An Experiment to use with Blaise Pascal's Biography: "A Piece of the Mountain"

The Experimental Method:

Pascal's father taught him to think for himself using the "Experimental Method." This meant that to investigate an idea one should first state the idea as a "problem". Blaise might have stated the problem as, "Is there a connection between sound and vibration?" Next, his father taught him to make an "hypothesis". An hypothesis is the scientist's guess of what the answer is. Blaise guessed that sound is vibration. Then Blaise was required to design an experiment to test his hypothesis. What do you think Blaise did? After he tried the experiment he had to record his "observations". Only after many experiments was Blaise allowed to "interpret the data" and make a "conclusion".

An experiment on Sound:

Complete the lab sheet (you may copy it into a word processing program to print). The "Problem", "Hypothesis", and "Experiment" sections are already filled in for you.

An Experiment on Sound Performed by:___________________________________ Date:_________________________________________ The Problem: Is there a connection between vibration and sound? The Hypothesis: Sound is vibration. The Experiment: Fill several glasses with different amounts of water. Strike each glass gently with a spoon. Observations: Do the glasses sound the same? What happens when you place your hand on the glass right after you strike it? What happens when your hand is holding the glass at the same time that you strike it? Interpretation: What have you discovered? Conclusion: Is there a connection between vibration and sound? Can you think of other ways to experiment with sound?

Some Poets, Authors, and Books that C. S. Lewis Read in his Youth

...in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. ~C. S. Lewis in An Experiment in Criticism

Here is a list of authors and titles that had an impact on C.S. Lewis. Perhaps you will enjoy reading some of them, too!

Beatrix Potter: especially Squirrel Nutkin

E. Nesbit

Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels

George MacDonald: Phantastes

William Morris: The Well at the World's End

Matthew Arnold: Sohrab and Rustum

Thomas Babington Macaulay: Lays of Ancient Rome

G. K. Chesterton: Ballad of the White Horse

Tegner: Drapa

Horace: Odes

Aeneid

Euripides: The Bacchae

Stephen: Crock of Gold

Kenneth Grahame: especially Wind in the Willows

Jane Austen

Rider Haggard (author)

Spenser: The Faerie Queene ("Beyond all doubt it is best to have made one's first acquaintance with Spenser in a very large -- and, preferably, illustrated -- edition of The Faerie Queene, on a wet day, between the ages of twelve and sixteen." --Selected Literary Essays, edited by Walter Hooper, Geoffrey Bles, 1969 p. 146)

H. A. Guerber: The Myths of the Norsemen

Defoe: Robinson Crusoe

John Keats

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Alfred Tennyson (Lotus Eaters, and Morte d'Arthur)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Saga of King Olaf

To all those who like to write...

Though many children wrote to C. S. Lewis to ask him to write more about Narnia, he felt that his work was done. A year before his death he wrote to one young person who wished for more Narnia books:

I am delighted to hear that you like the Narnian books, and it was nice of you to write and tell me.... But why not do one yourself! And why not write stories for yourself to fill up the gaps in Narnian history? I've left plenty of hints-- especially where Lucy and the Unicorn are talking in The Last Battle. I feel I have done all I can!

All good wishes,

Yours

C. S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis once wrote that "Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see." The stories of the men and women who have walked the path of faith give a marvelous picture of God's work. This blog is called "small letters" because it has been my joy and privilege to write books in "small letters" for young people about people who have shaped culture through their various callings.

I would also like to share links to free websites that I have developed. Homeschool Tools can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/homeschoolingtoolbox/ and Shakespeare Tools can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/shakespearetools/.