Saturday, March 21, 2020

How to Conjugate the French Verb Appeler (to Call)

How to Conjugate the French Verb Appeler (to Call) In French, you will use the verb  appeler  when you want to say to call. Yet, in order for the verb to make sense in a sentence, it needs to be conjugated. That is the subject of this lesson and by the end, youll be conjugating  appeler  with ease. Conjugating the French Verb  Appeler Appeler  is a  stem-changing verb.  If you notice, in the  nous  and  vous  present tense as well as the imperfect, the ll changes back  to the single l found in the original verb. Other than that minor difference, the conjugation of  appeler  is  similar to regular -er  verbs. In reality, this is one of the easier French verbs to conjugate and the chart will help you tremendously. It shows the verb form for the present, future, and imperfect past as well as the present participle. Simply match up the  subject pronoun with the form of  appeler  and youre on your way to forming a complete sentence in French. For instance, to say I call, you will say jappelle and for we will call, say nous appelerons. Appelers Present Participle The  present participle  of  appeler  is  appelant. Beyond its use as a verb for calling, you might also use it as an adjective, gerund, or noun in certain circumstances. Another Past Tense for  Appeler You can also use the  passà © composà ©Ã‚  for the past tense conjugation of  appeler. You will need to use the verbs  past participle  of appelà ©Ã‚  along with the  auxiliary verb, which is  avoir  in this case. For example, to say I called, you will use jai  appelà ©. For he called, you say il a  appelà © in French. The  ai and a are conjugations of  avoir. More Conjugations of  Appeler You may not always need these forms of  appeler, but they are good to know. The  passà © simple and imperfect subjunctive are used in formal writing, so unless you do that, theyre not very important. Yet, you should be aware of the subjunctive and conditional forms of  appeler, particularly as you learn more conversational French. The ​subjunctive will be used when the verb is uncertain or subjective. The ​conditional will be used when the verb is dependent upon circumstances. Finally, we must discuss the imperative form of  appeler. This is used for short, expressive sentences that have a request or demand. Its very useful for a verb like  appeler. The primary difference here is that you do not need to use the subject pronoun because the verb takes care of it. For example, if you want someone to Call me! you will say Appelle-moi! rather than Tu appelle-moi! Another Way to Call As you might imagine,  appeler  is just one piece in the French vocabulary for phone conversations. It can be used in other contexts such as call out or call on someone and neither has to do with a phone. For very specific phone calling, look to the verb  tà ©là ©phoner.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

What Happens To The Human Body In A Vacuum

What Happens To The Human Body In A Vacuum As humans get closer to the time when astronauts and explorers will be living and working in space  for long periods of time, a lot of questions arise about what it will be like for those who make their careers out there. There is a great deal of data based on long-duration flights by such astronauts as Mark Kelly and Peggy Whitman, but the life sciences experts at most space agencies need a lot more data to understand what will happen to future travelers.  They already know that the long-term inhabitants aboard the  International Space Station  have experienced some major and puzzling changes to their bodies, some of which last long after they are back on Earth. Mission planners  are using their experiences to help plan missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Crew members on the International Space Station work with such technology as 3-D printers to understand how these and other technology can be used in space. This is a printer inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox aboard the station. NASA However, despite this priceless data from actual experiences, people also get a lot of non-valuable data from Hollywood movies about what its like to live in space. In those cases, drama usually trumps scientific accuracy. In particular, the movies are big on gore, especially when it comes to depicting the experience of being exposed to vacuum. Unfortunately, those movies and TV shows (and video games) give the wrong impression about what its like to be in space.   Vacuum in the Movies In the 1981 movie Outland, starring Sean Connery, there is a scene where a construction worker in space gets a hole in his suit. As the air leaks out, the internal pressure drops and his body is exposed to a vacuum, we watch in horror through his faceplate as he swells up and explodes. Could that really happen, or was that dramatic license? A somewhat similar scene occurs in the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Total Recall. In that movie, Schwarzenegger leaves the pressure of the habitat of a Mars colony and begins to blow up like a balloon in the much lower pressure of the Mars atmosphere, not quite a vacuum. He is saved by the creation of an entirely new atmosphere by an ancient alien machine. Again, could that happen, or was dramatic license at play? Those scenes bring up an entirely understandable question: What happens to the human body in a vacuum? The answer is simple: it wont blow up. The blood wont boil, either. However, it will be a quick way to die if an astronauts spacesuit is damaged.   What Really Happens in a Vacuum There are a number of things about being in space, in a vacuum, that can cause harm to the human body. The unfortunate space traveler wouldnt be able to hold their breath for long (if at all), because it would cause lung damage. The person would probably remain conscious for several seconds until the blood without oxygen reaches the brain. Then, all bets are off.   The vacuum of space is also pretty darn cold, but the human body doesnt lose heat that fast, so a hapless astronaut would have a little time before freezing to death. Its possible that they would have some problems with their eardrums, including a rupture, but maybe not.   Being marooned in space exposes the astronaut to high radiation and the chances for a really bad sunburn. Their body might actually swell some, but not to the proportions so dramatically shown in Arnold Schwarzeneggers movie, Total Recall. The bends are also possible, just like what happens to a diver who surfaces too quickly from a deep underwater dive. That condition is also known as decompression sickness and happens when dissolved gases in the bloodstream create bubbles as the person decompresses. The condition can be fatal and is taken seriously by divers, high-altitude pilots, and astronauts.   Astronauts train extensively underwater on Earth, wearing pressure suits, to simulate working in space. NASA/Johnson Space Center.   While normal blood pressure will keep a persons blood from boiling, the saliva in their mouth could very well begin to do so. Theres actually evidence for that happening from an astronaut who experienced it. In 1965, while performing tests at the  Johnson Space Center, a subject was accidentally exposed to a near vacuum (less than one psi) when his space suit leaked while in a vacuum chamber. He did not pass out for about fourteen seconds, by which time unoxygenated blood had reached his brain. Technicians began to repressurize the chamber within fifteen seconds and he regained consciousness at around the equivalent of 15,000 feet of altitude. He later said that his last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil. So, theres at least one data point about what its like to be in a vacuum. It wont be pleasant, but it wont be like the movies, either. There have actually been cases of parts of astronauts bodies being exposed to vacuum when suits were damaged. They survived due to quick action and safety protocols. The good news from all those experiences is that the human body is amazingly resilient. The worst problem would be lack of oxygen, not lack of pressure in the vacuum. If returned to a normal atmosphere fairly quickly, a person would survive with few if any irreversible injuries after an accidental exposure to vacuum. More recently, astronauts on the International Space Station found an air leak from a hole made by a technician on the ground in Russia. They were in no danger of losing their air right away, but they had to go to some effort to get it plugged safely and permanently. Edited and updated by Carolyn Collins Petersen.