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We measure the magnetic field produced by a linear octupole formed by four magnets placed in such a way that both their magnetic moments and their quadrupole moments cancel each other. The magnetic field is measured with the magnetic sensor of a smartphone together with a suitable app, using the Android operating system. The main objective is to determine the dependence of the x-component of the magnetic field with distance and compare with the theoretical result that tells us that this dependence is a quintic decrease., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figs

This is a quarterly report of a project involving the analysis of the language of four Puerto Rican children living in the Boston area who are learning Spanish as a first language. The children, all male, ranged in age from 17 months to 37 months during the period of study. All had some contact with English. The data were transcriptions of spontaneous conversation between the researcher and each child. The analysis was of: (1) the order of acquisition of Spanish verb forms, and (2) the influence on the acquisition of the child's repetitions of verbs spoken previously in conversation by the adult. Errors in the children's verb systems were similar. For all, the form used in more inappropriate contexts was the third person singular. It seems that this is the basic form. Two assumptions were made about the nature of repetitions: (1) the child determines what s/he will repeat; and (2) the adult's model is not appropriate or inappropriate by itself; rather its appropriateness depends on the subject the child uses in his/her subsequent utterance, which is determined by the child. The same questions will be addressed in a subsequent study in Puerto Rico. (AMH)

The acquisition of Spanish as a first language was investigated in a study of eight Puerto Rican children ranging in age from 17-39 months. The speech of the four children studied in Puerto Rico was analyzed in detail and compared with that of the four children taped in Boston. The children's speech was taped in natural situations and analyzed in terms of the accuracy and complexity of the verb system. A common developmental pattern for the acquisition and appearance of the verb system was observed. For most of the children, repetitions seemed to influence verb system development. In comparison with the Boston group, the Puerto Rican group showed more diversity in developmental patterns. In general, the Puerto Rican children were more similar to the Boston children (individually) than to one another. (Author/RW)