Wagner,+Nathan

I read the article about NASCAR safety. I didn't know all the safety features that went into NASCAR. I didn't know that the barriers on the outside of the track are made of steel tubing and foam. I always thought they were made of concrete. They are developing similar barriers to use on highways. I was also surprised that the fire suits that are made of oxidized polyacrylonitrile are heated until it is fully oxidized and has no melting characteristics. The suit has been tested by walking trough fire for 22 seconds.

Nathan, Looks good. 5 stars. MW

I think that since the kilogram is the only measurement that still uses a physical object and all the other ones are an unvarying property of nature, that they should change it. If they change it to an unvarying property of nature then they will never have to worry about it changing weight, it will always be the same. I also don't really understand how it could gain weight it looks like they have it under glass bubbles and its in a vault, so it seems like it wouldn't be possible for it to gain weight.

Nate, It actually lost weight which is a bit mysterious as well. I'd like to see the scale they use to measure it. Your summary is a bit sketchy. Highlight 3 things and find an MVP. 4 stars. MW

Crude Oil- One thing i think is interesting about crude oil is that they distill the oil and can turn it into so many different fuels. Before, I didn't know how they turned crude oil into gas. It is also interesting that they can turn crude oil into kinds of plastics. I didn't know that they could get so many different kinds of fuel from crude oil. I thought the main things they got from crude oil were gas and diesel.

Nate, Crude oil is a great natural resource. 5 stars. MW

Motion Detectors- One thing I knew about motion detectors was that some are set off by infrared radiation. When something passes through the sensor and the source it goes off. I also knew that some work by sending out pulses and when something breaks the cycle of the pulses then the sensor goes off. I also knew that bats use echolocation to find their food. I didn't know that some bats can use echolocation to tell how big the object is, how fast it's moving, and which direction its going. A second thing I didn't know was that some snakes can see infrared light so they can see their prey but they prey can't see them. I also didn't know glass can stop certain motion detectors from going off because the glass stops the infrared rays.

Nate, Yes the glass thing surprised me as well! 5 stars!MW

Where do Elements Come From? (25 word abstract)- The first 26 elements come from stars. They combine to form ions and molecules. Hydrogen leads to all known elements. The nuclei fuse together to form elements.

Nate, A little over - 4 stars. MW

Sugar An Unusual Explosive- One thing that I found interesting from this article was that if you grind stuff up enough into a fine powder and disperse it into the air it cam become flammable. This is what happened with the sugar in the article. Because the sugar was ground into a powder, the reaction of the sugar igniting could happen faster and be more severe. I also found it interesting that flour could explode under the right conditions. This relates to our class because we have been doing experiments that involve using the Bunsen burners. It is also like the lykepodium powder with the pumpkin because it didn't burn very well when it was in a pile but if you blew it through the air it burnt very well.

Nate, Good point! Surface area is very important to reaction rates! 5 stars. MW

Helium Balloons- Some very important things from this article are that the balloon rises because helium is less dense than air. There is also something called a buoyant force that lifts 1.3 g for every liter of air the object displaces. Also, air is less dense the higher up you go. So if you let the balloon go then there will be more molecules pushing it up from the bottom then there would be pushing it down from the top. I think the most important thing from this article is that a substance will float up in another substance if the one floating is less dense than the other one.

Nate, Looks like you nailed this one! Good job. 5 stars. MW