Mazzei,+Alyssa

I read the **Mentos and Coke** article, and I thought it was very interesting. I thought it was in interesting that when you put an ice cube in soda it makes the soda fizzier because they are rough. I thought that it would make the soda more flat, so that surprising to me. Also, I thought it was interesting how he explained how the ingredients in the Mentos doesn't really have anything to do with the reaction, and that it is the nucleation sites. I always thought that the reaction had something to do with the ingredients in the Mentos. I had never heard of nucleation sites before I read this article, and I thought it was interesting how they explained how shaking a soda bottle is linked with that.

Alyssa, OK. Yes the nucleation sites thing is kind of cool. 5 stars! MW

I thought that the article **Redefining the Kilogram** was a little confusing. I have always thought that the metric system was confusing. I've never really thought about how people can tell if a ruler's measurements are correct. I think it is interesting that it is actually defined by a physical object. I also think it is interesting that there are only six replicas of these and not more. I thought the most interesting thing was that a kilogram is actually defined by a physical object.

Alyssa, OK. I guess the metric system is confusing because we are not used to it. 5 stars! MW

I watched the **Crude Oil** video, and I noticed a few things in that video that are related to what we learned in class. One of the techniques they used was distillation. They can separate the crude oil and get gasoline from it. They can also get asphalt from using the method distillation. I didn't know that you could do this with crude oil. I thought it was interesting how crude oil as a mixture is useless, but when it is separated by distillation, there are many uses for the other things that are produced.

Alyssa, Looks like you picked out one of the main points! 5 stars. MW

I read the article about **Motion Detectors**. One thing I knew was that humans are have a temperature of 39 degrees Celcius and that humans are warm-blooded. I also didn't know that humans gave of infrared rays. I also didn't know that motion detectors sense infrared rays and that's how it senses that someone is coming. One thing I learned is that there are different types of motion detectors. One type is where a beam of light being broken by an object, one picks up infrared rays, and one has signals bouncing off of objects to detect them. Another thing I learned is that snakes can see infrafed rays and detect them. Another thing I learned was that bats can tell what kind of moth is near them by listening to their wing patterns.

Alyssa, Looks good. just so you know human body temperature is 37 degrees not 39. 5 stars. MW

Chemical elements form from pressure and heat of stars. When two neutrons and two protons form together and form a nucleus, an element is created.

Alyssa, Right on the money. 5 stars. MW

I read **Sugar, An Unusual Explosive**, and one thing I found interesting was that if a powder is dispersed into the air if can be flammable. The sugar in this article had this effect. I also thought it was interesting how when you roast a marshmallow it is actually combustion. I thought this related to class because of when we did the flaming pumpkin experiment. The powder was put over the flame in the air and it reacted by going on fire.

Alyssa, OK. Good connection to class. A little late on this one. 4 stars. MW

I read the **Helium Balloons** article, and I thought that one important thing was the buoyant forces concept. It explains how balloons can float in the air and how they defy gravity. Another important point is that you can use a formula to be able to decide if an object can float or not. Another important point is that, in the case of the helium balloon, there are more forces pushing the balloon up than forcing it down, and that is why it floats. The thing that I thought was most important was that forces hitting the sides of the object cancel each other out because they are hitting with the same force. I think this relates to our class because we are learning about how molecules are affected by temperature and the pressure they create.

Alyssa, Good post! I like how you related the article to class! 5 stars. MW