Ice Cream and Lighting a Match mini project blogpost (2-3 out of 3)

Ice has to absorb energy in order to melt, changing the phase of water from a solid to a liquid. When you use ice to cool the ingredients for ice cream, the energy is absorbed from the ingredients and from the outside environment. When you add salt to the ice, it lowers the freezing point of the ice, so even more energy has to be absorbed from the environment for the ice to melt. This makes the ice colder than it was before, which is how your ice cream freezes. Ideally, you would make your ice cream using 'ice cream salt', which is just salt sold as large crystals instead of the small crystals you see in table salt. The larger crystals take more time to dissolve in the water around the ice, which allows for even cooling of the ice cream.

Striking a match starts a chemical reaction. A safety match can only light when someone strikes it against the striking surface on the side of the match box. A "striking surface" is made of sand, powdered lass, and "red phosphorus". The head of a safety match is made of sulfur, glass powder, and an oxidizing agent. An oxidizing agent is a chemical that takes electrons from another chemical. When a chemical loses electrons we say it has been oxidized. An oxidizing agent is necessary to keep a flame lit. Oxygen gas is a common oxidizing agent.
When a match is struck on the striking surface of its box, the friction caused by the glass powder rubbing together produces enough heat to turn a very small amount of the red phosphorus into white phosphorus, which catches fire in air. This small amount of heat is enough to start a chemical reaction that uses the oxidizing agent to produce oxygen gas. The heat and oxygen gas then cause the sulfur to burst into flame, which then catches the wood of the match to catch on fire.

Chemistry Standard 11c & 11e

Chem standard 11c: Students know some naturally occurring isotopes of elements are radioactive, as are isotopes formed in nuclear reactions

Naturally occurring Isotopes & artificial Isotopes
a.) An isotope is an atom that has an identical pair of atomic numbers but different mass numbers
b.) Examples of naturally occurring isotopes are on this chart!
c.)Isotopes have unstable nuclei, therefore are radioactive
1.) Isotopes are Radioactive; they spontaneously decompose, creating new nuclei and producing one or more particles
d.) Isotopes are formed in artificial nuclear reactions by bombarding Alpha particles (for example)into a stable element, and causing collisions to occur, which form isotopes that are radioactive








Chem Standard 11e: Students know alpha, beta, and gamma radiation produce different amounts and kinds of damage in matter and have different penetrations

Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Radiation

a.) Alpha particles are fast moving helium atoms. They have high energy, but due to their large mass, they are stopped by just a few inches of air, or a piece of paper.

b.) Beta Particles are fast moving electrons. Since electrons are lighter than helium atoms, they are able to penetrate further, through several feet of air, or several millimeters of plastic or less of very light metals.

c.)Gamma Rays are photons, just like light, except of much higher energy. Depending on their energy, they can be stopped by
1.)a thin piece of aluminum foil
2.) or they can penetrate several inches of lead.

So last week, all of Mr.Olson's classes went on a hike up to Mills canyon. My mom was one of the Chapperones. At first it took a while to get out of the Mills campus because he wanted to explain some things, and take a bunch of pictures. The walk wasn't that bad, and kind of fun because I was with a bunch of my friends. Once we got there it was fun, because we were walking on the trail and there was a bunch of mud and people were really close to tripping and people were just making jokes and having fun. We all ended up back at the beginning of the tail and he then let us all go to wherever we wanted on the trail to eat lunch and do our packets. Aria Assemi and I went to the place that went off of the trail and had a pretty view of the canyon and some of the bay. We ate our lunches on a rock. It was pretty sweet!!! I was really careful not to get poison oak on me, that would be bad!

View Mills Canyon in a larger map

Mini Project

So Kimberly Arciaga and myself were thinking..."What would be a simple but fun experiment to do?" and we thought of the best one!!!! The "Cup, Water, and Index Card "experiment.

What you need:
-plastic cup
-sink
-index card

Instructions: fill cup with water until it is almost full, put the index card over the cup, turn over the cup (while holding the card in place), then let go of the card.

The card doesn't fall?! how wierd!!!!!!!!!

Explanation:
In the "Cup, Water, and Index Card" experiment, the water can't escape until the card is out of the way, but for the card to move, the air inside the glass has to get bigger. The pressure of air outside the glass pushing up on the card keeps it in place.

I Propose We put a gummybear into a test tube of potassium chlorate!!!

I propose we put a Gummybear into a test tube with potassium chlorate inside of it!

Links: Potassium Chlorate- http://www.chenzhoumetal.com/Potassium_Chlorate.htm

Gummybears!! - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gummi_bear

Materials: Package of gummy bears, goggles, medium sized test tube, potassium chlorate, bunsen burner, ring stand and clamp, and tongs

Procedure:
1.) Place test tube in the ring stand and clamp over a bunsen burner
2.) put potassium chlorate inside test tube
3.)heat the KClO3 in the test tube until it is a molten liquid
4.)place the gummybear inside the test tube with a pair of tongs and watch the gummybear go bye bye!!!

Safety Precautions:
-wear goggles
-no loose clothing
-keep face away from the open end of the test tube when reaction is taking place
-do not touch anything hot
-Be careful and have fun!

Principles:
The gummi bear is mostly sugar, which is oxidized by something like molten potassium chlorate. A balanced equation would show sucrose (C12H22O11) being converted to carbon dioxide and water while the KClO3 becomes KCl. The actual reaction does not seem to go to total completion since there is usually a little gunky residue left behind.

Watch what happens!

Vacum Society!!!

So David and Joan Webb from some science place that dedicates their studies to vacumes came to our class on tuesday. They were an elderly couple and they were very nice. They were explaining that the vacume reduces pressure to a lower pressure than atmospheric pressure. It was very interesting to learn about vacumes, and I got to show off my common sense knowledge for the class when he was asking questions =P. I learned that there is no such thing as a perfect vacum. In the sports world though, we had a track meet today and I did really good. I got first place in long jump, 18 feet 5 inches, first place in the 400, third in the 200 and first in the 4x400 relay. It was very exciting and I felt really good about the meet

3/15-3/20

So I was stressed out this week because I was deciding wether or not I should do football or not, and I think I have some legitimate reasons. I really want a job this summer, and if I do football then I am not going to be able to have any time for myself because of summer conditioning. I also feel like I wouldn't be doing it for myself, I feel like I'm going to be doing it for my friends and that isn't right. I could go on all day, but the point is is that I've decided football isn't for me. Soccer is my LOVE!!! I'm going to find a class 1 CY team for summer and go on tournaments around the state. I'm getting jealous of my best friend because he's been going on all of these tournamens and he is in San Diego as I speak, for a tournament. And another friend is at the State Cup!!! A few weeks ago, he played the Idaho State Champs and tied them...I've been getting soooo jealous, so this summer I'm going to focus just on soccer.