Term 3 Science lessons reflection

The Term 3 Science Lessons were very interesting. The lessons mainly covered the Physics components of Reflection, Refraction and light.

Just a random picture :D


The lessons comprised of both practical and theory lessons.

The practical lessons were especially fun and interesting because we were able to try out the different ways of finding out answers using real materials, instead of just using formulas.

I learnt many things from these Science lessons this term. Some of the thins that I have learned include the law of reflection - angle of incidence = angle of reflection. This has helped provided me with some answers on the "mysteries" of life. I had always used to wonder why mirrors reflect the way they do, and now I finally know the answer to that question.

Besides that, I have also learnt about refraction. This has also helped me to unlock the "mysteries" of life. In the past, whenever I looked into a cup of water with a straw sticking inside it, I would not know why the straw was bended. Now, I know the exact reasons why the straw looks bended.

My favourite part of this term's lessons were the practical lessons as they were extremely fun and enjoyable, and has helped me to learn more about Science through not only the textbook, but through real things as well.

I did not face many difficulties in this term's lessons because they were quite easy. To me, Physics is really just about understanding the topic, and with a little bit of common sense, it would be easy to answer Physics questions.

Somalian Cave Fish

Hi everybody! Today, I will be sharing on the news article about the Somalian Cave Fish.

Somalian cave fish have been cut off from the sun for up to 2.6 million years. Adapting to life in the dark has not only caused the fish’s eyes, but as well as its scales and skin coloring to disappear.

What is most extraordinary is that the environment has caused the fish to also alter its own clock.

This study is indeed important as it shows the amazing transformation of living things, in this case, of a fish.

The Somalian Cave Fish's clock had not been broken despite living in the dark for 2.6 million years, but has instead been able to alter the clock to suit its own needs.



The Somalian Cave Fish follows a 47 hour cycle, based on feeding time and not the amount of sunlight.

Most animals, plants and some kinds of bacteria follow the sun in setting their own daily clocks.

These biological, or circadian, clocks help govern sleeping, waking and feeding times, the rise and fall of blood pressure and other daily rhythms.

Generally, circadian clocks follow an approximately 24-hour cycle and are reset largely by sunlight. When human’s circadian clocks aren’t set correctly, jet lag and even long-term health problems can result.

That shows that a living thing's clock is indeed highly adaptable, and would be able to adapt to many different situations.

For a human, jet lag might occur if his/her clock was disturbed, but with this study, it shows that no permanent illness might occur, as in the case of the fish.

If one day the sun goes out, and the planet Earth becomes a place of darkness, living things might just be able to adapt to it....

Link of News Article - http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/334056/description/In_the_dark%2C_cave_fish_follows_its_own_rhythm

Science Ace (Dancing Raisins)

Hi everyone! Today, I will be sharing about my Science ace - "Dancing Raisins"




Materials needed

Raisins
Clear, colorless carbonated drink

Method

1)Pour the clear carbonated drink (sprite, h-two-o etc.) into a tall glass/ or just use the bottle itself

2)Put the raisins into the glass and see what happens

Observation

Raisins “dance” up and down the glass

Explanation

The raisins dance up and down due to density
Density is defined as its mass per unit volume.

When you put the raisins into the glass, you would see them sinking to the bottom of the glass.

As the carbonated drink releases carbon dioxide, the carbon dioxide stick to the rough surface of a raisin.

Raisin is lifted because of the increase in buoyancy.

When the raisin reaches the surface, the bubbles pop, and the carbon dioxide gas escapes into the air.

Raisin loses buoyancy and sink.

This rising and sinking of the raisins continues until most of the carbon dioxide has escaped, and the carbonated drink becomes un-carbonated.

Also, as the experiment goes on, the raisin gets soggy and becomes too heavy to rise to the surface.

Conclusion

Really fun, yet simple experiment that everyone can do :D
Tips
Try not to shake the bottle/can of carbonated drink too much, or it would lose its gas, and it would get really messy when you open it.

When I first tried the experiment, I put in a raisin that was too big and it would not “dance”. I tried another raisin and saw it dance a little, but it stopped after a while. In the end, I used a small raisin and it danced perfectly. The video footage is not very clear, but it could still be seen :D

Science Ace (Non-Newtonian Fluid)

Hi there everyone! Today, I will be sharing on my science ACE - Non Newtonian Fluids.




Materials used in experiment- corn-starch and water (ratio 1:1)

Steps to make a Non-Newtonian fluid:

1)Mix corn starch and water together in a pot or container
2)Mix evenly till the corn-starch acts like a liquid when you stir it slowly.
3)When you tap on the liquid with your finger, it shouldn't splash, but rather will become hard.

Personally, I added too much water at first and I had to wait for the corn-starch to settle down, before I could pour away the excess liquid. In the end, my mixture was a little too thick, but it would still be considered a Non-Newtonian fluid because it exhibited the properties of one.

Properties of a Non-Newtonian fluid
•A fluid whose flow properties differ in any way from those of Newtonian fluids.
•For example, when you poke your finger into a Non-Newtonian fluid, there would be a finger hole left there. This does not happen in Newtonian fluid.
•Hard when you hit it
•Acts like a liquid when you gently touch it.
Properties of a Newtonian fluid
•A Newtonian fluid is a fluid whose stress versus strain rate curve is linear and passes through the origin
•Think of this example - You have to pull the trigger on a water pistol to get the water to squirt out. To make the water to come out faster, you have to pull the trigger harder. Fluids resist flow. This phenomenon is known as viscosity. Therefore these fluids are called Newtonian fluids.
•Viscosity depends on temperature, pressure etc.

So, why does corn-starch mixture happen like this?

An example - Think of a busy sidewalk. The easiest way to get through a crowd of people is to move slowly and find a path between people. If you just took a running start and headed straight for the crowd of people, you would quickly slam into someone and you wouldn't get very far. This is similar to what happens in the corn-starch mixture. The corn-starch mixture acts like a crowd of people. Pressing your finger slowly into the mixture allows the corn-starch to move out of the way, but tapping the mixture quickly doesn't allow the solid corn-starch particles to slide past each other and out of the way of your finger.

The Newtonian fluid theory developed by Isaac Newton tells us that a fluid when applied pressure on, would not have any effect on the viscosity of it. However, corn-starch mixture and a lot of other fluids also act like this. Therefore, they are known as Non-Newtonian fluid.

This therefore explains what is seen in the video, when I hit the mixture, roll the mixture and try to take a lump of it out.

Other examples of Non-Newtonian fluids

Silly Putty
Ketchup
Chilled Caramel Toppings

Homo floresiensis

Hi everyone! Today, I will be talking about the Homo floresiensis.



On the left is the skull of the Homo Floresiensis. On the right is the skull of the modern human.

The Homo floresiensis is a possible species of the genus "Homo". It was discovered in 2003 on the Indonesian Island of Flores. It was discovered in the "Liang Bua Cave". There were also 7 additional skeletons found in the cave and besides the skeletons, there were also stone tools recovered from the area.

What is so special about the Homo floresiensis is that is could be a possible species of the genus "homus" that was still surviving a short 12,000 years ago, making it the longest surviving non-modern human species besides the Neanderthals.

The anatomy of the skeleton extracted from the site is easily identifiable through its small body and small brain size. The specie was estimated to be at most 1.06m tall and it's range was far shorter than normal humans.

The findings could have numerous effects on modern understandings of the genus "Homus", though not very profound effects. However, it could tell us that the human species is more vulnerable than ever to the evolutionary forces than we think it could.

The Homo floresiensis was alive until 12,000 years ago and it is a very short time as compared to the whole life-span of the planet. Just imagine, 12,000 years from now and there is a whole new completely different species of humans! Humans are already probably starting to evolve now!

The only way we would know is to wait....

Here is the URL of the News article http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/333112/description/Taking_the_measure_of_a_hobbit

Science Eureka !

Hi everyone! Today, I will be talking about the Science sabbatical that I attended 2 terms ago - Science Eureka.



* The word - Eureka was supposedly shouted by Archimedes when he stepped into a bathtub and the water level rose, thus discovering that volumes of irregular objects could be measured with precision.

The sabbatical aimed to teach students more about Science. The whole course was split into 3 modules - Chemistry, Physics and Biology.

On the first day, we had the Biology module. Our trainers were 2 secondary 4 students . We conducted many interesting experiments such as cooking a piece of liver and testing it. Also, the trainers were very friendly and provided help to us whenever we called for them.

On the second day and third day, we had the chemistry module. The chemistry module took 2 days because we had a lot more experiments. My personal favourite was using a type of chemical that could adsorb water to make "ice kacang". The chemical absorbed the water and turned into a slushy mix. We then added colouring to make it look even more real!

On the fourth day, we had physics. Physics was my personal favourite module. We tried many experiments. The most interesting one was using an orb charged with 1000 volts of electricity and causing a person's hair to stand. It was an interesting sight seeing other people "turning" into Albert Einstein.

On the last day, we had to do a presentation on artificial enzymes. My group, consisting of Ethan, Aloysius and Javier, split up the work and worked efficiently to get the research done. Unfortunately, we could not find the right information and we got into a rather big mess. Fortunately, the trainers were rather kind and forgave us for the bad research.

In conclusion, the sabbatical was rather interesting completed with kind trainers. Also, the experiments and lesson packages were interesting and the sabbatical was the right amount of time. I hope to be able to participate in this sabbatical some day again.

Tossing, Turning and Forgetting

In a news article on www.sciencenews.org, researchers found that continuous bouts of sleep was critical for a person to have a good memory. If a person were to have interrupted periods of sleep, he was more unlikely to forget things more easily.

This news article is rather significant because it can help a person know more about why he is forgetting things more often.

An example would be my grandmother. She told me that she was forgetting things more recently in this days. Then, she told me that she had not been sleeping properly in the past few days. After I read this article, I understood what had happened and I was able to understand why her memory was not as good.

This news article will help students a lot because they will know that instead of studying the whole night, they will instead spend the time sleeping and hoping to get a good night's, so that they can remember what they memorize.


Original Link-http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/332712/title/Tossing%2C_turning%2C_forgetting