Hartzell,+Kelly

Harry Potter Article- 8.31.10 I found this article to be really interesting. When I read the books, I never realized that the potions class concoctions and spells could actually be recreated in real life. The purple, green, blue, red, and orange flames can actually be made through advanced chemistry. The fact that you can make your own color-changing ink is interesting, too. Certain chemicals can react with certain paper under specific conditions to change into one color from another color. I found the condition that the chemicals needed to react with the paper to be not nearly as convenient when compared to Harry Potter walking into a store and buying color-changing ink. The danger factor to recreating the colorful flames relates to the safety contract in chemistry. To have the flames, there are many hazardous substances that are needed. The flames would indefinitely need to be made outdoors, which could be hazardous and extremely dangerous to onlookers. There are so many occurrences that went over my head while reading this popular series and I am excited that there are hidden references for me to notice in the future.

Kelly, Hopefully we will "shed some light" on some of the remaining questions that you have! :) 5 stars! MW

Redefining the Kilogram- 9.2.10 Since I am not the type of scholar to realize how important this is to society, this article didn't do much for me. However, there were some interesting points. I found it interesting that out of the seven base units of the International System of Units, kilogram is the only one left to be defined by a physical thing rather than an equation. Another cool thing is that there are only 90 calibrated platnium- iridium copies of the international prototype that exist in the world. Thinking about the amount of countries compared to this, there is one copy for every one out of around five countries. As hypocritical as it would be to say this, another interesting point is that they have found a way to make the kilogram an unvarying equation. Of all of these, I would say that the last point is the MVP. Seeing as the vote for this is in 2011, I will be on the lookout in the news to see if the media finds it important enough to put on an NBC broadcast.

Kelly,

Maybe on the Discovery Channel? :) Good post. 5 stars! MW

Crude Oil- 9.17.10 I found this movie pretty entertaining because I didn't know anything about the topics discussed. The main thing I didn't know was that crude oil could be split into so many different liquids. I have heard of plastic being from crude oil but I never knew what part of the crude oil that could possible make plastic. Seeing the distillation process, like we have heard of in class, used on such a large scale was really cool. It shows you need to really keep track of the temperatures if you want the perfect results. My main point in this was the fact I didn't know that crude oil had so many different uses, ranging from plastic, to asphalt, and to rocket fuel. It is really cool to see how chemistry ties in to real life.

Kelly, Great post. Looks like you got a lot out of the video. 5 stars! MW

Motion Detectors- 9.29.10 I knew several things before reading this article. I have heard of infrared motion detectors and that humans give off infrared radiation. I also knew that bats use echolocation to find prey since they are blind. However, I didn't know a lot in this article, such as that pit vipers have thermal vision, which is why they are so lethal. I also learned that police radar guns use radio waves to get the speed of cars. The biggest point I learned from this article was that the infrared detectors have a filter to screen out all other waves outside of the 8 to 12 nanometer range, seeing as a human gives off 9 to 10 nanometers of infrared radiation. This helps assure that animals don't set off a false alarm. Considering how often motion detectors are seen in real life, I am surprised how much technology really goes into them.

Kelly, Well done. Good observation about filtering the IR radiation! 5 stars, MW

Where Do Chemical Elements Come From?- 10.20.10

Chemical elements come from star explosions that, after performing nucleosynthesis, created all elements up to iron, at which point the star collapses from iron’s weight.

Kelly, Looks good! 5 stars. MW

Sugar: An Unusual Explosive- 12.10.10

Out of this action packed article, no pun intended, I would some rather interesting information. The big thing I learned was how explosions happen. This occurs when high-energy particles that are smaller than 500 micrometers, or dust, are floating in the air and there is a spark close by. Another thing I learned was the use of an apple to demonstrate how surface area affected an explosion. I never realized that surface area had anyting to do with explosions. The other thing I learned was that others items liek coal, flour, metals, plastics, and wood can all exploded under the right conditions. It is rather alarming that most of the items everyone owns could explode. This article relates to chemistry in that there was a chemical reaction and it is very similar to a lab you did around Halloween with the foreign powder (I cannot spell it). You blew the particles in the air causing them to explode into a firey ball. I would like to try this sugar explosion on a small scale in class although I have a feeling it would break too many safety and health laws...

Kelly, Great post. I'll try the video. BTW it was lycopodium powder. 5 stars!! MW

Watch this video below if you have time!!! This is very amusing and I would like to share it :)

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Helium Balloons- 12.21.10

After reading this article, I found several important points on buoyant force. One important point is that buoyant force only displaces roughly 0.0028 pounds, which is an incredibly small number. This pertains to chem class in that it has to do with everything that goes on in that class, whether it be lifting a beaker or a pencil. Another important point I found was that buoyant forces affect density. In a car, a helium balloon will not shift with the car while turning. This relates to chem class in that before we started messing with the helium balloons, they just sat there and did not try to float around with the air conditioner. The MVP of my points is that there are forces pushing around the entire outisde of any object. This relates to chem class in that when we played around with lighting the balloons on fire. the balloon had no extra help like it would get higher up in the atmosphere to float up and out of our reach. I found this article kind of interesting but it was rather dull.

Kelly, Well you certainly related this one to class! It's not as interesting as the dancing bird video but hey! :) 5 stars. MW