Dynamic Earth

The moving of tectonic plates is when the plates slide up against each other or away from each other.  What causes tectonic plates to move is the Earth's internal heat, which causes convection in the mantle, which we learned in class.  The movement is with rocks, and it is very slow so the process happens over time.  The movement of plate tectonics is the largest force that changes Earth's surface.  It can create earthquakes, cause mountains to grow higher, and oceans to grow wider.  Tectonic plates move about 2 inches per year, so we don't even notice the difference, but over time, one can see a huge difference.  Millions of years ago, Earth had a super continent called "Pangaea," which was when all of the continents were conjoined into one.  Something had happened which made the continents break apart, but there is evidence that they were once together because the continents can fit into each other like puzzle pieces, and there were fossils of the same animal on more than one continent, where the animal was non habitual to that area.  According to the theory of plate tectonics, it is believed that changes will occur to the oceans and continents over the next millions of years.  Since ever year, plate tectonics move about 2 inches, that means in about a million years from now, they would have moved so much that the continents could have completely shifted.  Also, with the continents moving, most likely moving together in the idea of Pangaea again, it would cause the oceans to get wider because there would be so much more space with the continents put all together.  No one knows for sure what could possibly happen within the next millions of years, but with all the information we have about plate tectonics and how the earth moves, we can guarantee that in so many years, the earth could have completely changed.

Ocean Navigation

Navigation is a huge part of oceanography.  In oceanography, we as a class have learned so much about ocean navigation.  The biggest part of ocean navigation is the compass.  The compass was invented in about 206 BC by the Chinese, Han Dynasty.  It was a magnetic compass used for maritime navigation.  Another thing we learned about was the earliest recorded sea voyage, which was the Egyptians, at about 3200 BC.  According to the Bible, Noah's Ark was before the Egyptians first sea voyage, but there is no official record of it happening, but I truly believe that it did happen.  Ocean's have shaped humanity's past, and oceanography is connected to the world's overall history: commerce, warfare, resources, weather, etc..  The Phoenicians traveled incredible distances, and they established the first trade routes throughout the Mediterranean and went as far as to Great Britain.  They traveled at night in order to see the constellations, which is what they used to tell direction.  The Polynesian people were in Hawaii, and they were from 2000 BC to 500 BC, and they used open canoes cut from tree trunks.  They settled islands before Europeans.  The Greeks discovered the mathematics principle and developed sophisticated maps for seafaring.  Pytheas was a Greek explorer who created the Pythagorean theorem.  Eratosthenes had two major contributions that furthered Pytheas' work, which was that they calculated Earth's circumference, and invented the first latitude and longitude system.  The Ptoloemys created a map of Earth that showed a portion of Earth as a sphere on flat paper.  They produced the first world atlas.  They then improved the latitude and longitude system.  The Vikings improved ship building, and had trade and colonization through the North Atlantic.  The Arabs currents associated with seasonal monsoon, and discovered trade routes to China from the Persian Gulf, they preserved and improved the Greek and Roman knowledge, and improved water tight compartments and the central rudder.  Along with the compass, the Chinese developed a trade route to the Persian Gulf.  Europeans increased knowledge of navigation, tide tables, and use of the Arab and Greco-Roman knowledge to improve navigation.  Along with all the information we learned, oceanography as a class learned ways how to navigate for ourselves.

Newton's Law Assesment

1. What are the relationships between forces and motion? 

The relationship between forces and motion is that net force is required to accelerate an object or change the motion of an object.  F=MA. F=Force. M=Mass. A=Acceleration.  Force is needed to create motion.  Newton's first law, the law of inertia, says that an object at rest will stay at rest unless there is some kind of force put on it.  So no object can move unless there is a force, and that's the relationship between force and motion, because when an object is moving, that's the motion, only because of the force.

2. What are the variables that affect motion and force?

The variables that affect motion and force is mass and acceleration.  When you multiply the mass of an object by the acceleration, that's what creates the force.  Then with the force, that's how you create the motion.  An objects' motion if affected by the acceleration and speed, along with the forces that are involved.

3. How does Newton’s three laws describe the motion of a moving 
object? 

Newton's three laws describe the motion of a moving object because they all involve force.  His first law talks about how an object in motion will stay in motion unless an outside force interferes with it.  That talks about the object and its motion.  His second law talks about the direction the object in motion will move.  His third law talks about that when we leave an object, the object will go in the opposite direction, talking about that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction of the object in motion.

4. How does gravity impact objects?

The greater the mass, the greater the gravitational pull.  Mass is attracted to anything with a mass, and it's a force at a distance.

Museum of Science Field Trip

On February 7, 2014, the physical science classes at Pentucket Regional High School took a field trip to the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts.

Fantastic Forces

In the Fantastic Forces show, we saw many different cool things.  We saw a magician's tablecloth, a pencil-gun, and the Newton's Cradle.  The magician's tablecloth was when the woman who was doing the show for us, put dishes and glass cups on top of a tablecloth on a table.  She stacked them on top of each other, and she even eventually filled the cups up with water.  She explained to us that if she pulls the tablecloth fast enough out from under the dishes and glass cups, they dishes and cups will stay where they are and will not crash to the floor.  She proved us right by experimenting with friction.  With the pencil-gun, originally the woman just tried to stab a pencil through a block of wood with her arm.  It obviously didn't work.  Then, she took out the pencil-gun, and by force of acceleration by all the pressure in the pencil-gun, the pencil went right through the block of wood.  Lastly, the woman showed us Newton's Cradle.  Every one of us had already seen a Newton's Cradle, but this was a much bigger version.  It dramatically demonstrated relations between force.  If you pulled two of the bowling balls out, two would go in.  If you brought 3 out, 3 would go back in.  That's how force works.

Bobsled Activity

For the bobsled activity, I built a bobsled with Nick B.  We made a bobsled hoping to get the fastest time, but unfortunately failed.  We used a very soft silk that we were hoping would slide down very fast down the chute, and we also had 4 batteries in it to make the bobsled much heavier.  Our sled ended up getting stuck at the top, and finally making it to the bottom at 4.85 seconds.  Nick and I got the best record for slowest time of the bobsled, and we actually got our time on the boards.  We named our bobsled "A&N" standing for "Adriana and Nick."

Lightning Show

The lightning show was very cool.  I went to the Museum of Science in fourth grade for a field trip at Bagnall Elementary School, so this was my second time seeing the lightning show.  My favorite parts were the lightning symphony where there was music with it and the lightning was loud.  I learned a lot about lightning safety, and what to do if I am stuck in the situation where it is lightning out.  I would recommend this show to anyone who is interested in severe weather such as lightning, because it's very interesting.  The only thing I disliked about the show was that the lightning symphony thing wasn't longer.  I also disliked the fact that the man running the show was only focused on the people in front of him, and didn't look around the room at anyone else.  I was sitting with a group of people on the side because there was no more room, and whenever he was looking for volunteers, we all raised our hands wanting to go up, but he wouldn't even look over at us, so it wasn't very fair.  Other than that, though, it was a great show.

Archimedean Excogitation Audiokinetic Sculpture

This was an art sculpture created by George Rhoads.  It is 27 feet tall, and it illustrates that relationship between potential and kinetic energy.  The sculpture uses a list of simple machines, including: the lever, the inclined plane, the screw, the pulley, the wheel and axel, and the wedge.  There were many pool balls in the sculpture, all going different ways to get back to the bottom.  They would all experience unique ways.  

Chemistry of Life

Carbohydrates:

Carbohydrates are made of C, H, & O in a 1:2:1 ratio.  Carbohydrates are the main energy source for living things.  It's a breakdown of sugars supplies. Monosaccharides are a single unit of sugar, and the smallest of the CHOs. Disasaccharides are molecules made up of two sugars joined together by dehydration synthesis.  Polysaccharides are large molecules made of many sugars, and make ideal storage products.

Lipids:

Lipids store more energy that CHOs because the chains are longer.  The important parts of biological membranes are the water proof coverings.  Steroids are lipids that act as a chemical messenger.

Proteins:

Proteins contain C, H, O, plus nitrogen.  They are formed from amino acids and joined together.  More than 20 amino acids can be joined in any order or number to make countless proteins. Chains are folded and twisted, giving each protein a unique shape.  Van der Waals forces and hydrogen  bonds help maintain the protein's shape.  The shape of protein is important to its function.  Proteins provide structure, they aid chemical activities, and help fight diseases.

Carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids are a huge part of a humans everyday life, and we need them to survive.  We need chemistry to survive.