LP is doing great learning new words, and has a few he can put together in groups of 2, such as yellow ball (although he's not always sure which color yellow is), more bubbles, and bye bye mama. We are trying to tell him that a baby is coming, but what he learned is that my stomach is called "baby", but his stomach is "no baby", which he thinks is quite funny.
When the president comes on TV, I have been telling LP his name. He just calls him "mama", which he actually remembered last night upon seeing his face, without me telling him to say "Obama". I was wondering if LP knew his name was Obama and was having trouble saying it, or if he thought his name was actually "mama" or something with "mama" in it. That was all cleared up by his little joke:
TT: Can you say 'Obama'?
LP: Mama.
TT: Oooooo-ba-ma.
LP: Mmmm-ma-ma.
TE: Oooooo-ba-ma.
LP: Mmmm-da-da!
I thought it was pretty funny . . .
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Heating a Trailer, Part 2
Electric Heating of a Bike Trailer for an Infant/Toddler, Part 2: Experiments Trump Theory
Winter is mostly over (we already used the old store-bought trailer a few times this year), so there's not much point in crunching the trailer heat loss numbers now. I suppose I lost interest because it was fun for me to think about how to set up the problem, and how much heat an infant produces, but once it came down to looking up constants and putting them together to get a real answer, it didn't matter too much for me. The reason? The trailer heating is not primarily a theoretical problem. The trailer exists, and the baby is there in it, and he is either warm or cold at the end of the ride. This can be easily determined by kissing his cheek or feeling his hand, yielding a result which is a more accurate indicator of what we need to know than the theoretical calculation would be. Of course, when we were using the trailer for the first time, it would have been nice to know what we were up against, but by the time I wrote up the first post we had already used it in realtively cold weather several times. By now I am pretty sure it works well down to at least 10 deg. F.
Experimental Methods:
In cold weather (approximately 20 to 30 deg. F), baby LP, 25-35 lbs and between 1 and 2 years of age, wearing a coat, hat, helmet, and mittens, was strapped into the car seat bolted in the trailer. He was covered by a blanket wrapped around his feet and another wrapped around most of his body such that he could still see out of the windows, but the blanket was placed near his face in an attempt to keep his breath near the uncovered parts of his face. If LP removed the mittens (a rare occurance on the colder days), we relativley quickly stopped the bike and replaced them, although this exposed him to more cold air. In warmer weather, the mittens were replaced with socks on the hands or nothing, one or no blankets were used, or the hat was omitted as we felt was appropriate. In colder weather, (coldest temperature so far was approximately 10 deg. F.), a 3 gallon jug (full at the coldest temperatures, otherwise partially full) of hot (approx. 110 deg F) water was placed next to the carseat and under the second blanket which was also wrapped around LP. Because the trailer was kept in an unheated garage, at the coldest temperatures, prior to loading LP into the trailer, the hot water was placed on the carseat under a blanket for several minutes to warm the seat and trailer. LP's hands and sometimes feet were checked after the ride to ensure warmth.
Results:
LP remained quite warm for the approx. 30 minute ride (longer in high winds or at very cold temperatures) for temperatures down to 10 deg. F, even when it was white windy. LP seemed to be starting to feel cold after a 2 hour ride at approximately 20 deg. F with no hot water jug. He also felt cold after a 30 minute ride at approximately 20 deg. F with poor blanket coverage. Although we have ridden in this area down to -10 deg. F, during this winter those temperatures were rare and generally coincided with poor road conditions. I was unwilling to pull LP in the trailer (at least for the first time) at a temperature below 10 deg. F unless the road conditions were nearly perfect, which did not occur this winter at a time when we needed to leave the house.
Conclusion:
The trailer seems well suited to transport a fully blanketed and bundled person of 20-40 lbs or more, sitting next to 3 gallons of hot water, for at least 40 minutes at 10 deg. F, even in high winds. It seems likely that lower temperatures are possible. In this area, daytime temperatures of -10 deg. or below are very rare, so I believe with furhter testing we could approve the trailer for use virtually all winter.
Winter is mostly over (we already used the old store-bought trailer a few times this year), so there's not much point in crunching the trailer heat loss numbers now. I suppose I lost interest because it was fun for me to think about how to set up the problem, and how much heat an infant produces, but once it came down to looking up constants and putting them together to get a real answer, it didn't matter too much for me. The reason? The trailer heating is not primarily a theoretical problem. The trailer exists, and the baby is there in it, and he is either warm or cold at the end of the ride. This can be easily determined by kissing his cheek or feeling his hand, yielding a result which is a more accurate indicator of what we need to know than the theoretical calculation would be. Of course, when we were using the trailer for the first time, it would have been nice to know what we were up against, but by the time I wrote up the first post we had already used it in realtively cold weather several times. By now I am pretty sure it works well down to at least 10 deg. F.
Experimental Methods:
In cold weather (approximately 20 to 30 deg. F), baby LP, 25-35 lbs and between 1 and 2 years of age, wearing a coat, hat, helmet, and mittens, was strapped into the car seat bolted in the trailer. He was covered by a blanket wrapped around his feet and another wrapped around most of his body such that he could still see out of the windows, but the blanket was placed near his face in an attempt to keep his breath near the uncovered parts of his face. If LP removed the mittens (a rare occurance on the colder days), we relativley quickly stopped the bike and replaced them, although this exposed him to more cold air. In warmer weather, the mittens were replaced with socks on the hands or nothing, one or no blankets were used, or the hat was omitted as we felt was appropriate. In colder weather, (coldest temperature so far was approximately 10 deg. F.), a 3 gallon jug (full at the coldest temperatures, otherwise partially full) of hot (approx. 110 deg F) water was placed next to the carseat and under the second blanket which was also wrapped around LP. Because the trailer was kept in an unheated garage, at the coldest temperatures, prior to loading LP into the trailer, the hot water was placed on the carseat under a blanket for several minutes to warm the seat and trailer. LP's hands and sometimes feet were checked after the ride to ensure warmth.
Results:
LP remained quite warm for the approx. 30 minute ride (longer in high winds or at very cold temperatures) for temperatures down to 10 deg. F, even when it was white windy. LP seemed to be starting to feel cold after a 2 hour ride at approximately 20 deg. F with no hot water jug. He also felt cold after a 30 minute ride at approximately 20 deg. F with poor blanket coverage. Although we have ridden in this area down to -10 deg. F, during this winter those temperatures were rare and generally coincided with poor road conditions. I was unwilling to pull LP in the trailer (at least for the first time) at a temperature below 10 deg. F unless the road conditions were nearly perfect, which did not occur this winter at a time when we needed to leave the house.
Conclusion:
The trailer seems well suited to transport a fully blanketed and bundled person of 20-40 lbs or more, sitting next to 3 gallons of hot water, for at least 40 minutes at 10 deg. F, even in high winds. It seems likely that lower temperatures are possible. In this area, daytime temperatures of -10 deg. or below are very rare, so I believe with furhter testing we could approve the trailer for use virtually all winter.
My boss the big softie
A bunch of us are going to a converence soon, and my adviser suggested that we drive. At the time, I don't think he realized that I was the only one with a license and I would be pregnant for the trip. I sort of told him this, but also said I was for the driving situation because I figured one other person would have a license by the time we went. He got his license now, so we can share driving, and I think it will be a fun trip.
Now my adviser is worried about us, because he is worried about the new driver on the highway and the fact that I will be pregnant and on a long drive. He sent me an email asking me to be careful and stop and rest frequently. He was being sort of parental yesterday in telling the new driver not to bother driving in the left lane, and that "this isn't Europe" (though the new driver has never been to Europe and I bet he, like myself, has little idea what that was supposed to mean). Then he said something about how easy it would be to all get killed. That was a little overboard, but I think it's really sweet that he's so concerned about us and our safety. He is really quite caring, although it can be hard to notice when he's talking science, and I that just one reason why I like him so much as a person. I hope he doesn't feel too bad about "making" us drive, because even though we aren't much older than his kids, we can take care of ourselves. Now we need to think of some car games!
Now my adviser is worried about us, because he is worried about the new driver on the highway and the fact that I will be pregnant and on a long drive. He sent me an email asking me to be careful and stop and rest frequently. He was being sort of parental yesterday in telling the new driver not to bother driving in the left lane, and that "this isn't Europe" (though the new driver has never been to Europe and I bet he, like myself, has little idea what that was supposed to mean). Then he said something about how easy it would be to all get killed. That was a little overboard, but I think it's really sweet that he's so concerned about us and our safety. He is really quite caring, although it can be hard to notice when he's talking science, and I that just one reason why I like him so much as a person. I hope he doesn't feel too bad about "making" us drive, because even though we aren't much older than his kids, we can take care of ourselves. Now we need to think of some car games!
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