Paiges8thgradepage

Earth Day Project

2009-04-22T17:23:00.001-06:00

Penny Lab

2009-04-12T14:59:00.003-06:00

Penny Lab

For a science project, we were supposed to see how many drops of water we could fit onto the surface of a penny, and to predict the number of drops before the experiment. To start this experiment, I needed a penny, a piece of paper, and a plastic water dropper. Then I estimated the number of drops I thought it would take and then start to drop droplets of water onto the penny. In my experiment it took about 21 drops for the water to overflow. And the predicted number of drops for my particular experiment was approximately 10 drops of water, which was obviously off. I believe that it took 21 drops because of surface tension, caused by the polar molecules pulling on the other. The surface tension on the penny caused the water to pull into a rounded shape before it spilled.

Picture: http://www.basf.com/group/corporate/en/function/conversions:/publish/content/news-and-media-relations/science-around-us/mincor/images/tropfen-250.jpg

The Structure of Water

2009-04-12T12:01:00.002-06:00

Mekong River

2009-03-30T08:54:00.003-06:00

Dear Jane,

The Mekong River is found in the southeastern part of Asia. I am visiting this river in order to observe the progress of the depletion or the growth of this river over time, and the environment around it. Ranging from the South China Sea to the Plateau of Tibet, it is 313,000 miles long. This river is used for food, water, transportation, and resources for their crops. The river is wide and can flow slowly in some areas of the river. Many different tributaries flow into this river making it even larger.Even though the water isn't the cleanest there are a variety of life, such as fish. There are over 700 species of fish located in the water. There are many fresh water fish providing a variety of different food selections for the surrounding towns and traveling animals.

Earthquake Webquest

2009-01-22T08:00:00.005-07:00

1. Generally earthquakes occur close to the coasts of continents or out in the ocean where the edges of the plates are located. Many of the largest earthquakes occur on the coasts of Asia but earthquakes could happen anywhere. Most earthquakes occur in the water, on the coasts of water, and in cities near the water. There have been other places earthquakes happen but there are a lot of them that occur with a water surrounding.

2. Earthquakes often occur in a water setting because those generally are where transverse plates are located. These plates move back and forth causing earthquakes.

3. This area is called the a fault. And a fault is formed when one plate moves and collides with another causing one to be pushed down and one to be pushed up or stay in the same place.

4. I believe that the earthquake closest to Manitou Springs was the Denver earthquake in 1882. This was the largest earthquake in Colorado history measuring a 6.2 on the Richter scale. This 6.2 magnitude earthquake was a classified as a strong earthquake and could cause damage to largely populated places. And I believe that if I did my math the correct way, that this 6.2 magnitude earthquake gave more than 10,000,000 stronger shaking than a 1 magnitude earthquake and gave off more than 190 times more energy than a 1 magnitude earthquake.

5. On January 15, 2009 there was an earthquake that had a 7.4 magnitude. It occurred east of the Kuril Islands at 10.49.39 a.m. an had a depth of 36km. With the event ID us2009bwa this earthquake could be felt from, Servero-Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands, and Russia 270 miles south. It could also be felt from Kuril'sk and Kuril at 360 miles, Tokyo, Japan from 1110 miles and from Moscow, Russia sat 4500 miles. This earthquake occurred near the outer-rise of the Pacific Plate and also near where the Pacific Plate subducts underneath the Okhotsk Plate. Again if I have done my math right there was more than 100,000,000 stronger shaking than a magnitude 1 earthquake and gave off more than 220 times more energy than a magintude 1 earthquake.

(Source -http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009bwa8.php#details)

6. The safest was for people to protect themselves during an earthquake is to:

1.)If you are indoors get under something sturdy, most oftenly used and probably the safest is a door frame.

2.)If you are outdoors, get to a open space where buildings are fairly far away and where you are away from power cords that fall and break. But if you are near a building go inside to a door frame.

3.)If you are in a car stop where it's safe but stay in your car if you can't get inside.

4.)If you are in a sloped area such as a mountain and you can;t get anywhere safer the safest ting to do is watch for falling rocks.

5.)If you are at the beach as quickly as possible get to a higher ground several yards inland and find somewhere safe to wait till the earthquake is over.

(Source for safety - http://seagrant.uaf.edu/features/earthquake/prepare2.html)

Weather Fronts

2008-12-05T08:32:00.002-07:00

Cold Front
When there is a cold front coming in, the cold air travels forward. When the cold air collides with the warm air in the area, that warm air is pushed up. Because the two temperatures collided, storms begin as the cold front continues. And so the cold temperature keeps traveling and bring along the storms.
Warm Front
When there is a warm front the warm air travels in the direction of the cold air. When the warm air reaches the cold air, it starts to push the cold air away but it also curves upward. And when the warn and the cold air collide storms begin as the cold air continues to be pushed away form the warm air.
Stationary Front
When there is a stationary front the warm air and the cold air both travel toward each other with equal force. And since they are both equal they cannot take "control". So they are stationary and cannot move. So where they both meet, a storm occurs.
Occluded Front
When there is an occluded front, warm air is caught between two cold air situations. When one of the cold fronts starts to get closer to the other cold front and the warm air then is pushed upward above the to cold fronts. As the cold air front gets closer to the other cold air front they mix causing the air to mix and the surface to cool.
Which type of front occurred this week to bring the cold weather and then snow?
This week I believe that there was a cold front that caused the colder air and then the snow.

Cloud Formation

2008-12-02T15:07:00.002-07:00

Using the Winds - Sailing Trip

2008-11-20T08:20:00.005-07:00

1st
Trip Itinerary and approximate latitude: Havana 20' N to London 50' N, 5 days
Travel time: 9 days
Direction traveling:Northeast
Were you successful? yes
How many attempts? 2
How were you successful? by following the direction of the winds; I took a fairly straight path
What winds did you take advantage of or compete with during your travel? prevailing westerlies
2nd
Trip Itinerary and approximate latitude: San Fransisco 45' N to Sydney 20' S, 13 days
Travel time: 13 days
Direction traveling: Southwest
Were you successful? yes
How many attempts? 1
How were you successful? followed the direction of the winds; I took a fairly straight path
What winds did you take advantage of or compete with during your travel? trade winds
3rd

Trip Itinerary and approximate latitude: Lima, Peru 10' S to Cape Town, South Africa 35' S, 15 days
Travel time: 15 days
Direction traveling: South than East
Were you successful? Yes
How many attempts? 5
How were you successful? I followed the winds and traveled around Africa in order to travel to Cape Town
What winds did you take advantage of or compete with during your travel? Prevailing winds

Atmospheric Factors Affecting Climate

2008-11-18T08:43:00.001-07:00

Click below to view my paper:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcgh367k_28gmdb9vgt

The Ozone

2008-11-11T08:35:00.007-07:00

The ozone layer is very important to the needs of living things. Is the ozone a good thing or a bad thing. It all depends on where the ozone you are examining. In some places the ozone can protect from harmful things but in other places it can harm them. With the ozone layer in the atmosphere the UV rays are blocked stopping the harmful rays to not enter father into the atmosphere to reach Earth's surface. With the depletion of the ozone layer the temperatures will start to rise, UV rays will enter the atmosphere and UV rays will hit Earth's surface, along with other damaging effects; like the animals loosing their habitats.The ozone is made up of three molecules that are very important to all living things everywhere on Earth. The depletion of the ozone layer will become a serious problem, unless scientists can find a way to decrease the depletion rates. Earth's atmosphere has already lost a lot of its ozone and it will still get worse.

Greenhouse Effect

2008-11-09T17:33:00.004-07:00

The greenhouse effect is the way that the atmosphere keeps the temeratures suitable for things to live. With the greenhous effect the Sun's thermal energy enters the atmoshere but it does not escape. Meaning that the atmoshere is able to trap the warm heat in the atmoshere and uses it to keep Earth suitably warm. Radiation is the primary way that the air is heated. The atmosphere holds onto that radiated air and then r-radiates the air at night when the sun isn't able to radiate it itself. The ozone is a major part in the greenhouse effect. With the depletion of the ozone layer the atmosphere will have a harder time controling the temperature. Deadly radiation waves will enter Earth's atmosphere and then that will cause the temperature to get warmer and warmer, causing a lot of damage throught the world.

Everyone should be concerned about the depletion of the ozone and losing the greenhouse effect. The process of losing these things are very slow but they do cause a lot of damage. And it has already damaged things; polor bears and other arctic animals are already suffering, losing their habitat, and dying off slowly but constently. On top of scientists, the rest of the world's people sould be concerned because it will catch up with their future (life, future family, etc.) darasticly.

Acid Rain

2008-11-04T08:48:00.003-07:00

Define Issue:
Acid rain is rain that contains more acid than normal.

List causes:
-Burning of coal
-Pollution
-Rain, sleet, snow, fog, & dry particles carrying nitrogen oxide & sulfur oxide.

Explain Consequences:
-Damaged buildings & statues
-Damanged lakes & ponds
-Plants, amphibians, fish, & insects die

Contribute solutions to the problem:
-Burn less coal
-Use low-sulfur coal
-Use scrubbers(remove most sulfur oxides in air)

Earth's Atmosphere

2008-10-29T08:16:00.002-06:00

Earth's atmosphere makes Earth a very unique place in the universe. If there wasn't an atmosphere around Earth there wouldn't be any chance that we would be able to live on this planet. Without the ozone layer of the atmosphere the sun's UV rays wouldn't be blocked, and without the green house effect the temperature would have drastic changes making it unbearable for anything to live. The temperatures could be extremely high and extremely low all in one day without this special element. With an atmosphere, if a meteoroid passes into the atmosphere it would burn out before it even got close to land and so it can't do any harm. Without an atmosphere, like on the moon, the meteoroids would collide with the planet and leave large craters. And they would be left there for billions of years because of static equilibrium. Static equilibrium is when there is no change, this is what the moon is. If you walk on the surface of the moon then your foot prints will be there for billions of years after. Earth on the other hand is dynamic equilibrium , meaning that there is change. If you step in a pile of wet mud your foot prints with wash away because of the change in the whether. Earth is very unique because of its atmosphere, without it there would be no way that anything could live on Earth.

Space Exploration

2008-10-08T08:37:00.001-06:00

2008-10-08T08:18:00.000-06:00

The Science of Rockets

Rocket:expels gas one direction -move opposite direction.

originated - China - 1100's - military use and fireworks

Hot gasses pushed out, gasses push up

Thrust: reaction

force that propels
rocket forward

PROCESS

1- rocket launched
2- 1st stage falls to Earth
3- 2nd stage ignites
4 -2nd stage falls to Earth

5 - 3rd stage ignites

6 - 3rd stage discarded

7 - proceeds into space

Multistage rockets advantage -weight greatly reduced as rise

3rd faster than 1st (stage) = highest velocity

http://z.about.com/d/space/1/0/V/0/1/fire_arrow.gif (the 4 rocket pictures)http://eobglossary.gsfc.nasa.gov/Library/Giants/vonBraun/Images/rocket_firsts.jpg (chinese rocket)http://www.aero.org/publications/crosslink/winter2004/images/03_02.gif (action, reaction) http://www.suntrek.org/images/multi-stage-rockets.jpg (multistage rocket - fuel picture)

Space Exploration

2008-10-01T08:35:00.004-06:00

The Science of Rockets
NASA used Atlas to launch probes into space and they where made of three major stages: Atlas use fuel boosters and liquid fuel engines to launch the pay load into space, Centaur liquid fuel engines to maneuver into the proper orbit, and Payload the satellite or space craft carried by the rocket and is released from the centaur. There are many additional steps to launching the probes but these are the stages in which they are sent into orbit. There are also other ways of sending the probes into orbit from over the years but this is the latest and most used way of getting the probe into space.

The Space Program
NASA began in 1958 when soon after they began their multiple projects such as: Project Mercury where one person was sent into space and successfully come back, then there was Project Gemini where two people where sent into space and came back successfully. Then a disastrous project was Project Apollo where there multiple astronauts where near the moon when they lost oxygen and the captain was sick so the crew had to fly back to Earth, and they where really dehydrated but they landed back on Earth without any other problems. Then the Galileo was sent into space where it photographed the lunar north and following the Clementine probe was sent to map the lunar surface.

Exploring Space Today
Floating robots are very advanced technology in the world today. Tn the space station the ISS (International Space Station) floats around peoples heads and can control temperature, pressure and the air quality of humans. It has a "videophone" which allows people to communicate throughout the station without holding a phone. The world has made many other advanced objects throughout the years of science.

Using Space Science on Earth
NASA works to discover what we don't know about the space around us, and they help a lot eventhough some people believe that the program is not as important as other things such as education and similiar things. NASA has helped the economy with suppling jobs, producing many sateliite communications, and gained knowledge about what we do not know right now.

"Earth's Moon" Presentation

2008-09-28T19:21:00.001-06:00

Revolution/Rotation - Voki

2008-09-21T12:58:00.001-06:00

Get a Voki now!

Seasons - Gizmo Paragraph

2008-09-19T08:25:00.005-06:00

Many different situations might be able to cause the seasons to change but there is one real reason that the seasons change with many little factors that help them change. The seasons change because the earth is always revolving around the sun. When the Earth is revolving around the Sun it takes about three hundred-sixty- five days (which makes up one year) and during those days different parts of the Earth are facing the Sun which defines the seasons. When the southern hemisphere is facing the Sun that means that it is summer, which means that the northern hemisphere is going through winter. The seasons are opposite because the Earth is tilted on it's axis (about a 23.5 degree angle) which results in opposite seasons throughout the year in different parts of the world. When the southern hemisphere is angled more at the sun they are getting more direct sunlight making it warmer which means that the northern hemisphere is getting less direct sunlight making it colder then when there's more direct sunlight. There are many diffeerent factors to why the seasons change and are different in different parts of the world but they all are caused because of the Earth's revolution around the sun.

Zoom

2008-09-16T16:27:00.003-06:00

The book Zoom makes a person look at pictures from a different angle. In the begining it starts out with a simple picture ans then throughout the book the book gets more developed and detailed as the pages turn. The next page was more detailed then the page before as it was a pattern throughout the entire book. For example, when you are using a camera and you want to focus on a specific part of the picture, a person and not the backround, then you use the zoom to set the person as the main focus and not the backround. In Zoom instead of zooming in on the object the picture zooms out until you see the final picture. And every time that the picture is zoomed out as a natural reaction an infrence would be made to say what might be coming on the page that follows. That infrence makes you think about what might come next but since there are little clues you have to look at the picture in a new perspective

Say when you are holding a piece of paper and there is faded writing on it you can't really tell what was writen on it, but when you hold it to a light you can make out the writing easier and clearer, that's a way of looking at something in a new perspecive.Without the light you can guess what you think you can read but when with the light it's in a new perspective. People see things in a different perspective everyday even when its not realized, each day is different, each person is different. If everything stayed the same everyday and there was never any new perspectives on things then life would get boaring and predictable.

In the field of science perspectives change everyday with everything. Astromomers use perspecitve in all of their job. When stars are just looked at from a distance thats when constilations can be seen, then if studing the actual star a closer perspecive is used to examine the characteristics of the star. When scientists are using a microscope a closer perspective of the oject is used to exmaine the characteristics the same way astromomers study the stars except scientists are closer to what they're studing then astromomers are. People who look at life with a different perspective on things look at issues and life in general in a different way and their view on things might change as opposed to people who have the same look on life might have a different attitude on subjects.

Perspective is used everyday everywhere around the world and is an important thing in life and in the natural world.

Enigma Box

2008-08-29T08:29:00.000-06:00

Scientists use many different ways to help learn about the natural world. Observing, inferring, predicting, classifying and making models are all different ways to help scientists explore the world. In order to solve the mystery of why the water was delayed while it was inside of the enigma box we needed to used many of the same strategies that scientists use to help the do their work. In order to solve the mystery we used observing, inferring and predicting as a main source of the solution of why is the water so delayed after the water was first put into the top entry. And since there was no way of seeing what was going on inside of the box as scientists we had to predict and infer what was going on where we couldn't see.

While the water was being poured into the top opening something was keeping the water from draining out the bottom. Slowly after about 300ml of water was poured into top, the bottom started to drip slowly. After about another 100ml it began to drip more steadily. Then around 470ml were put in the water started to flow steadily into the beaker underneath the bottom tube.

Inside the box there is something of block inside of the box. There are a number of reasons why it could have been delayed but I think that the tube inside of the enigma box was curled up in a way that there has to be a certain amount of water inside for it to come uncurled and let the water flow through to the exiting tube.

Even though a number of different causes the delay of the water form exiting there was only one right answer to this particular puzzle box. What really happened was all involving the amount of water like I had thought but the way the tube was put in inside was different. The tube inside was looped instead of curled. And when the was enough water going into the tube there water would be pushed up the tube and when it reached where the overflow would go down and that is when the water started to flow constantly. When the water started to drip it was the left over from before. There are so many different problems scientists have to solve every day and this is similar to other problems.