Middle and High School … from a Montessori Point of View
Ben Ames explains the science of flames. It skims over pyrolysis; chemiluminescence, where the chemical reaction (combustion/oxidation) produces excited atoms and molecules that need spit out (emit) blue light to get to their ground state); and the incandescent light emission of microscopic soot particles which produce the yellow parts of the flame. I’m not sure … Continue reading “About Fire (Flames Really)”
The dust in Mars’ atmosphere scatters red, while the major gasses in Earth’s atmosphere (Nitrogen and Oxygen) scatter blue light. Longer wavelengths of light, like red, will bounce off (scatter) larger particles like dust, while shorter wavelengths, like blue light, will bounce of smaller particles, like the molecules of gas in the atmosphere. The phenomena … Continue reading “Why are Earth’s Sunsets Red While Mars’ are Blue?”
PhD Comics does a wonderful job of explaining of sub-atomic particles: what we know, what we don’t know. What’s particularly great about this video is that it goes into how physicists are using the Large Hadron Collider to try to discover new particles: by making graphs of millions of collisions of particles and looking for … Continue reading “Searching for the Higgs Boson: How Science Really Works”
We successfully harvested and processed three chickens during last week’s interim. It was my first time going through the entire process, but fortunately we had a very experienced guide in Dr. Samsone who also happens to be a vet. The interim focused on where food comes from (students also saw the documentary “King Corn”), and … Continue reading “Harvesting and Processing Chickens”
This NASA video updates us on the search for Earth-like planets around other stars. It overviews what’s been found, and outlines some upcoming missions. The key to finding a planet hospitable to life (as we know it) is finding one with water at the surface. We’ve found large waterworlds that are too large and hot, … Continue reading “The Search for a New Earth”
In a modern variant on the Powers of Ten video, Cary and Michael Huang have created an excellent flash game that spans the scale of the universe, from the smallest, only hypothesized particles, through atomic, human, planetary, and galactic scales (to name a but a few), to the size of the universe itself. It goes … Continue reading “Scale of the Universe: 62 Orders of Magnitude (1062)”
Just in time for our physics test — on electromagnetism — the Sun has had a Coronal Mass Ejection of charged particles that is heading toward the Earth. [The Coronal Mass Ejection] is moving at almost 1,400 miles per second, and could reach Earth’s magnetosphere – the magnetic envelope that surrounds Earth — as early … Continue reading “Solar Flare”
Notes: What creates magnetic fields? (36.3) Magnetic fields are created by moving electric charges. At the atomic level: In atoms, most of the magnetic field comes from the spinning of electrons (remember electrons have a negative charge). In most elements, the magnetic fields of electrons pair up and cancel each other out Only certain elements, … Continue reading “Magnetism”