Worley,+Nicholas

I read an article on the interaction between diet Coke and Mentos. I was really surprised when it turned out that only the mint Mentos worked for this experiment. This was because unlike other flavors of Mentos, the mint has a dull pitted surface. Many other flavors tend to have the shiny smooth surface. The pitted surfae serves as a nucleation point for the CO2 gasses to start releasing. When the CO2 releases it expands and causes the geyser effect. I thought this would be a good article to read becuse my cousin and I tried this and I wanted to find out why the geyser was formed.

Nick, Good post! 5 stars. MW

Re-defining the Kilogram

1.It interested me that the kilogram model actually lost weight. I didn't know that some things just lose weight on their own. i find it interesting that the weight lost was equivalent to a finger print. Why wouldnt someone put a fingerprint on and fix the problem?

2. This article connected to Chemistry class because the Kilogram is one of the measurements we have used.

3.I didn't know that these people took the Kilogram so seriously! Why make the security that high? Why don't they make a scale that is synced up to the weight to keep the measurement right? Technology might just be the future of the kilogram.

Nick, Funny! Point #2 is a bit oversimple. Did you determine your MVP? 4 stars. MW

Crude Oil

I was really surprised that crude oil by itself was useless, and needed to be distilled. This program was quite informative about how crude oil was distilled, but i'd like to know a little more about what the crude oil can make. Although this program told me a lot about crude oil, it still leaves many questions to be answered. What are the longer chained molecules? What products are manufactured and made from crude oil? Do we get crude oil from land drilling, not just sea?

Nick, You pose good questions. Perhaps we will look at some more about the uses of crude oil in class. 5 stars. MW

Motion Detectors Three things I knew... 1 Motion detectors use radar to sense movement. 2 Infrared is used in motion detectors. 3 Pit vipers can sense heat through their pit (jacobson's organ).

Three things I didn't know... 1 That the pit vipers pit was considered a natural motion detector. 2 That motion detectors can ignore simple movement like a tree branch swinging in the wind. 3 That there were three different types of motion detectors available.

Nick, OK. Sort of a catalog style on this one but you satisfied the prompt! 5 stars. MW

Where do chemical elements come from? 25 word abstract

When stars die they go supernova, in this process chemical elements are lost. These elements group into clouds which can create planets or even stars.

Nick, Looks good. 5 stars. MW

Sugar plant Explosion

Many things caught my attention when I read this article, but three main comments that I have are: 1. I know that when sugar and air are mixed they become explosive. I was once shown how explosive sugar and air were when a teacher I had put a piece of cotton candy over a Bunson burner. The cotton candy just seemed to disintegrate into thin air. But I had absolutely no idea that simple sugar and air could take down an entire complex. 2. (MVP) Before reading this article I didn't know that these explosions could occur. But after reading this article I learned that explosions at sugar plants aren't all that rare. I read that over the last 30 years, there have been 44 explosions at sugar plants and counting. 3. The last thing that surprised me was the fact that dust is an actual measurement. I really didn't know that they would set a standard size for dust. I always figured that dust was just a slang term for that annoying stuff that sits on your tv screen, and causes allergies.

Nick, Good job!! This was funny and well written. A little late on this one. 4 stars. MW

Helium Balloon

Here are three comments I had on this article:
 * 1) 1. Balloons are often filled with Helium, but if we used Hydrogen instead, would it rise quicker? I'm surprised that we don't see more Hydrogen balloons seeing that Helium weighs more. The only downside I can think of is that Hydrogen is flammable.
 * 2) 2. In the article, they referred to buoyancy in the air. I always assumed that buoyancy dealt with water.
 * 3) 3.MVP Since the density on top of Mount Everest is 70% less than that at sea level, would your weight be different at the top of Everest? With less air pushing down on you and less pressure overall, is it possible your weight could change?

Nick, Yes your weight would change on top of Mt. Everest, but not your mass. Hydrogen balloons are very dangerous. See [|Hindenburg]