Crowell,+Travon

Chemical Elements in Science Fiction
The article that I read was Chemical Elements in Science Fiction. They were all made up elements. The element that I found most interesting was mithril, first mentioned in Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Mithril was inspired by titanium. When beaten down and polished the element could be made into a metal that would not tarnish or dim. Also the metal would be lighter and harder than steel. I thought it was interesting how existing elements could inspire the creation of fictional ones. No wonder I never understood anything in those books.

Travon, Good post. The more you learn the more enriching life becomes! 5 stars. MW

Crude Oil
Crude oil is useless all by itself. Once it is heated up in the distillation process the many hydrocarbons separate at different temperatures. Because the crude oil is very flammable it cannot be heated over an open flame. The process where the many hydrocarbons are separated is called fractional distillation. The industrial use of distillation comes at a larger scale in huge distillation towers. The many forms that can come from crude oil can be diesel fuel, oil, kerosene, and other forms.

Travon, Good job! 5 stars. MW

Redefining The Kilogram The kilogram is one of the 7 base units in the International System of Units. It is the last SI base that is still defined by a physical artifact. The official U.S. kilogram locked away in the NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland has lost mass over time and now scientists want to redefine the standard kilogram. To many like me it really doesn't matter unless you are in the science world where it would be a huge deal. If the Avogadro's constant proposal were to take effect textbooks and many other things would have to be compromised. To a student like me it doesn't affect me that much. After this class maybe it will be of some importance to me, even if it isn't quite 100%.

Travon, It will affect us all but pretty much "behind the scenes." MW

The one thing that I really didn't know was the fact that elements form every time a star goes into supernover. Since I never really understood science that much I always thought that The Bing Bang created everything and that was that. Now I know that each time a star explodes elements are released into the atmosphere. The Bing Bang always confused me because I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that everything we know was created by this massive explosion. In the article it mentioned that the Chinese and Anasazi could read at night by this bright star. My question about that would be why didn't they go blind? Is it the same way that the sun lights up evertyhing making things visable. While reading that all I could imagine was a place where the sun shined 24/7.
 * Where Do Elements Come From?**

Travon, Interesting reaction Travon. I don't think the supernova was as bright as our sun. Probably like a full moon. 5 stars. MW

According to Monty Mol most scientific abbreviations are 1,2,and 3 letters long. The lower case m stands for modality and mass. The mo already means month while ml represents milliliters. To keep with the preferred maximum of 3 letters for an abbreviation they use mol instead of mole or moles. Avogadro himself did not use or come up with the term mole. About 50 years after Avogadro proposed his theory Italian scientist Stanislao Cannizzaro used Avogadro's theory to develop a set of atomic masses for all the known elements by comparing the masses of equal volumes of gas. The combinations of these theories have led us to the mole today. Who is your favorite singer? Maybe Hannah Moletana? That joke wasn't mine.
 * The Mole**

Travon, Good, funny post! 5 stars! MW

I never knew that the dust particles around us could be so dangerous. this makes me wonder if any place is safe. I saw the article said that OSHA and the CSB were getting involved as federal agencies. How are they going to regulate accidents like this one to make sure that they don't happen again? All plants must have dust accumulation like this; none of them are very different. The one thing that suprised me was the fact that this type of tradgedy doesn't occur more often. We are never safe!!!!!! Travon, Life is never without risk! Relate this explosion to stoichiometry. 4 stars.MW
 * Dust Explosion**

Three things that I already knew in the article were that -When breathing in helium and thereafter trying to talk your voice gets higher -Helium balloons decrease in size over time -Overdoing helium breathing could cause you to pass out Three things that I didn't know before reading the article was that -The 2 highltt reactive elements of helium and sulfur combined forms a stable bond that is as inert as noble gases -A balloon filled with sulfur hexaflouride makes the balloon larger because oxygen leaks into the balloon at a faster rate than the sulfur hexaflouride leaks out -When continuing to breath in helium and breathing out carbon dioxide you become unaware that you aren't breathing in oxygen and you are actually suffocating yourself We should try using the sulfur hexaflouride in balloons for a demo and observe how the volume changes and how it would react to different pressures and temperatures.
 * Sulfur Hexafluoride**

Travon, Helium is not reactive - you mean fluorine! Watch the bubbles carefully in the tank of doom!!! 5 stars. MW

**Motion Detectors** Three things that I already knew- -When an object passes by, the pattern of the pulses are disrupted and therefore motion is detected. -Devices that can sense warmth of infrared rays show that someone is coming. -There are various motion detectors that use body temperature, light sources, and pulse reflection patterns. Three things that I didn’t know -When light of significant energy is shined on a particular surface, it causes electrons to be ejected.

-Photo sensors in motion-detecting devices rely on light’s ability to initiate an electrical current. -Intensity only impacts the number of photons and not how much energy they possess.

Travon, Good post! You have learned much! 5 stars. MW