Raver,+Benjamin

Harry Potter Chemistry Tricks 8/30/10

I thought this article was so interesting. I always thought that all of the colors and spells were all just computer special effects and very not actually possible to recreate with chemicals. I also never knew that all of those chemicals can have such reactions thith things that make them change color and spark. Another suprising thing was that there where some things that he could not recreate and some things were very difficult like black flames, color changing ink and things with wands and fires. This connects with chemistry because we will be using a lot of these procedures, utensils and chemicals mentioned in this article in science class. We will use a bunsin burner and petry dishes as well as some of the alcohol solutions and calcium, potassium and sodium. This article really was a huge suprise to me because I never thought any off those tricks, spells and flames were nothing but computer special effects and were never possible to make.

Ben-Do you think that Mr. Williams will let us dress in robes and have wands in class if we do these experiments? I also thought that the Harry Potter effects in the movie were only possible in the movies but it appears I was wrong. I guess with the great number of chemicals in the world( and number of people who like to set things on fire) it was only a matter of time until we found some that made pretty colors for our fireworks and wizard dreams.

Ben, We will actually do some of the "tricks" found in Harry Potter - not with flowing robes and wands though! :) 5 stars. MW

Redefining the Kilogram 9/2/10

I thought this article was interesting, far fetched, and confusing. I thought the whole idea of having a standard for the kilogram is very cool and it being kept hidden and in a vault for protection. However, when it lost wieght, I do not think there needs to be this much debate about changing the standard and coming up with a new one. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal to me, and that there are scientists out there that work on these standards for a living, but I think this whole article was way far fetched and had to much "drama". One thing that really suprised me was the many different units and notations that they used in this article. I had never heard many of the units or ways they measured things. My most valuable point was that I do not see the big idea of this point. I understand that some scientist do this for a living and ar obsessed with these standards, but I do not see the importance of this article.

Ben, I understand your point. I guess when you are doing very precise, careful measurements(like atoms) little things mean a lot. 5 stars. MW

Crude Oil - 9/17/10

I think the idea of using crude oil that is destroying our environment and killing our wildlife, and turning it into useful resources like asphalt, gasoline and gases is a great idea. If we are going to get all of the oil out of the gulf and spend all the time, money and effort to do it, then we might as well turn it into something useful. This connects with chemistry because we have used many of these chemicals in class. The most interesting point that I found is that this whole distillation process is used on such a big scale to create all of these useful chemicals. I just hope that we can get all of the oil out of the gulf and we can use the crude oil to keep making all of these useful resources with this big scale distillation process.

Motion Detectors - 9/28/10

Some things that I already knew about motion detectors were some of the techniques used to make them effective. I heard of the idea of using a light and a sensor and when something goes in between them and breaks the light, the sensor goes off. I also heard of the radiation method, that goes off when there is a certain amount of heat in the area. For humans this is around 37*C. Other things that I were familiar with were some of the ideas by Einstein and his E=mc2 equation. On the other hand, there were lot of things in this article that I never have heard of. I never have heard of the echo technique or signals bouncing off objects. This is used with automatic doors. Another thing I never knew was the whole idea with electrons making all of this happen. Until the past few weeks in class, I never knew that all of this technology and motion detector idea was due to electrons and their activity. It really is amazing that the can make all of this happen. Finally,I never knew that bats could use one of these techniques to find insects flying through the air. I heard of rattlesnakes seeing the radiation or other animals and humans but not with bats. This article was very interesting and it will definetly make me think next time I see a motion detector.

Ben, Looks good! Good to see that you got so much out of this article! Well done. 5 stars. MW

25 Word Abstract - Where Do Chemicals Come From? 10/21/10

Chemicals released into space form ions and molecules called elements, whos nuclei fuse together to make the elements known today which gain and lose energy.

Ben, Just so you know molecules are what make up compounds - not elements!

Sugar - An Unusual Explosive 12/10/10

I thought that this article was very tragic and interesting. It is so sad that this explosion had to take the lives of 13 people and injure almost 50 more. I thought it was interesting how the article described to combustion reaction to other natural processes,like an apple browning on the top or having to cut a big log into multiple pieces in order for it to ignite. This all relates to surface area and how quickly and much the gases from the reaction spread. This releases a lot of heat and with the expanding volume of the gases from the sugar made the huge devastating explosion. I also thought it was very interestiong how finely ground substance such as coal is used in coal burning plants. This helps the reaction burn more quickly. Other examples of this are gasoline and small peics of wood. They all explode under the right conditions. All of this relates to our class because we do all kinds of combustion reactions with the bunsen burners. We have also seen many other demonstrations that create explotions or reaction. Under the right cercumstances, like heat or being present with other chemicals can create a bad reaction. It i just a shame that all these reactions and explosions are occuring all of the United States and many poeple are dying from them.

Ben, Pretty thorough. I like your references to reaction rates. 5 stars. MW Suggestion: use spell check!

Helium ballons 12/21/10

Some very important points from this passage are that there are buoyant forces that act from the opposite side as gravity and can actually push objects like a helium ballon up. Also, it is important to know that there are more forces hitting the bottom of the object pushing it up that there are forces pushing the object down in this case. In addition, there are forces pushing on both sides of the object but the are equal and cancel each other out. Finally, the most important point from this article is that buoyant forces act on everything and that density also is not the only reason to this action. The buoyant forces just act stronger on certain objects and force them up like helium ballons. This all relates to our class because we are discussing molecules and how they move around in different temperatures to create amounts of pressure. This relates to the forces that are acting on everything around us.

Ben, Good reflection. Spelling looks good! 5 stars. MW