Storms

Tornadoes, Cyclones, and Hurricanes are three of the most disastrous things on Earth. Tornadoes are extremely destructive and powerful. A tornado is shaped like a funnel and has very high wind speed reaching up to 350 kilometers per hour. Have you ever wondered what was happening inside a tornado? Well, the air pressure at the bottom is very low. When it reaches the surface of the Earth it acts like a vacuum. A tornado can happen when cool, dry air come into contact with warm, moist air. Tornadoes don't last very long only a few minutes.
Example: Nebraska Tornado tossed a 225-kilogram baby grand piano across a field. ( Watch the movie Twister)
Cyclones are an area of low pressure that consists of rising warm air. A cyclone spins because the cooler air overpowers the warm rising air causing it to therefore spin. Winds in a cyclone travel counterclockwise. When a cyclone occurs it usually results in rainy stormy weather and massive destruction.
Example: The most recent cyclone that occurred in Myanmar near Thailand.
A hurricane is very similar to a cyclone. Hurricane mostly form over the Ocean. The warm and moist air in the hurricane rises and the cooler air slowly moves in. The forming hurricane starts to spin, The air pressure in the middle decreases so therefore more air is drawn to the already spinning winds on the outer edges. The spinning air forms a circular wall of intense winds that reach 120-320 kilometers per hour. Inside the eye of the hurricane the air is calm because the wind went to the outside. There are many different categories of hurricanes that tell us how extreme they are. Example: Hurricane Katrina was a massive hurricane that wiped out New Orleans.
I think tornadoes, cyclones, and hurricanes are fascinating but devastating.

My Sources:

Exploring Earth's Weather Book
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/safety/tornadoguide.html

Artic Tale

In the movie Arctic Tale, a lot of real world issues are portrayed. For example, mothers have to leave their young at a much earlier age than expected, the animals have to survive the extreme climate changes, and have to struggle to get the resources they need in order to survive. Arctic Tale is about a polar bear, Nanu, and a seal, Seela. Together they try to survive while the Arctic is quickly melting beneath them. Because the ice is melting earlier than expected Nanu's mother has to leave Nanu. Her mother made this hard decision because the only chance for either one of them surviving was if they didn't stay together. The extreme climate changes that are occurring in the Arctic is unrealistic to the animals, but it's happening. They want to stay in their herds but the chance of finding food for all of them is slim. The Arctic Ocean starts to expand because the ice takes longer to freeze and faster to melt. It is difficult to find a place to live. Global Warming is taking a toll on all of these animals lives. These animals are dying at an earlier age and becoming more and more extinct each day. In the movie, Nanu and Seela both struggle to find food. Nanu grows more hungry each day and finally, found food. However, it was up to a strong male polar bear if he was willing to share his find. Nanu eventually does get some food into her small body, however she is still hungry. Seela also encounters many dangers while trying to find a place to live. She is almost eaten and has to take a brutal fall down a steep cliff. The most interesting fact in this movie to me, was that if this continues to occur the Arctic will be ice free by 2040!

To find out more about the movie, Arctic Tale go to these sites...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0488508/synopsis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Tale

Is There Chemistry<3

What is Chemistry? Chemistry is the study of matter and energy and the interactions between them. There are four phases of matter they are solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Solids have particles that can only vibrate because they are so close together. Solids have definite volume and shape and has the least amount of energy of all the four phases . Liquids particles are somewhat far apart. Liquids have no definite shape but has a definite volume. Gas particles are spaced far apart and they have no definite shape or volume. Plasma has the most amount of energy of all four. Its particles are spaced very far apart. Plasma is very unlikely on Earth but it is the most common phase in the universe. There are many changes in the states of matter. Here are a few...

Solid----------gas = sublimation ex: dry ice
Gas-----------solid = deposition
Liquid--------gas = vaporization
Gas----------liquid = condensation ex: clouds
Liquid-------solid = freezing ex: ice cubes
Solid--------liquid = melting ex: ice pop

An amorphous solid is a solid that can flow like a liquid under certain conditions.

There are two laws, Charles's Law and Boyle's Law. Boyle's law says that if the pressure increases the volume decreases and if the pressure decreases then the volume increases. Think of pumping a pump, the less pressure you put on it the more air fills up inside. Charles's Law says that if the temperature increases then the volume increases and if the temperature decreases then the pressure decreases.

Three interesting facts:
Dry Ice is solid Carbon Dioxide.
Two examples of an amorphous solid are candle wax and glass.
A viscous substance is in the liquid phase.

I loved this lesson on Chemistry because I got to do a lot of experiments and I learned facts that I never knew before. For example I never knew what an amorphous solid was or what the four phases of matter is but now I do.

Sources:

http://www.iadeaf.k12.ia.us/Phases%20of%20Matter.htm

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/vef/kids/dryice.php

What matters is matter

Matter and gravity are important factors in science. Matter is anything that has mass and volume. For instance, a TV, radio, or even yourself is all matter. On the other hand, some things that are not matter are light, sound, and electricity. Mass is the amount of matter in an object, remember mass does not change. Volume is the amount of space an object takes up. Scientists who study mass, volume and matter are known as Chemists. There are five states of matter. They are liquids, solids, gases, plasma, and a new one called Bose-Einstein condensates. Scientists can find the mass,volume, or density of an object by using a simple formula. The formula for finding density is mass/volume. The formula for finding mass is density x volume. And lastly, the formula for finding volume is mass/density. When finding the volume of an object you use the units centimeters cubed for a solid and milliliters for a liquid. Have you ever wondered why wood floats in water. This is because wood is less dense than water. Water is 1g/mL so in order for wood to sink it have to be more than 1g/mL. This scenario also happens with an ice cube and icebergs.
Gravity is also very important in science. Gravity is the force of attraction between all objects. It is the reason why we stay on the ground. For example, in ice skating it is hard to lift someone over your head because they weigh a lot. This would be different if this happened on the moon. On the moon there isn't any gravity, so people are weightless, therefore it would be very easy for someone to lift another person above their head. As another example, it takes a lot more fuel for a rocket to launch into the air on Earth because there is gravity. If the rocket was taking off from the moon it would be easier because there isn't any gravity. For this reason it wouldn't take a lot of fuel to launch the rocket. From learning about matter and energy I feel that I have gained a lot of knowledge. I have learned what is and isn't matter, why wood floats in water, a new state of matter along with the original four, and why people are weightless on the moon.

My sources...
http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_intro.html

http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/topics/54a.html

War of the Worlds

It was Galaxy verse Galaxy. A crew of space and ground telescopes caught an image of a black hole in a "death star galaxy" (what) blasting another galaxy with a powerful stream of radiation and energy. No one has ever seen this action before. NASA was the team that released it for all of us to see on Monday (when). However, the person who discovered this amazing sight was Daniel Evans (who) of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (where). This galaxy was bullying a neighboring galaxy that was one-tenth its size. These Galaxies are both about 8 billion trillion miles from here but they are 24,000 light years away from each other. This bullying galaxy was called "death star galaxy" because of the way it treating the smaller galaxy. The good news it that Earth was not in the way of all of this. If it was, the deadly jet would have stripped away bits and pieces of the ozone layer. This would be terrible because then we would have nothing to protect us from the suns rays. I found this article very interesting because I also have never seen anything like it before. This reminds me that The Milky Way Galaxy isn't the only galaxy in all of outer space. Scientists wonder what was in this powerful stream of radiation and energy and how does it work. I also wonder this same question. I would definitely read this article because you learn a lot about our universe.

I got my information from:

www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/12/18/death.star.ap/index.html

6 questions

I’ve tagged students for the Omega Meme!

The rules are as follows:Each player answers the six questions posted on this blog. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those answers are listed.At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their blog names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Then follow the instructions about adding a page element at omegascience.blogspot.com.

1. My favorite TV show is Beauty and the Geek because it is fun to watch how two completley different classes of people get along.

2. My favorite meal is a cheeseburger because I love foods that are cooked on the BBQ and a cheeseburger is so yummy!

3. My favorite nonschool activity is Tennis because I get to have fun and be active

4. Someone I look up to is my parents and grandparents because they always know the right things to do and always look on the positive side.

5. My goal for the future is to become and artist or a designer because those are two things i love doing in my free time.

6. In the first hour after school I usually watch TV and relax or hang out with my friends

The Wattieza Tree

Off the top of my head the most common trees I can name are Pine, Oak, Evergreen, Spruce, Palm tree, and Maple. However there was one tree that was never discovered, until now. This tree is called the Wattieza tree. This tree was standing millions of years ago until one day, as suspected, a gigantic storm hit and the tree came crashing down and was buried under muddy water. A few years later the muddy water turned into sedimentary rock. It wasn't until so may years later that Frank Mannolini came by with a hammer ready to search for fossils in Albany, New York. Surprisingly he stumbled across the fossils of the Wattieza tree. He uncovered all parts of the tree, and its branches as well. This tree is the oldest tree known! Mannolini took the trees pieces to museums where they tried to glue all the pieces back together. From looking at the pieces of this tree it was like a huge jigsaw puzzle! Also, Mannolini discovered that this tree was not only the oldest tree but it came from the oldest forest too. From reading this article, I learned that even though you might find one fossil you can still find out a lot more about the world from it. This tree can tells us more about nature. If you would like to read more about this article visit...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/04/ancient.tree.ap/index.html