Put Out the Cigarette Around Your Kids!

Young children who don't even know their ABC's yet could be getting off to a bad start if you smoke around your children.  Read this article that I blogged about how kids blood pressure can increase if their parents or guardians smoke around them.  These are kids.  They don't know what is right or wrong and they can't make the choice to smoke or not.  If you want to smoke and hurt yourself then as an adult you can make that decision, however kids can not make that decision.  Check it out!

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110110164927.htm

Music; The Natural Relaxer

It isn't a myth when scientists say that music can calm the soul.  Scientific studies have shown that music can take your mind away from things that stress you out and things that you are worried about.  Instead of talking to a doctor, maybe you should try music first!
  Check this article out and see what Amrita Cottrell has to say about it....



http://www.healingmusic.org/Main/What_Is_Healing.htm

Oscillating Chemical Reactions

Dieffenbaugher, Poteet 1

Clayton Poteet, Melissa Dieffenbaugher

Mr.McBride

Chemistry

9 November, 2011

Oscillating Chemical Reactions

Do you ever wonder what happens when you add different chemicals together? Well so did we. Except we decided to take it one step further. Oscillating chemical reactions is a chemical reaction that oscillates, or cycles, between different colors over a period of time. After doing research, we found that there are two main different kinds of oscillating chemical reactions. These two different types are Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction and the Briggs-Rauscher reaction. Lets dig in a little deeper on both kinds of reactions.

The Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction was the first chemical reaction to be found that has spatial and temporal oscillations. To do this experiment, you can find different kinds of “recipes” to show different kinds of colors, longer oscillation periods and brighter, more vibrant colors. We decided to use a concentration of different chemicals. This concentration includes malonic acid, manganous sulfate, potassium bromate and a sulfuric acid solution. After doing research we found that this reaction is going to cause an oscillation between blue and clear. The oscillation periods will last for approximately 30 seconds and will continue oscillating for over 30 minutes. Note that different chemical combinations could give you different results. The Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction isn’t the only oscillating chemical reaction, however.

A different type of reaction, the Briggs-Rauscher reaction, was the first known homogeneous oscillting chemical reaction. The Briggs reaction is a good demonstration of the color changes, which starts as a colorless solution and formulates into an amber color, quickly changing to a very dark blue.

Dieffenbaugher, Poteet 2

After this process occurs, it slowly formulates back to a colorless solution repeating the color changing process approximately ten times. As the process begins to stop oscillating, the chemicals then end at a very dark blue color, smelling strongly of iodine. In this particular experiment the chemicals we use include, potassium iodate, distilled water, sulfuric acid, malonic acid, manganese sulfate monohydrate, and hydrogen peroxide. The mechanism of this reaction is quite complex, but the essential features of the system depend on two key processes. Process A is a “non-radical process,” which involves the intermediate production of an iodide ion. Process B is a “radical process,” which involves a quick auto-catalytic process using manganese and free radical intermediates. This process converts hydrogen peroxide and iodate to free iodine and oxygen. Process B can only occur at low concentrations of iodide. As you can see the two reactions are quite different.

Our main goal of this experiment is two find differences between the two reactions and how they are similar. Another question we are proposing is how can we make these oscillations occur at a faster rate with longer oscillating periods and, also, what catalystic chemicals we can find that can work for both reactions.

All of these scientists started off with a goal in mind much like us. We know what we have to accomplish and we have the tools to do so. Oscillating chemical reactions aren’t just a chemical reaction. They are science that appears right before your eyes. A reaction that not only changes color and odor, but a reaction that happens simultaneously without adding chemicals in between each phase, almost like a magic trick. In doing research I can’t find an experiment that demonstrates both of these reactions side by side with comparisons and data, but we are going to give it a try. Maybe they are to similar to be compared, maybe they aren’t. You never know until you try.

Waves; Frequency vs. Amplitude

Natural Frequency and Resonance

Conclusion

Clayton Poteet

   When you move a jump rope up and down on the ground what does it do? It creates a small “hump” that travels down the rope and eventually dies out. What if one of your friends holds the other end of the jump rope loosely and you continuously move it up and down? The humps are going to last all the way to the hand of your friend and be quite large. After, try pulling the jump rope as tight as you can and moving it up and down. What kind of hump is that going to create? Let me tell you that this will create a very small, quick hump that might not last all the way to the hands of your friend. This explanation has the same concept as our experiment. However instead of a jump rope we used a small string attached to a wiggler which sent energy through the string which caused a wave. The frequency, or amount of times the wiggler moved the small string, caused the string to have different amounts of harmonic motion. We found that frequency can cause the rope to have much more periods of harmonic motion and also it can cause the string to have less amounts of harmonic motion. The lower the frequency, the less amounts of simple harmonic motions we had. Now what about amplitude?

    Do frequency and amplitude have a relation? Absolutely they do! In this chapter we were learning about waves and their properties. Nodes, anti-nodes, period, and pulse are just some vocabulary words we learned. But what do they all mean? This lab helped us visually see the differences between nodes, anti-nodes, pulses and waves and, also, exactly what they are. Going into the experiment we knew that the frequency is going to affect the amplitude of a wave but we didn’t know if it would be positive or negative. My hypothesis was that the higher the frequency the greater the amplitude would be because the string would be moving faster, causing more disruption in the string which in turn would cause larger waves. However, we found out that was wrong. In doing the lab we found that the higher the frequency the lower the amplitude would be rather then the other way around. I believe this is so because of the amounts of simple harmonics we had involved. It all makes sense when you you think about it. The frequency is how many times the string is going to be moved in an amount of time. Since we were increasing our frequency, we were also increasing the amounts of time that string was being moved. This didn’t allow the string to fully peek like it did when the frequency was lower. Therefore, the amplitude decreased as the frequency increased.

    This lab was one of my favorites we have done in our physics class so far this year. It is very simple but it can certainly help students see anti-nodes and nodes appear right in front of their eyes! You can even have some fun with competitions to see who can create the most simple harmonics on one string. The world is full of interesting things, now it is our job to find them!

Music: How does it affect your mood?

Even when you are absolutely furious, the smallest of things can make you happy.  Music does that for me.  Maybe when I am upset, mad, happy or excited, there is always a song that goes along with the mood I am in.  After reading this article, I learned that studies show music can in fact affect your mood.  By putting more music in your life you will be increasing your enriching tools.  The next time you are listening to a song, really listen to it.  What do the words mean to you?  I love to hear new artists and songs, so leave me a comment of a song and I will listen to it!
 http://www.essortment.com/music-affects-mood-62015.html

The Ever Exciting World of Science Fair

I decided that I was going to do something that I find interest in and who doesn't think it awesome to perform a magic trick for your whole class.  My science fair is based on the hypothesis, what causes a chemical oscillation to occur quicker with longer periods of color and brighter bursts of color, too.  After looking around Google trying to find information on different kinds of oscillating chemical reactions.  One kind of oscillating chemical reactions was discovered by B.P. Belousov and A.M. Zhabotinsky from the USSR in 1958.  These two Soviets
saw that if you added  hydrogen peroxide, an iodate, divalent manganese (Mn²⁺) as a catalyst, a strong chemically non reactive acid like sulfuric acid or perchloric acid. Also added is an organic compound with an active hydrogen atom attached to carbon which will slowly reduces free iodine (I₂) to iodide (I⁻).  These chemical reaction between these chemicals is an oscillation between colorless, to amber, then to a dark blue.  This will continue for over ten minutes oscillating many times.  Interesting stuff! It will be exciting to see how this experiment goes.  Stay posted on what is going on!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belousov%E2%80%93Zhabotinsky_reaction

Annoying People

I realized this morning that annoying people are everywhere.  No one can get away from them because they crawl out from under the carpet to bight you in the butt.  So annoying!  My tip to you is whenever you see that annoying person you can't stand, think of something that you can't stand more.  It seems to numb the pain a bit.