Mystery Class Reminder: March 22, 2002 Today's Report Includes: Clue Me In Clues Calendar All Things Being Equal? Challenge Question #3 Seeing Anything Out of the Eggstraordinary? This Week's Sunrise/Sunset Times CLUES From Your Mystery Friends Clue Me In This week, we've got the first clues from the secret Mystery Classes themselves! Special thanks to the 10 secret Mystery Sites around the world (shhh, you know who you are). They all worked very hard preparing their clues for you. Over the next four weeks, we'll provide more clues from your secret friends every week to help you with your search. Now that you've estimated approximate Longitude with GMT, all you need to know is the Latitude of each place and you're there! Good luck to you all! Did you find the GMT calculations challenging last week? You're not alone. Imagine what it must have been like for the man who solved the "Longitude Problem" for the very first time! Read the fascinating TRUE story of how one man, an English clockmaker, solved this million dollar mystery back in the 1700's: Who Wanted to be a Millionaire--The Longitude Contest Clues Calendar We'll provide new clues from the Mystery Classes for the next four weeks, and then your answers will by due by the April 26 deadline. Please take note of these important Mystery Class dates for the coming weeks: March 22, 29, April 5, 12 & 19: New clues from the Mystery Sites given each week April 26: Deadline for Your Answers! (No late entries accepted) May 3: Mystery Sites Revealed! May 10: Meet Your Mystery Friends! All Things Being Equal? A few weeks ago, we asked you to think about what your graphs would look like on the Equinox. It is said that on the Equinox, every place on Earth has the same amount of daylight and night, twelve hours each. Is that what you discovered? As some of you saw, many locations do not appear to have EXACTLY twelve hours of equal day and night on the Equinox. This made us wonder: Challenge Question #3: "Why don't all locations appear to have EXACTLY twelve hours of day and night on the Equinox?" (To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) Speaking of the Equinox--Seeing Anything Out of the Eggstraordinary? Have you been conducting your egg balancing tests? Did the eggs balance on the Equinox? How about in your tests in the previous few weeks? How are things "standing" (or not) at this point? Keep up your testing for the next two weeks. We'll ask you to send in your comments very soon. People are already wondering--just look at this question we received yesterday: Myth or Mythstaken? "Hi Journey North staff, Perhaps you can help. I have a colleague at school who firmly believes that an egg can only be balanced on its end at the Equinox. She was out today at 2:17 EST and managed to balance an egg on its end. I do not believe she tries to do this at any other time of the year. I have suggested that she needs to try this just as hard at other times of the year to establish that it is not just at the Equinox that the balancing act can be achieved. She *believes* that it can only happen at the exact Equinox. I know of no reason why this should be so. I realize this is out of your ordinary field of expertise, but has anyone there heard of this myth, or is it me that is 'mythstaken'?" Keep testing, and stay tuned! This Week's Sunrise/Sunset Times Remember, the secret Mystery sites recorded their times last Monday, the same day you collected your own local sunrise/sunset data. Journey North Mystery Class Sunrise/Sunset Data Data For: Monday, March 18, 2002 MYSTERY CLASS SUNRISE SUNSET #1 07:13 19:16 #2 00:00* 00:00* #3 06:30 18:35 #4 06:12 18:20 #5 06:27 18:32 #6 06:35 18:38 #7 06:05 18:08 #8 06:34 18:34 #9 06:02 18:07 #10 07:06 19:13 * Journey North Mystery Class #2 reported 00:00 for their times on 3/18, and left this message for you: "Still no sunset, but watch for a BIG change soon." Note: Military time is usually expressed without any punctuation. We have used a ":" between the hours and minutes for clarity.) CLUES From Your Mystery Friends Mystery Class: MC #1: "Some say we're near 'the top of the world' and the 'end of the road'. When visitors come from other parts of the world, we say they are from 'outside'." MC #2: "Much of this continent is considered to be a desert." MC #3 "Though one of our official languages is English we mostly speak the language of the conquistador." MC #4: "More than five hundred years ago, Spanish conquerors arrived to our coasts. They were looking for gold and treasures." MC #5: "My location is surrounded by water. We have no native freshwater fish." MC #6: "Part of our country is not connected to the continent." MC #7 sends "Namaste" MC #7: "The form of greeting in my country, meaning 'hello' and 'goodbye' as well as 'good morning', is 'namaste' and is performed by joining the palms together." MC #8: "Our climate is milder than expected due to The Gulf Stream." MC #9: "Our exports include bananas, sugar, lobster and Punta music. Some favorite food dishes include Hudut, Serre and Darassa." MC #10: "Our region borders some Great Lakes but not the ones in the US and Canada." How to Respond to Today's Challenge Question: IMPORTANT: Answer only ONE question in each e-mail message. 1. Address an E-mail message to: jn-challenge-mclass@learner.org 2. In the Subject Line of the message write: Challenge Question #3 3. In the body of the message, answer the question above. The Next Mystery Class Update Will be Posted on March 29, 2002 Copyright 2002 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form