Cur. Ev. 2nd quarter No 1

Dinosaur Speed Demon

http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/

22^nd October 2011

Carnotaurus

          You’ve probably heard of the tremendous Tyrannosaurus Rex, or the amazing Albertosaurus, but have you heard of the road runner of the dinosaurs, the Carnotaurus? On one episode of Quirks and Quarks, the host Bob McDonald interviews Scott Persons, a PhD student at the University of Alberta, about this fantastic beast. Persons was studying the Carnotaurus, and he noticed that its tail bones looked very strange. They tilted steeply upward, overlapping each other. This bone structure would cause a very stiff tail, restricting quick turns. But why? In dinosaurs’ tails, there was a muscle called the codothimeralis. This muscle, when it constricted, would pull back the leg, helping the dinosaur run. In the Carnotaurus’ tail, the bones tilting upward gave more space for the codothimeralis, allowing it to expand. So this dinosaur gave up quick turns for sheer speed. It could probably run 30-35 mph, as fast as a racehorse. That is really fast for a dinosaur.

My thoughts

Finding out about this dinosaur and how it was structured was really interesting for me. I think that learning about past life forms is very important, because it helps us understand how we and our Earth as we know it came to be. It’s also really cool to learn about. =D

Cur. Ev. 2nd quarter No 2

Cur. Ev. 1st quarter No 3

Water fingerprints

http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/

Saturday, October 8^th 2011

        Ever wonder how water came to Earth? Well, astronomers think that water couldn’t have existed on Earth at the beginning. The sun was so hot, any water would have evaporated. So where did the water come from? In one episode of Quirks and Quarks, a radio show on CBC, the host Bob McDonald interviews Dr. Darek Lis, a Senior Research Associate in Physics at the California Institute of Technology. He and his colleagues have found a trace of water on Comet Hartley 2 when it hurtled past in 2009. They found that the water on this particular comet has the same chemical fingerprint as the water on Earth. This suggests that the water that’s on Earth came from the same place as the comet, the distant Kuiper belt, rather than perhaps the much closer asteroid  belt between Mars and Jupiter.

My thoughts

       I think that this is very interesting, and that it really could help us learn about the Earth, the solar system, and the universe. Knowing where all our water came from would help us understand who we are and how we came to be. It could also give us a hint about alien life. Who knows, maybe there’s a planet out there that sustains life because of the water. This article really sparked my interest, so maybe you should check it out, too.

Cur. Ev. 1st quarter No 2

Japan Earthquake

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709598

11 March 2011

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

       You’ve probably heard of the earthquake that struck Japan earlier this year. Can you imagine just walking around, minding your own business, when suddenly the earth begins to shake and tremble? Can you imagine what fear these people must have felt when the saw the giant wave hurtling toward them? This terrifying earthquake was 8.9 on the Richter scale, making it one of the strongest earthquakes in history. Cars, ships, and buildings were swept away by the tremendous tsunami that followed. Officials say that 350 people are dead and approximately 500 missing, but it is feared that final death toll will be much higher. The tsunami rolled across the Pacific at 800km/h before hitting Hawaii and the US West Coast, but there were no reports of major damage from there.

         
          The earthquake was the fifth-strongest since 1900, so I really feel sorry for the people who had to experience it. All those people who died… there must have been many, many sad families. I think that earthquakes are horrible, even though they are natural, and we can’t prevent them. It’s really sad that this happened. The good news is that people are helping Japan by donating, and that, even though its slow, things are getting better for Japan.

Current events 1st Quarter No 1

Mad Like Tesla
Bob McDonald
CBC.ca
Saturday, 24th of September 2011

        MAD LIKE TESLA

In one episode of “Quirks and Quarks”, a radio show on CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation), the host Bob McDonald interviewed Tyler Hamilton, author of the new book - Mad Like Tesla. In the book, the author writes about people in this world who are much like Tesla was back then, with brilliant ideas, but ideas that some might think are crazy. These scientists are working on environmentally friendly ways to produce energy. An example is a group of people in British Columbia, Canada who have an amazing idea from the ‘70s. The idea was created, but, because the materials they needed didn’t exist at the time, it was put away and forgotten. Now these people have uncovered it, and today we actually do have the materials, and they’re trying to build it. The machine being invented is a fusion reactor, used to create environmentally friendly energy. It is much cheaper to build than all the other ideas that are being created today (the price for this idea is estimated to be 30 million dollars, while others cost billions). This idea is being put in to motion as you read this, as well as many others.

       I think that this idea and other ideas that I heard about are very smart, and not crazy. I think that because they sound like they would work, and also because they may be the only things that could keep the human race from sinking into oblivion because of the environmental issues.

My scientific summer

                                                                          Flying
       This summer I moved from Canada to Serbia. I flew here, and it was a lot of fun! I really like flying. The take off, the view in the air, the land of clouds, the landing. It's really very exiting, and interesting to learn about.

                                The Science of Flying
         To get a plane into the air, you have to manage the science first. See, there's this thing called air pressure. Fast moving air has very low pressure, and slow or non-moving air has high pressure. To get the plane in the air you have to get the high pressure under the wing and the low pressure above. So the wing is shaped to make the air above it move faster than the air below it. How? They make the top of the wing curved and the bottom of the wing flat, forcing the air above to move faster in order to get to the edge of the wing at the same time as the air below, thus creating a difference in pressure and lifting the plane.
      There are four principles in flying. What I just explained was lift. The other three are weight, thrust and drag. Weight is the opposite of lift, it's opponent. While the lift pushes you up, the weight pulls you down. if it weren't for weight, we'd all go shooting off into space the second we tried to fly!
        Thrust is created by the motors of the plane. The turbines move as air rushes through them because the plane is moving, and they push the air to the back, all the while pushing the plane forward.
       Drag, like weight vs. lift, is the opposite of thrust. Is drags the plane backward. The plane makers try to get the least drag as possible by making the plane aerodynamic. That means shaping the plane in a way similar to that the shape of a cone so that it cuts though the air, instead of pushing against it like it would if it were a box. But, in the midst of trying to prevent drag, its actually a good thing, because without it, like weight, we would go shooting off into who-knows-where!
      So, that's the science of flying. I hope you learned something, if not, well, I tried!!!