Volcanic Eruptions!!!

A volcano is generally any place on the planet where some material from the inside of the planet (magma) makes its way through to the planet's surface. When this happens, it is a volcanic eruptions. There are two types of eruptions, one is the explosive type where the volcano bursts open and lava shoots from it, the other is where the lava slowly oozes out. The volcanos erupt because the internal pressure has built up far too much and it needs to be released somehow.

Tectonic plates!!!

The Earth's surface is made up of a series of large plates and several minor plates. These plates, called tectonic plates, are always moving, generally about a few centimetres each year, which doesn’t sound that much at all really. Convection currents underneath the plates move them in different directions, this is because the ocean floors are always moving about, spreading from the centre and sinking at the edges. The edges of these plates, both minor and major, when they move against each one another, create earthquakes, volcanoes and even create mountains!

As the tectonic plates move, the world changes a little and sometimes a lot. About 200 million years ago, all the continents were one big piece of land called Pangea. Alfred Wegener, a German scientist, said that this one big piece of land slowly drifted apart, this was called continental drift. This was said in 1912 when the study of tectonic plates wasn’t around. (This theory also comes into play with the evolution of animals and humans. The ‘out of Africa’ theory for human evolution states man evolved in Africa then moved away to other parts of the world. They couldn’t do this if the world was separated as much as it is today, they didn’t have planes or ships to take them to other parts to the world. So it makes sense that the continents had to be much closer together for them to travel outside of Africa.)

http://www.moorlandschool.co.uk/earth/tectonic.htm

Three main types of boundaries exist between tectonic plates. 

The first is called a divergent boundary which occurs most often at mid-oceanic ridges. This is when two plates move away from each other, forming a break, or rift, in Earth's crust. Magma from the mantle (the middle section of the earth which is the deepest and very hot) rises up to fill the gap made from the separation of the plates, creating new crust. The results of this can be volcanic islands.

The second type is called a convergent boundary which happens when two plates move towards each other and meet. The plates that is made up of a more dense oceanic crust will often slide over the top of the plate that is made up of less dense oceanic crust. If both plates are made up of continental crust, very little subduction occurs. Instead, the plates buckle and fold to create valleys, ridges, and high mountain ranges such as the Himalayas.

The third type of boundary is called a transform boundary. At these locations, plates slide roughly alongside each other in opposite directions. The plates often get stuck as they move past each other, leading to a build-up of tension, which is ultimately released in the form of an earthquake. The more tension, the bigger the earthquake, if this occurs under water, tsunamis may occur.

http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.earthsys.tectonic/

The Earth!!!

The Earth has three layer. The core (inner and outer), the mantle and the crust.

The core consists of a fluid outer core and a solid inner core (the inner core, despite being very hot, is solid because of all the pressure it is under). Because the core contains iron and nickel, when it flows it generates a magnetic field. This is the source of the Earth's magnetic field! The core is about 3500 km wide.

The mantle makes up 82% of the Earths volume and is about 2900km. The mantle, like the core, is made up of two sections, the upper and the lower mantle. The upper mantle also has two sections to it, the lithosphere which is stiffer than the asthenosphere, which is the lower part. The lower mantle is very, very strong, as it has a lot of pressure on it.

The final layer is the crust and it too has two sections. One is the continental crust and the other is the oceanic crust. The oceanic crust is the top crust and is only 7km thick, which is a lot less than the other layers of the Earth. It is mostly made up of basalt, a dark igneous rock, that is commonly found on railway lines and tram lines. The continental crust sits underneath the oceanic crust and can vary between 35-70 km in depth.

http://scign.jpl.nasa.gov/learn/plate1.htm

Right Angle Triangle and Pythagoras Theorem!!!

A right angle triangle is a triangle with, well a right angle in it. A right angle is a degree that equals to 90 degrees, while the whole triangle must equal and will always equal to 180 degrees. There is two types of right angle triangle, one being an Isosceles right angled triangle where one angle is a right angle, the other two angles are always 45° and have two equal sides. The other is a Scalene right angled triangle where one angle is a right angle and the other two are unequal angles with no sides equal either.

Pythagoras theorem is a ‘rule’ by a man named Pythagoras, who many, many years ago found an amazing fact about triangles. This fact was that ‘if the triangle had a right angle and you made a square on each of the three sides, then the biggest square had the exact same area as the other two squares put together’.

There is three sides to a triangle, a, b and c. C is always called the hypotenuse. The definition of the hypotenuse is ‘in a right angled triangle the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides’.

The formula for Pythagoras Theorem is a2 + b2 = c2 . This means the square of a (a²) plus the square of b (b²) is equal to the square of c (c²).

http://www.mathsisfun.com/pythagoras.html

http://www.mathsisfun.com/right_angle_triangle.html

Avogadro!!!

An Italian chemist named Amedeo Avogadro, who lived between, 1776 and 1856, came up with a theory that basically said there is a relationship between mole and volume, that as the mole increased, so did the volume. (nick’s lecture notes, 23/3/09)

The official theory is that ‘equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of molecules regardless of their chemical nature and physical properties.’ (kiwi web) This all equals a number and that number, Avogadro’s number is, 6.23 x 10 to the power of 23 however some just say 6 x 10 to the 23. (as seen on my two mole videos) This can also be shown in a mathematically equation which is…

V/n = k

V = volume of the gas. 

n = amount of substance of the gas. 

k = proportionality constant

Out of this comes the ideal gas constant which is…

(p1-V1)/(T1-n1)= (p2-V2)/(T2-n2)=constant.

p = pressure of gas

T = temperate of gas

I didnt find this site to helpful, i really didnt understand what it was talking about by the end.

Kiwi web, Chemistry and NZ, 'Avogadro’s law - What is it?', viewed 29/3/09, http://www.chemistry.co.nz/avogadro.htm

Boyles Law!!!

Boyles law is th relationship between the volume and pressure. So when the pressure increases, the volume decreases. In this clip, it is shown with a simple childrens toy that makes it easy to understand!

Charles Law!!!

Charles' Law is the relationship between volume and temperature. When the temperature increases, so does the volume, this is to accommodate the gases that are moving more rapidly due to the increase of volume.

The heart!

The heart is nothing more than a pumping system to keep the body alive, human or otherwise. We know that now because of science, we learnt all about it. However back in times before ours, they believed the heart was where emotions came from, that the heart was the centre of the body so to speak. That is one of the reasons why when the Egyptians mummified bodies, the heart was left in as it was needed in the afterlife to live.

Now we know different, it’s the brain that controls emotions, controls the body, where all our knowledge is found. The heart simply pumps blood though the body. From the moment the heart is formed enough to beat, it continues to do it until the day we die. In an average lifespan, the heart beats over two and a half billion times, which is quite amazing for an organ the size of your fist. (The Franklin Institute, 2009) 

The heart I made up of four chamber, the left and right atria and the left and right ventricle. Each side of the heart has a valve to stop the blood from filling the chamber it just entered from. (The Franklin Institute, 2009) The aorta artery is attached to the left ventricle chamber, this chamber is the one to contract the most as it has to force the blood out of the chamber, through the aorta and be able to push the blood all the way around the body. At the beginning of the aorta is where you will find the highest amount of pressure. (Adam’s lecture notes, 9/3/09)

As the blood travels the body, it loses the oxygen it has been transporting and picks up Carbon Dioxide. Travelling through the Vena Eava, the deoxygenated blood returns to the heart, entering the right atrium, the chamber contracts and pushes it into the right ventricle where it then is forced into the pulmonary artery. This artery will transport the deoxygenated blood into the lung where it loses the Co2 and picks up o2. Once the blood is full of oxygen once more, it travels through the pulmonary vein and into the left atrium where it is pushed into the left ventricle where the cycle begins. (Adam’s lecture notes, 9/3/09) (The Franklin Institute, 2009)

The Franklin Institute has a great site on the heart that gives you lots of details but not hard to understand detail, I think this would be a great site for high schoolers to visit.

The Franklin Institute, ‘The human heart’, viewed 29/03/09, http://www.fi.edu/learn/heart/index.html 

Adam’s Lecture notes, week of the 9/3/09, community based science, Victoria university Footscray park.

The lungs...

Lungs are a vital organ in the body, for without them, you could not survive. The lungs are located in your chest and are protected by the ribcage so that they are safe from being damaged. Everybody has two lungs in their chest, however the left one is slightly smaller than the right. This is because there needs to be enough room left in your chest to fit your heart. (Kids health) Underneath the lungs sits the diaphragm, this organ is important in helping your body to able to breathe in and breath out. (Kids health)

The lungs, although the main part of the respiratory track, is not the only part of it. It starts from the nose and the mouth where the air is breathed in. The nose and mouth help to warm the air, filter it, moisten it and humidifies it. (Lecture notes, Adam). The air then goes though the Pharynx, or throat, which is a connection point to the rest of the system. Next is the Larynx (voice box) where the air helps to produce sounds which enables us to speak. After the voice box, the next pit stop in the respiratory system is Epiglottis which is very important. The Epiglottis closes off the larynx when swallowing to prevent anything from going into the lungs which would be a disaster, and after the Epiglottis its onto to the Trachea. (Lecture notes, Adam)

After the Trachea, it heads on into the lungs via two large tubes called the bronchi, with one going into the right lung and one into the left. (kids health) Each Bronchus (singular for bronchi) has smaller bronchi branches from it, getting smaller and smaller the further into the lung they go. (Kids health) Bronchioles are the tiniest tubes at the very end of the tree like structure and there are about 30 000 of them!! (Kid health) At the end of the bronchioles are tiny little air sacs called alveoli. There is even more of these than bronchioles as there is roughly about 600 million! (Kids health)

Adams lecture notes, Community Sciencee, Victoria Univresity.

Kids Health, Nemours, ‘Your lungs and respiratory system’, Viewed 27/3/09, http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/lungs.html

Limiting/excess...

I thought for a moment I had found a good website explaining limiting and excess but I was wrong. It starts off with explaining what limit and excess is. Great! It is sort of obvious though but it is good they explain it anyway, for those of us who don’t get it completely.

With a simple example used, it helps explain the whole concept of limiting and excess. Just in case, I might explain as well.

Limiting is the chemical, reactant, object that limits the amount of product made. Such as the trusted example from Nick, 2 frames, 5 wheels. The limiting here is the frames, as you can only make 2 bikes from two frames. 

Excess is the chemical, reactant, object that is left over once all the limiting is used. Again with the same example, the excess here is the wheels, as you will have one wheel left after 2 bikes are made.

The site starts off well enough, however it goes on with some examples of calculations for limiting/excess and I cannot make heads or tails from it. It is confusing and looks nothing like the way we do it. It confused me and I was complexly at a loss. At least the explanations of limiting and excess were clear and simple for me.

Stoichiometry : Limiting Reactant, viewd 21/3/09, http://www.chem.tamu.edu/class/majors/tutorialnotefiles/limiting.htm

Balancing...

Balancing equations can be a little tricky some times, knowing where to put something and where not to and how to make sure it is right. This video with a slightly to enthusiastic chemistry guy shows how to do it, where to put things and what not to do. 

Not only does he show you how to balance equations but how to do it if you need to it from the opposite way, starting with the final product. He uses basic language for the most part, shows and explains it in simple ways and isn’t boring to watch.

"Balancing 1"

Bananaiscool, junior chemistry; balancing 1, You Tube, viewed 21/3/09, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQrV8RduttU

Mole songs!!!

This video, “Happy Mole Day To You”, was made to help students remember about mole. I think it is quite clever actually as already I remember that it is 10 to the power of 23, as they celebrate mole day on the 23 rd of October (the tenth month).

It is a fun way to learn about mole by making it into a catchy little song. I have in my head, “how many moles in hydrogen, just use the subscript, the number is 2”. Now I know that, it will help be able to work out others. It also mentions atomic mass and flashes the periodic table with the number flashing indicating atomic weight by the flashing numbers.

It is a good video clip, funny, clever, fun and it is brilliant for those wanting to know about mole but hates reading long pieces of text that are complicated and boring.

"Happy Mole Day To You"

This video clip is less informative than the first, however, it is highly catchy and very amusing. It tells you mole is a unit and that it is 6 x 10 to the 23. They try to use examples as to how big that really is by saying if you stack that amount of paper it would reach to the moon and back, and if you had that amount of marshmallows it would be so much it would block out the sun.

This is giving the viewer a small idea of how large the number really is, and as they say, tis to big to comprehend. However, after all that they say if you put some sugar on your hand, you are holding the same amount (6 x 10 to the 23) of atoms in your hand. This gives you an idea of how small atoms are, even if mole is a large number, in terms of atoms it is small.

"Mole Is A Unit"

youTube, Happy Mole day To you & Mole is a unit, You Tube, Viewed 21/3/09

Mole...

A mole is the unit of measurement one uses when measuring atoms, ions and molecules. Mole is used because using grams or any other normal measurement would be impractical and it wouldn’t work very well at all whereas mole was designed to measure molecules, atoms and ions.

Mole is, if you want to get technical, 6.02 x 10 to the power of 23 – Avogadro’s number. Most times though people just refer to this quite big number as ‘mole’. 

Helmenstine, A M, Ph.D., What Is a Mole and Why Are Moles Used?, About.com: Chemistry, viewed 21/3/09, http://chemistry.about.com/cs/generalchemistry/f/blmole.htm

I believe that this was a good site to have a look at about mole, as it didn’t go into all the chemistry jargon, it was short, it was simple and it was understandable. There was not much there to confuse you and it was fairly easy to make sense of.