The Bottle Rocket

In the past week our class split apart and worked in separate groups to create what we thought the best bottle rocket could be. Many excruciating hours were spent planning and drawing up blueprints for the potential gold medal rocket. The first few hours were spent debating on which bottle to use. Once the perfect bottle was found blueprints were drawn up. The next day was work day, upon the arrival into class we soon discovered that our bottle had been stollen, so the searching process began again. Once the rocket was complete the material to help it fly needed to be added. Once complete we all took our rockets outside to be tested, the objective of this experiment was to see whose rocket, once launched, would go the farthest. The launch sequence is simple, fill the bottle with five hundred milliliters of water, then close the cap hole off using a plug with an air tub running through it. Once this has been fitted the rocket is then tightly placed between two parallel pieces of metal. Then what looks like a massive paper clip is placed just above the the plug to prevent the rocket from dragging the tube with it upon take off. Once the rocket is in place a student will use a bike pump which is connected to the tube running into the rocket, to pump eighty-five pounds per square inch of air pressure into the rocket. Once this is complete a student will then pull the pin releasing the rocket into the air. Now due to the pent up air inside of the rocket, upon all being let out at once it causes the rocket to push aggressively against the backboard, thus sending into the air. Once in flight all of the unbalanced forces started to take affect. No balanced forces were involved in this flight. The unbalanced forces that were causing the rocket to slow were, the air, and later the ground. Had the ground not been there it would have continuously gone forever until another unbalanced force stopped it. The most significant force was the air, pushing with just as much force against the rocket as the rocket to the air. This having to do with Newtons third law, stating that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So upon take off the rocket pushed on the board and it pushed back, the same goes for the air, it pushed back, thus causing the rocket to go a shorter distance than a rocket that was more aerodynamic. Improvements that could have been made for the rocket must have been that it wasn't aerodynamic enough. One of the worst design flaws must have been the flat horizontal cardboard fins. These were by far what were ultimately our rockets down fall. So Rowan can be blamed for this because the weird fins were his idea. Improvements for the future would be to make a more aerodynamic rocket that would have less resistance in flight. In conclusion our rocket was fairly unsuccessful. We tried our hardest but what we came up with just wasn't good enough.

Outerspace and gravity

       In class we have been learning about our solar system and the forces that control it.

            Gravity:

Gravity is the force that affects anything with mass. It takes these physical bodies and pulls it to the center of the earth. In space, there is zero gravity because it is far away from the pull of a planet. 

                Newton’s Laws

Newton’s laws apply in zero gravity as well as on earth. Newton’s theory explains how motion occurs through three laws. The first law is known as the “law of inertia” and explains that an object in motion will stay in motion and an object at rest will stay at rest. The second law is F=ma (force equals mass times acceleration) and explains how mass and acceleration can affect the force of an object. For example, if the mass of an object is greater, the acceleration will decrease (or vise versa), changing how the force interacts with it.

Solar Nebula Theory

The solar nebular hypothesis is the theory of how the galaxy formed. Through the explosion of a star going super nova, the scattered star dust then begins to crash together and form planets, which then begin to revolve around the nearest star and form an orbit. 

Keplar’s Laws

Keplars law are three laws that explain planetary motion the are ,The Law of Ellipses which is the law that describes that the planets move in a ellipses orbit around the sun. The second law is The Laws of Equal Areas which describes the speed of which any given planet is moving while orbiting around the sun. The finally law is called The Law of Harmonies which describes that the farther away from the sun a planet is, the longer it takes to orbit around the sun.

Heat Transfer Unit

A couple weeks ago we began an energy transfer unit which included listening to a guest speaker about energy auditing, a field trip to Otterbrook Farm, and designing our own water bottle insulator. The guest speaker was a professional energy auditor by the name of Ted Styles. After teaching us about his profession, he took us to Otterbrook Farm for some first-hand experience. At Otterbrook we learned about where and how heat can escape throughout a house. For example, there were cracks in beams that let air up into the floor. This was due to a lack of insulation in the floors. This issue could be easy fixed by adding fiberglass batts in the floors. We also learned how to locate air leaks in a house using a blower door, and infrared camera, and a smoke machine. Though Otterbrook was fun, the highlight of this unit was definitely engineering a water bottle insulator. Our insulator only let the water rise in temperature 1.5 degrees over a course of 30 minutes. It was awesome. 

Plate tectonics

Over the last few days we have been learning about plate tectonics. These plates float on flowing magma and there are multiple ways they can interact with each other. These interactions are divergent (two plates separating), convergent (two plates colliding), and transform (two plates sliding past each other). We chose to write about an article about the recent earthquake in Japan. This earthquake was caused by two convergent oceanic plates which shocked Japan and created a tsunami and an earthquake.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/25/japan-earthquake-fukushima-prefecture_n_4164181.html

Earths History

Over about the last week we have been studying earth history and we have learned many things some of the things we learned about included that the Earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago. In the Precambrian era, the first life formed. Single celled cyanobacteria was developed. After that the Paleozoic era, life continued to develop. More complicated organisms were formed and fish and reptiles evolved. The Mesozoic era was basically the age of Dinosaurs. In the Cenozoic era, most of the species we see today were formed. Continues to the present. Many species went extinct over the years. These include the Ordovician, the Devonian, the Permian, the Triassic, and the Cretaceous extinctions.

We made a to scale timeline in class of the earth’s history. which included multiple events that happen over earth's history. the only difficulty we had was figuring out the right measurements to make the timeline “to scale”

Is ITER good for the World?

The ITER machine, a device for unleashing mass amounts of energy to the world. The ITER is an investment from 35 countries to decrease the amount of pollution put into the atmosphere and increase the amount of usable energy in the world. This sounds like an amazing idea to anyone just reading an article on it off the street, but as we go  into depth we realize that it is a very expensive project to fund. The guesstimate for price is roughly twenty billion dollars. It is so expensive and funded by so many different countries that it needs it’s own currency.

The big question about the ITER machine is, is it worth it? Is it worth the amount of money, time and labor to build it? Everyone has their own opinions and ideas about the project. Personally we believe that it would be a smart investment. In the long run it seems that it could easily pay itself off if it works. The world would cut down its pollution and create large amounts of energy which could produce half a giga-watt of power. Which is half of the power a large power plant produces.

ITER summary

ITER

Throughout the last few days of science class we have been learning about energy and we were asked to read and article about ITER which is a giant device that uses nuclear fusion to create pollution free energy. Through the article it describes ITER or International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is a huge machine that weighs twice as much as the Eiffel tower. ITER uses hydrogen atoms and basically forces them together until the combine and release a lot of energy. In about one or two decades ITER will be turned on. Which will create the most amount of energy ever created from one machine.

ITER has potential to become a great machine and have a great impact on the earth but it comes with a price. ITER is a huge project that is projected to cost 20 billion dollars it is also taking up a huge amount of time and involves 35 countries in the project. But this effort will provide a great amount of energy enough to last the world 30 million years.

Image URL

https://www.iter.org/doc/all/content/com/img_galleries/In-cryostat%20Overview%20110824.jpg

Substance Identification Lab

A Forensics Lab

Yesterday at 3 AM, at Mike's Awesome Bakery in Francestown, NH the baker arrived to find his assistant baker dead: lying in a pool of blood.  The victim's body was covered in a white powder.  

In an attempt to find the source of the white powder, investigators collect multiple samples from the bakery (baking soda, flour, baking powder, powdered milk, cornstarch).
Investigators are in the process of interviewing employees of the bakery to narrow their field of suspects.  They are also gathering clothing samples from employees to find a match for the white powder.




Today in our science class we were assigned a lab. Our goal to find out an unknown substance by comparing it to other substances. The four known substances were Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Flour, and Cornstarch. We observed the substances' chemical reactions to different liquids. These different liquids were Water, Vinegar, Iodine, and Universal Indicator. Next, we compared the unknown substance to the known substances. In doing so, we were able to come to a conclusion on what the unknown substance was....

Procedure

Step 1: Gather necessary materials and equipment.

• Cups
• Baking Soda
• Baking Powder
• Flour
• Cornstarch
• Unknown Substance
• Iodine
• Water
• Vinegar
• Universal Indicator
• A Clean Surface
• Pencil
• Safety Glasses
• Paper
• Pipette

Step 2: One at a time, put the substances (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cornstarch) on the chart provided in the correct space.

Step 3: Take each chemical and put two to three drops of each chemical on each substance.

Step 4: Record the results on how each substance reacted to the chemical.

Step 5: Repeat steps 2-4 on all of the substances.

Step 6: Compare all the reactions and determine which  substance reacted the most alike the unknown substance.

Conclusion: After completing the procedure we came to the conclusion that our unknown substance was baking powder. We were able to determine this pretty easily because of the noticeable similarities with the way the chemicals reacted to the substances.

The Speed of Ice Melting

In our science class, we were asked to design our own science experiment. We chose to test how different platforms affect the speed of ice melting. We chose 3 different platforms to run the experiment on; a piece of cardboard, someone’s hand, and someone’s neck. After forming an observation question, researching, and creating a hypothesis, we were ready to run the experiment. After the experiment, we created a lab design sheet to display our test.

­Lab Design Sheet

Name of Experiment: Speed of Ice Melting Experiment.                             

Question to be answered: Which platform, Ryan’s neck, Michael’s hand or a piece of cardboard will melt ice the fastest?

Prior Knowledge: We knew that human skin is warmer than cardboard.

Hypothesis: If we melt ice on Ryan's neck, it will melt faster than it would on cardboard or Michael’s hand.

Rationale: This will happen because body heat is warmer than cardboard and will melt the ice faster.

Independent Variable: The platform that melted the ice.

Dependent Variable: The time it took the ice to melt on the platform.

Constants: The room temperature and the size of the ice cube.                  

Equipment: The equipment that we used consisted of a stopwatch, cardboard, Ryan’s neck, Michael’s hand, and ice cubes.

Procedure:

1) We gathered all materials needed. They are ice which we put into a beaker, cardboard, Ryan’s neck and Michael’s hand.

2)  We then placed 2 pieces of ice on each platform at the same time and timed it preiscely.

3) We waited monitoring the ice platforms.

4) We then recorded the time when each of the platforms ice melted.

ANALYSIS: At the end of our experiment the data showed that Ryan's neck melted the fastest with a time of 13.46 next was Michael’s hand which melted the ice in 18.32 minutes then came the cardboard which took 44.53 minutes.

CONCLUSION: Our experiment turned out the way we predicted in our hypothesis. The ice was proven to melt the fastest on Ryan’s neck, the second fastest on Michael’s hand, and the slowest on cardboard.