Element number 112 has just been discovered. See here for details. At the bottom of the webpage there is an opportunity for you to help name this new element. Have a go, please. Email me your ideas as well - each valid idea with a reasonable explanation wins one point.
Sorry, guys, there has not been much to add in this difficult week. However, I’d like to share with you a really interesting mathematical probability problem brought to my attention by Caleb in my Year 12 Chemistry class. Click here to watch. Watch it a couple of times, please - it’s quite hard to get your head around.
Year 9 students might like to try to prove/disprove this problem for Science Fair. Try using shoe boxes instead of doors, and no goats please…
Thanks, Caleb, we all had a really interesting experience, though I know a number of us are still contemplating this.
| OK, here’s another one. Those of you in my classes will have noticed I have a new toy. It can be powered by a Bunsen burner (or any other heating device) to make a fan turn. In other words we are turning thermal energy into kinetic energy. If you haven’t seen it working, just pop in and ask me to show you.This device is commonly known by two names - hot air engine or Stirling engine. How does it work? No, it is not a steam engine - there is no water involved.
This is a hard one, so 5 points to the first understandable correct answer. |
| The picture above shows part of a device based on scientific principles. What is it and briefly how does it work? A point for all correct entries from Year 9 and 10 KKC students for a correct answer, in their own words, by 7 March 2009. FIRST CORRECT ANSWER GAINS 3 POINTS. |
This afternoon, my dippy drinking bird stopped working. It was hot, which should have caused the bird to go faster, and it was also raining and very humid. After a discussion with a couple of students, I aimed a fan at the bird and it started up again. Why?????
No $10 voucher this time, but every correct answer wins one point and 5 points earn you a prize.
How does this thing work? It’s actually not as simple as it looks. 9JOH and I talked today about how we would have the occasional decent prize for a well thought-out answer to a question.
So, to the first KKC Year 9 or 10 student who can tell me correctly, in their own words, how the dippy bird works, I’m offering a $10 canteen voucher. Click here to watch a video. Come and see me if you want to see my dippy bird in action.
Please don’t imagine I’ll be offering $10 vouchers on a regular basis, but I think this is quite a nice way to start the new school year.
Enter by adding a comment on this blog.
Here’s another movie clip on Julian Beever’s chalk drawings. This one is a CBS news item, which includes a brief but really interesting interview with Beever. It also shows him creating a pavement work of art in New Orleans.
A number of students enjoyed my recent post about the latest breakthroughs in attempts to create an invisibility cloak. In this video clip, Michio Kaku, one of the scientists who has worked on the project, explains in very simple and understandable terms the physics behind how such a device would work.
Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley have developed a material that can bend light around 3D objects making them “disappear”. Light is neither absorbed nor reflected by the objects, passing “like water flowing around a rock,” according to the researchers. As a result, only the light from behind the objects can be seen.
See how the light rays bend around the centre sphere and continue along their original pathway?
This BBC site explains the idea well. I also found the news clip below from msnbc really easy to understand.
Some of you have asked me about the forthcoming experiment taking place in Switzerland which aims to recreate the forces that occurred immediately after the Big Bang.
One group of scientists have expressed concerns about the safety of the experiment, believing that it could be possible that the short-lived miniature black holes which might be created could grow uncontrollably. This is very complicated stuff, however, ordinary people like us can still try to understand. You can read about their concerns and the experiment here - what do you think?
Black holes are formed by the collapse of a giant star at the end of its life cycle. The star’s huge mass collapses in on itself, forming something so dense and with such a huge gravitational pull that even light can’t escape from it. This site explains what would happen if you fell into one. Then check out this site to find out the answers to some other commonly asked questions.