Pathak,+Rudri

Motion Detectors: Things I knew:
 * The color red has a long wavelength and a low frequency.
 * Different particles of light are called photons, and the energy that comes off of them depend on the frequency of the wave.
 * All visible colors have different wavelengths and frequencies that make them unique

Things I learned:
 * Infrared light is given off of warm-blooded animals
 * Echolocation can be used for other methods just like how bats use it to find food. It is used to detect the waves.
 * Different types of materials have different areas so sensors can be made for different types of lights.

I think the article was well written to appeal to us teenagers. It's hard to capture a teenager's attention, and I think the author of this article did a good job of relating the different types of sensors and light qualities to examples that teenagers know and can compare to.

I'm sure the author would be happy to hear what you said. 5 stars. MW

Helium Balloons and Sulfur Hexafluoride: *There is a buoyant force that acts on every object in a room. **
 * Things I knew:**
 * Sulfur Hexafluoride is made from one atom of sulfur and six atoms of fluorine.
 * Noble gases are in the last column of the periodic table.
 * Over a period of time, helium balloons decrease in size because the helium atoms leak out of the balloon faster then air particles can leak in.
 * Things I learned:**
 * When you hold your breath for a few seconds, you get the urge to breathe because there is a build up of CO2 not a lack of O2
 * When holding your breath you are actually suffocating yourself, and can happen in a short period of time
 * Balloons that are filled with helium deflate while ones filled with sulfur hexafluoride expand over time.
 * Things I knew:**
 * A helium ballon rises in the air because it is less dense then air
 * gas molecules release pressure as they bounce off the surrounding areas.
 * As you go higher in the atmosphere, pressure decreases and the movement of the particles decrease as well.
 * Things I learned:
 * If you were to take away all the air as well as the buoyant force, your true weight would be shown.
 * Buoyant force is equal to the substance that is being displaced.

I thought both articles were somewhat interesting (though one was hard to read!). I found it cool how the two gases are basically opposites. I also never knew that holding your breath was actually suffocating you. It is crazy how things that you see all the time, actually have a whole load of chemistry behind them.

Rudri, Yes chemistry is sort of in everything! Amazing job on this post!!! 5 huge helios stars! MW

Dust Explosion: It is kind of scary that sugar can explode into flames when in the right environment. I mean we use this stuff all the time and according to the article it takes less energy to light less particles. So with a little static electricity and the proper amounts of oxygen ..BAM! everything is on fire now. What is really scary is that in these factories, there is so much of the substance that it would be hard to avoid all the dust that is created when the particles break down. I guess everyone needs to be extra careful. Rudri, Static electricity is a dangerous thing. Sometimes it can cause fires around gas also. 5 stars! MW

Mole Day: I read about Avogadro and how he made his hypothesis but nobody really cared. I don't understand why people would not trust his hypothesis. His work was sloppy, but what he found out has helped us understand everything we know today. I wonder how he would have felt if people appreciated his work during his lifetime instead of 50 years later. If I were him I would have tried to be more persistent to get my new findings recognized. I think if people were more observant to start with instead of being judgmental about the messy-ness of his work then we would have had things discovered faster.

Rudri, Interesting comments. I see you looked at this from the human perspective. MW

Where do Elements come from: I never really thought about the origin of all the elements that we all know and I find it interesting how it all started in space. It makes me wonder how everything was made up before that moment. Everything that we know is made up of atom. So I guess before time there must have been a lot of star explosions in order to make up the way we live. It also makes me wonder what we have yet to discover. If one supernova created the elements that we have now, then imagine what could happen if during our life time we experience another supernova. I think it would be kind of scary because alot of those new elements would be radioactive while the others would be stable. It is just really fascinating how I am made up of a star and so is everything around me.

Rudri, Just hope that supernova is a long, long way off. Good thoughts! 5 stars. MW

Kilogram: Though it is kind of strange how we keep the weights in such controlled areas, I get why we do it. I think that it is a good thing that we keep these measurements because without them we would never truly get an accurate calculation. Actually, the word accurate would lose its meaning because there would be no standards to measure up to. I guess if the weights lost some of there mass then every body would be measuring the incorrect mass and all the scientific calculations would be slightly off. I also find it strange how we all have these measuring devices, but they all seem to be slightly different than the other. I think that keeping these weight locked up is a good idea; it keeps everything nice and orderly. Rudree, Good thoughts. We must have standards so measurements are meaningful. 5 stars. MW

Crude Oil: I can relate this video to my Honors Global Studies class because we learned a lot about oil and how important it is to the world. This video allows us to see the other side of the story and what happens to the oil for us to use it as much as we do. I think the whole condensing process is kind of cool. The fact that you can separate all of these mixtures into something that you can use is intriguing to me. I think the end result would be cool. The whole process that goes into that might take a while and you would have to be precise in how you go about doing things. To me, that would be really tricky.

Rudri, Good relationship to outside learning. MW

Harry Potter: I read the Harry Potter article and it is kind of cool how someone can recreate the magic of the books into a real life situation. I think that any Harry Potter fan, like myself, would enjoy knowing that you can still get the affects of magic in your own life. I think that this is how they may have made the movies look more realistic. They may have used chemistry along side the special affects of computers to make the movies seem so real. I kind of want to try some of this stuff like turning fires green and blue, but I don’t think it is completely safe so I’ll just avoid that. There are some things that you could do like creating invisible ink. I think it’s really interesting how chemistry can make one of your favorite books come to life.

Rudri, Good post. We will do the colored flames! 5 stars. MW