Dynamic Earth

What Forces do scientists think cause tectonic plates to move?

Scientists believe the all the continents are floating around on the mantle which is liquid and the continents keep moving away from where they started in the super continent called Pangaea. If you look at a map that shows the previous movements of the continents, they all fit together and you can see their paths of their movement. It makes sense that they are floating on the mantle. The mantle is a liquid and its what the crust is sitting on. The mantle is not very dense so it would make sense that the continents float around on it. I think about a bunch of rubber ducks in a bath tub and they will move once there is a disturbance in the water. That is a basic explanation of what happened to make the continents spread apart.

According to the theory of plate tectonics, what changes will occur to the oceans and the continents over the next millions of years?

No one actually knows what may happen within the next million years but I believe that the continents will continue moving  away from each other and eventually, North America is going to collide with Asia and Japan because they are in a collision coarse towards each other. I think that the pacific ocean is going o shrink and all the water from the pacific ocean is going to go under South America and connect with the Atlantic and the Atlantic will be even bigger. The biggest ocean. The plates underneath the oceans are still having magma come up and form new crust so either way there is going to be more Continental drift.  

Opinion on Article

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/expeditions/2014/09/29/return-to-the-antikythera-shipwreck-marine-archeology-goes-high-tech/

I have just read an article for my Oceanography class and now I have to write my Opinion.

I thought it was a really interesting article of a ship wreck that was found in the Mediterranean sea. I liked that there was more than just a sunken boat, but there was also treasure involved. I thought it was weird on how long it took for some diver to actually find it. 70 years is a long time. I'm surprised that no one reported a boat missing back in the really early 1900s when the boat first sunk. I liked how they used the top of the line equipment to get the boat to the surface and I thought that picture of the submersible suit could be used on the moon. I thought this article was really cool.

Historical roots of Oceanography

          There is a lot of history behind the roots of the ocean exploration. Back in the 1400s is when ocean exploration got more involved with the world. Compasses and maps were being used to help explorers navigate and find new parts of the world that were not found before. Technology slowly got better as each century passed and ocean exploration got easier as well. The compass was definitely one of the best tools made for an ocean explorer. The first compass was made in china between 2nd century BC and 1st century Ad. They have been used in ocean exploration forever and they are still used today in some occasions. Charts were also used on maps for a long time. On maps there is grid lines that go horizontaly and vertically which is longitude and latitude which are marked as degrees. It is a technique to find a specific spot on a map and people still use it today. A Portuguese explorer names Ferdinand Magellan used both the compass and the map (with degrees) to do his expedition which led him across the pacific. His expedition was the first to explore across the Pacific ocean and it was on accident. Another invention that was made in the 1700s was the chronometer. The chronometer is a tool used to tell what time it is. Its a great tool because it will work in any region of the world. There is a technique for travel called celestial navigation. Celestial navigation is navigation used by the sun, moon, and stars. All together it can work like a compass because the sun rises on the east and sets on the west, and the north star points towards the north. It was a very clever way to explore when there wasn't much technology.

Life Waves

Wavelength and Frequency: 
Light has its own light waves. The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of wavelengths or frequencies over which electromagnetic radiation extends. How do rainbows get their colors? The rainbows get their colors from when air and rain combine and the light from the sun has different wave lengths (light wave lengths) and the different colors are formed by the different frequency. Red is bent the less, and violet is bent more.










Light Reflection and Reflection. 
Light reflection occurs everywhere. It can even happen on solid objects. The light reflection off things is why we can see things like other people. If we did not have the sun, we would not be able to see anyone or anything. Reflection is when something is reflected in another direction. Like a flash light in a mirror. If you aim a flashlight directly in the mirror then it will reflect back at you. If there were a room with all mirrors or walls then the whole room would light up the second you turn on a flashlight.

Rube Goldberg Project

These past two weeks, my class and I have been working on a Rube Goldberg Project. A rube Goldberg is a bunch of steps to do something that you could do simply. My group and I had a plan to pop a balloon using at least 10 steps. Our first step was to put a tennis ball into a cup pulley that would bring the other cup upwards freeing the gravity roller. The gravity roller then rolls down and hits a empty paper towel roll. 

 After the empty paper towel roll is bumped, it then starts to knock over dominoes. As the dominoes are falling, they then go up a set of wooden steps that my partner made. They then go down the stairs. Once they are back on the table, they then take a turn and one domino hits a plastic golf ball. The plastic golf ball then falls through a plastic cup, bounces off a wedge that hits and ricochets into another line of dominoes. There are very few dominoes in this step. The last domino in the line bumps a real golf ball. The golf ball then rides down a ramp and bumps a metal car with a wooden stick with tacks taped to it facing the balloon in front of the car. The golf ball bumps the car and moves the car into the balloon and then pop goes the balloon. 

I really enjoyed this project. When we first started I was a bit overwhelmed and I had no clue what to do and how to do it But as time went on, there were enough ideas that we could do to have 10 steps and pop a balloon. My partner and I both contributed equally and we were the first group to finish the project. I hope every class gets to do this project someday. 

Newton Laws Assessment

1. What are the relationships between forces and motion? 
The relationship between forces and motion is that force creates movement. Force is like when something is pushed and when something is pushed with a good amount of force then it will move. Like if there is a tennis ball on the ground, and you kick it, then it will move. The force from your foot hitting the ball made it roll away from you. 2. What are the variables that affect motion and force? 
A variable that affect motion and force can be either on earth or in space. On earth if you push something, it will eventually stop due to friction and object that lie on earth. In space, if you push something than it will keep going. It may bounce off things but it will keep going. 3. How does Newton’s three laws describe the motion of a moving 
object? 
The first law says that when a object is put into motion then it will tend to stay in motion. That says that when something is put into motion then it will stay in motion. The second law describes motion with net force and mass of an object which effects how far an object can move. Newtons third law describes the reaction from the main reaction. So the after effect. 4. How does gravity impact objects?
Gravity can cause friction which can cause something to slow down over time, but if there is no gravity, then it will keep going. It may hit other objects but it will stay in motion because it will bounce off other objects. With gravity, an object will eventually stop and become still until it is pushed again.

Metal car lab

In Physical science this week we did a lab that has to do with force, acceleration, and mass. We were given a metal car and a set of weights spanning from 5g to 1000g. We then set up a wood runway for the metal care to go down. Each time we made the metal car go down the ramp, we would time it, and each time we would put a heavier weight. We used a back pack to make the slope a slant and we used a binder to make the car stop. I really enjoyed this lab, I think it was a fun way to see how weight may affect a car on a hill and it gives me a better understanding of what weight really does.