Science Behind Kendamas

Click HERE to learn the science behind kendamas, a Japanese skill toy.

Click  here for my A to Z about Chemistry!

                               African Elephants

                  African elephants are the largest land animal on earth slightly bigger than their cousin indian elephants. You can tell them apart by their ears, the african elephants have big ears shaped like Africa and indian elephants have smaller rounded ears. When an elephant gets hot they suck up water in their trunks and let it out on themselves. An elephants trunk is for breathing, drinking, trumpeting, and mostly for grabbing. The trunk contains about 100,000 different muscles.

                 They can weigh up to 13,000 pounds (6.6 tons). People poach for their meat, but mainly their ivory. It is illegal to poach elephants for their meat or ivory. 

               Elephants eat roots, grasses, fruit, and bark, and they eat a lot of these things. An adult elephant can consume up to 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of food in a single day. These hungry animals do not sleep much, and they roam over great distances while foraging for the large amounts of food that they require for their massive bodies.

                Habitat loss is the biggest threat to elephant with their habitats getting hotter and drier threatening the calfs survival. Their were a few million african elephants turning the 20th century and today their are only about 450,000- 750,000 left. This animal is classified on the endangered list, while their cousin the asian elephant is on the verge of becoming extremely endangered.

Mating season is during the rainy season. Gestation lasts 22 months. A litter size is one calf (twins are rare).Calves weigh between 200-250 pounds at birth. At birth, a calf's trunk has no muscle tone, therefore it will suckle through its mouth. It takes several months for a calf to gain full control of its trunk.

    My sources National Geographic, African Elephant Facts, and Basic Facts About Elephants

                                                  By Ty Jenkins

The Honey Badger

                                Honey Badger 

               Honey Badgers are generally carnivores with a very heavy diet. Over sixty species of animals are known to be its prey. They will eat lots of smaller foods like insect larva, scorpions, lizards, rodents, and birds. They will eat larger reptiles to like crocodiles up to 1 meter long  and pythons  up to three meters long. They also eat highly venomous adders, cobras, and black mambas. Larger mammals such as young foxes, jackals, antelope, and wild cats ( smaller ones ) are also caught.


               Honey badgers seem to have an immunity to snake venom. If a honey badger got bit in the face by a adder it will hurt extremely bad, but within 5 hours it will be gone! This has to develop through there life time so the mother prevents snake encounters with the cubs until find they develop their immunity.

                Mellivora capensis is the species’ formal name (scientific name). It’s true that the honey badger has the Guinness Book of World Records title of "World's Most Fearless Creature." This creature will even go up against a porcupine. Hyenas, lions, leopards and pythons are all enemies (as are humans), but if those are considered your only enemies, you’re probably incredibly tough.


                   Ferocious and fearless animals aren’t always the smartest, but honey badgers break the mold. They’re so intelligent that they even use tools. A team of honey badgers used sticks, a rake, mud, stones, and pure determination in their attempts to escape. You can watch this, and all of Honey Badgers: Masters of Mayhem, on YouTube. 




Here are my sources The Honey Badgers Masters of Mayhem Video, The Honey Badger.com, and 11 facts about the honey badger.

                                                       By Ty Jenkins

Okapi: The weird siblings of giraffes!

Okapi

Okapi are mammals that live in central Africa. Even though Okapi resemble zebras because of their zebra like stripes, they are more related to the giraffe. Okapi are approximately 8 feet tall which is about an average person and a half. They are also 440- 770 pounds. Okapi are herbivores and they eat  tree leaves, grasses, ferns, fruits, and mushrooms.

Okapi are endangered because of hunting for meat and skin and illegal mining in okapi territory. The Okapi Wildlife Reserve and Maiko National Park support significant populations of the okapi, though there has been a steady decline in numbers due to several threats. The largest cause for population decline is human settlements in okapi grounds.


Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okapi[Picture], animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/okapi

Click HERE to see my A to Z on marine life (and their features)

Galileo Galilei

Galileo

Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist. He was an astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher, and a mathematician. Galileo is most well known for his amazing astronomy and his experiment on the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy, on February 15, 1564. He was the eldest child of Vincenzo Galilei, and Giulia Ammannati. Galileo's family belonged to the nobility of Italy, but his family wasn't exceptionally rich. 

Galileo was most famous for his astronomy. At the time, the people thought that all the planets and the sun would revolve around Earth, but Galileo thought differently. He proved this theory incorrect, although he was found to be guilty for heresy,which means to say something against the rules  , by the church. Galileo also made a very effective telescope. While the telescopes at the time magnified 3x, Galileo's magnified the view by 9x. With his telescope, Galileo found the Galilean moons, Jupiter's largest moons.

Galileo also did experiments mass and gravity. It had long been believed that heavy objects would drop faster than light objects, but he was always curious about whether this was true or not. One day, he went up to the top floor of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He dropped two objects of different weight down at the same time and they hit the ground at the same time. He found that what determines how fast something will drop is gravity and air resistance.

I believe that Galileo was an amazing scientist and his inventions and discoveries were key to our modern world today.








Sources: http://www.biography.com/people/galileo-9305220#early-life, www.universetoday.com/48756/galileo-facts/, 
www.history.com/topics/galileo-galilei

Albert Einstein

If you'd like to learn about Albert Einstein click here.