What Is “The Mitochondria”?

Dear Followers,

Boy do I wish I had signed up for Science Bowl earlier in high school. Yesterday was my first and last Science Bowl competition ever.

Held within the Macalester University campus, yesterday’s competition featured many grueling round of head-to-head science trivia action. The topics consisted of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth & Space, and Energy, no doubt an inserted form of implicit propaganda from the Department of Energy to convince the future generation of the importance of alternative energy sources. Sigh. Regardless, each round featured a diverse spread of questions. I only found one or two similar questions across the approximately 10 rounds we participated in.

The reason why I joined Science Bowl is simple: it was fun. The competition was no different. With an added feeling of competitive play, yesterday’s competition was extremely fun, even if we lost quite a few rounds and sometimes the members of my team skirmished amongst each other unnecessarily. Yes, Team 2 is quite an eclectic combination of individuals, featuring Nathan, Jayant, Narupa, Clark, and myself. After a few rounds of figuring out how the game worked and losing rounds less by the skill of our opponents and more by the consequences of our mistakes, we began to click as a team.

In a surprising turn of events, Wayzata’s prestigious Team 1 was knocked out of the elimination rounds prematurely for one reason or another. While Team 2 made it to the next round afterwards, my inability to distinguish between 2πr and πr^2 cost us the match, or at the very least, the ability to send the round into a tie-breaker. Stupid geometry. Either way, I am extremely proud of all of my teammates for a great effort and for making it as far as we did.

Hopefully in college I will be able to get involved with such an intellectually stimulating and enjoyable activity before my senior year.

2πr Does Not Equal πr^2 For All Values Of r,
Noel