4/30 qod

Describe the precision of carbon dating.

--ch

4/27 qod

How will we know the difference in alpha particle tracks and beta particle tracks when we look in the cloud chamber?

-- ch

Mukherjee 4/26

At the beginning of class we turned in the paragraph about whether or not we supported nuclear energy. Then we took a cell phone poll to see how much radiation the majority of us had. Afterwards, we took notes on x-rays, radioactivity, the nucleus, quarks, leptons, isotopes and the cause of radioactivity. In the middle of all that we heard a song about quarks which included Mrs. Coats-Haan's favorite part, giraffe sex, at the end. She also showed us a copy of the Wizard of Quarks and explained what the four witches and the flying monkeys represented. At the very end, we started the penny experiment on half-lives where we counted the number of people who flipped heads each round. Throughout class, Mrs. Coats-Haan lit matches every time a person got an answer right in class, which thanks to Chris and Lauren was a lot. It was a miracle the smoke detectors didn't go off.

Q.O.D. Explain the analogy with the four witches.

I don't really remember a whole lot about the witches, except that they were representing four forces. The fat one was representing gravity (because the more mass something has, the more effect gravity has on it) and there was a creepy one that I think was representing weak nuclear. The weak nuclear witch was on the same powerpoint slide as the electromagnetic witch because originally, people thought electric and magnetic forces were separate, but now they're classified as one force. In the same way, some scientists think that weak nuclear forces may be a part of electromagnetic forces. I don't remember the appearance of the witch who represented strong nuclear.

4/26 qod

Explain the analogy with the 4 witches.

--ch

Mazzella 4/25

Today we took the test over light. at the beginning of class we turned in the test review along with any make up work from this week. before we took the test, Mr. Ebersole told us that sadly today was his last day as our student teacher. after the test we picked up two worksheets that are due tomorrow, the background radiation worksheet and the nuclear power: risk assessment worksheet.
the question of the day is: "how much nuclear radiation do you think you have been exposed to in your life?"
answer: I think I have been exposed to about 5240 millirems in my life.

4/25 qod

How much nuclear radiation do you think you have been exposed to in your life?

--ch

4/24 qod

Why is the index of refraction never less than one?

--ch

Jesse 4/23

Today was Chip day!!  Although I did not dress up like my fantastic lab partner Stedman, Nick, Lance, Coats-Haan and Mr. Ebersole did!!  At the beginning of class we had to turn in our homework from over the weekend which was the bling lab (lab manual) and light questions.  Next we finished up working on the telescope lab and turned it in when completed.  Then we worked on the camera lab, and if we did not finish that we had to do it for homework, due tomorrow.  Other homework is the test review which is due on Wednesday, which is also the day of the test. 

The question of the day is "how can you measure the focal length of your disposable camera"
Though I wish I knew the answer to this question because it is on the homework, I unfortunatly do not.

4/23 qod

How can you measure the focal length of your disposable camera?

--ch

4/20 qod

You are attacked by a gang of pirates.  They hold you at knife point and tell you that you will have to walk the plank, if you cannot solve a major problem for them.  They have a double convex lens and they need to know what the focal length is.  What do you do?

--ch

4/19 qod

How do the 3d glasses at the Rave work?

--ch

4/18 qod

How do fiber optics work?

--ch

4/17 qod

Which presentation was your favorite?  What did you learn from it?

--ch

Dao 04/16

We continued taking "Light Interaction with Media" notes. We  learned Fermat's Principle and Snell's law of refraction, and did a couple examples. For the rest of the period we were working on the "Refractive Index" (P. 197 lab). We had to draw two diagram, write out procedure, calculation and find error source.
Homework: finish the "Refractive Index" lab. Book work page 846, # 1- 11, 13-15,18. "Reflection & Refraction Questions" (P.199 lab).
Question of the day answer: The light will bend toward the the normal because the part of light that hit the second medium first will slow down while the other part is still traveling at a different speed in the initial medium. The light bends to take the shortest path to travel through the second medium.

4/16 qod

Does light bend toward the normal or away from the normal when it enters a medium that is travels slower in than the initial medium?  Explain your answer.

--ch

4/13 qod

How can you make a one-eyed Jack look the other way?  Why does this work?

--ch

4/12 qod

What did Fermat's brainbuster have to do with our reflection lab?

--ch

4/11 qod

Why do telescopes that detect infrared radiation have to be located outside of the Earth's atmosphere?

--ch

4/10 Breznai

We turned in “Star light, star bright stimulation” (175-176 in our lab manuals), “Electromagnetic Spectrum Table” (177-178), and the guided reading questions from properties of light packet.  We then talked about our group project (191) and each table was assigned a question to work on. The projects are due Tuesday April 17^th. We also got to see how light energy worked by spinning glow sticks and we switched out the old ones because they were dying, so some people got glow sticks. We then worked on our Color Lab (187-189).

Homework: Work on the lab if it wasn’t completed during class. You may also start the lab we’re planning on doing tomorrow in class if you wish to have in class time to work with your group on the project. The lab is pages 179-185.

Question of the day answer: Pigments are tiny solid particles that produce their characteristic colors by the process of selective absorption or selective transition of light depending on their frequencies. So when you mix the primary colors for pigments, all of the color white light produces is absorbed and the mixture appears black. However, when the three primary colors for light are known as subtractive primary colors, which means when mixed they produce a subtraction of colors. So when the three primary colors for light are mixed, we see the light after the colors are absorbed which results in white.

4/10 qod

Why are there different primary colors for light than there are for pigments?
--ch

bedel 4/9

We started class off with giving our team farewells and gathering into our new teams. We then went over our homework and talked about the three dudes who tried to measure the speed of light. We made Smores and did and experiment to measure the speed of light using a microwave. We had the frequency of the microwave and we needed the wavelength, which came from taking the spinning thing out and measuring the distance between the hot marshmallows. We turned in the guided reading homework and we were assigned the properties of light reading. For the rest of the period we worked on the homework or the EM table pg.177-178or the star light star bright sim. pg. 175-176.