Friday, April 13, 2012

EM 9 ~ EM 21

EM9. I can describe the properties  and interactions of magnets.

A magnet is a material that attracts any objects that contains iron. Magnet has arranged domains (what makes them have the magentic property), than other objects. The properties of magnet include, iron, nickel, and cobalt. Just like the electric charges, equal signs repel each other, and opposite charges attract. Also, to add, there are natural magnets that naturally have magnetic mineral call magnetite.
In the further chapter, there would be variety of different magnets including ferromagnet, electromagnet, temporary magnet, and permanent magnet.                                 

EM10. I can describe how the magnetic domains are arranged in a magnetic/non-magnetic material.

In a magnet, the domains are aligned in one direction forming a 'charge'. In non magnetic material, domains face different directions cancelling each other. *In a magnetized material, all or most of the magnetic domains are arranged in the same direction*

EM11. I can explain the connection between electricity and magnetism (electromagnetism).

The connection between electricity and the magnetism is that they both form magnetic field. As current goes trhough a wire, it produces certain magnetic fields that can be utilized for electric motor.
This can be proven through an experiment involving compasses surrounding the wire. When the DC energy source is turend on, the compasses starts to change its direction, due to the magnetic field produced from the wire.

EM12. I can outline the difference between DC/AC current and its uses

DC is an initial for direct current. It was founded/utilized by Thomas Edison, who opened a generating plant in New York City. Direct current can be produced by going through a process of changing magnetic field or produced from a energy source such as a battery.
AC stands for alternating current. In 1888 Nikola Tesla, who worked for Thomas Edison, invents a system of distributing alternating current. AC as it means, is a current that can change its flow of direction. It consists of charges that moves back and forth in a circuit. The advantage that AC has over DC is that voltage of AC can be easily controled. "This means that a high voltage can be used to send electrical energy over great distances. Then the voltage can be reduced to a safer level for everyday use." (p.97)

EM13. I can explain why the Earth behaves like a magnet and the consequences of it.

The Earth's outer core is believed to be composed of primarily nickel and iron (in liquid form). As the convection occurs, the liquid metal flows very quickly, creating electrical current that ultimately produces Earth's magnetic field. this is called the "Dynamo Effect." In addition, through this process, the Earth gets a sphere call the magnetosphere that extends around the Earth up to thousands of miles. This sphere gets continuously distroted by sun's stream of charged particles. With this, we get a protection from the solar wind.
A common theory related to this is that the Earth occasionally reverses itself. The strongest part of the field gets weakened, but the weaker side of the field remains. The pole last reversed around 780,000 years ago. We are currently undergoing another reversal, but it would take thousands of years to be complete.
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EM14. I can explain the importance of grounding wires and using fuses/circuit breakers.

The ground wires provide an additional electrical path that is independant from the normal current carrying path. This parth is connected to the electrical neutral service panel, guaranteeing a low enough resistance to trip the circuit breaker.
Circuit breaker and Fuses limit the flow in a current. The metal filament in the fuses melt when receives certain voltage, stopping the current from further passing. Circuit breaker works the same, however, when they receive certain voltage, the bimetalic strip gets banded. Once they get activated, fuses has to be refilled, and the breakers can just be fixed.
Ground wire and the Circuit breaker/fuses are standard safety devices used in standard electric circuits.



EM15. I can explain how an electromagnet works and cite applications for them.

Electromagnet is created and works very easily. You just need a nail, copper wire, and a battery. First, you wrap the nail with a copper wire in one direction, so it can have a certain direction of magnetic field. This would be called the solenoid. Then, you connect the wire with the battery, making it to have electrons to flow and create a current. Whenever you connect the wire to the battery, it will have the magnetic field.
Electromagnet is used in vareity of electric appliances nowadays. It is used in computers and earphones. What would happen if a magnet disrupts a electromagnetic field?
I know this because I have experienced this through my earphone. when a magnet disrupts the electromagnetic field, the electrons inside the wire gets altered, and cause a problem.


EM16. I can explain how a simple motor works (parts and function).

Electric motor is a way to change electrical energy into a mechanical energy.
There are three parts in an electric motor. Commutator, Brushes, and an armature. Commutator is the part where it allows electric currents to enter the armature. Commutator will have a spinning motion, reversing the direction of current in every half turn.
Brushes are the part where it touches commutator, and transfers the electric currents.
Finally, Armature is the part where electric currents flow through.
In a simple motor, there is an DC energy source, commutator, brushes, armature and a permanent magnet.
As electric currents go through a armature through brushes and commutator, the magnetic forces exerted by them gets rejected by the permanent magnets. This results spinning motion. As the half turn occurs in the commutator , the direction of electric currents reverses allowing the process to repeat non-stop.

EM17. I can describe how a generator and a transformer work.

Opposite from the motor, a generator is a device which makes mechanical energy into an electrical energy. As long as there is a force to turn the turbine, an electrical energy is produced. There are variety of generators. Moreover, among all, one of the most efficient one would be the nuclear power plant. It uses direct heat energy from the explosion of Uranium 236 to push the turbine, and produce electrical energy.

A transformer is an electrical device used to convert AC power at a certain voltage level to AC power at a different voltage, but at the same frequency. According to the wraping that has been done on the side, it decides whether it would increase the voltage or decrease.

EM18. I can explain the importance of transformers to power grids.


The fact that a transformer can change the voltage is one of the most significant point. Whenever, the electricity is coming from the far distance, it is pushed with high voltage to cover up the speed and the distance. This voltage obviously wouldn't be fit for the house appliances and other elctric using sources. Therefore, the transformer, adjusts voltage for our house to utilize it.

EM19. I can explain methods of power production and distribution.
There are several ways of producing electricity. Using renewable sources, such as wind, water, sun, geothermal power. Using coals, and using nuclear energy. As mentioned before, using the nuclear energy is the most productive one. One common thing that all these energy sources have is that they are all interacted with spinning the electric generator. 

Once they all spin the electric turbine, the electrical energy gets distributed through transformers. These electricity pass through several transformers, and enter our house with safe rate of strength.

EM20. I can describe the differences of 110v/220v and main advantages and disadvantages of each.

110v and 220v. As it is written, 110v has weaker voltage then 220v. I personally prefer 220v because it has stronger push and make things work faster. For example, when heating the bath water, 220v would most likely make the water warmer in a shorter period of time because it makes electric currents to pass a certain point much faster. P=VI. Also, since Voltage is high, it would require much less Currents to produce same power as 110v source. In this perspective, we can say that 220v source is much more productive. 
The disadvantage is that it should be safely cared since it may cause some danger with the high voltage shock. 

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EM21. I can describe the advantages and disadvantages of electrical energy.

Its advantages are: It is clean source of energy. Doesn't cause any pollution nor produces eco-harming substances. It can be transmitted quickly, and used widely all over the world. In fact 90% of the appliances that we use require electricity.
electrical is also advantageous because it can restart people's heart.
One disadvantage would be that it should be cared safely, or else it can shock people.

361273-Electricity_warning.gif

Friday, February 17, 2012

Electricity

The Sweet vacation is Over, we now start with *buzz* *buzz* electricity.
In second semester, our science class began with completely different topic, the Electricity.
We use Electricity in our daily life. In fact, 90% of the things we use are all involved with electricity. And yet,  I didn't know much about it. Maybe just a fact that Edison invented them. However at the end, I learned 8 criterias of them.


Our learning Goals: 


1. How charges interact.
2. How charges are transferred.
3. How currents are produced.
4. Comparison of conductor and insulator
5. How resistance affect current.
6. How to calculate Ohm's law.
7. Types of circuits.
8. Relationship between power, volatage, and current.


Since these criterias were a lot for a single person to handle, our class was divided into 8 groups, and presented their criteria. Our group, Alli, Beatrice, and I did number 1. The relationship between charges. Luckily it was pretty easy, opposite charges attract each other, and equal charges repels each other. It was just like the Magnet rules. 
Here is the poster that we made :






2. Charges can be transferred in three ways. Induction, Conduction, and Friction. 
Induction: This is non-contacting transferring, that happens when charged object gets near the other object. Charged object's electric field attracts of repels electrons in the second object.  
Conduction: This is direct contact transferring that occurs when charged object gets contacted with another object. 
Friction: This is rubbing way of transferring charges. By rubbing, the object may lose electrons and may lose protons. Depending on the dominant charges, that object would be determined whether it is positively charges or negatively charged. One of the example would be balloon getting rubbed. When Balloon gets rubbed, it becomes negatively charged and attracts positively charged things. 






3. Electric currents are continuous flow of electric charges through a material. Electrons always move. However, in order to produce currents, electricity should move in a one direction circuit that is being pushed by voltage. Meaning they must flow continuously from one place to another. 


4. Conductor and Insulator are two opposite objects. 
Conductor is a material that has loosely bounded electrons. In other words, it allows electricity to pass easily. Insulator however, is a material that has tightly bounded electrons. Therefore, electricity has hard time passing through them.


































5. Resistance is the measure of how difficult it is for charges to flow through a material. So you can say that insulators have high resistance against electricity. The law of resistance is simple. The higher it is, the less current there is for a given voltage. When it is symbolized, it is called as Ohm. 


6. Ohm's law. Ohm's law is basically a formula that explains the relationship between resistance, voltage and current. Resistance = Voltage/ current.
This can also be changed as 
Voltage = Current x Resistance. 


7. Electric circuits: Circuits are devices that allow electricity to flow. A circuit must include, devices that are run by electrical energy, source of electrical energy, and it should be connected by conducting wires. So, a circuit would have Wire, Switch, energy source, and Resistor. Wire works as passage of electricity.  Switch works as controlling electricity. Meaning it controls whether it can flow or not. Energy source would be the source that produce electricity to run through wire. Resistor is a object that slows down the current flow. So far we've learned two types of circuits. Series circuit, and parallel circuit. Series circuit has only one path for a current to take. Therefore, when wire gets disrupted, all the current flow just stops. In contrast, Parallel circuits have multiple routines that a current can take. Meaning, even though the wire gets disrupted, the flow of current will not completely get affected. 






8. Relationship between power, voltage, and current can be shown as a formula. Power = voltage x current. The definition of Power is the rate of energy transformed from one form to another. One of the examples would be hair-dryer. It's electrical energy is ultimately changed to heat energy to dry our hair.






To be honest, when other groups were presenting, I was bored, and didn't really pay attention. I regretted this a lot. The day before the quiz, I had to review everything. Voltage, Current, Ohm's law etc... The good part about this incident was that, I felt like I found more about myself. To be honest, I'm not a science fan or science nerd. I'm just a student that learns science like all the others. But different from other subjects, science attracts me. The process of learning Science just interests me, and makes me feel proud of myself after the progressment that I've made. 
My goal was to learn all the criteria, and I think I somehow managed to achieve that. Now, my new goal is to listen to the teacher. Because,  even when I study alone in home, teacher's word should always be remembered and followed. Also, my another goal is to fill my work habit grades to 'yes'. Work habit reflects how student puts effort in his/her work. After getting an 'F' I sincerely realized that 5% actually Matters.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Final Cells Project

About three to four weeks ago, our class has received a Final Cells Project. In this project, we had to promote our informational product with the company name call Zoinks!  There were variety of options, Games, Books, Comic Books, etc... however, my plan was to create a book that included both comic and story. 

Basic summary: There are four characters. J, T, BB and Guider. J, and T are the students that joins the mission of investing the efficiency of the cancer vaccine. 
BB is the mad but genius scientist that creates the vaccine for cancer and the creator of spaceship and Guider. 
Guider is a robot that guides J, T to the bone marrow. It also provides the weapon form of vaccine to J, and T.
Basically, the story line is about these 3 people trying to cure the cancer virus in the cancer patient's body...


How I got this Idea: One day, in my portuguese class, our teacher Mrs. Adriana, assigned us to read a portuguese book; and as I went to the elementary library, I found a book call 'Capitao Cueca' the portuguese version of captain underpants. In this book, it included features of comic books, and a flip-o-rama. Soon my Idea producing part of the brain went 'Bling!' I then fused with the concept of our body, where nutrients' functioning, and variety of chemical reactions can be explained.

My goals for this project were simple two things, entertaining and informational. Since it was about a adventure, I wanted to make the story line interesting and keep the readers hooked. 
As it was the Final cells project, it required lots of information about what we've learned so far. Therefore, I wanted the story to include accurate and rich details of cell related informations. 

When I was doing this project, I think the story went fairly well with my actual plan. 
I first researched about the human body, by borrowing the science text book call 'Human Biology and Health' from Mr. Widhalm. Later then, I spent about 2 weeks planning where to connect and fit the information in my story.... As I went on, I ended up writing the whole story down on my notebook... In my final step of copying all the text in the computer, I suffered with the process of editing ....  Overall, other then the grammar editing process, there weren't really a change compared to my original plan. 

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Passive and Active transportation

Found helpful video about Passive and Active transportation


Click! 


Egg's Water Transfer Lab

Data Table of Corn syrup dipped Egg 

Cornsyrup
weight (cm)
Circumference (cm)
Liquid left (ml)
Day 1
67.85
16.5
80
Day2
65.85
15.4
84
Day3
59.4
14.8
88


Graph: 'Sweet' Egg's changes













Data table of Alcohol dipped Egg

Alcohol
Weight (grams)
Circumference (cm)
Liquid left (ml)
Day1
63.4
14.75
80
Day2
65.2
15
75.5
Day3
70.35
16.85
68



Graph: 'Drunken' Egg's changes














This 'egg's water transfer lab' was about osmosis testing experiment. (*Osmosis is a diffusion-like molecule transferring procedure that is only consisted with water. Moreover, water moves from high concentration to lower concentration.)Corn syrup and Alcohol are like two opposite liquids that contain clearly different amount of water.


Osmosis video Click! 


*As a result, Corn syrup dipped Egg has its mass dropped. In contrast, Alcohol dipped Egg had its mass increased.* (will be explained later.) 


Few weeks ago our class started a new chapter call 'diffusion'. And as we started to learn about diffusion, facilitated-diffusion, and osmosis, Ms.Silva assigned us to start our Egg osmosis lab, which I renamed it to 'Egg's face change lab'. Luckily, this lab was simple, we just had to choose our liquids to carry out our experiments, and keep track of Egg's changes. 
The goal of this investigation was to define what had happened to the both eggs, and try to understand why. Moreover, my personal goal was to learn more about the confusing osmosis through experiments. 
Day1: When I entered my science class, strong smell of vinegar stung my nose. Resisting the smell, my group was chosen. 
Emyr, Pedro and I chose two good looking eggs (: One had mass of 67.6 grams and circumference of 16.5 cm. The other one had 68.3 grams with 15.5 cm of circumference. It was amazing how the eggs kept its shape without the shell. 
To describe the egg's feature, it had white blurry looking color, vaguely looking york, soft texture, Bouncy, Cold, and smelly. As I wrote the feature down, our group measured 80ml of corn syrup, and alcohol. We then dipped the eggs inside the cup. To prevent weird things from going in, we covered the top with a paper... 
*I predicted that the egg will change its color due to different types of solution. At that time, I didn't expect the eggs to change its shape and mass. 


Day2: About 24 hours passed since we left the egg inside the two liquids. Surprised, when I took the eggs out from the cups, they both were 'dyed'. One that was dipped inside the corn syrup had light brownish color. And one that was dipped in alcohol seemed to have paler (more white) color. Surprised, we measured its mass and circumferences. 
Egg that was dipped into the corn syrup had its mass and circumference decreased. 57.3grams and 15.8cm. However, 80ml of corn syrup was increased to 86ml. 
Contrasting to corn syrup one, Alcohol dipped egg had its mass and circumferences increased. 73.4grams and 17cm. However, alcohol dropped from 80ml to 72ml. 
When we took both of the eggs out, they both had their distinct smell, alcohol and corn syrup mixed with vinegar... gross;;;.....


Day3: We haven't checked the egg from about 72 hours. I wonder how the eggs have changed after the weekend.... (: 
When we took the eggs out, their colors had significantly changed. Corn syrup dipped egg now had darker Brownish color, and Alcohol dipped Egg now had 'thicker' white color. Taking them out, we could vaguely make out that they had different sizes. 
Corn syrup dipped egg had 53.2grams of mass, 14.2 cm of circumference, and 88ml of the liquid (corn syrup) left. 
Alcohol dipped egg had 75.2grams of mass, 17.4cm of circumference, and 69ml of water left. 
Finally, all the groups got chances to cut their eggs, the result was surely astonishing. 
Alcohol dipped egg had its inside turned into solid-like stage. However, corn syrup dipped egg was 'tougher' to cut. It had its whitish part liquid and york part a half-solid state. . . 
Now this result gave me a question of "How did osmosis, affected the inside of the egg?"........


To sum up, different from the start, the eggs ended up with two totally different color. One with Brown and one with pale white. Moreover, I could say that my prediction was partially correct; however, eggs also had changes in their mass. As you see in the graph, due to the osmosis, the water inside the eggs changed and occurred mass and shape changes. Surprisingly, both eggs had opposite results. Corn syrup one had its mass decreased throughout the experiment; however, alcohol one had its mass increased. . . Also, as mentioned previously, their inside has changed too........ 


Cornsyrup dipped egg had its shape kind of 'crunched' and its mass dropped. This is due to the water coming out from the egg, and spreading out to the cornsyrup which has lower water concentration. 
Alcohol dipped egg had its shape 'roundy' and its mass included. Water that was in the alcohol moved inside the egg, filling 'extra-more'. With the extra water mass, egg's mass increased. 


Video of osmosis lab Click!


explanation: As people already know, corn syrup is very sticky, which means it contains low amount of water. As corn syrup contained lower amount of water then an egg, water inside the egg, which has higher concentration, moved outside of its egg. (osmosis) When this occurred, the egg kept on getting its water drained, and that lead to its mass drop. And as the mass decreased, its circumference dropped too. 
80ml of Alcohol contains more water then 80ml of Corn syrup and an egg. Therefore, water that was contained in the alcohol moved into the egg which had the lower concentration of water. Moreover, that lead to extension of Egg's mass and circumference. 


*Just my guess, but I think the alcohol dipped Egg might've popped. Different from plant cells, egg contains animal eukaryotic cells which can outbreak(explode) after containing certain limits of water. amount. 


I also guess that there were some special molecules in the alcohol that made the protein-full whitish part to clump together and make a solid figure... 


While carrying out the experiment, I found possible error sources. 
Measuring, mis-doing procedures. 
On the mass-measuring scale, there was like a plate that weighted about 31grams. Moreover, when Emyr was measuring them, he forgot to subtract 31grams. If I didn't catch this, my data could've turn out as a 'mis-data'. Also, measuring the left liquid was also a concern. When we were measuring the liquids, we putted them into graduated cylinder. Moreover, some of the students read them in a wrong way. Their eye level should've matched the 'cylinder water' level. 
Also, when writing the data results, some of the people got confused because they just wrote Egg 1 and Egg 2 instead of Corn syrup- Egg and Alcohol-Egg. 
Procedure mistakes: pouring the liquids out for each time, accidentally putting an egg into a wrong plastic cup, accidentally popping the egg.. etc.. :P In order to prevent this problem from occurring we really should be careful and read the instructions more attentively. . . 


Team work evaluation: 
First, our team seemed to work pretty good. We were working together, engaged looking the egg, observing, measuring etc... however, as we did things quickly we started to walk around the classroom and talked to other students. Not only this, our group once had measured the eggs' mass wrong; moreover, this could've caused the misleading data. As the time passed, I started to work separately to Emyr and Pedro. In my case, I didn't like the way how they worked. Pedro and Emyr constantly spoke in Portuguese, and ordered me lots of things to do while in the process of writing the observations down. Angry, I started to work away from them. However, even though I worked 'away' from them, I still supported them by suggesting the way of measuring, writing the observations, etc... 


By doing the Osmosis lab, I learned its concept clearly with visual supports. First, I didn't understand the way how water moved in and out; moreover, as we did the osmosis lab, I was able to see the physical changes that the eggs went through with the process of osmosis. Now, I'm positive that I can explain osmosis to the others. 

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Boat speech- endoplasmic reticulum

"Boat captain, you should save me the great endoplasmic reticulum. I am the most important organelle that is consisted with two types. Rough endoplasmic reticulum, and smooth endoplasmic reticulum. Basically, my job is known as carrying proteins and other materials to golgi appartus and other organelles. Well to be more specific, ribosomes that are attached in the wall of rough endoplasmic reticulum produces proteins and gets send to Golgi appartus. Golgi appartus is a place where it packages the received materials, and distributes them to other organelles. However, other part of me, the smooth endoplasmic reticulum is consisted with tubules and vesicles. Moreover, The network of SER allows increased surface area for the action or storage of key enzymes and the products of these enzymes. 
With all these vital functions of me the great endoplasmic reticulum, your body will have problem having enough protein production. 
Well, because of the diffusion law, you'll have to take extra more protein rich food to cover the amounts that endoplasmic does not produce. Therefore, make sure to save me ;) 




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endoplasmic_reticulum