What is an effective collision?

Chemical reactions take place when molecules interact with each other. At a microscopic level, the molecules collide with each other and these collisions result in chemical reactions. However, not all the collisions will result in a chemical reaction. The molecules must possess enough kinetic energy to overcome the threshold energy barrier, which will enable them to overcome the repulsive forces. Apart from the kinetic energy, molecules are also required to possess a certain specific orientation for the collisions to be successful. The collisions of molecules that possess adequate kinetic energy and the appropriate orientation result in a chemical reaction. And all such collisions are termed as effective collisions (since they effectively cause the chemical reaction).

Increasing the temperature and/or the amount of molecules are some ways to increase the number of effective collisions.

Hope this helps. 

What are three character traits of Tessie Hutchinson from "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson? What can you infer about Tessie Hutchinson?

Three character traits of Tessie Hutchinson are tardiness, resistance, and suppression.

Mrs. Hutchinson is late arriving at the designated place where the annual lottery is held. She tells Mrs. Delacroix that she "Clean forgot what day it was" and adds that she thought her husband was in "the back stacking wood." While it is possible that she has forgotten what day it is since she has hurriedly thrown her sweater over her shoulders, it seems rather doubtful that her husband, who has to stand with his family at the lottery, would leave without Tessie or without saying something to her, or that a neighbor would not have mentioned it in the last day or two. Added to this doubt about Tessie's having forgotten the date is the fact that she is late simply because she has washed the dishes, a chore that could wait until she returned. Interestingly, sometimes when people are reluctant to leave, they keep finding something to prevent their leaving. At any rate, the reader does not know with any certainty why Tessie is late, but she is tardy, nevertheless.

• Resistance

After her husband Bill draws the slip of paper with the black spot on it, Tessie Hutchinson suddenly shouts to Mr. Summers, who officiates over the lottery, 

"You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair."

When her husband tells his wife to "Shut up" and others encourage her to be a good sport, Tessie still objects, repeating,

"It wasn't fair.You didn't give him time enough to choose. Everybody saw that."

But her protests are ignored, even when she appeals to those around her as she says, "Listen, everybody." After the family draws from the five slips regathered from them, the members of the Hutchinson family but Tessie open their slips and reveal that they are blank. Mr. Summers says with a hushed voice, "It's Tessie....Show us her paper, Bill." Bill has to force the paper out of Tessie's hand.

When she is placed in the center of a cleared area, Tessie repeats in her final act of resistance, "It isn't fair," but a stone hits her on the side of her head.

• Suppression

Tessie's husband Bill tells her to "Shut up" when she protests, and he ignores her other remarks; also, Mr. Summers makes no response to her objections. When Tessie will not open her hand that holds her slip of paper, her husband forces this hand open, takes the slip from her, and holds it up without saying anything. The lack of feeling for his own wife that is apparently demonstrated by Bill Hutchinson suggests that Tessie's life is not valued as highly as his own.

How does Atticus protest Jim Crow laws even before Tom's trial in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?

Atticus Finch protests against Jim Crow by not allowing his children to refer to the African-American members of the community using the pejorative term that others do, and by treating Calpurnia as a member of his family.

In Chapter 9, when Scout comes home after Cecil Jacobs has made an announcement in the schoolyard that Atticus Finch defends n*****s, she asks her father if he does, and Atticus affirms that he defends them. But, he instructs Scout to not use this pejorative term for black people because it makes a person seem "common" (low class).

Then, in Chapter 14, after his sister Alexandra has come to stay with Atticus and his family, the brother and sister have an argument over Atticus's employment of Calpurnia. Aunt Alexandra tells Atticus that Calpurnia is no longer needed; however, in an "even" tone, Atticus replies,

"Alexandra, Calpurnia's not leaving this house until she wants to....She's a faithful member of this family and you'll simply have to accept things the way they are."

Atticus not only gives Calpurnia equal standing in his home, but he speaks of her as a family member. He praises her as being stricter with the children than a mother would have been, and argues that she raises the children with a sound set of ethics. Moreover, there is love shared among the children and Calpurnia. After Atticus's words, Alexandra is "furious" because her brother has gone against he conventional wisdom of their culture.

What are some examples of religion in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie?

Native American spirituality is one aspect of Native American culture that Sherman Alexie explores in this novel. For instance, in the chapter titled "Revenge Is My Middle Name," Junior and Rowdy attend the local powwow, but more of what the reader sees here is the traditional events for the Native Americans. A more spiritual moment happens when Junior's grandmother dies. In "Wake," Junior describes how the community comes together for him, his family, and his grandmother: 

And so, laughing and crying, we said good-bye to my grandmother. And when we said good-bye to one grandmother, we said good-bye to all of them.

Each funeral was funeral for all of us.

We lived and died together.

Even though Junior had been ostracized from the community throughout most of the novel, he comments that for this one day, everyone left him to mourn his loss, and they all came together, no matter their differences. The spirituality of the community is what Alexie wants the reader to take away from this piece, not just the traditional ideas one might have about Native American culture.  

In Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, describe the layout of the courthouse. What is significant about where Jem and Scout sit?

Scout describes the layout of Maycomb's courthouse in chapter 16 as she enters it with Jem and Dill on the day of Tom Robinson's trial. The courtroom is on the second floor of the building, but there are two levels to it. White people sit on the main floor while black people are only allowed to sit in the balcony. Due to the large crowd, the main floor fills up, and the kids decide to sit with Reverend Sykes in the balcony. Sitting with the African American crowd actually helps to camouflage the children from being seen by Atticus for most of the proceedings. Furthermore, the view from the balcony gives Scout the ability to see the complete layout of the courtroom. Scout describes the courtroom as follows:

"The Colored balcony ran along three walls of the courtroom like a second-story veranda, and from it we could see everything . . . The jury sat to the left, under long windows . . . Atticus and Tom Robinson sat at tables with their backs to us . . . Just inside the railing that divided the spectators from the court, the witnesses sat on cowhide-bottomed chairs. Their backs were to us . . . Judge Taylor was on the bench" (164).

The fact that whites and blacks were not allowed to sit amongst each other is significant to the prejudices of the time. Mingling between races was social suicide unless a black person was working for whites. Since segregation was the status quo at that time, today's readers hopefully read this scene and appreciate the fact that there have been significant social changes in America since the 1930s, and that segregation is frowned upon and unlawful today. 

I'm French, and this summer I'm reading Pride and Prejudice to improve my English. Could you give me some advice about the book? How can I read it...

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books, but it's also a difficult read, so good for you for improving your English by reading such a challenging book! Here are a couple of tips that will hopefully help you read this book more quickly and efficiently:

1. You should be aware that many readers who grow up speaking English have a hard time with Austen's prose. Published in the early 1800s, Austen employs an ornate, lofty, witty style that, while finely crafted, often proves to be challenging and even baffling for modern readers. Native English speakers should expect to read more slowly at first, so keep in mind that you don't have to zoom through this book extremely quickly. Also, don't think you have to spend a lot of time gleaning every single detail from the text. Rather, try to get the main points and move on, as there's no need to spend hours agonizing over outdated English. 


2. To read a book faster, it's often helpful to know the basics beforehand. Since you've already seen the movie, I won't explain the plot, but I will explain some of the book's primary stylistic points and themes. First of all, you should know that, while there is definitely earnestness in the story, Prejudice is also largely satirical. Austen was a deft commenter on the upper classes, and much of her work playfully, ironically, and subtly satirizes the traditions and lifestyles of England's richest classes. Additionally, the novel can be seen as feminist, as it primarily explores the social situation of women and especially comments on the ways in which women are forced to rely on men for financial and social support. 


3. Much of Austen's story is advanced through dialogue, and the author often comments on and explains what happens in the dialogue. So if you're having trouble understanding the written dialogue in the story, don't waste too much time on it; instead, proceed as best you can to the moments in which Austen offers some explanation of events in prose, as these might help you quickly resolve any lingering confusions.

Good luck! Hopefully those tips help. If you're still having trouble understanding the novel, I'd take a look at some of the Prejudice adaptations that have come out for television; many of them are quite good, and they include more of the novel than the most recent movie does. 

Explain how a bill passed in 1854 could be credited with sending the nation into civil war seven years later.

The bill that was passed in 1854, and which helped cause the Civil War to begin, is called the Kansas-Nebraska Act.  It was proposed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas (who opposed Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates).  Its main immediate effect was to overturn the Missouri Compromise and allow people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to vote for themselves as to whether their territories should allow slavery.  This increased the amount of tension and hatred between the North and South and helped bring about the Civil War.

Before the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Missouri Compromise had settled the issue of what parts of the Louisiana Purchase would allow slavery and which would not.  The Missouri Compromise had drawn a line across the Purchase.  Anything south of that line would have slaves and anything north of the line would be free.  The area that now makes up both Kansas and Nebraska was north of this line and was therefore going to be free territory.  This law was passed in 1820 and it helped keep the peace between North and South because it prevented any further conflicts over which areas would be slave and which would be free.

In 1854, Senator Douglas proposed a bill that would throw out the Missouri Compromise (follow the link below to read about why he wanted to do this).  Under the Missouri Compromise, both Kansas and Nebraska were free areas.  Under Douglas’s bill, this was called into question.  Instead of being free areas, these two territories would be up for grabs.  People in the territories would get to vote on the issue of slavery.

This helped lead to the Civil War in two main ways.  First, it helped to convince the North that the South had too much power.  Northerners feared the political power of the South and the Kansas-Nebraska Act did more to convince them that their fears were justified.  The South, they felt, had been able to overturn the Missouri Compromise, take land that had been free, and make it possible for slavery to be introduced there.  The North wondered what else the South might do with this power and it resented the idea that it had to fight again for land that had already been set aside as free soil.  By making the North resent and fear the South more than it had, the Kansas-Nebraska Act helped bring on the Civil War.

Secondly, the act brought about a period of violence in Kansas that we now call “Bleeding Kansas.”  Both North and South wanted to win when the people of Kansas voted on whether to allow slavery.  Therefore, both sides sent settlers into the area.  In addition, people within Kansas started to fight one another, hoping to drive the opposition out of the territory before the vote.  Terrible atrocities were committed by both sides.  This was the first really serious violence over the issue of slavery.  Of course, having people killing each other over this issue made both the North and the South hate each other more.

In these ways, the Kansas-Nebraska Act helped bring on the Civil War.  It did not cause it to happen immediately, but it increased the amount of hatred and distrust between the two regions of the country.  This is how a bill passed in 1854 could help lead to the start of the war seven years later.

Why is Banquo the only person Macbeth fears?

In Act III, Scene 1, Macbeth expresses his fear of Banquo and his desire to have him murdered.

There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters,
When first they put the name of King upon me,
And bade them speak to him; then prophet-like
They hail'd him father to a line of kings:

Macbeth appears to fear Banquo mainly because the three witches promised Banquo that his offspring would be a whole line of Scottish kings. This obviously gives Banquo a good motive for wanting Macbeth dead. Macbeth can't tell what Banquo is thinking, though. He may be plotting to assassinate Macbeth, or he may be content to wait for Macbeth to die. Banquo makes Macbeth feel inferior, as Octavius Caesar made Mark Antony feel inferior when they shared the rulership of the Roman Empire. Shakespeare records Antony's feelings about Octavius in his play Antony and Cleopatra. Macbeth has become king, but he never really feels like a king. He might feel more self-confident if he had an heir to succeed him on the throne, but he and his wife are childless. Banquo appears to be full of confidence, and he has a son named Fleance who could conceivably become king of Scotland if Macbeth died or was assassinated. Banquo really looks like a king. Macbeth says of him in the same soliloquy quoted above:

Our fears in Banquo
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be fear'd. 

Macbeth hopes to relieve himself of his multiple fears by having both Banquo and Fleance assassinated. In this same scene, he has a meeting with the two murderers he has recruited to kill Banquo and Fleance. It seems significant that Macbeth does not consider killing Banquo himself. This may be at least partly because he is afraid of him.

What is the significance of the title with respect to the short story, "The Lumber Room"?

The title of Saki's short story, "The Lumber Room" is significant because this forbidden room represents the self-appointed aunt's lack of imagination and appreciation for creativity, all of which Nicholas possesses. The boy's ability to find the key and enter into this room represents his victory over his aunt's petty dullness.

After he is punished for his subversive prank of tricking the obtuse aunt about a frog being in his morning bowl of bread-and-milk, Nicholas is sentenced to remain home while his boy and girl cousins are afforded the privilege of going to the beach. And, because he is in "disgrace," Nicholas is forbidden entrance into the gooseberry garden. Now, because Nicholas could enter this garden by one of two doors and hide in the "masking growth" of vegetables, the aunt decides that she will have to keep the garden under her surveillance: 

...she spent an hour or two in trivial gardening operations among flower beds and shrubberies, whence she could watch the two doors that led to the forbidden paradise. She was a woman of few ideas, with immense powers of concentration.

While she is thus occupied, Nicholas sneaks off to the lumber room for which he has discovered the key. He opens the door and enters into "an unknown land" filled with artistic items such as a tapestry which tells the story of a hunter and his dogs, who pursue a stag. There several other interesting items are stored, among them a book of delightful pictures of resplendent birds.

After a while, Nicholas hears a shrill cry from his aunt, who has fallen into a water tank in the gooseberry garden. Again, he foils her as she cries for rescue, but he cleverly reminds her that he has been forbidden to enter this garden. So, she must remain in this embarrassing position until a kitchen maid needs vegetables from this garden and hears her cries.

That evening, it is an aunt who sits in "frozen muteness" at supper because the cousins have not enjoyed their day, either. Only the silence of Nicholas contains bemusement as he wonders whether the hunter and his hounds will escape while the wolves devour his wounded stag in the lumber room. 

In "The Canterville Ghost" by Oscar Wilde, how does the ghost describe his time alive to Virginia?

In Chapter Five of "The Canterville Ghost," Virginia and the ghost have a full and frank discussion about his life before death. The ghost reveals some shocking details, including the murder of his wife, Lady Eleanore. The ghost feels no remorse for this crime and, in fact, justifies it by saying that she was "very plain" and "knew nothing about cookery." On one occasion, for example, Sir Simon shot a buck in Hogley Woods and his wife did not have it properly prepared for serving on the table. This was evidently a cause of social embarrassment.

In addition, the ghost also reveals to Virginia the cause of his death. He was starved by Lady Eleanore's brothers in retaliation for her murder. 

Despite his criminal background, Virginia is keen to help the ghost atone for his sins so that he can leave Canterville Chase and sleep forever in the Garden of Death. 

What restrictions were imposed on Jews' freedom in The Diary of Anne Frank? How did the law affect the Frank family?

On June 20, 1942, Anne writes in her diary that her family's freedom began to be restricted in May of 1940, when Holland was captured by the Nazis. After that, Jews were required to wear yellow stars, and they were not allowed to travel using bicycles, street cars, or personal cars. The only way Jews could travel was on ferry. Jews had to carry out their shopping during a certain few hours of a day and could only use Jewish-owned barbershops. They also could not be out on the street at night or use any type of entertainment, such as movie theaters, tennis courts, or parks. They also could not visit non-Jews and had to attend Jewish schools. Despite these restrictions, Anne still tries to have fun with her friends. Eventually, Anne's father cannot work anymore and must stay at home. In July of 1942, after the Franks receive a "call-up" notice from the SS, the paramilitary organization of the Nazis, they go into complete hiding in an attic in Mr. Frank's office building. Their movements are now completely restricted.

What are polymers?

Polymers are substances made up of very large molecules formed from a long chain of smaller molecules called monomers joined together end to end.

Polymers can occur naturally, and they may also be made by chemical processes in industry when they are referred to as synthetic polymers. Examples of natural polymers are proteins and starches. Synthetic polymers of wide variety are now produced by the industry depending on their uses. The most common example is plastic.

The process of combining many small molecules into a polymer is called polymerization. During the process, some atoms may be lost from each monomer; the monomer residue incorporated into the polymer is called a repeat unit.

For example, in the polymerization of polyethylene terephthylate (PET), two water molecules are lost from the monomers--terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol--to form the repeat unit. PET is an important polymer resin of the polyester family and it is used in the manufacture of food and liquid containers and fibre for clothing.

Why might incomes of $1 or $2 a day underestimate the value of what is being consumed by Indian households?

Without knowing more about the exact way in which the source got its numbers, it is impossible to be certain about how those figures are potentially wrong. We can, however, at least discuss two possible problems with those numbers.

The first problem is that these numbers might be based on wages paid by the formal economy. In other words, the people who did this study might have used businesses' reports to the government to determine how much people were paid in India. This would be a problem because many people in India work in the informal economy. They do not work for formal companies and their pay is not reported to the government. If the statistics rely only on data from the formal economy, the researchers will miss money people are making informally. Therefore, the figure given here will underestimate how much money people are able to spend on consumption.

The other major way these numbers might underestimate actual consumption is because many people might engage in transactions outside the cash economy. In a rich country, most people are only able to obtain goods or services by paying for them with money. In India, many people might be engaging in barter and/or subsistence farming. If I only have $2 per day to live on, but I grow much of my own food, the $2 figure will underestimate how much I am able to eat.  Similarly, if I take my excess crops and trade them with other people for goods or services (instead of selling them for money), I will be able to consume more things without having any actual money. Thus, if people are engaging in subsistence farming and/ or a barter economy, the $2 figure could underestimate how much they are actually able to consume.

Thus, these numbers might be misleading. They might not take into account money that people earn outside official employment and they might fail to account for goods and services people make for themselves or for which they barter.

In Night by Elie Wiesel, what is a quote that describes the Jews' blindness to how the Nazis were going to treat them?

One quote that describes the ways in which the Jews in Sighet were blind to the atrocities that the Nazis had in store for them was their response to what Moishe the Beadle tells them. When he is expelled from the town as a foreigner, he is sent on a train to Poland. There, he witnesses how the Gestapo kill Jews, including infants, though he is able to escape. When he returns to Sighet, the Jews in the town refuse to believe him. Wiesel writes:

"But people not only refused to believe his tales, they refused to listen. Some even insinuated that he wanted their pity, that he was imagining things. Others flatly said that he had gone mad" (page 7).

The Jews of Sighet refuse to believe Moishe's tales of horror. Instead, they cling to the idea that better days are right around the corner. After they are placed in a ghetto, they believe that they will stay in the ghetto and then be rescued by the Soviet army. As Wiesel writes, "The ghetto was by neither German nor Jew; it was ruled by delusion" (page 12). The Jews exist by deluding themselves into thinking that the Nazis will never choose to harm them, but the Nazis soon decide to liquidate the ghetto and send the residents to concentration camps. 

Show that if 3n + 5 is odd, then n^2 +1 is even.

We are asked to show that if 3n+5 is odd, then `n^2+1 ` is even.

If 3n+5 is odd, then we can write 3n+5=2k+1 for some integer k. So 3n=2k-4 or 3n=2(k-2). Thus 3n is even which implies that n is even. For even n, `n^2+1 ` is always odd since the square of an even number is even.

Thus the conjecture as stated is false.

Consider this counterexample: let n=2. Then 3(2)+5=11 which is odd but `2^2+1=5 ` which is also odd.

If 3n+5 is even then n is odd and the square of n plus one is even. We say that 3n+5 and `n^2+1 ` have the same parity: if one is even then the other expression represents an even number also, or both are odd.

Who killed the drugstore owner in the novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers?

In the novel Monster, Richard "Bobo" Evans testifies that James King shot and killed Aguinaldo Nesbitt. Bobo tells Petrocelli that King smoked some "crank" before they entered the store. Upon entering the store, King began arguing with the store owner while Bobo reached for the money in the cash register. Bobo says that he heard a shot and turned around to see King holding a gun. After the robbery, Bobo said that he asked King what happened, and King told him that the store owner tried to "muscle him." When Asa Briggs cross-examines Bobo, Bobo tells Briggs that the reason King shot the store owner was because he was high.

The detectives were not able to retrieve any fingerprints from the scene of the crime and the gun legally belonged to Nesbitt. Myers does not clearly state that James King pulled the trigger, which makes the question of who killed Nesbitt ambiguous. However, the jury ends up finding James King guilty of felony murder and sentences him to 25 years to life in prison.

What are the trifles in Glaspell’s Trifles?

In Glaspell's play, the "trifles" are the quilt with erratic stitching, the bird cage, and the dead canary in a pretty little box.

Ironically, the "trifles" found in the kitchen are key items to providing the motive for which the men spend their time searching upstairs. They ignore the kitchen since the County attorney has asked the sheriff as they stand in its doorway,

"You're convinced that there was nothing important here--nothing that would point to any motive?"

and the sheriff has replied, "Nothing here but kitchen things."

So, the men go upstairs and leave Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to attend to the broken jars of preserves since "women are used to worrying over trifles." However, the broken jars of preserves are not the only "trifles" that they discover. For, as they straighten the kitchen. Mrs. Peter finds a quilt that Mrs. Wright has worked on; then, Mrs. Hale notices that the sewing is erratic at one point whereas it is neat everywhere else that has been stitched. "Why, it looks as if she didn't know what she was about!" Mrs. Hale exclaims. Then, because bad sewing always makes her "fidgety," she fixes it.

While Mrs. Hales sews, Mrs. Peters gathers the clothing that Mrs. Wright, who is in jail, has requested. Needing a string or something to wrap these items, Mrs. Peters looks in a cupboard and finds a bird cage. This cage has a broken door because a hinge has been pulled apart.

Later, Mrs. Hale suggests that Mrs. Peters take the quilt to Mrs. Wright to finish. Agreeing, Mrs. Peters looks for Mrs. Wright's quilt patches in the sewing basket, but finds none. Then, she sees a pretty red box and, thinking the scissors may be in it, she discovers instead a dead canary wrapped in silk. Its neck has been wrung. Just as they look upon the poor bird in horror, the men descend the stairs.

Facetiously, the county attorney alludes to the wives' remarks about whether Mrs. Wright was going to "quilt or knot" the quilt she was sewing,

"Well, ladies, have you decided whether she was going to quilt it or knot it?"

Mrs. Peters replies with dramatic irony, "We think she was going to--knot it." Dismissively, the attorney responds,

"Well, that's interesting, I'm sure. (Seeing the bird-cage)  Has the bird flown?"

Mrs. Hale tells him that they think the cat got it. She adds that Mrs. Wright liked the bird and was going to bury it in the pretty box.

When the men start back up the stairs, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters confer with one another about the cruelty of Mr. Wright and her terrible isolation and loneliness without children or friends. Their sympathy for this poor woman waxes as they talk; finally, they make their decision to hide the "trifles" of the bird and the box from the sheriff and county attorney.

In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, what does Crooks own?

John Steinbeck does not characterize most of his characters by what they own, but he chooses to characterize Crooks by describing most of this man's possessions. Crooks does not have a room of his own but sleeps in the harness room, a little lean-to shed beside the barn.

Crooks' bunk was a long box filled with straw, on which his blankets were flung.

Most of the paraphernalia in the harness room belong to the ranch and are used on the horses. Crooks has medicine bottles for himself mixed with medicine bottles for the animals. His personal possessions are scattered about the room. Steinbeck explains that Crooks has accumulated more personal possessions than the other men because he was more permanent. In one paragraph the author offers a fairly complete inventory of the things Crooks owns.

Crooks possessed several pairs of shoes, a pair of rubber boots, a big alarm clock and a single-barreled shotgun. And he had books, too; a tattered dictionary and a mauled copy of the California civil code for 1905. There were battered magazines and a few dirty books on a special shelf over his bunk. A pair of large gold-rimmed spectacles hung from a nail on the wall above his bed.

The reader gets the impression that Crooks collects things that other men have thrown away or left behind. The shoes and rubber boots probably belonged to others and may be in poor condition. A big wind-up, loud-ticking alarm clock could be purchased in a drugstore in those days for one dollar. No doubt Crooks got the magazines after everybody in the bunkhouse had read them. The "dirty books" were not pornographic but simply in dirty condition from much handling by workmen with unwashed hands. Many books could be purchased brand-new in Depression days for one dollar, but Crooks probably got these after they had been left behind or thrown away. They are important to him just because they are possessions. Everybody likes to have a few possessions in his or her home. Crooks evidently does a lot of reading because he is forced to spend so much of his time alone. The men will not even let him come inside the bunkhouse because of his race. There is no telling where Crooks got the single-barreled shotgun. Steinbeck may mention it only because the men commandeer it when they are getting ready to go after Lennie. The shotgun and the spectacles are the only items with any value. Crooks probably gets a small salary--but not fifty dollars a month like the other men. He probably bought the glasses of the display rack at a drugstore because his eyes were getting weak and the lighting in the harness-room is dim. He may have bought the shotgun just to have it on hand in case he should ever need it for self-protection. He not only leads a wretched but a somewhat precarious existence.

Why does Eckels travel with Time Safari in "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury?

Eckels travels with Time Safari, Inc. because he wants to go back in time to shoot a dinosaur. 

Eckels is an expert hunter looking for a new challenge.  He spends a lot of money to hire the time machine so that he can go back to shoot a dinosaur.  Obviously, it is no longer possible to shoot a dinosaur on Earth since they are extinct.  Therefore this company offers brave hunters the opportunity to shoot an animal far bigger than any alive today. 

Eckels is told that his safety is not guaranteed and that if he does not follow directions he will have to pay an exorbitant fine.  The discussion with his guides is about a recent election, but they tell him not to worry about that.  He is going back in time well before the election ever happened. 

“All you got to worry about is-" 

"Shooting my dinosaur," Eckels finished it for him. 

"A Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Tyrant Lizard, the most incredible monster in history. Sign this release. Anything happens to you, we're not responsible. Those dinosaurs are hungry." 

Eckels is told not to step off a special path, and not to shoot anything else.  It is very important that he not change the future.  Any little thing he does could do it, and that is why the rules are so strict.  When Eckels comes to the point of actually shooting the dinosaur, he panicks. 

It ran with a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons. It moved into a sunlit area warily, its beautifully reptilian hands feeling the air.

"Why, why," Eckels twitched his mouth. "It could reach up and grab the moon."

He is so frightened that he is unable to actually shoot.  His guides end up doing it and during the commotion that follows he accidentally steps on and kills a butterfly.  When they return to the present everything has changed, including the outcome of the election.  Travis shoots Eckels.

What are the differences and similarities between the melancholy of Antonio and Portia in Act I of The Merchant of Venice?

It is quite difficult to pinpoint exactly what the similarities between these two characters' melancholy could be. One could suggest that the similarities lie, first, in the fact that they share their sentiments with those close to them. Antonio speaks with Salarino and Salanio, while Portia confides in Nerissa. In both instances, the characters discuss their condition with their friends.

The difference lies in the fact that Antonio does not know why he is sad, while Portia knows precisely what the source of her sadness is, as she tells Nerissa:

O me, the word 'choose!' I may
neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I
dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed
by the will of a dead father. . .

It also appears as if the depth of each character's misery is somehow similar. Both deem their melancholy as disturbingly unwelcome and unpleasant. The difference lies in the fact that Antonio cannot possibly have a solution for his sadness since he does not know what causes it, while Portia, to a certain extent, has hope for a solution. She dreams of Bassanio choosing the right casket. That would, obviously, bring an end to her despair, while for Antonio there seems to be no resolution, as he tells Gratiano:

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;
A stage where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.

In the end, Antonio's despair worsens due to the ensuing events in the play, whilst Portia's issue is resolved since Bassanio chooses the right casket and she marries him. 

Find the divergence of the fields shown on the attached image.

a) Divergence of a vector field is a scalar quantity that represents how the field spreads out, or "diverges", in different directions. It is usually denoted as

`vecgrad*vecF` and is calculated as

`vecgrad * vecF = (dF_x)/(dx) + (dF_y)/(dy) + (dF_z)/(dz)` .

In the given vector field, the components are

`F_x = x` , so `(dF_x)/(dx) = 1`

`F_y = y^3z^2` , so `(dF_y)/(dy) = 3y^2z^2`

`F_z = xz^3` , so `(dF_z)/(dz) = 3xz^2` .

Thus, the divergence of the given vector field is

`vec grad * vecF = 1 + 3y^2z^2 + 3xz^2` .

b) The divergence of this vector field can be calculated the same way. Here,

`(dF_x)/(dx) = cosy`

`(dF_y)/(dy) = 2xy`

and `(dF_z)/(dz) = 0`

So the divergence is

`vec grad * vecF = cosy + 2xy` .

How does Daisy affect other people?

Daisy is shown to be very alluring to the other characters. In the scene in which she is first introduced, she laughs "an absurd, charming little laugh, and I [Nick] laughed too." In this instance, Daisy is depicted as someone with an infectious charm, as evidenced by Nick's inclination to laugh with her despite the lack of dialogue between the two characters. Daisy's charms prove to be very alluring, for she is loved both by Gatsby and her husband, Tom Buchanan. While Tom did partake in an extramarital affair, he is shown to care for Daisy by his efforts to keep her away from Gatsby. And in Gatsby's case, the elaborate and expensive parties that he hosts are eventually explained to have been concocted solely for the purpose of coming into contact with Daisy after having been estranged for a number of years. Gatsby's rabid and enduring devotion to Daisy establishes her as a prize of sorts—a prize over which both Tom and Gatsby both compete throughout the novel. 

Can you explain the clinical significance of deciphering protein trafficking pathways within cells and the relevant molecular biology techniques to...

Proteins are important biomolecules that carry out various structural and enzymatic processes in cells and living things. They are also responsible for transporting other molecules in and out of cells, as well as acting as signal molecules for cell-cell communication. It makes sense that these molecules (and others such as lipids) are transported between different compartments within the cell itself, as well as from cells to their environment for the proteins to carry out their functions where they are needed.

Briefly, proteins are synthesized by ribosomes from mRNA templates and are then brought to where they are needed via protein targeting signals attached to these proteins. Proteins are brought into the nucleus and other organelles (such as the mitochondria), or remain in the cytoplasm, or are secreted out of the cell (via the secretory pathway involving the endoplasmic reticulum, the Golgi apparatus, and vesicles).

Being able to elucidate protein traffic within cells helps us understand how cellular processes work. This is very useful as it helps scientists identify what errors in the normal process are responsible for certain diseases. If proteins are not transported to their proper localizations, it could cause problems such as the loss of certain cellular functions that the protein facilitates and the excess accumulation of said protein, which could cause all sorts of complications (such is the case for Alzheimer's disease).

In terms of techniques used to study protein trafficking and localization, fluorescent tags and fluorescence microscopy are commonly used. Proteins of interests are usually exogenously expressed along with fluorescent tags (or other tags) and viewed microscopically to determine where they are localized after translation. Co-immunoprecipitation may also be used, as it determines whether a protein binds or interacts with the protein of interest. This can be used when trying to find what protein is involved in trafficking other proteins. Of course, mutation may also be used in support of co-immunoprecipitation. When a protein is mutated, it would be unable to perform its original function due to differences in amino acid composition and structure. This can confirm whether or not a suspected transport protein is indeed responsible for protein trafficking, as it cannot transport the protein once it has been mutated.

In "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," who is coming over Jordan to carry the speaker home?

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is an African-American spiritual, a song written in a distinctive style combining Christianity with the slave experience. Spirituals are influenced by African musical traditions. While spirituals were originally monodic (all singers sang a single melody in unison), they have evolved to include intricate choral harmonies. 

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" may actually have been written by Wallis Willis, a member of the Choctaw tribe. It was popularized by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University and became increasingly popular in the 1960s as part of a folk and protest song movement. 

The song is narrated in the first person and takes the form of direct address, with the speaker asking the "chariot" to swing low and "carry me home." The home in question is Heaven. Specifically, the speaker states:

I looked over Jordan, and what did I see...

A band of angels coming after me,

The angels are crossing the Jordan River to take the speaker home.

What type of graph would be appropriate for visualizing a data set of dissolved oxygen vs number of fish observed?

Since we have two variables that may bear some relation to one another, a scatter plot is probably the best option for visualizing this data.

A scatter plot would show us whether there is any relationship between the two variables, and give us a place to start in devising models to analyze and predict that relationship.

For example, if all the points lie close to a straight line, we have a linear correlation, and we could run linear regressions to understand the relationship between the two variables. But if they follow a different shaped curve such as a logarithmic curve or a parabola, this won't be picked up in a linear regression even though it could be a real effect.

The hardest part in this case would be to determine which variable to put on the X axis, normally the independent variable, and which to put on the Y axis, normally the dependent variable. There are plausible theories that would make causation run both ways: Perhaps fish survive better in highly-oxygenated water, so more oxygen causes more fish; on the other hand, perhaps large fish populations deplete the oxygen in the water, so more fish causes less oxygen. Both effects could exist, and drive the system toward an equilibrium---in which case we might observe no correlation despite the two variables being closely related. (This happens in economics all the time; price and quantity are almost never directly correlated, even though price and quantity drive each other directly by supply and demand.)

What is the main conflict in Trouble by Gary Schmidt?

Stating the main conflict of this book is a bit difficult. Schmidt intricately weaves a few major conflicts throughout Trouble, and I believe different readers will see a different main conflict.  

One central conflict is definitely a man vs. nature conflict. Henry and the other three climbers struggle to climb Katahdin. As with all mountain climbing, it's dangerous. The group is risking their lives, so I would be remiss to think this part of the story is not a central conflict.  

There is conflict within the group, too. Henry wants to do the climb alone, but his best friend won't let him. Chay Chouan also wants to climb with the group. He is the guy who was supposedly driving the car that killed Henry's brother. Lastly, Henry's little sister wants to join the group. If you've grown up with younger siblings, you know there's conflict when they always want to "tag along."  

Internally, Henry struggles to come to terms with the real person his brother was. Henry idolized his older brother Franklin, but Henry learns Franklin wasn't all that wonderful to other people.  

There are other conflicts present throughout the book too, and a central theme of the book focuses on the book's title—Trouble. Trouble and conflict can't be avoided. The key to living well is appropriately managing and dealing with trouble.

What is the theme and purpose of the story "Royal Beatings" by Alice Munro?

The theme of "Royal Beatings," a complex story with multiple shifts in time (as Rose looks back many years later on her childhood), is the cruelty lurking beneath the surface in relationships and the way that cruelty can come to the surface so quickly. At the end of the story, Flo, Rose's stepmother, administers a "royal beating" to Rose on a Saturday when Flo can't go to town. Munro writes of Flo's emotions that day, "The wrangle with Rose has already commenced, has been going on forever, like a dream that goes back and back into other dreams." Flo's reasons for beating Rose seem to arise partly out of her own frustration, with her restive feelings in early spring and her anger over customers' unpaid bills, but Flo's rage also seems to arise almost out of her unconscious, like a dream. The story recounts the horrific yet mundane ritual in which Flo asks Rose's father to beat Rose and then makes up for the beating with a tray of delicious and lovingly prepared foods.

In a similar way, the story tells about the senseless beating the butcher, Tyde, receives from young men in the town because they hear the rumor he impregnated his daughter, who is deformed from having had polio. They beat and whip him until his night clothes and the snow around him turn red, and he dies shortly thereafter. The men in town are moved to extreme violence by the whisperings of a rumor, which is almost definitely false. A year after they are convicted, the young men who carried out the beating are set free.

The purpose of this story is to reveal the violence that lurks behind the surface of ordinary lives and the ways people use violence to vent their own frustrations. Flo vents her frustrations on Rose, yet she clearly also loves her stepdaughter; the "useless young men" in town beat the butcher, even though they don't even particularly care what he did with his family. People resort to beatings and violence with little provocation or reason.

In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, what makes Gulliver leave his house?

Gulliver leaves his childhood home in Nottinghamshire in order to acquire an education.  He attends a school in Cambridge called Emanuel College from age fourteen to seventeen.  After this, as the third of five sons, he is sent to be an apprentice to a doctor in London.  He studies as much as possible, but he eventually leaves this home in order to continue his formal education in medicine at Leyden.  When he returns to London, he leaves home again, at the suggestion of the man he had formerly apprenticed, in order to be the doctor on board the Swallow, a ship on which Gulliver travels for over three years. 

Later, after Gulliver marries and sees his medical practice fail, he leaves home to go to sea again and travels for six years more.  At this time, he determines to remain at home, but when he cannot make another business work, he goes, again, to sea, and thus begins his journey to Lilliput.

In The Joy Luck Club (Chapter 1 to 8): With reference to the life and experiences of An-mei, discuss how the writer conveys the importance of...

An-mei's story, "Scar," speaks to the importance of tradition and the way in which it marks people. She says that her mother was a ghost, someone the family wanted to forget because she had brought shame to the family by becoming the concubine of a man. Her grandmother told An-mei when she was a young child, "When you lose your face, An-mei...it is like dropping a necklace down a well. The only way you can get it back is to fall in after it" (page 44). An-mei remembers the time when her mother left the house in shame, as a number-three concubine, and wanted to take An-mei with her, which the grandmother prohibited. At this moment, An-mei spilled a vat of hot soup on herself, which caused her to have a scar on her neck. This scar is a memory of her mother, which An-mei carries with her even when the actual memory of her mother has been forgotten. The scar is also a symbol of the way in which An-mei has been marked by tradition and history. Though she doesn't remember her mother after her mother leaves, she is forever marked by the connection to her mother and her mother's past.

Later, when her mother returns, An-mei sees her mother slit her arm and pour her own blood into the soup to try to save her grandmother's life, in vain. An-mei thinks, "This is how a daughter honors her mother...You must peel off your skin, and that of her mother, and her mother before her" (page 48). In other words, a daughter is forever connected to her mother and her ancestors through her own skin. This is the way in which tradition and culture forever affect An-mei and the women in her family.