In my experiment, I investigated how the shape of a rocket’s nosecone affects its flight characteristics. Rocket A was equipped with a pointed nosecone, a design typically associated with higher aerodynamic efficiency. Rocket B, in contrast, featured a flat nosecone. My hypothesis was that Rocket A, with its more streamlined design, would outperform Rocket B in terms of both distance and flight duration. This hypothesis was supported by the data, as Rocket A traveled a greater distance (21.18 meters) and stayed in the air longer (2.92 seconds) compared to Rocket B, which had a distance of 16.72 meters and a flight time of 1.83 seconds.
Interestingly, Rocket B was faster than Rocket A, though speed was not a variable I initially sought to measure. As speed was not the primary focus of the experiment, I do not consider this an issue for the validity of my results.
I believe the outcome of the experiment can be explained by the aerodynamic properties of the nosecones. A pointed nosecone is known to reduce drag and turbulence, allowing for smoother airflow and thus better performance. This aligns with principles of aerodynamics and Newton’s second law of motion, which states that an object will accelerate in response to a force. In this case, the force applied to launch the rockets via stomping on the launcher contributed to their motion, and any inconsistencies in the force applied could have influenced the results. Newton’s third law also plays a role in the experiment, as the reaction force from the launch caused the rocket to travel upward before eventually falling back to Earth due to gravity.
The most significant potential threat to the validity of my experiment was the inconsistency in the force of my stomps. If the force applied during each launch was not uniform, it could have caused variability in the flight distances and times, which I observed in the data. The data showed some fluctuations in distance, suggesting that the force of the stomps was not entirely consistent. I ensured that the angle of launch and the condition of the rockets remained constant, so I do not believe there were other major threats to the validity of the results. Based on this, I trust the conclusions drawn from the data.
Moving forward, I would be interested in testing additional nosecone shapes, such as round or chisel-shaped designs, to further explore their impact on rocket performance. Additionally, repeating the experiment with a more consistent application of force could help refine the results and confirm the findings. Thank you for reading my lab report, and I hope you found it insightful. Have a great day!
For an English class I had to do a character analysis on a character from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. I chose to do it on Plebeian Number 3. I tried to find it but then remembered I wrote it with pencil and paper.
So here is a final project for a college English class a few years ago.
The Problem of Puritanical Pleasure: Did It Exist?
“Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy” – H. L. Mencken (Daniels 8)
The above quote summarizes how most people see the Puritans. Writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller have reinforced this view in their writings, instilling upon the minds of the readers of their fictional stories the idea that Puritans were a grim, dour people who hated the very concept of fun and happiness. The idea that the Puritans were a society of killjoys can be disproven by looking at historical accounts of their lifestyle and their artists. The Puritans were a religious group that spanned across several continents and had established societies in multiple different countries. Any generalization of such a widespread, diverse people group is bound to be inaccurate, so I will limit my observations to the Puritans who lived in the New England colonies.
Today, to call someone or something “Puritan” is to criticize them for being joyless, self-righteous, or hypocritical. The name has a “holier than thou” connotation and it was meant as an insult when it was first coined. This is extremely ironic though because the Puritans did not think they were holy enough to bear a name that meant “pure” and yet they are constantly accused of acting as if they were better than others (Trafton 2). These people who are often described as hypocrites did condemn sinful activities and punished them harshly, but that does not mean they believed themselves to be sinless. Many scholars mistakenly believe that their hatred toward sin meant that they were self-righteous, but that is not the case. They hated sin because they believed God hated sin so any sin at all, whether in them or their neighbor, ought to be fought against. Their views were that they were just as sinful as anyone else and that they needed God’s forgiveness, not that they were better than their neighbors. In the words of one Puritan hymn, “Come, sinners, come, O come along, And join our happy pilgrim throng;” (The Puritan Hymn). The singers here invite sinners to join them and share with them in their joy and delight in the Lord. These aren’t the words of a people wrapped up in their own holiness.
The Puritans are commonly criticized for resenting all forms of earthly pleasure. Bruce C. Daniels, a Puritan scholar, writes “never did Puritans believe that actions were sinful merely because they were enjoyable” (12). In the words of Puritan minister Samuel Willard, people should have, “sometimes their exstasies.” Seeking moderate pleasures and enjoyments were considered to be good for an individual as long as they were not taken to the extreme degrees of gluttony, lust, and laziness. Passions were meant to be controlled but also enjoyed. Harsh asceticism was never a part of the Puritan belief system or lifestyle.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is the source of many Americans' knowledge of the Puritans and it reinforces our grim outlook on the people. Hawthorne was related to one of the famous judges involved in the Salem Witch Trials and his family history greatly influenced his representation of this people group. A feeling of regret and shame haunted Hawthorne for his connection to his ancestors. He even changed the spelling of his name to distance himself from them. As a result of this prejudice, Hawthorne attempted to justify his forefathers’ actions by claiming that they were a result of their time. By setting up his ancestor’s actions as the typical example of the time rather than the exception, “Nathaniel Hawthorne is able to excuse the sins of his fathers by showing that they were incapable of acting otherwise” (Madsen 510). This resulted in the author misrepresenting a diverse people group in order to satisfy his conscience. One must remember when reading works like The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible that they are fictional, not historical, accounts.
The daily lives of the Puritans also reflect their nature. Taverns could be found in just about all of their towns and their cities and alcohol was even provided at the town’s expense for the payment of their workers. A church parish even added “malt and wine” to a list of necessities of life to be provided as poor relief to their members (Daniels 10). The Puritans were cautious with images, especially in church. This was because the Catholics had completely disregarded the Lord’s command against making carved images of God and worshiping idols. They were trying to make sure not to make the same mistakes. Still, plenty of Puritan paintings and portraits can be found which reveal that they valued art and they did enjoy color. They covered their houses in brightly colored paint and wore comfortable clothing with colorful waistcoats, not sackcloth and ashes (Daniels 11).
Scholars often mistakenly equate beliefs in total depravity and original sin to a solemn, joyless demeanor (Daniels 12). The Puritans did hold to the beliefs that man was innately sinful, but they didn’t allow these ideas to cast a grim pallor on their lives. On the contrary, they believed that their God offered them salvation and freedom from the bondage and punishment of their sin. This would be a cause for joy, not bitterness.
There are some who say the Puritans did not actually rejoice in their salvation. They argue that they were actually gripped by inner turmoil as they wondered if they truly were God’s elect. These people look at the doctrine of election and they think the Puritans believed that God had already chosen his elect and that no one was safe from his eternal damnation (“God in America”). If someone really did believe this then it could definitely cast a grim, anxious pallor over one’s life. One might use as evidence one of Jonathan Edward’s own relatives, his uncle Joseph Hawley II, who took his own life because he feared that he was not one of God’s elect. However I believe one would be mistaken in believing this was true of all Puritans.
The first problem with this belief is a fundamental misunderstanding of Calvinistic doctrine. There certainly were some Puritans who did not understand it completely and their lack of understanding caused them to despair. Joseph Hawley is an example of this. However there were plenty of Puritans who did rightly understand Calvinism. They knew that God did elect those he saved and they realized that we can rest assured that he elected us as long as we put our faith in him and not in our own works. Free will and predestination can exist side to side. According to the doctrine of election, we are characters in a story. God is the author and the script was written long before the world was even created. We are inside the story and we do not know what the next page will bring. Because of our positioning inside the pages, we cannot tell what will happen next but fortunately the Bible makes it clear that sin and death have been defeated and Christ will be victorious for he has already conquered the enemy. We are still held responsible for our own actions because we can’t see our own future and have no way of knowing what will happen next. In the words of great artist and thinker N. D. Wilson, “You have been born into a narrative, you have been given freedom. Act, and act well until the final scene,” (Wilson 108). We have been given the wonderful opportunity to play a part in this story of life. Some get angry at God for writing a story where they have to face evil and get hurt. Others conquer that hardship by trusting in God and become heroes in the story. Instead of just standing up and playing the part as they wanted to, some despair because they can’t see the end and they don’t know if they were given the part they wanted to play. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the doctrine. God chooses who he saves and we can rest assured that we are saved by trusting that when he says that he’ll save us if we call on him, he will.
Joseph Hawley II clearly did not understand this doctrine and all that it truly meant. He saw the weight of his sin and how it distanced him from a perfect God but he couldn’t trust in Jesus to take away his sins. He dwelled only on his own unworthiness, not on Christ’s redemption. Another factor of Joseph Hawley’s life and death that must be taken into consideration was his mental health. Most people who try to take their own lives do so when they are struggling with mental issues. I have seen this to be the case in the lives of those who are close to me. Hawley had several mental and physical breakdowns throughout his lifetime, in fact he left a legislative position because his health had grown worse. Mental illness was clearly something he struggled with and this can be seen in the irrationality of his suicide. The distress that caused him to end his life was brought about by the belief that he was not among the elect. Dying would be the worst possible thing that could happen to him then if he believed this. With his death he would be sentenced to eternal damnation. A rational man would realize the consequences of this and would know that the best course of action would be to live a long, pleasure filled life because pain and suffering was just around the corner. Hawley’s death was a tragedy, but seeing as how he terribly misunderstood the doctrine of election and was mentally ill, you cannot use him as an example of the average Puritan (“Joseph Hawley Papers”).
Many Puritans actually found peace and reassurance in the belief of predestination. When you look through their old hymn books (the Puritans sure did love singing) and the prayers they wrote down you often find them praising God for his grace and for his election. They knew that they could not be taken from God’s hand for he elected all who trusted in him. Here is an excerpt from The Valley of Vision, an old Puritan book of prayer: “How sweet is the glorious doctrine of election when based upon thy Word and wrought inwardly within the soul! I bless thee that thou wilt keep the sinner thou hast loved, and hast engaged that he will not forsake thee, else I would never get to heaven,” (Bennett 92). The author ends his prayer with these words, “And such I could not know except by thy Spirit in my heart nor love thee at all unless thou didst elect me, call me, adopt me, save me. I bless thee for the covenant of grace,” (Bennett 93). From these short excerpts, it can be seen that the Puritan writing was sure of his salvation. In fact, the title of this prayer is “Assurance.” By looking at historical religious documents it can be seen that real Puritans who understood their beliefs were encouraged by and rejoiced in the doctrine of election. Claiming that their belief in predestination caused them to be grim and depressed is inaccurate in the light of this evidence.
The misconception that Puritans were stuck up, self-righteous killjoys who hated pleasure and happiness and glorified austere lives devoted to asceticism has been firmly planted in the minds of modern readers by authors like Hawthorne and Miller. In reality, Puritans worshiped a God who created a beautiful world and promised eternal paradise to those who would repent and follow him. The Puritans drank heartily, sung joyfully, dressed colorfully, ate happily, and enjoyed life. One scholar of poetry wrote of Anne Bradstreet, a Puritan poet praised by many other Puritans like Cotton Mather, “Her hope for heaven was an expression of her desire to live forever rather than a wish to transcend worldly concerns. For her, heaven promised the prolongation of earthly joys, rather than a renunciation of those pleasures she enjoyed in life” (Anne Bradstreet).
And here is the opening paragraph from another paper I wrote.
War raises his bloodied fist and strikes mercilessly. The blow kills millions instantly and the impact sends countless people flying, tiny shrapnel shards of humanity scattered across the globe. The human debris lands as strangers in strange lands full of strange people with strange tongues and strange customs and strange, strange hate. They are hurt people coming from hurting lands and so many folks would rather hurt them than help.
The Interplanetary Expedition of Mars Patel, from Sheela Chari
By: Circleofdragons
In this book, it is around modern time. It also takes place on Mars! If you are wondering about the main characters, there is Manu Patel. He is nicknamed Mars for unknown reasons, he is a bit chatty and a great leader for his group and a well rounded character as well! Caddie is known for being a “psychic” and will step up when Mars is not around, she prefers Mars as the leader though. I won’t forget about the athlete of the group. JP is stronger character than the others, but he is not one to take authority. Here comes the smart one, Randell is a really smart kid. He is in 7th grade and knows stuff from high school and even college! But, he prefers to go by Toothpick. These are all well rounded characters, who are just visiting a Mars colony!
If you are asking yourself what happens during this book, while during the first third of this book Orion, Julia, and Mars are trapped in the Pruitt 3 spaceship going to Mars and Orion will not let anyone into the cargo bay. But they don’t know that a splinter group called the Martians sabotaged their ship! They were able to repair their ship and dock at the Pruitt space station. (By this point you may think Oliver Pruitt is a rich, egomaniac and he is.) Then, Julia and Mars go on an Oliver Shuttle to the Mars colony and are rerouted to the Martians. Julia is able to reverse the hack and have them crash in Monument Crater. Finally, Julia is revealed to not be able to use her legs, so an 11 year old from the colony(everyone at the colony are children.)named Daisy has to use a rover to pick them up.
During the second third of the book, Daisy is revealed to have a major role in the colony. She gives a tour to Mars and Julia. Julia who is now on a small rover can roll around and was up well before Mars. Orion at this point is giving the “cargo” which is really Mars’ friends to Oliver Pruitt. In order to find his friend Aurora, he breaks colony rule and goes to the Martians. Or he at most tries, he is caught and gets put onto Tardigrade poop duty. He finds, that Tardigrades like him more than other people. He received a message on his phone that the Martians were coming for him addressed from “Fang”. Then, the ground starts shaking!
During the final third of the book, it is revealed that the shaking ground was actually Mount Olympus which is a volcano in this book is erupting! The colony is in terror and Oliver Pruitt made Pruitt Space Station explode! Mars got his friends out just in time for a colony return, they make it safely back and Mars was taken by the Martians. Fang who now reveals herself to be Aurora tells Mars Oliver Pruitt is a threat. Mars has had this opinion since the first book, but went to Mars to protect his friends from Oliver.
Mars and Aurora go to the old colony and JP and Toothpick come too. JP is the only one in the room when Oliver Pruitt reveals that he caused Mount Olympus to erupt and he is Mars’ dad! But they don’t have time to stand around so, they board a Spacecraft called the Manu 1 named after Mars. That is where it ends the book.
I especially liked the fact that it kept major secrets that could change the plot of everything! It was such a good book and contains tons of twists and turns! I can’t wait to read the next book. It is even better if you’re like me someone, who likes fantasy or fiction with technology involved with tons of action!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gulpmissile Day on Feb. 15 every year. (Now with Gulp in the world of lurkers.)
IDK when this is from:
In my experiment, I investigated how the shape of a rocket’s nosecone affects its flight characteristics. Rocket A was equipped with a pointed nosecone, a design typically associated with higher aerodynamic efficiency. Rocket B, in contrast, featured a flat nosecone. My hypothesis was that Rocket A, with its more streamlined design, would outperform Rocket B in terms of both distance and flight duration. This hypothesis was supported by the data, as Rocket A traveled a greater distance (21.18 meters) and stayed in the air longer (2.92 seconds) compared to Rocket B, which had a distance of 16.72 meters and a flight time of 1.83 seconds.
Interestingly, Rocket B was faster than Rocket A, though speed was not a variable I initially sought to measure. As speed was not the primary focus of the experiment, I do not consider this an issue for the validity of my results.
I believe the outcome of the experiment can be explained by the aerodynamic properties of the nosecones. A pointed nosecone is known to reduce drag and turbulence, allowing for smoother airflow and thus better performance. This aligns with principles of aerodynamics and Newton’s second law of motion, which states that an object will accelerate in response to a force. In this case, the force applied to launch the rockets via stomping on the launcher contributed to their motion, and any inconsistencies in the force applied could have influenced the results. Newton’s third law also plays a role in the experiment, as the reaction force from the launch caused the rocket to travel upward before eventually falling back to Earth due to gravity.
The most significant potential threat to the validity of my experiment was the inconsistency in the force of my stomps. If the force applied during each launch was not uniform, it could have caused variability in the flight distances and times, which I observed in the data. The data showed some fluctuations in distance, suggesting that the force of the stomps was not entirely consistent. I ensured that the angle of launch and the condition of the rockets remained constant, so I do not believe there were other major threats to the validity of the results. Based on this, I trust the conclusions drawn from the data.
Moving forward, I would be interested in testing additional nosecone shapes, such as round or chisel-shaped designs, to further explore their impact on rocket performance. Additionally, repeating the experiment with a more consistent application of force could help refine the results and confirm the findings. Thank you for reading my lab report, and I hope you found it insightful. Have a great day!
a big brain ꁅꂦꌃ꒒ꀤꈤ
you could even say a Brobdingnagian brain ꁅꂦꌃ꒒ꀤꈤ
🫡😜
For an English class I had to do a character analysis on a character from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. I chose to do it on Plebeian Number 3. I tried to find it but then remembered I wrote it with pencil and paper.
So here is a final project for a college English class a few years ago.
The Problem of Puritanical Pleasure: Did It Exist?
“Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy” – H. L. Mencken (Daniels 8)
The above quote summarizes how most people see the Puritans. Writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller have reinforced this view in their writings, instilling upon the minds of the readers of their fictional stories the idea that Puritans were a grim, dour people who hated the very concept of fun and happiness. The idea that the Puritans were a society of killjoys can be disproven by looking at historical accounts of their lifestyle and their artists. The Puritans were a religious group that spanned across several continents and had established societies in multiple different countries. Any generalization of such a widespread, diverse people group is bound to be inaccurate, so I will limit my observations to the Puritans who lived in the New England colonies.
Today, to call someone or something “Puritan” is to criticize them for being joyless, self-righteous, or hypocritical. The name has a “holier than thou” connotation and it was meant as an insult when it was first coined. This is extremely ironic though because the Puritans did not think they were holy enough to bear a name that meant “pure” and yet they are constantly accused of acting as if they were better than others (Trafton 2). These people who are often described as hypocrites did condemn sinful activities and punished them harshly, but that does not mean they believed themselves to be sinless. Many scholars mistakenly believe that their hatred toward sin meant that they were self-righteous, but that is not the case. They hated sin because they believed God hated sin so any sin at all, whether in them or their neighbor, ought to be fought against. Their views were that they were just as sinful as anyone else and that they needed God’s forgiveness, not that they were better than their neighbors. In the words of one Puritan hymn, “Come, sinners, come, O come along, And join our happy pilgrim throng;” (The Puritan Hymn). The singers here invite sinners to join them and share with them in their joy and delight in the Lord. These aren’t the words of a people wrapped up in their own holiness.
The Puritans are commonly criticized for resenting all forms of earthly pleasure. Bruce C. Daniels, a Puritan scholar, writes “never did Puritans believe that actions were sinful merely because they were enjoyable” (12). In the words of Puritan minister Samuel Willard, people should have, “sometimes their exstasies.” Seeking moderate pleasures and enjoyments were considered to be good for an individual as long as they were not taken to the extreme degrees of gluttony, lust, and laziness. Passions were meant to be controlled but also enjoyed. Harsh asceticism was never a part of the Puritan belief system or lifestyle.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is the source of many Americans' knowledge of the Puritans and it reinforces our grim outlook on the people. Hawthorne was related to one of the famous judges involved in the Salem Witch Trials and his family history greatly influenced his representation of this people group. A feeling of regret and shame haunted Hawthorne for his connection to his ancestors. He even changed the spelling of his name to distance himself from them. As a result of this prejudice, Hawthorne attempted to justify his forefathers’ actions by claiming that they were a result of their time. By setting up his ancestor’s actions as the typical example of the time rather than the exception, “Nathaniel Hawthorne is able to excuse the sins of his fathers by showing that they were incapable of acting otherwise” (Madsen 510). This resulted in the author misrepresenting a diverse people group in order to satisfy his conscience. One must remember when reading works like The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible that they are fictional, not historical, accounts.
The daily lives of the Puritans also reflect their nature. Taverns could be found in just about all of their towns and their cities and alcohol was even provided at the town’s expense for the payment of their workers. A church parish even added “malt and wine” to a list of necessities of life to be provided as poor relief to their members (Daniels 10). The Puritans were cautious with images, especially in church. This was because the Catholics had completely disregarded the Lord’s command against making carved images of God and worshiping idols. They were trying to make sure not to make the same mistakes. Still, plenty of Puritan paintings and portraits can be found which reveal that they valued art and they did enjoy color. They covered their houses in brightly colored paint and wore comfortable clothing with colorful waistcoats, not sackcloth and ashes (Daniels 11).
Scholars often mistakenly equate beliefs in total depravity and original sin to a solemn, joyless demeanor (Daniels 12). The Puritans did hold to the beliefs that man was innately sinful, but they didn’t allow these ideas to cast a grim pallor on their lives. On the contrary, they believed that their God offered them salvation and freedom from the bondage and punishment of their sin. This would be a cause for joy, not bitterness.
There are some who say the Puritans did not actually rejoice in their salvation. They argue that they were actually gripped by inner turmoil as they wondered if they truly were God’s elect. These people look at the doctrine of election and they think the Puritans believed that God had already chosen his elect and that no one was safe from his eternal damnation (“God in America”). If someone really did believe this then it could definitely cast a grim, anxious pallor over one’s life. One might use as evidence one of Jonathan Edward’s own relatives, his uncle Joseph Hawley II, who took his own life because he feared that he was not one of God’s elect. However I believe one would be mistaken in believing this was true of all Puritans.
The first problem with this belief is a fundamental misunderstanding of Calvinistic doctrine. There certainly were some Puritans who did not understand it completely and their lack of understanding caused them to despair. Joseph Hawley is an example of this. However there were plenty of Puritans who did rightly understand Calvinism. They knew that God did elect those he saved and they realized that we can rest assured that he elected us as long as we put our faith in him and not in our own works. Free will and predestination can exist side to side. According to the doctrine of election, we are characters in a story. God is the author and the script was written long before the world was even created. We are inside the story and we do not know what the next page will bring. Because of our positioning inside the pages, we cannot tell what will happen next but fortunately the Bible makes it clear that sin and death have been defeated and Christ will be victorious for he has already conquered the enemy. We are still held responsible for our own actions because we can’t see our own future and have no way of knowing what will happen next. In the words of great artist and thinker N. D. Wilson, “You have been born into a narrative, you have been given freedom. Act, and act well until the final scene,” (Wilson 108). We have been given the wonderful opportunity to play a part in this story of life. Some get angry at God for writing a story where they have to face evil and get hurt. Others conquer that hardship by trusting in God and become heroes in the story. Instead of just standing up and playing the part as they wanted to, some despair because they can’t see the end and they don’t know if they were given the part they wanted to play. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the doctrine. God chooses who he saves and we can rest assured that we are saved by trusting that when he says that he’ll save us if we call on him, he will.
Joseph Hawley II clearly did not understand this doctrine and all that it truly meant. He saw the weight of his sin and how it distanced him from a perfect God but he couldn’t trust in Jesus to take away his sins. He dwelled only on his own unworthiness, not on Christ’s redemption. Another factor of Joseph Hawley’s life and death that must be taken into consideration was his mental health. Most people who try to take their own lives do so when they are struggling with mental issues. I have seen this to be the case in the lives of those who are close to me. Hawley had several mental and physical breakdowns throughout his lifetime, in fact he left a legislative position because his health had grown worse. Mental illness was clearly something he struggled with and this can be seen in the irrationality of his suicide. The distress that caused him to end his life was brought about by the belief that he was not among the elect. Dying would be the worst possible thing that could happen to him then if he believed this. With his death he would be sentenced to eternal damnation. A rational man would realize the consequences of this and would know that the best course of action would be to live a long, pleasure filled life because pain and suffering was just around the corner. Hawley’s death was a tragedy, but seeing as how he terribly misunderstood the doctrine of election and was mentally ill, you cannot use him as an example of the average Puritan (“Joseph Hawley Papers”).
Many Puritans actually found peace and reassurance in the belief of predestination. When you look through their old hymn books (the Puritans sure did love singing) and the prayers they wrote down you often find them praising God for his grace and for his election. They knew that they could not be taken from God’s hand for he elected all who trusted in him. Here is an excerpt from The Valley of Vision, an old Puritan book of prayer: “How sweet is the glorious doctrine of election when based upon thy Word and wrought inwardly within the soul! I bless thee that thou wilt keep the sinner thou hast loved, and hast engaged that he will not forsake thee, else I would never get to heaven,” (Bennett 92). The author ends his prayer with these words, “And such I could not know except by thy Spirit in my heart nor love thee at all unless thou didst elect me, call me, adopt me, save me. I bless thee for the covenant of grace,” (Bennett 93). From these short excerpts, it can be seen that the Puritan writing was sure of his salvation. In fact, the title of this prayer is “Assurance.” By looking at historical religious documents it can be seen that real Puritans who understood their beliefs were encouraged by and rejoiced in the doctrine of election. Claiming that their belief in predestination caused them to be grim and depressed is inaccurate in the light of this evidence.
The misconception that Puritans were stuck up, self-righteous killjoys who hated pleasure and happiness and glorified austere lives devoted to asceticism has been firmly planted in the minds of modern readers by authors like Hawthorne and Miller. In reality, Puritans worshiped a God who created a beautiful world and promised eternal paradise to those who would repent and follow him. The Puritans drank heartily, sung joyfully, dressed colorfully, ate happily, and enjoyed life. One scholar of poetry wrote of Anne Bradstreet, a Puritan poet praised by many other Puritans like Cotton Mather, “Her hope for heaven was an expression of her desire to live forever rather than a wish to transcend worldly concerns. For her, heaven promised the prolongation of earthly joys, rather than a renunciation of those pleasures she enjoyed in life” (Anne Bradstreet).
Annotated Bibliography
“Anne Bradstreet.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.
org/poets/anne-bradstreet. Accessed 13 Apr. 2024.
Bennett, Arthur. The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. Banner of
Truth Trust, 1975.
Daniels, Bruce C. “Did the Puritans Have Fun? Leisure, Recreation and the Concept of Pleasure
in Early New England.” Journal of American Studies, vol. 25, no. 1, 1991, pp. 7–22. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27555420. Accessed 6 Apr. 2024.
“God in America.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 11 Oct. 2010,
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/godinamerica/people/puritans.html#:~:text=The Puritans were strict Calvinists,the elect,"%20for%20salvation.
Joseph Hawley Papers, archives.nypl.org/mss/1360. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.
Madsen, Deborah L. “Hawthorne’s Puritans: From Fact to Fiction.” Journal of American Studies,
vol. 33, no. 3, 1999, pp. 509–17. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27556689. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.
The Puritan Hymn and Tune Book: Designed for Congregational Singing, Social
Meetings, and the Family. Congregational Board of Publication, 1864.
Trafton, Jennifer and Leland Ryken. “Did You Know? Interesting and Unusual Facts
About the English Puritans.” Christian History and Biography, Issue 89, pp. 2-4. https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezvwcc.vccs.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=40566242-bfd8-4e39-a84d-67f6c3ba4f67@redis. Accessed 13 Apr. 2024.
And here is the opening paragraph from another paper I wrote.
War raises his bloodied fist and strikes mercilessly. The blow kills millions instantly and the impact sends countless people flying, tiny shrapnel shards of humanity scattered across the globe. The human debris lands as strangers in strange lands full of strange people with strange tongues and strange customs and strange, strange hate. They are hurt people coming from hurting lands and so many folks would rather hurt them than help.
Here is a really old one I found.
The Interplanetary Expedition of Mars Patel, from Sheela Chari
By: Circleofdragons
In this book, it is around modern time. It also takes place on Mars! If you are wondering about the main characters, there is Manu Patel. He is nicknamed Mars for unknown reasons, he is a bit chatty and a great leader for his group and a well rounded character as well! Caddie is known for being a “psychic” and will step up when Mars is not around, she prefers Mars as the leader though. I won’t forget about the athlete of the group. JP is stronger character than the others, but he is not one to take authority. Here comes the smart one, Randell is a really smart kid. He is in 7th grade and knows stuff from high school and even college! But, he prefers to go by Toothpick. These are all well rounded characters, who are just visiting a Mars colony!
If you are asking yourself what happens during this book, while during the first third of this book Orion, Julia, and Mars are trapped in the Pruitt 3 spaceship going to Mars and Orion will not let anyone into the cargo bay. But they don’t know that a splinter group called the Martians sabotaged their ship! They were able to repair their ship and dock at the Pruitt space station. (By this point you may think Oliver Pruitt is a rich, egomaniac and he is.) Then, Julia and Mars go on an Oliver Shuttle to the Mars colony and are rerouted to the Martians. Julia is able to reverse the hack and have them crash in Monument Crater. Finally, Julia is revealed to not be able to use her legs, so an 11 year old from the colony(everyone at the colony are children.)named Daisy has to use a rover to pick them up.
During the second third of the book, Daisy is revealed to have a major role in the colony. She gives a tour to Mars and Julia. Julia who is now on a small rover can roll around and was up well before Mars. Orion at this point is giving the “cargo” which is really Mars’ friends to Oliver Pruitt. In order to find his friend Aurora, he breaks colony rule and goes to the Martians. Or he at most tries, he is caught and gets put onto Tardigrade poop duty. He finds, that Tardigrades like him more than other people. He received a message on his phone that the Martians were coming for him addressed from “Fang”. Then, the ground starts shaking!
During the final third of the book, it is revealed that the shaking ground was actually Mount Olympus which is a volcano in this book is erupting! The colony is in terror and Oliver Pruitt made Pruitt Space Station explode! Mars got his friends out just in time for a colony return, they make it safely back and Mars was taken by the Martians. Fang who now reveals herself to be Aurora tells Mars Oliver Pruitt is a threat. Mars has had this opinion since the first book, but went to Mars to protect his friends from Oliver.
Mars and Aurora go to the old colony and JP and Toothpick come too. JP is the only one in the room when Oliver Pruitt reveals that he caused Mount Olympus to erupt and he is Mars’ dad! But they don’t have time to stand around so, they board a Spacecraft called the Manu 1 named after Mars. That is where it ends the book.
I especially liked the fact that it kept major secrets that could change the plot of everything! It was such a good book and contains tons of twists and turns! I can’t wait to read the next book. It is even better if you’re like me someone, who likes fantasy or fiction with technology involved with tons of action!
Gulpmissile Day on Feb. 15 every year. (Now with Gulp in the world of lurkers.)
Alex’s Forms, Google Doc. Alex = My Book Character.
Bill Cipher Cult