Smith,+Jessica

The first graphic, the one that I like the most, includes pictures of the classifications and determines the classification by asking questions and then following along the chart based on the answers. I find this to be easier when trying to classify each matter, which is why I prefer this graphic. The second graphic is a more simple tree diagram and is easy to use because of its simplicity, but I like the other diagrams better because they have examples of the classifications. The third diagram is very similar to the second, but it includes examples of each classification.

I found the chromatography experiment interesting because I didn’t know that you could see the different dyes and pigments in skittles and m&m’s by separating them with water and a salt solution. It made sense that the original dyes were yellow, red and blue, and to create the other colors the dyes were mixed, but I didn’t know that you would actually see the separate colors. I remember doing some of it last year in biology, but this helped me understand it better.

An area in my life in which measurement is important is during track and cross-country. For all of the races the times need to be recorded extremely accurately to determine exactly how long it took each person to run the race. This is even more important in the shorter races in track because sometimes the races are so close that one person wins by only a couple of milliseconds, so you need to know that the times recorded are accurate. Also when mapping out a course for cross-country it needs to be exactly 5 kilometers so that you can compare it to other courses of the same distance.

Jessica, I could be wrong but I think that times are recorded to the 1/100th of a second or the centisecond not the millisecond. Good post!! MW

Something that I found interesting after reading the article was that they still use a physical standard for the kilogram. This in my opinion should probably be changed because with the technology we have it seems silly to have the kilogram, a unit of measurement used by people every day, to be defined by a physical object. It will also make the standard more accurate considering the fact that the physical kilogram has dropped by 50μg whereas, if we use them for the standard, the Avogadro's constant and Planck's constant will never change.

Jessica, I agree. I think we'll see the standard change. On a previous note a student in my night class said that they record track times to the 1/1000 of a second but then round and post the times only to the 1/100 of a second. So two runners can have the same time to the 1/100th but one is declared the winner by photo finish. Hmm. MW

Something that I found interesting about the airline security was all of the procedures that the workers and the people getting on the flights have to go through just to check baggage. The rules that they have in place for security are sometimes a nuisance. I know that they have strict requirements for liquids that you carry which can be a problem for people who need to bring these items but aren't using them for harmful intentions. While some believe it to be a waste of time they are actuallyextremely vital to airline security and safety. I didn't know that while scanning the bags they checked the density and other jsuch things of the objects.

I think that the idea of Mole Day is good, though the creators of the website have taken the celebrating to the extreme. Not only do they celebrate the day from 6:02am to 6:02pm, they have mole day jokes, a mole of the year award, a list of the "ten commolements" a mole day theme song and even a mole pledge which you should recite while facing the ground. I learned that Mole Day came about when a high school chemistry teacher wanted to get her students excited about chemistry.

The article about the dust explosion is very interesting and relates to the flaming pumpkin demonstration. It is surprising because you would not think that the dust accumulating on the floor could cause such an explosion. The size of it matters a lot which is similar to stoichiometry. Only 1/8 inch of dust can cause an explosion.

Jessica, A bit short plus not sure how you are relating size to stoichiometry. MW

An interesting thing that I learned from the sulfur hexaflouride article is that each element in sulfur hexaflouride by itself is extremely dangerous, but when combined are not harmful and you can breathe them in small doses. Although, if you do breathe in too much your body doesn't realize that it is not taking in needed oxygen and as a result you could suffocate. It is shocking that this could happen when your body feels nothing and does nothing to stop it. Another thing I found interesting was that a balloon filled with sulfur hexaflouride will inflate instead of deflate like a balloon filled with helium. This happens because the air goes into the balloon faster than the sulfur hexaflouride goes out. Jessica, Good thoughts. I was curious about the breathing thing also. MW

What if found interesting in the motion detector article was the different ways that motion detectors work. There are different methods used depending on what needs to be detected. Motion can be detected by listening to warmth, observing the reflection pattern changes, and when a light beam is blocked. It was also interesting how they related the human eye to a photo sensor because the way they see visible light is somewhat similar.

Jessica, A lot of technology comes from careful observation of nature. For example velcro was invented by examining sticky plant seeds. MW