Introducing....David and Joan Webb!

Today we had guests speakers David and Joan Webb come to talk to us about vacuums and we did several interesting experiments. We learned about how pumps don't suck, instead, they create a low atmospheric pressure, which is the same as a vacuum. Because gas and fluids flow from high to low, we were able to do make wonderful and interesting experiments. We did one where we blew up a balloon so that it was really small, and then we put it in a container like thing, and began to use a pump to take away all the air inside the container. Soon, the balloon began expanding!! Even with the little knot on the end. It was so cool!

Another experiment was the feather and ginny experiment, where we demonstrated how a feather and a steel washer could fall at the same pace and hit the ground at the same time. It was able to do this in a vacuum because there was is no air resistance in a vacuum, therefore, allowing the feather to drop simultaneously with the washer.

The second to last experiment was really interesting, and I learned something I never knew before. We put a ringing door bell into the container and began to decrease the air pressure inside. Soon, we could no longer hear the bell chiming but we could see by a flashing light that the bell was still going. I soon learned that sound needs air to be able to be transmitted, and since we had taken away that air, we could not hear the sound. This also applies to space. Since space has no air, one cannot hear a spaceship explode; therefore in star wars, at then end where the enemy ship explodes, the film makers were wrong to add sound.

The last experiment we did was we boiled water to the point of freezing it...without fire or a match, just air pressure It was interesting because as the water was boiling, the water temperature kept decreasing, and that was because the boiling point in a vacuum or space is lower than in the regular atmosphere. At the end, we had a relatively solid piece of ice, it was amazing, I never thought you could do that! Overall, this was a wonderful experience, and it was cool being able to witness these amazing things, and actually being able to understand the full science behind it :)

first swimming meet!!

Yesterday was our first official swim meet of the season against Carlmont high school. I think i did considerably well individually. In the beginning, the coach kinda of switch our events a little bit, so I ended up doing the 200 free, which is 8 laps! I was so scared and nervous because the only time i've done that in a race was my first race freshman year, and I hated it so much! But, i actually got second so i was really happy. It meant I improved! And for butterfly, i was 0.3 sec away from first place!!! on the last 400 free rely, we were ahead but then we lost it in the middle, and we were third. I was anchor, which is the last person to go, and I really wanted to win, so I was able to swim past the second place girl and earned our rely team second place :D i think that was the highlight of the meet for me. I can't wait till next thur! I may complain a lot, but no matter what, I love swimming!

ohhh, and today is a half day!! so i get out of school at 12:30, but we have swim practice at 1:30 :[ oh well....

Three Day Weekend!!! :] plus heat transfer

So tomorrow we don't have have school because of staff recess, so that means no school Friday!!! The only thing is that I don't think im doing anything tomorrow, just homework...how boring. Oh well, anyways, so in chem we've been doing heat transfer and I get about half of the unit, and the test is Monday :[ The first half is using the equation Q=mc(delta T), which is how you can calculate the amount of energy an object has given off, this is calorimetry. We learned how to calculate the engery given off from the different stages of matter, liquid, solid, and gas. It's kind of interesting, and I like it because it's similar to stochiometry, in that you just plug in the numbers, so it's simple to understand. The second part of this unit is heat transfer the trying to figure out equilibrium. We are suppose to use Le Chatelier's Prinicple, which is: "if a system at equilibrium is disturbec, the system shifts to counter the effect of the disturbance." I kind of understand it, but it still confuses me when you have to determine the euqilibria if the pressure or temperature is increased or decreased. I guess I just have to play the chemistry games to study. I hope I can understand it in time for the test....

Swimming and elephant toothpaste

Swimming season hast started. I love it because it doesn't stress me out like basketball does (which, btw, we went undefeated, 10-0 :D) My favorite strokes are butterfly, then freestyle, then breaststroke, then backstroke. Swimming relaxes me, and I love the meets because its a lot of fun and there's always food there and its a lot of fun hanging out with you fellow team mates.

In Chemistry, we did a lab where we made elephant toothpaste. We mixed hydrogen peroxide with some liquid soap, then added a catalyst and poof, the yellow foam you see at the left erupted. Everyone was amazed and I thought it was really cool. The foam was hot and steamy and people began to play around with it. I wonder if they really brush an elephant's teeth with this....