons from ganglion cells traversing the
retina to leave the eye at the optic disc),
- and internal limiting membrane (separates the retina from the
vitreous).