Connell,+Brittany

==== I just finished the article about lead poisoning and I must say I am so surprised! I would have never thought that candy with chili powder could contain lead. I just don’t understand why the millers that grind the chilies into powder would have to think twice about checking the chilies for lead. I understand that it would be more expensive to check the chilies but those millers are now responsible for the endangerment of other people’s lives. I never knew that lead poisoning has so many side effects. I knew that it was dangerous but I didn’t know that it could lead to serious conditions like mental retardation. I just hope that people all over the world are being more cautious about lead. For example my sister, Alison, bought a 1950’s storage cabinet. Alison wanted to file it down to its original coat and repaint it. However before she started her project she bought a lead detector test from Lowe’s. It turns out the cabinet had lead on it! It’s a good thing she checked or else she would have run into some trouble. Anyway I think I just might have to stay away from Mexican candies. You can never be too careful! -Brittany Connell (Mr. Williams You graded the lead poisoning one, but i sort of deleted it so i just reposted it. Sorry for the inconvenience!) ====

"Redefining the Kilogram"
==== Maybe it was just me but I found this particular article a tad confusing. Let’s just say I had to re-read it a few times before any of it made sense. Anyway, I believe that the most important thing in this article was how International Prototype (one kilogram) lost weight. How in the world did it even manage to do that? I mean it is in a secure place where no dust can reach it (or anything for that matter) and some how it loses weight? That just makes no sense what so ever! I also thought that the security for just this one-kilogram was so extreme. I mean why is iProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 oxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 so crucial that the kilogram be protected? Well I guess without a consistent so many equations and oPProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 xy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 er mathematical problems would be completely messed up. Huh…I guess I answered that question. The last thing I found interesting was how there are people out there who are attaching themselves to weight issue of the kilogram. I wonder if someone will ever discover why this strange phenomenon happened in the first place. Whoever is the lucky person that discovers this mystery surely their name will go down in history! ====

“Crude Oil”
==== Before this video I had no idea what crude oil was. This video help clear a lot of things up, even though the narrator’s voice was a little distracting. I didn’t know that there are so many things created from crude oil. Like I would have never thought that it could be found in asphalt and many other things. I also didn’t know that the main component of crude oil is hydrocarbon. I guess that why it is used in gasoline since hydrocarbon has so much energy. I found it interesting that many people use crude oil for industrial things. I would have never thought that crude oil would ever be so helpful! ====

"Motion Detectors"
==== As I was reading I noticed several things that I already knew! However there were a couple of facts that I learned that were brand new to me! The first thing I knew is that the motion detectors uses a light source. So when something goes in front of the sensor it turns on. I have some lights at my house that does the same thing! I also knew that humans give off an infrared radiation off. As soon as I read that I realized we went over that in chemistry class just the previous day. The last thing I already knew was already pretty obvious. It was that particles of light are called photons, but it still counts as something I already knew. Now lets move on to the things I didn’t know. The first thing I didn’t know was that light’s ability to initiate an electric current was called the “photoelectric effect”. I had no idea that there was a specific name for this. I also didn’t know that the eye is like a photo sensor. It is sort of weird that we have the same thing as type of thing as motion detectors. The last thing I didn’t know was that motion detectors can detect warmth from infrared radiation. I mean I knew that some animals could pick up that but I had no idea that mordern technology could. It is truly amazing how far we have come. ====

==== Who would have guessed that sugar could be so dangerous? I mean we consume sugar everyday so I wouldn’t give a second thought on whether sugar could be potentially threatening. What I thought was extremely interesting was that sugar could cause so much damage. The explosion at the Imperial Sugar Company’s Plant killed thirteen people and injured forty. It makes me want to rethink on whether to keep sugar in my own house. However as I read on I realized that when we digest sugar it reaction is a lot slower so in the end, an explosion doesn’t occur. Thank goodness. I would hate to see exploding people. Anyway while reading I noticed there were several things that we learned about in class. One of, which was the fact that CO2 or even O2 gas, causes combustion reaction. I believe we learned about this recently in chapter nine of our textbooks. Another thing that relates to class is the chemical reaction of an apple when it is exposed to the air. The reaction of the apple is quite a popular example in our textbooks. I guess it would be one of the more recognizable chemical reactions since most people have experienced an apple turning brown if he or she leaves it out on the kitchen counter for too long. In the end this article certainly showed me many twist and turns about “sugar an unusual explosive”. ====

Brittany, Nice job! I like the browning apple connection. 5 stars!

===="Questions From the Classroom" ==== P ost written by: Brittany Connell

When reading this article I noticed that it really did answer many of my questions. Especially the question that was prompt at the beginning of the article, which was how, a helium balloon floats even though it has mass. I believe that the most important point in this article was the fact that a buoyant force is what causes balloons to rise. A Buoyant force causes less dense then air particles float, or rise thus causing the balloon to stay afloat. Another important point that we learned is class is that gas molecules exert an amount of pressure all over the place because it always is in constant movement. My last important point is something I read in our textbooks. The fact was about Archimedes' Principle, which says that the buoyant force acting upward on an object is equal to the weight of the fluid that is being displaced. Archimedes will never ceases to amaze me with everything he has figured out. Well, that was what I picked up as the most important material in this particular passage.

Brittany, Well written post! 5 big stars! MW