So this is my design of parabolas. They all have the same a and b in the equation, just X^2, but I changed around the x and y intercepts a little bit to make them in all diferent places.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
GEOMETRIC SKETCH PAD
So this is my design of parabolas. They all have the same a and b in the equation, just X^2, but I changed around the x and y intercepts a little bit to make them in all diferent places.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
LUNAR PHASES
Again, today is not an official blog day, but I am blogging anyways.
Today in science, we learned about the phases and eclipses of the Moon. It takes approximately one month (28 days) for the Moon to move around the Earth en its elliptical orbit. And the Moon moves twice its diameter every hour. Also, the moon doesn't spin on its axis, like regular planets.
Lunar Phases:
New Moon: This phase, lasting only a day, is when you can't see the Moon at all. The Moon is in line with the Earth and the Sun, so half the moon is lit up, but not the half we can see. This is the only lunar phase in which you can see a solar eclipse, but those happen when the Earth and Moon are in level orbit with the Sun. Also during this eclipse, because the Moon is smaller than the earth and sun, the Moon casts a little shadow on part of Earth's surface.
Waxing Crescent: This phase, lasting about a week, is when the Moon is enlarging from a new Moon to half full, so all kinds of crescents. Waxing crescent is the time when the Moon is moving around the Earth, away from the Sun. The Sun's shadow always falls on half of the Moon, and this phase is when the Sun's shadow is covering up part of the moon. You can tell it is waxing because the Sun's shadow makes a oval on the left side of the moon.
First Quarter Moon: This phase, lasting about a day, is when the Sun's shadow covers half the part we do see and half the part we don't. So we see a half circle of light, and a half circle of darkness. At this point in time, the Moon is a quarter way through its orbit around the Earth.
Waxing Gibbous: This phase, lasting about a week, is when the Sun's shadow only covers a crescent shape of the Moon, so there is an oval shape of light showing. At this point, the Moon is moving away from the Sun, between a quarter of the way done and half way done. This is a waxing gibbous because the lighted half of the moon is on the right.
Full Moon. This phase, lasting about a day, is when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun. At this point, the Moon is half way through its month long orbit. At full Moon, we see all of the Sun's light reflecting off the Moon. Since the Moon's orbit is slightly slanted, the earth is not in the way of the Moon. The Moon is slightly above earth, just enough so the Sun can reflect off of it. At this time, there could be a lunar eclipse, where the Earth would be between the Sun and the Moon, and the Earth would cast its shadow on the moon. But this can only happen when the sun, the Earth, and the Moon are in line with each other and level.
Waning Gibbous: This week long phase looks similar to waxing gibbous except on this phase, the Sun's light is on the left. At this point, the Moon is moving back around the Earth towards the Sun from being a full Moon.
Third Quarter: This phase, lasting about a day, is a lot like first quarter except for the fact that shadowed half is on the right. At this point, the Moon is three-quarters of the way around the Earth, back towards the Sun.
Waning crescent: This week long phase is similar to waxing crescent except for the fact that the light part from the Sun's reflection is on the left. At this point, the Moon is 76-99% of the way around the Earth back towards the sun.
And back to New Moon.
Today in science, we learned about the phases and eclipses of the Moon. It takes approximately one month (28 days) for the Moon to move around the Earth en its elliptical orbit. And the Moon moves twice its diameter every hour. Also, the moon doesn't spin on its axis, like regular planets.
Lunar Phases:
New Moon: This phase, lasting only a day, is when you can't see the Moon at all. The Moon is in line with the Earth and the Sun, so half the moon is lit up, but not the half we can see. This is the only lunar phase in which you can see a solar eclipse, but those happen when the Earth and Moon are in level orbit with the Sun. Also during this eclipse, because the Moon is smaller than the earth and sun, the Moon casts a little shadow on part of Earth's surface.
Waxing Crescent: This phase, lasting about a week, is when the Moon is enlarging from a new Moon to half full, so all kinds of crescents. Waxing crescent is the time when the Moon is moving around the Earth, away from the Sun. The Sun's shadow always falls on half of the Moon, and this phase is when the Sun's shadow is covering up part of the moon. You can tell it is waxing because the Sun's shadow makes a oval on the left side of the moon.
First Quarter Moon: This phase, lasting about a day, is when the Sun's shadow covers half the part we do see and half the part we don't. So we see a half circle of light, and a half circle of darkness. At this point in time, the Moon is a quarter way through its orbit around the Earth.
Waxing Gibbous: This phase, lasting about a week, is when the Sun's shadow only covers a crescent shape of the Moon, so there is an oval shape of light showing. At this point, the Moon is moving away from the Sun, between a quarter of the way done and half way done. This is a waxing gibbous because the lighted half of the moon is on the right.
Full Moon. This phase, lasting about a day, is when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun. At this point, the Moon is half way through its month long orbit. At full Moon, we see all of the Sun's light reflecting off the Moon. Since the Moon's orbit is slightly slanted, the earth is not in the way of the Moon. The Moon is slightly above earth, just enough so the Sun can reflect off of it. At this time, there could be a lunar eclipse, where the Earth would be between the Sun and the Moon, and the Earth would cast its shadow on the moon. But this can only happen when the sun, the Earth, and the Moon are in line with each other and level.
Waning Gibbous: This week long phase looks similar to waxing gibbous except on this phase, the Sun's light is on the left. At this point, the Moon is moving back around the Earth towards the Sun from being a full Moon.
Third Quarter: This phase, lasting about a day, is a lot like first quarter except for the fact that shadowed half is on the right. At this point, the Moon is three-quarters of the way around the Earth, back towards the Sun.
Waning crescent: This week long phase is similar to waxing crescent except for the fact that the light part from the Sun's reflection is on the left. At this point, the Moon is 76-99% of the way around the Earth back towards the sun.
And back to New Moon.
GEOMETRIC SKETCH PAD
Today in my math book, I was given a picture of these lines without equations on a graph. I had to figure out the y=mx+b equation to graph them on Geometric Sketch Pad. Since I knew two points on the line, I used ^y/^x, literally change in y over change in x. I plugged in the y and x points to get b, the y-intercept.
Monday, November 26, 2007
ENERGY
So I don't think that today was an official lab we are supposed to blog about but I am anyway, because I found today interesting.
Energy loosely defined is the capacity to apply a force. The two types of energy we learned about today were kinetic energy and potential energy. Kinetic energy means energy from an object in motion, and potential energy is energy from an object not in motion. For example, potential energy is stored when the motor moves a roller coaster up a hill. That potential is converted into kinetic energy by the force of gravity as the roller coaster moves down the hill. You wouldn't be able to make this conversion in a weightless environment. On Mars, it would take less energy to move the roller coaster to the top of the hill, but once it was there, you would get less energy moving down, because there is less gravity. I'm beginning to see how this ties into Newton's laws.
As a class, we came up with a list of ways energy is applied:
solar
geothermal
atomic (nuclear)
hydro (specifically water in motion)
chemical
mechanical
electrical
wind
hydrocarbons (carbons in a row)
electromagnetism
Anja and I had the same question; that maybe people or animals can make energy. For example, a person walking down the street creates friction, which causes heat, which is a form of energy. But then Bert told us that heat isn't exactly a form of energy. Which leads to the First Law of Thermodynamics:
Energy is never created or destroyed, only channeled/transformed.
Basically this means that the energy that we had at the beginning of time is the energy we have now, and always will have. But how was the energy created in the first place? And what is the beginning of time? Was energy created as the universe was made?
We also talked about the forms of energy we, as humans, use most. The majority of energy comes from fossil fuels: oil, coal, and natural gas. But originally, all the energy came from the sun, right? But what are fossil fuels and how were they created?
The mini-culmination we will do this term has something to do with how we can use energy on Mars. Because we need energy to survive and power our space craft to get home again. I think that the most likely source of energy that we could use on Mars would be wind energy. There are high winds on Mars, and we could bring the parts needed to set up some wind turbans. I'm guessing, but this is how a wind turban works. There are blades on the top that are turned by the wind. When the blades are turned, there are connected to a pole. The pole has a magnet on the end so when the magnet is turned, the electrons inside atoms start spinning. Then the electrons could be stored in something like a large battery. And we have are energy!! That was just my guess of how a wind turban works. I think we will find out for real in labs next week. There are no fossil fuels on Mars, because those are made from ancient living things, like a humongous tree, not small bacteria on Mars. So the major source of energy humans use will be gone. We could also take solar panels to Mars because there is no atmosphere and the sun could reach them, even though it is farther away from the sun that earth is. But how does a solar panel convert to energy? Maybe, the light waves and particles, hit the atom, which makes the electrons in the atom to move. Then some wire could attach it to something like a battery to store all the moving electrons. But I'm probably wrong about that, too.
Too many questions (maybe that's a good things)!!
Energy loosely defined is the capacity to apply a force. The two types of energy we learned about today were kinetic energy and potential energy. Kinetic energy means energy from an object in motion, and potential energy is energy from an object not in motion. For example, potential energy is stored when the motor moves a roller coaster up a hill. That potential is converted into kinetic energy by the force of gravity as the roller coaster moves down the hill. You wouldn't be able to make this conversion in a weightless environment. On Mars, it would take less energy to move the roller coaster to the top of the hill, but once it was there, you would get less energy moving down, because there is less gravity. I'm beginning to see how this ties into Newton's laws.
As a class, we came up with a list of ways energy is applied:
solar
geothermal
atomic (nuclear)
hydro (specifically water in motion)
chemical
mechanical
electrical
wind
hydrocarbons (carbons in a row)
electromagnetism
Anja and I had the same question; that maybe people or animals can make energy. For example, a person walking down the street creates friction, which causes heat, which is a form of energy. But then Bert told us that heat isn't exactly a form of energy. Which leads to the First Law of Thermodynamics:
Energy is never created or destroyed, only channeled/transformed.
Basically this means that the energy that we had at the beginning of time is the energy we have now, and always will have. But how was the energy created in the first place? And what is the beginning of time? Was energy created as the universe was made?
We also talked about the forms of energy we, as humans, use most. The majority of energy comes from fossil fuels: oil, coal, and natural gas. But originally, all the energy came from the sun, right? But what are fossil fuels and how were they created?
The mini-culmination we will do this term has something to do with how we can use energy on Mars. Because we need energy to survive and power our space craft to get home again. I think that the most likely source of energy that we could use on Mars would be wind energy. There are high winds on Mars, and we could bring the parts needed to set up some wind turbans. I'm guessing, but this is how a wind turban works. There are blades on the top that are turned by the wind. When the blades are turned, there are connected to a pole. The pole has a magnet on the end so when the magnet is turned, the electrons inside atoms start spinning. Then the electrons could be stored in something like a large battery. And we have are energy!! That was just my guess of how a wind turban works. I think we will find out for real in labs next week. There are no fossil fuels on Mars, because those are made from ancient living things, like a humongous tree, not small bacteria on Mars. So the major source of energy humans use will be gone. We could also take solar panels to Mars because there is no atmosphere and the sun could reach them, even though it is farther away from the sun that earth is. But how does a solar panel convert to energy? Maybe, the light waves and particles, hit the atom, which makes the electrons in the atom to move. Then some wire could attach it to something like a battery to store all the moving electrons. But I'm probably wrong about that, too.
Too many questions (maybe that's a good things)!!
Friday, November 23, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
MINI CULMINATION PREP
I wasn't here for any of the prep time, and the very day I came back we did the mini-culmination. My job was to launch a lego piece horizontally off of a see-saw 15 ft. so it would land perfectly in a basket on top of a lego robot car. From what I saw, which wasn't much, Kathryn, Clara, and I were isolated in the lab, I though our group did pretty well. On the test-run, before the actual culmination, I got the lego piece in the basket. But when I actually had to launch a lego piece, I dropped the bag of popcorn, and it cracked the launch in half. And by the time I got the other launch to set up, we ran out of time.
I had been working on this project while I was away, and I had the launch see-saw set completely horizontal with books at one end to prop it up. I dropped a 575 g. bag of popcorn kernels onto the other end from 6.9 feet up, close to the ceiling height.
The second time we did the mini-culmination, I was gone again!! Getting braces on this time. Of all days! But Kathryn did my launch for me, it didn't break, and she said the lego piece bounced in the basket and back out several times! But she said overall, our group did very well. I hope next culmination, I will be there for the prep time as well as the actual culmination.
I had been working on this project while I was away, and I had the launch see-saw set completely horizontal with books at one end to prop it up. I dropped a 575 g. bag of popcorn kernels onto the other end from 6.9 feet up, close to the ceiling height.
The second time we did the mini-culmination, I was gone again!! Getting braces on this time. Of all days! But Kathryn did my launch for me, it didn't break, and she said the lego piece bounced in the basket and back out several times! But she said overall, our group did very well. I hope next culmination, I will be there for the prep time as well as the actual culmination.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
MISSION TO MARS GROUP LABS
Today I did labs with my entire group. 3 were the communicators, 2 were the robotix experts, 1 was the parachute designer, 1 was the balloon lift off designer, and 1 was the parachuter. I was supposed to design the amount of weight needed to drop on a see-saw to launch an object parallel to the ground 15 feet. This experiment ultimately relates to Newton's 3rd Law because the action was the dropping of a 575 gram bag of popcorn kernels on a see-saw, the reaction was the see-saw changing weights (side with popcorn kernels going down), and the other reaction was the 6 gram eraser launching a certain distance (in my case, 15 ft.).
This didn't work too well because I needed help with my lab to measure height, distance and weight so it was really a 2 person job. I decided that Kathryn and I will work together on our projects, one day doing hers and one day doing mine. So I briefly experimented with a double parachute dropping off the stairs. (We will decide how to alternate blogging: I think on days we do parachute, we will both blog about that and on days we do launching from the earth, we will both blog on that).
This didn't work too well because I needed help with my lab to measure height, distance and weight so it was really a 2 person job. I decided that Kathryn and I will work together on our projects, one day doing hers and one day doing mine. So I briefly experimented with a double parachute dropping off the stairs. (We will decide how to alternate blogging: I think on days we do parachute, we will both blog about that and on days we do launching from the earth, we will both blog on that).
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