experimenting

If you read my blog, you know that I am big on experimenting. I'm reading a book - "Cosmic Numbers" by James D. Stern, and in it he defines a few terms that I find relevant:

Quoting from page 30:
Experiment: The act of conducting a controlled test or investigation.
Experimentation: Varying one parameter and seeing how other parameters change in response.
When you track the apparatus used, the procedures involved and the measurements observed, that's "experimental science."

In his book, Mr. Stern is talking about things like discovering the gravitational constant, but it is exactly the approach I use when trying to learn new things about spinning. Science doesn't have to happen in a laboratory. In fact, for much of history it didn't. It happened in basements and back halls and gentlemen's clubs. It is that history of "gentlemen scientists" (I guess there wasn't much of an outlet for gentlewomen scientists, but I bet they were out there - or too busy running the household to have time for "play") that I find exciting. The idea that science is accessible to everyone. If you are curious about something, just figure out the questions to ask and dive in. It's fun.

In that vein, I've been working on my Ribe mitten recreation. Each test I make, I discover a little bit more about how the original mitten could have been made. I believe the key to its construction lies in the thumb. To that end, I am making a few thumb samples to see which stitching sequence will most closely match the original mitten. I'll post them when I am done.