Airbags

Airbags have protected lives of people in car crashes for over 35 years.Car airbags were invented by Allen Breed in 1968. Before then, airbags were just used in airplanes.

The bags work with a sensor that senses the impact of the collision, then it sends a signal to the inflators, which blow up the airbags with nitrogen gas. This all happens in about 0.025 of a second because it needs to inflate before the person's head swings towards the bag. There is always an airbag in front of the driver and passenger seats. There is also airbags on the sides of the front and rear seats. 


Since their invention, the death rate in car crashes has decreased dramatically. Scientists are still working on improving airbag technology today.

Sources:Here, Here, and Here

What is your birthstone?

To find out about your birthstone click HERE.

Stephen Hawking

HERE is my presentation about Stephen Hawking along with my 3 sources.

Compass navagation

Before the invention of the compass, people used the sun and stars to find there way.  The Big Dipper points to the North Star and in the Southern Hemisphere, the southern cross constellation points to the south.  

"In the 11th Century there was a chinese scientist named Shen Kua who invented the magnetic compass using a needle and lodestone which is a hard, black magnetic rock... After this discovery, sailors began to use magnetic compasses to find their way across the ocean." (Worldbook, pg. 91)  They would use a long piece of lodestone hanging by a string that would point North/South to help them navigate.

Hikers and Sailors in the 21st century still use magnetic compasses to find their way.  However, with the invention of G.P.S. (Geographic Positioning System) traditional compasses are not used as much anymore.  There is still a sport that uses compasses, it is called orienteering.  I found a website where they organize groups to compete in orienteering.  There are also instructional videos that explain how to use compass and maps for navigation of trails.  

I am glad that compasses were invented so people can find their way and not be lost.  

Sources:

http://www.us.orienteering.org/new-o/resources/videos

 http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0603/gear/navigation.html

WorldBook's Young Scientist book 2, Magnetic Power and Electricity.  

Mummies

Here is a video teaching about mummies. I got my info at : Denver Museum Of Nature and Science

Petrified Wood

Here is a vlog teaching you about petrified wood.  My sources were: The Denver Museum of Nature and Science,

Radio waves

In the car we listen to music on the radio by tuning to a station which is a specific wave length. The antenna receives electromagnetic radio waves.  The radio converts these waves into vibrations in the speaker that create sound waves we can hear.

Radio waves have the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum.   "An electromagnetic wave is characterized by its frequency and time variation of the electric and magnetic fields."

In the late 1880's Henry Hertz proved the existence of radio waves.  "He used a spark gap attached to an induction coil and a separate spark gap on a receiving antenna. When waves created by the sparks of the coil transmitter were picked up by the receiving antenna, sparks would jump its gap as well. Hertz showed in his experiments that these signals possessed all the properties of electromagnetic waves."

Radio waves are made by various types of transmitters. Interference in radio waves can be cause by lightening which is why the radio experiences fuzziness when in a storm.  I am glad radio waves were discovered because I like to listen to music in the car.

I got my information Here, here,here and Science by Miles kelly

Blue Whales

The Blue whale is the largest mammal on earth. They grow up to 105 feet long and can weigh 195 tons. Its flippers are usually about 10-14 inches long, so it can swim pretty fast with a maximum speed of about 30 mph. Blue Whales eat A LOT. Every day, they consume 8000 pounds of fish and krill. WOW! When they are born, they are about 25 feet long and weigh 3 tons. Blue Whale calves feed on over 100 gallons of milk a day.

Between the year 1900 and the 1960s, over 360,000 Whales were killed by hunters. Since then, Conservation departments have done more to protect blue whales. There are only around 12000 of them left now. 

The whales look blue when they are under the water, but when they come up to the surface, they are actually gray. They do not typically travel in large groups when they migrate. They are usually alone in travel, sometimes in pairs.

Info:here, here, and "Ocean" by Miles Kelly
 

Whale shark

The whale shark is the largest fish in the world. This fish likes to live in warm water. It is as long as a bus. Imagine a huge fish swimming next to your bus. Whale sharks live up to 70 years old. They are harmless to humans but they eat fish eggs and large amounts of plankton. A group called WWF is helping whale sharks by putting satellite tags on them to track them.  In the Philippines, people hunt whale sharks for their meat,fins and oil.  If we did not have whale sharks in our oceans they would be overrun with plankton.



       I found my information here,here and "Ocean by Miles Kelly

Narwhals

The mondon monoceros. The unicorn of the sea.

The Narwhal is one of the most unique animals on earth.They are in the dolphin group. They are found in the northern Arctic sea. Brr!

These massive animals can grow up to 20 feet long an their tusks another 8 feet. They weigh up to 3500 lbs!

They use their tusks to spear their prey, defend themselves from predators, poke hole in the ice, and the males joust with each other when it is mating season. They do not have a dorsal fin (Fin on their backs). They eat shrimp, squid, and fish. The Narwhal only has three teeth. One of them is is their horn.

Scientists estimate that there are about 45000 to 50000 of them in the world. 

Narwhals travel and migrate in groups sizes of 10 to 100.

The word Narwhal means "corpse whale" in ancient Scandinavian. 

Info:Here,Here, and "Ocean" by Miles Kelly.

Camel Spider

Check out this Vlog HERE on the camel spider!  My sources I used were:Check out a vlog by Scientist EZR about this amazing spider!  The vlog series is called " Spiders 101".  The sources I used were: Spidersworld.com ( i would put a link but the website is for sale and it wont let me) Sophia.USCG.gov (once again would put a link but it wont work) and Ehow.com , if you are not sure how to get to the article that i used, or need to get there faster, or want to get there faster, go HERE

The Wolf Spider

Check out my Vlog HERE!Check out a vlog by Scientist EZR about this amazing spider!  The vlog series is called " Spiders 101".  The sources I used were: Spidersworld.com ( i would put a link but the website is for sale and it wont let me) Sophia.USCG.gov (once again would put a link but it wont work) and Ehow.com , if you are not sure how to get to the article that i used, or need to get there faster, or want to get there faster, go HERE

How We Measure The Distance To Stars

The closest star to earth is Proxima Centauri, and is 4.2 light years away. But how do we know that? Before I explain, move your head left and right. What you'll notice is that things start to move like your computer screen and your keyboard, even your hands. This effect is called parallax. But you may also  be thinking that it shouldn't work, because if you've watched the sun not move while you been in some sort of vehicle. Parallax actually does "move" the sun in this situation, but the difference is so small  because it's farther away and you don't notice it.

Astronomers measure the distance to stars by using parallax. To measure Proxima Centauri we first look at the star once, and then do so again in six months. Then we make an imaginary triangle. The angle opposite from the base is how much the star moves. The base is just the diameter of earth's orbit. Then using high school trigonometry, we can measure the distance to our star using the imaginary triangle.

I got my information here, here and here.

Binary, the First Coding System Ever

Binary to most people is just a way too complicated code that only uses ones and zeroes, but really it's a number system. The number system that we use regularly is called the decimal system, and is base ten, meaning that there are 10 different numbers to work with (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9). In binary, there are only two numbers to work with (0 and 1). There is also hexadecimal, octal, and the duodecimal systems. To write a regular decimal number in binary, lets take 17 for example. If we want to make 17 out of ones and zeroes, we have to see what divides into 17 that is 2 by a power. 2x2x2x2 (2⁴) is equal to 16, which goes into it once. If we have a simple eight bit system, then our number so far would be 0001- - - -. Eight can't be added to 16 to make 17, neither can four, or two, but one can, and we have 17. So our binary number is 00010001.

126  64  32  16  8  4  2  1

0   0   0   1   0   0   0   1 

(0 126s, 0 64s, 0 32s, 1 16, 0 8s, 0 4s, 0 2s, 1 1).

I found my links here, here and here.

Oh! No! Not The Hiccups! How Long Will They Last This Time!?

    

Do you know what causes hiccups to last so long? Hiccups are made because there is a spasm that contracts your diaphragm. Surprisingly this is not rare, but some people have their hiccups for more than 48 HOURS! Whenever your hiccups last more than 48 hours they are called persistent hiccups. This is not even rare but if your hiccups last more than a MONTH they are called intractable hiccups. Hiccups also can give you a sign that your sick and have a disease and sometimes you get hiccups because you have been stressed a lot or you have to much of the emotion you are having.

I got my information from HERE! 
If you need more info you can go HERE or HERE!

petrification

          Petrified does not mean scared it means that it is turned into a rock like substance. but it does not turn that way over night there is a full petrification process before it is totally  petrified, and this is to tell you what that process is like if you don't already know.
         Something that is petrified is actually a fossil it happens when some thing like opal or pyrite get into wood that is totally sealed off from air. Then, almost any mineral that you can think of gets into the wood starting the petrification process.
         Sometimes when it is totally petrified it still has every detail of a tree so people are surprised to hold it because it is so heavy that its almost unrealistic to think that it was once normal tree that grew and flowers.
         
      
    
       I got my information from live science.com
           and geology.com
           also Denver museum of nature and science


          

How Mountains are formed

I am on a trip to Utah right now, and every day while I am here, I look around and see mountains. Really tall mountains every where around me. I was wondering about how they were formed. I did some research and found that there are four main types of ways that mountains form.

1:There are things called tectonic plates under the ground. They are big pieces of Earth that surround the whole world. When two of the plates crash together, the collision makes the material from the plates shoot up and form mountains.

2: Sometimes the plates grind together. When they rub up against each other, one of the plates pushes the other one up to form mountains.

3: I'm sure everyone has heard of volcanoes. This third way is what I call the un-erupting volcano. It's when magma from the earth pushes up on the surface of the world, just like a volcano, but doesn't erupt. An example of this is the volcano Mount St. Helens before it erupted.

4: If there is a tall plateau, sometimes a river will erode away the rock on the sides to form a mountain.

Now these formations don't happen instantly. They can take thousands and thousands of years of to completely grow. Even some mountains are still growing!

http://www.universetoday.com/29833/how-mountains-are-formed/  http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-are-mountains-made/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/earth/surface_and_interior/mountain_formation