In attaining our ideals,our meansshould be as pure as the end!

Dr Rajendra Prasad02 MIXED BAG

HOBBY HIGHWriter Margaret Atwood, a Booker Prize winner, recently took an interviewer’s hand and startedreading her palm, saying: “You’re quite stubborn. You don’t care about wallpaper, Molly.” Celebritiesoften have hobbies that may not seem to match their public persona... Did you, for instance, knowTom Hanks is a vintage typewriter collector or Julia Roberts knits sweaters on film sets?

TOM & WILL ARE FENCING, SIR Tom Cruise and Will Smith, the two evergreenHollywood stars, like to fence as a hobby.Apparently, it was Cruise who introduced Smith topick up the pointy swords (known as foil, epee andsaber) and do the careful back and forth moves tooutmanoeuvre the opponent.

TOM LIKES TOTYPEWRITE

Tom Hanks, who likesplaying the everymanof Hollywood, is intomanual typewriters —collecting them andtyping out memosand letters the old-fashioned way.“Everything you typeon a typewritersounds grand, thewords forming inmini-explosions ofSHOOK SHOOKSHOOK. A thank-younote resonates withthe same heft as aliterary masterpiece,”he wrote in ‘The NewYork Times’.

DESIGNED BY PATTINSON Actor Robert Pattinson, who will next be seen in the spookythriller ‘The Lighthouse’, recently said he has started design-ing clothes for men and women as a hobby. “My style is influ-enced by the cities I go to, sourcing fabrics and local skills.What I do is pretty multifaceted, clothes for men and forwomen, things that I make with friends,” he told a magazine.

WHAT’S UPFERNANDO’S SLEEVE?

Fernando Alonso, the formerFormula One driver, is an ama-teur magician and uses tricks ofhand to impress all and sundry.The Spaniard is said to havelearned the magic tricks fromhis uncle. Perhaps, he was alsoinspired by Nigel Mansell, anoth-er Formula One champion from1992, who is a proper magician.

QUENTIN & DUKES OF HAZARD

Quentin Tarantino, the maker of‘Once Upon A Time in Hollywood’,once said he liked collecting andplaying board games. His collectionincludes The Dukes of Hazzard andDawn of the Dead. “I’ve been col-lecting all this for years…Then Ifinally decided I wanted to startcollecting something new. So, Istarted with board games,” he saidin an interview.

BINGO! CRISTIANO Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese football star, loves bingo, the num-bered card game of chance. He was said to have received the game asChristmas gift once and he has been at it ever since. “It can be veryexciting because you can be there waiting for a long time for just the

BE QUIZ READY: Swissmint’s retail websitebuckled under pressure as demand soared fora commemorative coin featuring the country’stennis star Roger Federer. A look at some oldcoins that are worth a fortune today...

COINS OF FORTUNE

$7.6 mnDouble Eagle (1933)

In the year this goldcoin was made, USPresident Franklin DRoosevelt banned people

from hoarding gold toend a banking crisis. However, some left the mint surreptitiouslyand one was auctionedfor $7.6 million in 2002.

$10 MNThe Flowing Hair Silver/CopperDollar (1794-45)

Legend Numismatics, a rare-coin firm in New Jersey, boughta coin for $10 million at an auc-

tion in 2013. MMaannyy eexxppeerrttssbbeelliieevvee tthhiiss wwaass aammoonngg tthhee ffiirrssttssuucchh ccooiinnss mmaaddee bbyy tthhee UUSSMMiinntt.. The coin made of 90% sil-ver and 10% copper depicts animage of Liberty with her flow-ing tresses.

$6.8 MNEdward III Florin (1343)

This is one of the rarestcoins in the world and onlythree are known to be inexistence. English kingEdward III is said to have madethese to have a currency thatcould be used across Europe. TThhee ccooiinniiss ccuurrrreennttllyy vvaalluueedd aatt $$66..88 mmiilllliioonn..

■ Akshay Kumar hasexcelled in Taekwondo andMuay Thai from Bangkok —and he is known to be a mar-tial arts trainer. His hobby isnot far from his profession.Kumar practises Tai Chiwhen he is not shooting, amartial art that is renownedfor its health benefits. ■ A former body-buildingenthusiast, actor SalmanKhan nowadays has givenpainting precedence overpumping iron during his freetime. His works sell for atidy sum of money, and theprofits go to his charity.

ACTIVITY: INERTIA – A BODY IN MOTIONIn this experiment you will try to drop atennis ball on a target as you run past thetarget. Think it’s easy? Before you begin,try to guess what will happen. Try to fig-ure out when you will need to release theball in order to hit the target. Writedown your predictions in note-book. Give the reasonswhy you think

you are correct. As you

conduct thisexperiment,

think of thechallenges Air

Force pilots hadbefore the invention of

the guided missiles that are used today. Pi-lots in World War II had to understandmathematics in order to drop bombson targets while causing as little harmas possible to surrounding buildingsand people. These are the same con-

cepts that you will learnwith this experiment.

MATERIALSYou will need the following items forthis experiment: One tennis ball Clearly-marked target(s), i.e., note-book paper, a chalk mark, or tape

PROCEDURE

1Place a target about 10-15 metreaway from a starting line. Mark the

starting line with chalk or tape.

2Hold the tennis ball; do not letyour elbow leave your side as

you run and drop the ball. Do notthrow the ball. You should hold the

ball from its sides so that you can

release your grip as you let it drop.Remember to drop the ball and notthrow it, otherwise you will change theintent of the experiment.

3Have three students stand alongside(but slightly back from) the running

path to act as observers. One shouldstand before the target, one at the tar-get, and one just after the target. Theirobjective is to determine exactly wherethe runner released the ball and wherethe ball strikes the ground.

4 Ask the runner to sprint toward thetarget as fast as she or he can and

try to drop the ball so that it lands onthe target.

5Next, have the observers make adiagram in their book of where the

ball wasreleased and where

it landed. Repeatthe experiment

until the ball hitsthe target.

6 Use the information in Step 5 topredict what would happen if a stu-

dent ran at a slower speed.

7Repeat steps 4-5, using a differentrunner sprinting at a slower speed.

8Use the information in the previoustrials to predict what would happen

at a walking speed.

9 For the last trial, ask a student to walktoward the target. Repeat steps 4-5.

10Write a summary of your resultsin your notebook. Form conclu-

sions based on the speed of each runner,the location of each ball’s release, andthe exact point where each ball landed.

Activities for Newton’sFIRST LAW OF MOTIONWHAT IS THEFIRST LAW? In the absence of a netforce, a body at restremains at rest, and a bodyin motion remains inmotion indefinitely alongthe same straight line.

MS ROBERTS IS BUSY, KNITTING

Filmstar Julia Roberts is alsoa knitter, a skill she honedwhile waiting for her shots atfilm sets. “It’s just great tomake things. To have a pile ofyarn and make it into some-thing,” she was once quotedas saying.

one number to make the gamecomplete,” he was quoted astelling a Portuguese paper.