Tales From The Farm – Help Name Rosie’s Lambs
Yesterday we heard the sad story of the lamb that did not survive. Rosie’s mum has been in touch to tell us how the other little lambs are doing.
As you can see from the pictures, they are all doing great. It was cold on the farm yesterday, as the family went about their duties, making sure the sheep and lambs were healthy and content.
Rosie’s dad has been ploughing the fields, and getting ready to sew oats and barley. Do you know what they look like?
Oats
Barley
Can you see the difference between the two photos?
There is always work to be done on the Farm, and it is not a 9am to 5pm job. It is a way of life.
Rosie and her family are going to find out whether the lambs are male of female and have asked Jump! readers to help name them. The lambs are named in alphabetical order, so this year their names should start with a “D”.
What do you think? What names do you like?
Leave a comment to suggest a name and Rosie will pick the names she likes best.
Who Invented the First Electric Battery?
When we talk about electric batteries, we often talk about voltage. But did you know that this word is named after the person who invented the first electric battery? First, let’s take a look at what a volt is, and then we’ll find out more about the guy who gave the ‘volt’ its name.
What is a Volt?
A volt is defined as a unit of electric potential and electromotive force, and voltage refers to the number of those units. That sounds a lot more complicated than it is! If you think of the water in a tap being like the electricity running through a wire, the voltage means the amount of pressure. This video is quite long but explains it very well.
Why are Volts Called Volts?
Alessandro Volta
The term actually comes from a name. It was coined in honour of Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, who is recognised as the inventor of the first electric battery. During the 1790s, Volta worked on the theories of electricity of the day.
Volta disagreed with the theory proposed by fellow Italian scientist Galvani that electricity was generated by animal tissue. Instead of experimenting on frogs or other animals, Volta did experiment after experiment with metals.
His persistence paid off, and in 1800, he invented the world’s first battery, known as the ‘voltaic pile’.
The Voltaic Pile
This voltaic pile was simple but ingenious. It consisted of a pile of zinc and silver discs. But alternating between them was a piece of cardboard, or a piece of cloth, that had been soaked in saltwater.
There was a wire that connected the zinc disc on the bottom to the silver disc on the top, and this wire was capable of producing sparks.
What else Did Volta Invent?
The invention of the first electric battery brought Volta the most fame and recognition, but he also made other discoveries. He invented the electrophorus, a device that could transfer an electrical charge to other objects, as well as an electrical condensor, and the voltaic cell.
He is also known for having discovered and isolated methane gas. After his death, the volt and voltage were named in his memory.
What about Galvani?
Luigi Galvani
Yet there is one more twist to the tale. Volta’s longstanding colleague Galvani of the animal electricity theory also left his name in our language. When we say ‘galvanise’ or ‘galvanism’, that is where it comes from.
Despite their differing theories, there was no rivalry between the two scientists. They were both more concerned with the pursuit of knowledge than with whose theory would prove to be right, and it was Volta who first coined the word ‘galvanismo’ in Italian.
Featured Image by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash
What is Amigurumi?
When 12-year-old Iona wrote to us, offering to write an article for Jump! Mag about Amigurumi, our first question was, “What is Amigurumi?”. She explained and we jumped (ha!) at the chance of having a talented crochet artist bring some colour and cuteness to Jump! Mag.
What is a Referendum?
What is a Referendum?
There has been a lot of talk recently about the referendum on membership of the European Union. It seems that we cannot turn on the television without hearing about it! But what is a referendum?
A referendum is a vote, not an election by which we choose the people to represent us, but a choice in which all the people who can vote are asked to accept or reject (not accept) a course of action.
You can find out more about our main election, the General Election here.
What this means is that voters are called to say yes or no to a question. You might think that this sounds perfectly reasonable; why shouldn’t everyone have a say in what our country is doing? But it is not as simple as that.
Most questions are decided by votes in Parliament; after all, this is why we elect them to represent us, and in practical terms, we cannot all expect to be experts on all the subjects that must be covered by the government. So this doesn’t happen very often.
Referendums in the UK
In fact, in the UK there have only been twelve, yes, just 12 referendums since 1973. Twelve referendums over the course of 43 years, of which only two have covered the entire country. You can see that this is not a large number.
You might be surprised to learn that the first to cover the whole country was in 1975, and it was on membership of the European Economic Community (EEC), which is what the European Union was then known as. The second was in 2011, and related to a reform in the voting system known as Alternative Vote.
All the other major referendums in the UK have been related to questions of devolving power – or the governing of the distinct regions of England, Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Origins of the Word Referendum
The word came into use in English in 1847. But at that time, it was mostly about Switzerland, whose system of direct democracy involved (and continues to involve) a large number of referendums. The word was coined, or created, from Latin referendum, which means “thing to be referred”. This is because, in a referendum, the decision is referred to the people.
The word referendum in Latin is from the verb referre. This verb means “to bring back, to take back’, which is the very essence of a referendum: a question is being brought back to the people who will be affected by it.
What is the Plural of Referendum?
A lot of people think that the plural of referendum is ‘referenda’, but is it really?
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”The Oxford English Dictionary” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Referendum is logically preferable as a plural form meaning ballots on one issue (as a Latin gerund referendum has no plural). The Latin plural gerundive referenda, meaning ‘things to be referred’, necessarily connotes a plurality of issues.[/perfectpullquote]
What does that mean?
A gerund is a grammar term used in Latin and other languages. In Latin, ‘referenda’ would mean ‘more than one thing to be considered’, whereas a referendum as a vote tends to be on one single issue.
We can use ‘referendum’ as a plural if we wish, but ‘referendums’ has also become normalised in English, as the word has been accepted in popular use in English, and of course the usual way to make a plural in English is to add ‘s’.
You can find out more about the British political system in these posts.