Luke Spitzley

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Google Docs Link

Black Holes

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AT6IjNRbhn_jZHE4ODRrd18wZDNidnN4Z2I&hl=en

Sunday, November 14, 2010

One fact I knew was true was that a giant meteor could kill a large population of people. I was certain before the movie that asteroid could and have landed on earth. Nothing the size of the one in the movie but I knew it was a possibility. I also knew that scientists would be able to know and predict approximately when and where the asteroid would make impact.

The second fact I knew was true was that it would take some type of nuclear missile to destroy a meteor before it made impact with earth. I had some knowledge of the stars wars defense program from the Reagan years. I knew they were developed to counter act a nuclear attack, but was pretty certain this type of missile or a similar missile could be used to destroy a meteor. Although this didn’t work in the movie because of the size of the meteor I believe in theory it was true.

False facts

One fact I found from my notes that was false was that they wouldn’t have been able to walk around on a meteor like it would have gravity. Meteors wouldn’t have gravity because they aren’t big enough.

The second fact I thought was false was that the people thought they could hide in caves until the debris cleared and then come out and continue life the same. It was false because if a meteor of that size hit the earth it would alter the atmosphere and we may not even be able to survive.

Misconceptions: Bad moon rising…

Can you see the moon during the day? I think yes, of course you can see the moon during the day because I have seen it in the morning when the sun has come up. I have seen it in the sky many times and the sun too. I think some days you can see it because certain times of the month you can see it better than others. I wonder if there really are people who have never seen the moon during the day.

After reading the article I was surprised to see that some people really never have seen the moon during the day or never took the time to look. I was also surprised to see that some people think that even if it is in the sky at the same time as the moon that it is washed out by the sun and you can’t see it.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Connections - Green book labs

Activity 1: measuring the heat absorbed by 3 different materials. We used water, dirt (dark soil) and sand (light soil). The water absorbed the most heat, the dark soil absorbed the least and the light soil was in the middle. The exact opposite order took place for losing heat. I predicted the water would absorb the most, so my predictions were correct.

Activity 4: This activity was done with the same material, but the dirt, water and sand were in bottles. This time we measured the temperature of the air. The second set of bottles we used paint in to represent clouds. The measurements were opposite that of the first activity because we measured heat reflected not absorbed.

Small scale labs helped explain the earth's climate by showing how different soil reacts to light, in different environments and how clouds effect the temperatures.

This type of lab would not be relevant to my climate because it is fire storms. I think it would be dangerous to try a lab with fire.

Climate Inquiry

Introduction: Climate Change-environment - 01 September 2006 by Fred Pearce- New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9903-instant-expert-climate-change.html

Climate change is a long term change in the climate patterns over a period of time, from decades to millions of years. Changes occur in a specific region or can be global. Climate changes happen due to weather events or changes in average weather conditions.

Climate changes occuring that effect us globally include the melting polar caps.Scientists see the effects in tree rings, ancient coral and bubbles in ice cores. These climate changes have caused the temperatures around the world to in the years since 1998. This they believe is in part to global warming.

Global Warming Solutions-Disaster at the Top of the World - 24 August 2010
http://www.globalwarmingsolutions.org/news/disaster-at-the-top-of-the-world/

In a recent article in the New York times the issue of global warming and what it will take for society to respond was addressed. Sciencists hope that the new reports showing the continued warming of the Arctic Polar caps. The arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. And as the ice melt and the sun warms the water it makes it harder to refreeze. Research show 2010 to be an even hotter year than in the past. This is shown by the mudslides in China and record temperatures in Russia. More research and more education is needed to try and revitalize the nation's capitals to respond and make more policies to help reduce global warming. Recently it seems that due to misleading informaiton many nations have almost stop policy reform for global warming.