This week’s blog post will be another short experiment that anyone can do at home! This week the experiment will be called the exploding lunch bag. Here’s what you’ll need:
• Zip sandwich bag – zip-lock freezer bags work the best
• Baking soda
• Warm water
• Vinegar
• Measuring cup
• Tissue
Steps:
1. Go outside or to the kitchen sink.
2. Put ¼ cup warm water into the sandwich bag.
3. Add ½ cup of vinegar to the water in the sandwich bag.
4. Put 3 teaspoons of baking soda in the tissue then fold it up.
5. Work fast now- zip the sandwich bag close but leave a corner open, enough to fit the tissue full of baking soda in.
6. Slip the tissue in and step back
7. Watch the bag slowly expand then explode!
This cool experiment is fueled by the simple chemical reaction between the vinegar and the baking soda. It releases CO2, and once the bag no longer holds that capacity for the CO2, the bag then explodes. Time to scare your friends in the lunch rooms!
Works Cited:
Pflugfelder, Bob. “The Exploding Lunch Bag.” Science Bob. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.
This week I decided to put up a post about the elements of chemistry. We’ve all seen it. The massive chart with a bunch of random number and letter squeezed together in tight blocks. It’s the periodic table, which is made up of 103 elements.
Many of these blocks include elements that a majority of us are familiar with, such elements as gold, silver, copper, oxygen and many more. The basic way to read these blocks individually can be pretty overwhelming. There is so much to an element that can be fit in one tiny block, so it’s hard to mix up numbers. For example, Nitrogen:
To begin, Nitrogen can be identified as the seventh element on the table. And the way an elements number is established on the chart is based on the atomic number. In this case, nitrogen has 7 protons and 7 electrons whereas its neighbor, oxygen, has 8 protons and 8 electrons, making oxygen follow after nitrogen. You can find the number it is by looking at the top left hand corner of the block. Then centered, written is the abbreviation for the element in bold letters. And then finally at the bottom of the block is the atomic mass, just telling us how much this element weighs.
Even though some elements are included on the chart, some don’t exist in or on our planet earth. This table based on the elements known to mankind, however, there are a few at the bottom that a father of chemistry, Dimitri Medeleev, predicted would exist. These elements were referred to as ekaboron(Eb), ekaaluminium (Ea), ekamanganese (Em) and ekasilicon (Es). He left holes in the chart where he guessed these unknown elements would lie. Those elements are actually the separate chart beneath the table. The top line in this chart are know as the Lanthanides and the bottom row is referred to as Actinides. These are known as the transition metals and have very low orbitals which is why they are positioned cast away from the other elements. Mendeleev knew these had to exist based on atomic make, however were not discovered until later.
Another way that this chart is also organized is by the different states that these elements can be found in. From the left side of the table to the right, it starts with halogens and slowly turns into the alkali metals. Finally, the last column on the right is referred to as the noble gases. These gases are known to be Helium (He), Neon (Ne), Argon (Ar), Krypton (Kr), Xenon (Xn) and radon (Rn). These different states that elements can be found in are sectioned off by columns throughout the chart. Separated vertically as well and numerically are the different orbitals thats the protons and electrons have around the nucleus. It’s rather hard to explain the nature of the numbering in conjunction with the states of the elements so here’s a picture to better understand:
Thats the basic breakdown to help people understand the periodic table better. It’s really not as confusing as some make it out to be.
This post this week will be a little insight on the water cycle of our earth. This topic is very plain and simple and extremely easy to follow!
The water cycle is a never ending flow, so a good place to being is when it rains. When it is raining, the water is falling to the earth, or precipitating, and the water is then absorbed into the earth’s crust.
The second step is the water slowly moving through the earth’s crust, following the topography (the terrain) of the crust, and flows out eventually to the ocean.
The final step in the cycle is when the water evaporates in the atmosphere and is slowly formed in to clouds. This is referred to as condensation. Once the water droplets are combined too much where they’re too heavy to be held by the updraft of the cloud, it then begins to rain.
This is a very basic idea that actually has many branches when it comes to where water travels to throughout the earth. This picture is to represent all other happenings of the water cycle.
This post is going to be more personal this week. The topic I want to discuss is depression. Not many are aware but this mental state plagues millions of people across the world, and many are unaware of it. People who experience, or for a better word, suffer, from depression understand the meaning of no hope. A lot of symptoms of depression can include the following:
• Abnormal sleep patterns (too much or not enough sleep)
• Disinterest in most daily activities
• Memory loss
• Many more
Symptoms can vary depending on the severity and type of depression. This is all caused by an abnormal imbalance in your brain causing low levels of dopamine or serotonin.
Depression hurts. And I’m not trying to sound like a Cymbalta commercial for antidepressants. It’s an illness that can physically harm you. Reasons as to why depression begins vary as well. It is an illness that is hard to crack, and is very dependent on all of the circumstances that one faces to cause depression.
Growing up, I faced a lot of situations a young girl shouldn’t have had to face, and extreme poverty wasn’t the least on the list. Once I finally graduated into high school, it all began to hit me. I was tired every day and my out of school activities no longer pleased me so I dropped out of dancing, singing, acting and softball. My grades slipped and I dropped from my high honors classes to academic even though I was still failing those, too. By my junior year, I spun out and almost became a high school dropout. My numbers of worries increased as well as the number of scars on my arm, and then I was committed to Western Psychiatric in Oakland after my first attempt to commit suicide. There I was treated for clinical depression stemming from a traumatic childhood.
I used this to excuse myself and I abused my medication as a way to cope. After a small down fall again senior year, I realized this is no way to live. People who suffer from this try to find a comfort in their medications and the stupid therapy that the certain quacks say are “designed to help the coping method”. They’re completely wrong. There is no cure for depression. Only to ease the pain that’s created in your mind. Medications help greatly for people that have such a chemical deficiency that they can’t function without it. However, the remedy that many depressives, such like me is the answer that lies within. It sounds deep and metaphorical but it’s actually all within you. And find the answer in you when you’re trying to solve your troubles. The question that many depressives stutter and stammer over is “What do you want?” They fail to come to understand what they really want in their lives. And you, yourself, are the main controller of your own life. I always enjoyed pleasing people, but I never attended to my own needs, and I was at a loss when this question stumped me. But with true time to think about life and what I want, it came to me. And it definitely can come to any depressive who really sits down and thinks about what they would like in their lives or what they want to do. The answer is not in medication or faulty therapy. It’s you.
Here’s a cool experiment that adopts the futuristic idea of a hover craft and makes it so it’s easy to manipulate at home! It’s a simple construction that all ages can enjoy. Here’s what you’ll need:
• 9” balloon
• Pin
• Tape
• Hot Glue
• Pop-top cap from a water bottle
• CD/DVD
Steps:
1. Tape the center hole of the CD/DVD. Then carefully poke 6 or so holes using the pin through the tape.
2. Carefully hot glue the bottom of the pop-top cap onto the center of the CD/DVD over the poked holes. Make sure it’s sealed tight so no air will be able to escape. Also, make sure the pop top cap is closed.
3. Blow up the balloon and pinch it so you can pull it over the top of the pop-top cap.
4. Pull the cap up and watch your creation hover!
This experiment mocks the idea of a hover craft when in reality the idea becoming real is right around the bend. As mentioned in my last post, the technology is rapidly increasing. And far-fetched ideas are becoming reality every day. But ideas all begin somewhere! And this is hover craft experiment is the beginning of the new age technology.
Happy hovering!
After reading this blog post I felt extremely nostalgic. Granted I am still only seventeen, I did abide by certain rules that most technology-free kids followed. My mother always let me stay out until sunset. By the time it was twilight out, she would order me to come home. And she wouldn’t even have to leave the house, she have to shout out the door because I’d be over in the neighbor’s yard playing. Times were much simpler as opposed to now due to the technologic advances. I know that kids younger than me are going to be more far advanced than me when it comes to new-age technology further on in years. I have a nine year old brother that has a DS, Wii, touchscreen computer and a t.v. all at his fingertips in his room. However, this fact didn’t really impact me until Danielle stated that her youngest asked her what buttons were. I feel like Danielle really made a strong point in this post. It reveals how fast the technology is improving through the years and how big the gaps are going to be between these generations. The real question is what will really happen once these gaps are fully opened? Will society drift apart or will we be more in-tune with one another? This links back to the article read in my English 100 class, about the technologic immigrants and the natives. Kids that are in grade school now are the natives when it comes to understanding technology. Their brains are being freshly wired to understand how computers and certain devices work, where on the other hand, people like Danielle and I are used to only a color t.v., a ball and the outside. We had harder times understanding certain technology because we aren’t born to it like kids these days. Then this also sparks more questions like, if kids these days don’t even know what buttons are, then what new technology is going to come out next so that they can’t remember what a touchscreen is? Further advancements in technology have led to fascinations such as cloning. The next big fantasy that is yet to become reality is the tube transport Futurama. These tubes will be designed to shoot up to speeds at 400 mph and be able to travel from New York to L.A. in 45 minutes or from Beijing to New York in 2 hours. With no doubt would this be able to become a reality seeing as cloning came first. The larger picture is, however, how are kids going to be acting in the upcoming ages of new technology? With these tubes, young children won’t be able to experience a road trip first hand. They won’t be able to do all the sight-seeing on the way to the destination. All the pit stop along the way and random hotel nights is the first half to an adventure. And with these tubes, kids are deprived of the sense of the journey and exploring beyond their city limits when traveling. All these certain aspects of a child make up childhood, and kids are certainly being deprived of their childhood in that sense. Technology is growing too fast.
Many people fear the word physics. The idea that is formed is long equations just to describe the motion of a ball being thrown in the air. And well, that’s true. But it’s not as convoluted as many believe it to be. For the most part, physics can be summed up by three rules. Most have heard of these rules, which are also referred to as Newton’s Laws. These guidelines set up the very most basic rules for simple motion. Newton firstly began to think about the laws of gravity and motion when he was sitting under an apple tree, and watched an apple fall to the ground. Thus, the three laws were born.
The first law is pretty easy to understand. Newton states; “An object in motion stays in motion, and an object at rest stays at rest.” So, disregarding the fact that we live on earth and our gravity acceleration is 9.8 m/s/s, and object in motion in space will stay in motion and an object at rest will stay at rest with no outside forces acting upon the object. Outside forces would include gravity along with friction. Galileo Galilei, one of the most famous fathers of science in the seventeenth century. He found that if a ball rolled from the top of one slope to the top of another one, the initial and final heights would not equal each other, but the final height would be less than the initial. Without these restricting conditions on objects, things would move constantly and forever.
A deciding factor in whether if an object is in motion would be its inertia. This is an object tendency to resist forces. The inertia can be calculated using the objects mass. However, it’s found that the larger the mass, the larger the inertia, thus meaning the bigger chance the object has at resisting outside forces. I feel inertia is the most vague topic when it comes to discussing physics. Hopefully this video will be able to give a better understanding.
The second law is a little bit trickier than the first. This law breaks down the motion of an object further than the first law. It states that F = ma, or mass multiplied by the acceleration is the net force that the object has. So if an object on earth weighed 250 kg, and the acceleration is 9.8 m/s/s, the net force of the object as it is falling to the ground will be 2450 N. The abbreviation for the measurement of the force is called newtons.
The last law not only includes the motion of an object but also the activity of two objects whenever they collide. Newton states in his third law that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The forces from the first object are equal to the forces on the second object and are also opposite of these forces. They always come in pairs. For the types of interactions that objects have with each other are called collisions and are measured by impulses.
Impulses are just forces that act over a period of time. This can be found by calculating the change in velocity and multiplying it by the mass.
People are afraid of physics because of the startling numbers, the unidentified characters from the Greek alphabet that are normally used in equations. But it can be broken down to steps and explanations that everyone can understand.
Works Cited:
Henderson, Tom. “Newton’s Laws – Table of Contents.” Newton’s Laws – Table of Contents. Compadre, Spring 2012. Web. 24 Sept. 2013.
A fascinating branch of science includes the unknown of space. This kind of exploration is very popular seeing as this field of study has existed since the beginning of time. Also, the universe is forever changing, which allows constant exploration for scientists. Even though every day now people are discovering more and more interesting facts about the universe, the one mind blowing ocular speculation still fascinates people to this very day. This would be the Eagle Nebula.
This massive sight pleasing cloud of stars was discovered by Jean-Phillippe de Cheseaux in 1945-46. It is located in the Serpens constellation and is estimated to be 5.5 million years old. A nebula is an interstellar cloud of stars that is made up of hydrogen, helium, and other ionized gases. This nebula was decided to be named the Eagle Nebula due to its odd formation of an eagle. This gorgeous cluster of star clouds in also a part of the Pillars of Earth. These are formations of other nebulas that form large stalagmite-resembling pillars protruding from the bottom of the nebula.
Here’s a video that further shows some pictures that were not only discovered by NASA and taken by the Hubble space telescope:
When most hear the word science, they often depict the setting of a mad scientist’s lab, with beakers full of deadly unknown chemicals and a vast majority of contraptions. However, this is not the case, most of the time that is. Science doesn’t just include the typical chemist portrayal but also many other subtle forms. Science is broken down into branches that study the different aspects of time, space and basically everything. These fields are known as the following; formal sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences. Each of these plays a key role in discovering new information about us and the world around us.
The first fundamental branch is the formal sciences. This includes the basic knowledge of mathematics, theoretical computer science, decision theory, statistics and logic. Instead of using the scientific method to decide whether a new fact discovered is valid or not, this field mainly focuses on the creation of the scientific method, using formal systems that include definitions and rules in the process. Mathematics and logic are pretty self-explanatory under this field, but statistics are the use of the logic and data computed through mathematics. Theoretical computer science is a more abstract look or mathematical aspects of computing. It breaks downs steps of certain algorithms and also programs semantics of languages. Finally, the decision making theory is all based on ethics and values when trying to solve a problem. All of these elements tie in together to create the nitty-gritty basis of the science field, and the most basic branch of science; formal science.
The second branch is the natural science, which can be broken down further into three sub-categories; physical, earth, and life sciences. The physical science field includes al basic properties of the earth and universe such as chemistry and physics. This is where the depiction of the mad scientists flies in. Physics studies matter and the motion through space in time. It’s a broader subject that focuses on the universe as whole. Chemistry, on the other hand, is narrowed down to the study of matter under reactions, such as the elements that are naturally and artificially engineered, atoms and molecules. The earth sciences focus more on meteorology, oceanography, geology and ecology. Meteorology studies the atmosphere; oceanography studies the depths of the ocean while geology studies the physical earth itself, allowing us to discover the history of our planet. However, ecology is the study of organisms as they interact with others and their abiotic environment around them. Finally, the last sub-category would be the life sciences, which includes biology, human biology, zoology, and botany. Biology and human biology are set apart by the fact that biology is a broader term for the study of a living organism. This studies the structure, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Human biology studies mainly human nutrition and medicine. And last but certainly not least, zoology focuses mainly on the animal kingdom while botany is mainly focused on the study of plants, and also being one of the oldest branches of science around.
Lastly, social science is a broader term for sciences that don’t fall underneath the category of natural sciences. Certain fields of studies include anthropology, archaeology, business administration, criminology, economics, education, government, linguistics, international relations, political science, psychology (social psychology), sociology and sometimes the history of law. This science mainly focuses on the study of the societies that the human race has built, rather than studying what has already existed before the human race evolved.
These branches opened a myriad of doors for us to explore the natural world and us. People always say knowledge is power, and without knowing we wouldn’t know how to function or prosper as a human race. So my question for this blog post is which science do you think aids us the most in understanding the years to come and to predict possible future disasters and/or achievements?
Here’s a video that further displays some benefits from the understanding of science:
Works Cited
Fisk, Eric. The Scientific Universe. 12 April 2013. Wikipedia. Web. 06 September 2013
Popper, Karl R. “Branches of Science.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 09 June 2013. Web. 06 Sept. 2013.
My Tutor. “The Importance of Science Education.” YouTube. YouTube, 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 06 Sept. 2013
My first thought for ideas for blogs were for basically science in the medical field. This would cover certain new found illnesses, newly concocted medications, and new case studies that help progress in this field. The reason as to why I think this would be a nice selection for a blog is because it seems like in the career world today; there are many opportunities that fall within the medical field, so I figure why not blog about something that people will want to read about due to its popularity. My second idea for my personal blog is just a blog all about science; more based around at home science experiments and unknown science facts. I strongly want to make this my theme for my blog simply because I love science as a subject at large. There are also plenty of cool and fun things you can do at home with simple tools and random facts are always fun to know. Also, with this kind of freedom to blog about any certain branch of science, even medical due to the fact the science is a rather broad topic to post about. In addition people find great pleasure in the science field as I mentioned before due to all of the career opportunities available. This makes the subject even more readable. My next idea for my blog would be new upcoming music artists. The general public in these past years focus more on music, due to the technology and the more abundant opportunities to hear artists’ music. So not only will this be a gateway for people to hear new music but it also gives new upcoming artists a chance to be heard. It’s a win-win situation. Not only that, but I do love music, and writing about it for my blog wouldn’t be tough at all. I would also leave a general question for this certain theme for my followers that would be: “What’s the new genre that will represent this upcoming year?” followers would be able to give insight based off posts I choose to publish and also based off of personal research. This blog idea certainly offers a lot of wiggle room when it comes down to creating blog posts as well, just like my earlier since blog idea. There are so many options, now I just have to choose!
Science Tips & Some Cool Tricks 