Reactions of Gack and Blue Salt (Copper Sulfate)

1. The first reaction I'm going to talk about is the gack reactions which was (before we made it) a very ordinary piece of glue.How do we know that this was a reaction and not a mixture. For this one very simple reason the gack changed the texture from liquid to solid. Which is one very big step. What we ended up with (gack) kind of reminds me of cornstarch which when you poke it is liquid and soft but they it changes into a solid when you try to hit it.

2. The next reaction I'm going to talk about is the blue salt one. At the begin we stated out with just water until our teacher Dr. G brought out this blue substance (which later on we found out is poissoness salt) We had a lot of fun sipping it in and then it came down to see why this was a reaction. This is because the color of the water which we pored in the tube changed, bubbles were also visible from the copper sulfate which were rising to the top of the water and continued this pattern for an hour (almost 2) 

Lab Report: Various types of springs

Guiding Question: How does the material a spring is made of and size affect the way the wave moves?  Do longitudinal waves always travel the same way?  What affects the compressions and rarefactions most?  

Hypothesis: It will affect how large and long the compression will be inside the slinky when pulled on. We think that longitudinal waves do not travel the same way but will produce many different patterns. The thing that affects the compression and rarefaction is how much coils you pull back before you let it go and see the compression travel throughout the slinky

Variables:  

• Control:  length of the slinky (2 meters)
• Manipulated (What you will change): material and size of slinky
• Responding (What response you are looking for): How many compressions are made and how they react.

Materials:

• Slinkys (plastic and metal-34 coils)
• Meter stick.
• Camera (To film or take pictures of the compression inside the slinky)

Procedure:

1. stretch the metal slinky 1 meters
2. Gather 5 coils and release them.
3. Observe the number of compressions that it makes and how the energy moves through the slinky.
4.  Gather10 coils and release them.
5. Observe the number of compressions that it makes and how the energy moves through the slinky.
6. Gather 20 coils and release them.
7. Observe the number of compressions that it makes and how the energy moves through the slinky.
8. Enter all data into the table.




Data Table(s) (This is as far as you will get until you complete the table, but you MUST know what data you will collect BEFORE you begin)  

Table 1:  5 coils pulled back

Spring	Number of times the compression hits the ends and reflects back
	Flat surface
Metal spring	4 times
Plastic spring	3 times
metal and plastic combined	pull medal first:1 pull plastic first: 1 1/2

Table 2:  10 coils pulled back

Spring	Number of times the compression hits the ends and reflects back
	Flat surface
Metal spring	6 times
Plastic spring	3 times
metal and plastic combined	pull metal first: 1 times pull plastic first: 1 1/2

Table 3:  20 coils pulled back

Spring	Number of times the compression hits the ends and reflects back
	Flat surface
Metal spring	10 times
Plastic spring	5 times
metal and plastic combined	pull metal first:1 pull plastic first: 2

Data Analysis:
Matia:Chris and I observed really closely and what we noticed was that the metal slinky was more elastic, therefore had more compression to produce and it lasted longer. But then when we combined them together (metal and plastic) for the final test, the results turn out that the plastic had been better and that the compression bounced off more times then the metal one. I’m not sure why this is though.

Chris: I noticed that the metal slinky was much more reflective than the plastic slinky, but when we put them together the plastic slinky was better. There was a difference between plastic and metal slinky depending on which one we started with. If we started with the plastic slinky, the wave went all the way through, but when we started with the metal spring it did not work that well.   

Conclusion:
Chris: How does the material a spring is made of and size affect the way the wave moves? The metal slinky was much more elastic and made more compression to make it last longer than plastic slinky. The amplitude in the metal slinky had a bigger amplitude than the plastic slinky.  Yes they travelled the same way every time we did it. Every time the waves reached the end they reflected back and so on. Compression get affected by how many coils we are pulling back. The  rarefaction gets affected by how big the compression is.Our prediction was partially correct. We said that longitudinal waves would have different pattern, but I did not see anything different from test to test. The other predictions we had were right.
Matija: The material of the slinky affects the compression and the motion of the wave because some materials make the compression stop because they aren’t as elastic as others, so when the compression hits the sides it doesn’t really bounce off but lightly fades away. Yes the longitudinal waves only have one pattern which Chris and I noticed and that's having the compression go from left to right (or right to left) and then reflecting back. The thing that affected compression was the amount of coils we pulled back and then let go. And the bigger/longer the compression the more rarefaction is noticed. Our hypothesis was mostly correct with just a few erros such as the one that we said that we thought there would be more then one pattern in a longitude wave.
Further Inquiry:
Chris: It was a great experiment and the slinkys worked really well. The only thing that was a little annoying was when we put the metal and plastic slinky together, because they would not really hang on to each other.   
Matija: The whole experiment turned out to be great with only minor problems with clipping on the plastic and metal slinky together to see how long the compression would last. I have to say the results of that really stunned me i thought that it would have been more.

Tsunami Essay

To our knowledge Earth is the only inhabited place in the atmosphere but yet we choose to forget that fact when we destroy the nature around us. The man kind age became a factor to earth as technology developed and the industries placed around our earth caused severe consequences, as gases started to raise into our atmosphere forming global warming. Global warming did not only cause weather disturbances it also awakened many volcanoes and increased frequency occurrence of strong earthquakes, which then the earthquakes waves traveled into the ocean forming big waves called Tsunamis 

A tsunami is a larger, greater and stronger wave then a normal one and is considered one of the biggest natural disasters along with earthquake, which as i wrote above can sometimes be capable of forming tsunamis. They are destructive forces which occur because of: Global warming and the melting of an ice pack/glaciers. To form a picture in your mind just try to think of taking a rock and throwing it in a tub of water the water will rise and form a circle and expending it making it even bigger and bigger all the way until it no longer resembles a circle and the waves just travel across the water. It can also be formed by other natural disasters, because for a wave to form their needs to be a disturbance of some sort and many natural disasters make disturbances. Or it can form by the collision of tectonic plates which means that the seafloor changes in a way that one part of the sea floor goes over the other one making the water rise up high. This can also be caused by a landslide.

The affects of an tsunami depends on its strength and hight. The chances are that if there is an strong earthquake in a city thats close to the sea that the damage might be very big and sever such as the one that happened in Japan last year. If the earthquake or anything else that triggered the tsunami didn't have much power the wave as well wouldn't have much force to apply and its hight would be smaller. Some of the effects of a big tsunami are death (the most tragic one to me) destruction and damage, injuries, physiological problems for the region and the loss of money. And most of the time if the tsunami was strong enough to demolish objects such as building all that waist will be heading to the ocean when the water passes through the town. What people don't think about is how a tsunami isn't only dreadful when it strikes (thats the worst time because of the deaths and hunger) but its also dreadful for a many more years before the whole town, city or country is picked up again and recovers some of their buildings and materials.

In recant years by monitoring the activity under water we could see the patterns and predict any possible tsunami that are coming our way. By using this tool it increases our chance of surviving a tsunami by a lot. Sometimes the tsunami appears so suddenly that scientist can no see it therefore you still have chance to survive if your quick or notice some of the patterns the sea goes through before there is an tsunami. Of course not any piece of equipment made by men out there 100% reliable, they always have some sort of wholes in them. 

A warning system for tsunamis consists of two equally important components, one of which i mentioned above, which is actually looking at the radar and seeing if there is an tsunami. And the second is starting the alarm and evacuating people to safety. Now for the warning systom there are also two different kinds. The first one is International and the second regional. After that then the data observes the sea level hight seeing how fierce the tsunami is.

To conclude this essay u would just like to add that tsunamis are dangerous natural forces and have to be taken seriously if to big. Even with a warning system if your living by the water it wouldn't hurt once in a while to check up and see the situation.

What are the Properties of Waves and How do they Interact ?

In science class our new topic is waves. Today in school we got to investicate with water waves and how objects interfere with it. We would also drop little amount on water and then would looking at the patter the wave shows us. This is one site which can kind of demonstrate what we did today in class. 

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/wave-interference

Some of us from the start new the patterns the wave is going to make, although when you put objects in its path the whole pattern changes forming into something amazing. We also found out that when you put 2 drops of water into the water that the wave is going to become smaller rather then bigger, which was kind of a surprise to me before i actually thought about it then it made sense. Today we also got to learn some new words which seemed familiar to me. These words were wavelength, frequency, and amplitude.   One important fact which i learn about these words and their meanings is that if the frequency and the amplitude are both high, there is going to be a problem with the people who are riding on the open seas that day. This is a perfect website showing this information

http://www.classzone.com/books/ml_science_share/vis_sim/wslm05_pg18_graph/wslm05_pg18_graph.html

Today we learned a lot about a topic which i would have never expected to go into this much depth. Today was very fun and a good way to start this week.

Space Exploration; is it worth the cost?

The big question which everybody has probably thought of once in their life time is if space exploration is really worth all the risks and costs. While we have made many astonishing discoveries in space is their really something that can help us change our way? Or be an emergency planet if our world gets destroyed? or should we stick with helping our own planet before moving on to another? These are all great questions to think of when thinking about space. I will do my best to answer all of these the way i believe it should be (my own opinion)

I think that sending people out to space is a good way to take samples of ideas (such as plants) but can be very dangerous and may lead to what happen with the columbia space shuttle. Earth based research is a good and safe way to lear new information but iv got to admit that its not as affective as being there your self. Sending out robots to space to collect is an information is once again a safe and good way to collect data but a thing to keep it mind is that the scientist who's controlling the robot may give signals to it and it will respond sometimes 10-15 mins after because there is a long gab and the signal of course isn't that strong. All of these different ways of getting information have their pros and cons. If its not danger then its accuracy, if its not accuracy then its the speed, nothing can be as accurate and as good as a living person.

Now to answer the questions which i had at the beginning of my writing. I truly believe that Nasa or any other space program out there can't find any helpful resource from space which will help us with our lives our with our earths. Even if our planet is dying one day and they do find another to replace it will you thing that we could reach it in time not to grow old and die in a space ship? How many space ships should be made to fit the whole world, this would right away equal a lot of money! maybe even more then 20 trillion dollars. Therefore the possibility of finding another planet or substance of some sort which can help us is really love, for that reason i would focus more on the earth and help people/kids in need. Nasa has a lot of money in their hands they could easily share it with other countries which are quite poor such as Africa. Imagine if everyone was rich in someway there would be a lot of smiles, we wouldn't even be that interested in space because OUR world is so precious and nice. When scientists are look at new planets they are subconsciously trying to escape this one and picture a better one in their mind.

If i was congress with a fixed money to spend the most important thing that i would use my money for would be helping the ones in need (this can also include animals, but the focus would be a little bit more on humans.) After that i would give my money to the hospitals which then would use that money to buy medicine and tools which would save lives of many. Some other things i would give my money for would also be figuring out cures for cancer, and just help our whole environment. After all those important tasks have been completed, only then shall i give money for the research of space.

As you can see space is important but what we got on this world is more important and we should rather look after that then something in space which we possibly may not even go to.

Tsunami Tracks in the Sky

Even though this is not current news, it has to do a lot about the topic which we are working on right now i science. My friend and I found this event a couple of days back and found it really interesting, maybe the most interesting one i had to read this year. The article has to do about the Tsunami wave that struck Japan, and how a group of scientist have discover my photography the tsunamis path by looking at the sky, to be more precise in the ionosphere layer of our atmosphere. The discovery was a pure accident, or at least that what they say. The camera was just supposed to talk picture of the beautiful hawaiian sky but grabbed a big discovery with it. And the tsunami is indicated as the glowing ripples that move a cross a sky, like a tsunami in the water,  just its in the sky. So literally were the wave passes these glowing ripples pass as well in the same direction like the tsunamis twin. This event happens because in the ionsphere there are many ions, so even the smallest boost of the oceans send particles racing toward the ionsphere layer which then causes the glowing ripples thus making the Tsunami in the sky. Even though these are as i understood not the first studies of the tsunami in the sky they are the first one with actual proof pictures. Now the scientist Makela and his team are thinking about installing sky watch cameras in areas which have a lot of floods and tsunamis, They also said that at one point noraml cameras will be able to trace signs of tsunamis. And im going to end it with this one quote which really stuck to me!

“It’s a really neat example of how the environment is coupled together,” Makela says
Hope you enjoyed!

Skills lab: A "Moonth" of Phases

Guiding question: What causes the phases of the moon

Skill Focus: Making models, observing, drawing conclusions

Materials
-Floor lamp with a 150-watt bulb (normal flashlight)
-Pencils 
-Plastic foam balls

Analyze and conclude
1) In my model the earth is represented as the big foam ball, the moon as the smaller foam ball and the sun (suns rays) as the flashlight and its brightness.
2) We did four circles around the earth instead of 8 and figured out that you always see have of the moon that's bright or visible
3) Iv done this problem in my notebook. 
4) Iv only seen half of the lighten part of the moon after each turn
5) Once again only half of the surface was lit up while the other half was dark because it was facing the opposite direction. I don't think that the new moon was cause by the eclipse but yet the sun itself. when the suns rays are not on shining on the moon
6)Having the model next to me was a big advantege because i could actually see how this was happening in real life, although an disadvantage of using a model is that it of course isn't accurate enough. But all in all it was a big of a help. 

Guiding question: How does the tilt of the earth axis affect the light received by Earth as it revolves around the sun?

Skill focus: Making models, observing, inferring, predicting 

Materials: 

-flashlight

-Paper

-Pencil

-Protractor

-Toothpick

-Foam ball marked with poles and equator

-Acetate sheet with thick grid lines drawn on it

    

    Analyze and Conclude:

   1)When its winter in the norther hemisphere the equator and the southern hemisphere get more direct sunlight and heat then the northern, when its summer in the northern hemisphere then the northern has the most concentrated sunlight thus making the south have less.

    2) During the sumer the light of the sun is more concentrated on the equator (the exact middle of the earth} and is less concentrated and spread out during the winder. And you can see this easily with the squares activity we got to do to answer this question

    3) It would mean that the sun is further away from an area, therefore there would be no area which the suns light is the most concentrated on, making colder

     

    4) Both the poles (north and south) are the coldest places on earth while the hottest are the ones closest to the equator because that where the sun rays are most concentrated on. Thats why greece, and serbia are so hot during the summer.

     

    5) Shadow of the tooth pick is the longest in the summer because the earth is tilted on the other side making the shadow longer therefore making it that in winter that the shadow are shorter.

     

    6) If the heat is less it means that the squares will spread out and if the heat is more direct and concentrated the squares would be in the shape of squares and not rectangles, because like i said the sun is concentrated on that spot.

    

    7) The seasons are caused by the suns position toward the earth and the way that the earth is titled, either on the far side making it winter or on the closest side to the sun making it simple enough summer.

Current Even

Spiders silk web stronger then steel!


By Meera Dolasia on 01/05/2012


Im guessing that not most of you ever though that the strength of silk could be as hard as steel itself. To prove this scientist have been playing around with spider silk for many years, but now they developed a new technic that has proven to be successful. Scientists have taken an animal that naturally produces wool as well as the spider, and they have decided to settle with silkworms. Even though we been using there silk to produce body wear for so many centuries is not nearly as strong as the spiders silk. So in order to change that scientist took the spider silk and injected it into the cocoon of the silkworms {the cocoons are the place in which were they produce silk} and this injection contained spider silk elasticity* as well. The result as i mentioned above was exact to the scientists hypothesis. The resulting silk, that comprised of 95% silkworm protein and 5% spider silk proteins is 48% stronger than normal silk and about 61% as strong as the overall strength. Scientists already see of this experiment being of great help in the future. People have already been discussing on making a bullet proof vest with this soft material. By this experiment you can see that so many things in life are not what they seem at sight of a naked eye.


*elasticity is the stretching of an object, commonly refereed to as flexibility