Glatfelter,+Jenna


 * Mentos and Coke **

In the article mentos and coke a teacher did the mentos and coke experiment to try to discover the answer for the question why does a geyser of coke explode when you drop a mint mentos into the coke bottle? While reading this article it surprised me to learn that placing a cold ice cube in a soda makes it go flatter faster. I thought it would keep it fizzier longer because the warmer your soda gets the faster it goes flat. But the coke loses its fizz due to the ice not having a smooth surface, I found this interesting because the other mentos don't work as well as the mint mentos. This is because the whole reason the geyser happens is because the coke reacts with the bumps and rough edges of the mint mentos. Also the mentos with a smoother surface cut the recation of the geyser in half. This article helped teach me ice cubes make your soda lose fizz faster, the roughness of the mint mentos makes the reaction happen, and other mentoes don't work as well as mint mentos.

Jenna, Super job! Very thorough. 5 stars. MW


 * Redefining the Kilogram **

This article was interesting and a little confusing because I don't understand the metric system very well. The thing I found most important in this article was that the kilogram is the only SI base unit that is still based of a physical artifact. That means basically every other measurement we use is measured by unvarying physical property of nature. I was very surprised to learn how tightly secure the SI kilogram is kept I didn't realize the exact measurements were that important. It's interested me that the kilogram lost weight, how is that? With all that securely how did it lose weight? You would think it would be impossible for a normal kilogram to lose weight, but even the one that was under lock and key lost weight (even if it was only the weight of a finger print). Lastly I was surprised to learn that they even keep a sample kilogram to compare all kilogram weights to, I just assumed that a machine made sure each item weighed a kilogram. But now I know that doing it that way would not be as accurate and could cause a kilogram to weight just a tiny bit less, and now I know that that is a big deal! This article thought me a lot of new things I never knew!

Jenna, Spot on once again! It seems that we need to get the kilogram nailed down by something that can't vary. 5 stars! MW


 * Crude Oil **

I enjoyed learning about the crude oil in this video. It related to Chemistry class because in class we talked about how you can use that same distillation type system to separate the components of a solution. I learned how you can separate the components by heating them at different temperatures. First you heat at the lower temperature, then you heat at a higher and higher to get the components out by the temperate they boil at. Also the color of the components get darker if the were boiled at a higher temperature. I wonder do all substances get darker in color when their boiling points get higher?

Jenna, Good post. Not all things get darker as the boiling points rise. Did you notice the crude oil is black when they first get it from the ground? The high boiling fractions color it that way. 5 stars. MW


 * Motion Detectors **

I really enjoyed this article, I learned a lot of new things I never knew, and the article confirmed somethings I already knew about motion detectors. Three things I knew preior to reading the article were, how the eye is like a photo sensor, that intensity is based off of how many protons there are, not how much energy the protons posses, and I knew bats found their way around by echolocation. I knew that the eye used a motion detector like system to see, because the eye sees light and the light comes in at the eye at a certin angle dependeng on how that light comes in depends on what you see. And if you don't see things correctly you can get glasses, which work because they change the way the light comes in at you eye, and focuses what you are seeing. I also knew that intensity is based off of how many protons there are becasue, all the mass of the metal ball is pinned in one spot and therefor the ball will break the window. With the ping-pong balls all their mass is spread out and even if you through thousnads of them at the same window, at the same time they will not break the window like the meatle ball would. Lastly I knew what echolocation is because I learned it at the zoo, the animals use it to move around safely and making sure nithing around them is dengerus, I think dolphins are another animals that use something like echolocation. The Three things I learned from this article were what color light shows depending on how fast the electrons are moving, that clear glass can block motion detectors, and that Albert Einstein was actually given the noble peace prize for the work he put into photoelectric system. First I think it's odd how in astronomy stars that are red are the coldest, but in chemistry the red color means the electrons are moving very slowly. But in stars blue means hottest star and blue means the electrons are moving the fastest, they kind of go hand in hand. Then I learned that the motion detectors don't always go through glass, so next time you try to sneak in you should hold a piece of glass in front of you. Lastly I always thought Einstein was given the noble peace prize for his equation E = mc2 but now I know he really earned the prize for his work on photoelectric.

Jenna, Wow! You packed alot into this post! 5 stars! BTW Einstein did not win the Nobel Peace prize - He won the Nobel prize in Physics! :) MW


 * Where do Chemical Elements come from? **

Scientists track down where most chemical elements come from; they come from nucleosynthesis: supernovas explode, releasing elements that fuse with other elements into the atmosphere.

Jenna, Well done! 5 stars! MW


 * Sugar an Unusual Explosive **

This article really shocked me, I never would have know my everyday common household items could cause explosions. The interesting fact that I found in this article was that sugar particles caused an explosion so big it destroyed a factory, and killed or injured 43 people! I never knew sugar was that powerful, but the article helped show me basically anything that is in particles the size of dust could explode when in contact with a flame. One thing from this article that related to what we are learning in class is that CO2 or O2 gas causes a combustion, we learned this in class and it also was stated in the article. The second thing from this article that relates to class is the balancing of equations. In the article it showed the chemical reaction equation for sugar combustion. And the chemical equation shown in the article was balanced properly, and in class we learned how to balance chemical reactions similar to this one. This is what I learned from this article!

Jenna, OK but one major misconception! CO2 puts out a fire - not causes it!!! MW


 * Helium Balloons **

The most important point in this article is buoyant force and what it does. Buoyant force acts on every object, and is what causes less dense then air particles float, or rise. One very important point is that molecules exert pressure in all directions, like we learned in class. This explains why the buoyant force pushes extra from the bottom and is able to lift so less dense then air objects. The last very important point is that the buoyant force pushing upwards on an object is exactly the weight of the object being displaced. Which is called Archimedes principal which we read about in our textbooks. These were the most important points in this article.

Jenna G., Good job! I like the reference to the textbook! 5 stars! MW