Day 3

Well friends, another day has come an end. Today's journeys took us to several places. First, we visited a surface mine operation known as Buck Lillie. This particular operation is under the watchful eye of the WV DEP. I must be frank and say the area looked as though it had been carpet bombed. But, a closer examination revealed that the operation had several environmental safety features in place. For example, NaOh is infused into the water run-off to increase the alkalinity level. My lovely daughter has informed me she does not want to hear any more science this summer. So, Cassie NaOh is just lye, honey. And, increasing the alkalinity is just making the water safer in this case.

Joe Knob was then visited, as to show the fruits of reclamation. Various flora seemed to be thriving but not much in the way of fauna. Sorry, Cassie; we saw a bunch of plants but no critters moving about.

After Joe Knob, we went to Nuttleburg and the New River Gorge. This area is difficult for me to describe; its beauty was simply breathtaking. When looking at that massive bridge over the river, I could not help but think about humankind's ability to overcome such great obstacles while still failing in the past to realize our unique responsibility to our environment. Oh by the way Cassie, real materials like the bridge are not rigid. Yes the bridge has an elastic quality, meaning the bridge deforms and returns to shape when force is applied and then removed, like vehicles traveling over it. Young' Modulus can help us here honey. The stretching or compression of such materials in a bridge can be calculated by: Y = (F/A)/(dL/L). I am so sorry, I forgot again. If you put a bunch of weight on it, it will stretch some.

Tomorrow my update will include visits to Beckley and Matewan. Also, I will have a story about our esteemed leader Steve wrestling a bear. That is right a real bear. Pat has told me it was hard to tell them apart in the ring, something about all the fur and hair being equal in looks and quanity.

Until tomorrow,

William Strait

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