Monday, February 18, 2013

The Pitch Drop Experiment!

I was listening to the radio podcast "Radiolab" this weekend and they were talking about speed, how fast or slow things go. There is an experiment being conducted which has been considered the longest running experiment in history. Running for over 80 years now, the "Pitch Drop Experiment" was started in 1927 by Professor Thomas Parnell and involved the movement of tar through a funnel. So far it has dropped through the funnel nine times and is about to drop once more. Interestingly, in all of that time, no one has seen the drop. Go to the link if you want to watch it live. Maybe you'll be the one to watch it drop.

Classwork:
All students should work on creating their advertisement for their energy source.
Students should have at least one page of bulleted notes before they can work on their advertisement.
Students can use any of the modalities for creating a presentation used in the past (i.e. hand drawn, powerpoint, SlideRocket).
Advertisements need to have slogans, and are limited to one page.


BlogWork
Go to the following website: NationalGeographic.com

Pick one article from this page, read it, and write a one paragraph response to it.



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

According to NationalGeographic in the article:Obama Pledges U.S. Action on Climate, With or Without Congress, President Obama has chosen to try to change the fact that we have had our 12 hottest years ever in history. I agree that we should do something about this danger because if this keeps happening then we all may end up getting over exposed to the suns rays and die. He says he wants to solve the problem in an "market-based solution" I can only guess that this means he and his Cabinet will find away to solve the climate problems and not endanger the economy with using to much money on the solution to there problem.

Anonymous said...

We need lots of water for energy production, as most energy sources involve heating water for steam. This article talks about the thoughts of the International Energy Agency, or the IEA. They believe that in 25 years, our water usage will double, mostly because of coal plants, but they think biofuel is also a large cause. They think it will go from 66 billion cubic meters of water to 135 billion, actually more than doubling, in just 25 years. That larger number, according to this article, is how much water is used residentially in the USA in 3 years, or how much water flows through the Mississippi river in 90, or 4 times the amount in the Hoover Dam. The IEA’s predictions are largely opposed, especially by biofuel plants. They believe current water usage is overestimated and that they are ignoring the fact that biofuel plants are trying to reduce water usage. If the IEA’s numbers are true, by 2025 1.8 billion people would be living with “severe water scarcity,” and ⅔ of the people in the world would be living “under stressed water conditions.” I don’t know if these numbers are true, but I do think our water usage could significantly increase in that time.

Anonymous said...

"What Caused the Super Bowl Blackout at the Superdome?" is an article about how the Superdome went into a blackout during the Super Bowl, seconds after beginning the second half of the game. The blackout lasted for 30 minutes. It happened after Beyonce's live half-time performance at the Super Bowl. She preformed at the Super Bowl to show that she can sing live, unlike what she did, lip-singing the National Anthem. At first, people thought that she caused the blackout. But however, the officials at the Superdome and their electricity company, Entergy, said further investigation to find the root cause for the blackout, suggesting that Beyonce didn't cause the blackout.

Anonymous said...

The name of the article I read was, “Hungary Declares State of Emergency As Toxic Industrial Sludge Covers Villages” What I read about was red toxic sludge leaking out from a factory for refining aluminum. A total of 700,00 cubic meters leaked out and sent Hungary into a state of emergency. It went through 6 villages, killed 4 people, injured 120 people and 6 people are missing.

Anonymous said...

A major blackout darkened India with the population of 680 Million on December 14, 2012. This unsuspected blackout left 400 Million Farmers without electricity. This big blackout also left a lot of Indians stuck and stranded on a subway for several days. India's energy consumption per capita is said to double in the year 2020. But India is not the only country face these energy shortages North America and Europe are also facing these.

Anonymous said...

Obama gave a speech about climate change. He said that we have had the hottest 12 years. He said that he will take action to lower pollution.Also, he said that he will find a new way to produce energy.He will take action with or without congress. I think that we should resolve this soon or something bad might happen by like 2025 or so.