first blog in march:)

This week i learned about systems. I defined a system as a group of things that work together. You identify a system by identifying an outside force doing something to the object. Most of the time you should include the earth in your system.

The initial and final stages are identified by when the displacement changes and an outside force does work on the object. The initial is when you first start the experiment. The final is after you put/do work on a system.

There are 4 different types of energy.

These types are:

-kinetic energy

-gravitational potential energy

-internal energy

-elastic potential energy

Kinetic Energy is moving. Gravitational Potential Energy is potentially flying, falling, or lifting. Internal Energy is heating (NOT HEAT). Elastic Potential Energy is stretching (the rubber band experiment)

Energy can be transferred from one object to another by doing work. When work is done on an object, it results in a change in the object's motion (Kinetic Energy)

We learned how to calculate the work.

-work is a process of giving someone or something energy. (transferring it)

work = force * displacement

newton meters = joules

The experiment that was helpful in understanding these ideas was when Mr.Finley picked up a box and put in on a table. The system included the box, the earth, and the table.

talking to myself:)

hi kathy, i would like to tell you about the moon and it's characteristics.

- when i looked at the picture of the moon i saw that there were many black dots on it.

- there were also little circles.

-there was a dot on the south tip of the moon. Around that there was a very dark (almost black) ring.

- It looked like something had exploded all around the dot.

Some features on the lunar surface:

- there are crater chains, rilles and mountains on the moon's surface.

Crater chains: in straight paths are from rocks thrown out during an impact event and landing in a row.

Rilles: are long valley crossing maria that formed as underground lava channels which collapsed after the hot lava flowed away.

Mountains: occur in the centers of craters* that are longer than 40 kilometers in diameter.

* a crater is a large, bowl-shaped ditch in the ground or on the surface of a planet or the moon. This ditch/ cavity can be caused by an explosion or a meteorite.

- These objects hit the moon at many different speeds. There is no atmosphere on the moon. Therefore it cannot protect itself from meteorites, asteroids, comets, and other things like that.

January 18th

This Monday we had off from school!!!=] YAYYYY

On Tuesday:

-For homework i found out what a solstice and an equinox was.

A solstice is an event that happens twice a year, when the tilt of the earth's axis is most inclined toward or away from the sun.

An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the earth's axis is inclined is inclined neither away nor towards the sun. That is when there are equal amounts of day and night.

I found out that we see different parts of the moon because

-perspective of people on earth

-the moon is revolving

-different parts of the moon are getting lit up as it rotates.

We learned how to make force diagrams for the moon. I found out that the earth exerts a force on the moon and directs it to it's center.

On Wednesday:

For homework I had to answer the question: why does the moon stay in orbit because it looks like it will crash right into the earth.

I thought that the moon orbits the earth because of the other forces interacting with it. Although it shows that the moon should be accelerating into the earth, it will not. I found that the moon not crashing into the earth has to do with the speed of the moon. That is what keeps it in orbit.

We came up with the question: What caused the moon to start orbiting? We found out that it was because of "The BIG Bang."

We also watched a video of a boy named David hitting a ball with a mallet to keep it orbiting around a circle on the floor. His mallet was forcing the ball to keep going around in a circle. The orbit that that ball was on was always an equal distance from the circle (the earth) it was traveling around.

On Thursday:

- For homework we had to run 20 trials and see how the moon orbits the earth. Although this was time consuming, I did learn a lot. I learned why it didn't just crash into the earth and how speed had a lot to do with it's orbit.

Another thing that I learned and didn't know before was that a satellite was something that orbits.

-The distance affects the amount of initial velocity needed to put in orbit.

This is important because: now i know why the moon doesn't just crash into us. I also know a lot of key terms that will help me later on in my science career.

okkaayyyy weellll thhhatttsss aaallll(:

~KATHY~

week if january11th

Monday:

- On Monday we talked about what a neap tide was and what a spring tide was.

Neap tide- When the moon and the earth are at a right angle to each other. When there is a neap tide there are moderate high tides and moderate low tides.

Spring tide- When the sun, moon, and earth are in line, it is called a spring tide. When there is a spring tide there are higher "high tides" and lower "low tides"

On Tuesday:

We went on Mr.Finley's website and looked at the simulation. We talked about that and answered questions.

On Wednesday and Thursday:

We took the honors bio test that I think I failed!!:)

On Friday:

- We talked about why we have seasons.

- We have seasons due to the earth's tilt.

- The earth is tilted at the same degree forever.

- Another reason why we have seasons is because we revolve.

I'm not sure if we are supposed to blog about today but I will anyway.

Today(Tuesday):

We watched part of a movie. We were also supposed to find out what a solstice and an equinox is.

Solstice: an event that happens twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is most inclined toward or away from the sun.

Equinox: occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the sun.

Why is it so important to learn this stuff?

this tells us why there are seasons and why they change.

first time blogging in 2010!:)

This week we learned about the moon. We learned that the moon moves slower then the earth rotates.

Rotate means- staying in the same spot, but facing different directions (same position, orientation is changing)

Another vocabulary word we learned about was revolve.

Revolve means-a circular motion around one point.

During class we did this moon simulation lab thing. It asked all these questions about the moon and we would answer them by looking at the moon simulation. We could control what it does and that really helped me understand what the moon does at what speed. I found out that the further away the moon is from the sun, the more illuminated it gets. I also learned that in 29.5 days (which is almost a month) the moon goes fully around the earth. After it goes fully around, it does the same thing again. Another thing i learned is that the moon rotates at the same rate it revolves. The earth rotates counterclockwise. The moon also rotates counterclockwise, only it does that a lot slower.

We learned about the phases of the moon:

-new moon

-waxing crescent

-first quarter

-waxing gibbous

-full moon

-waning gibbous

-third quarter

-waning crescent

after the moon goes through all those phases it starts over and goes through the whole cycle again.

Another thing we talked about was how waves are made

-the waves in the ocean are mostly created because of the moon's pull on the earth. The sun plays a small role on making those waves.

What real world application does this have?

-if you look up at the sky and see the moon you can know what phase it is in. I did some research on this and i found that in ancient times the people would see the moon and know what time of the month they were in. Also if the moon and the sun didn't pull on the earth there would be no waves in the ocean, and that would not be fun!!!

~KATHY~

Week of december 14th

this week we learned about Newton's third law.  

The law says that every action has an opposite reaction.  

We proved this when Laura and I did an experiment.  

We both sat on carts.  

Then i pushed as hard as i could on laura's knees.  

Instead of having laura just move back, i did too because she pushed back on me.  

Even thought she didn't really notice she was pushing, she was, because i moved back.

If she didn't push on me then i wouldn't have moved.  

We also saw Mr. Finley do an experiment.

He was standing on a cart and pushing or pulling on the door handle.

When Mr. Finley was on the cart, he tried to open the door but the force of the door pushed him away. 

When he was holding the door shut, the force of the door made him come towards it.

What is the real world application? 

- It shows that no matter what force it is, there will always be something pushing back on you.  Also there is always the earth's force which is gravity.

the week of december 7th

What did we learn this week???

• We learned all about weight and mass. 
• Mass is a measure of how much matter an object has. Weight is a measure of how strongly gravity pulls on that matter.
  
• we also talked about our weight changing in an elevator. (we saw a video clip on that with a girl who was 97 pounds in  an elevator and her highest weight in the elevator was 105 pounds and her lowest was 87 pounds. this shows how much the weight can differ depending where you are)
• we talked about weight on the moon too.  Since there is not a lot of gravity pulling you down, you practically float. You weigh a lot less too!
• we did more force diagrams this week, and we paired them with motion diagrams.
• For one of the homework assignments we talked about people pulling carts in different directions and the unbalanced forces of that.
• We also did an experiment and i was one of the testers/volunteers.
• the experiment was that me and laura pulled mark that was holding on to the rope that we were  pulling and he was sitting in the cart. Laura and i had to stay at the same speed the whole time or the experiment wouldn't work.  Then we added John-robert onto the cart (i think) and it was even harder to push, so they accelerated slower than the first time. To make it even harder aage hopped onto the cart and they hardly moved at all.  That shows that the greater the mass the less acceleration. And the less the mass the more the acceleration. And the greater the force the greater the acceleration.  Which also means that the less the force the less the acceleration.

How did we learn these ideas???

• We learned this by watching the video clip and doing the experiment that i just explained above.

Why are these ideas important???

If you see someone pushing a car to get it started you will know how hard it is to do because you will know what forces are pushing against the car and the person.