S'mores at the Speed of Light

Materials:

• Chocolate
• Marshmallows
• Microwave (you will need to know the frequency. If you can't find it the norm is 2.45 GHz)
• Ruler
• Something to do calculations on
• Graham Crackers

 First, if your microwave has a rotating dish in the center, you will need to remove it. Or figure out some way to put food in so it won't rotate. Then lay your bar of chocolate (open it first!) on a plate to place it in the microwave in such a way that it won't rotate.

The red circles are the melted spots.

Image courtesy of Null Hypothesis

Microwave it for a bit, until there are 2 melted patches. 20 seconds should work. Now remove it from the microwave and use your ruler to measure between the two melted spots. Spread the marshmallows out on a plate and repeat.

Sci Show

Topics: General Science
Explanation Quality: Best
Medium: Video
Type of Content: News, Teaching
 
SciShow is a youtube channel run by Hank Green. It posts several different types of videos. There is a weekly video with science news. There are shorter videos on a variety of interesting topics - my favorite is on Non-Newtonian fluids. These offer a quick overview of something.

There are also longer videos which offer more information. My favorite one of those is on epigenetics. Basically, this channel is a good place to learn a bit about a random topic. If you have something specific you want to know about in mind this might not be the right place, but if you just want to keep updated on what's happening in the world, or don't care what you learn about, then this is the place for you. This is not to say that SciShow won't help you if you are trying to learn about a specific topic. I was able to use one of their videos in a presentation on radiation.

The videos are always easily understandable, and normally humorous as well. So go check it out!

Plans for the Future

I apologize for not updating frequently. Normally what happens when I want to write a post, I find a topic or experiment that looks cool. If it's an experiment I write up how to do it. Then I research. A lot. It takes me a while to have learned enough about a topic to be able to write an understandable explanation of a topic. Especially because it is very difficult to find understandable information on complex topics. I am going to make an effort to post stuff more regularly.

Since there is a lot of science on the internet and there is no way I will be able to explain as much as I want to, I am going to start posting some of my favorite sites when I go to start learning about a new topic. I often get frustrated by constantly finding information that is too basic or is much too complex, but these sites normally help. In addition, I made a science board on Pinterest! There I will post bite-size experiments and fun facts. The explanations won't be as in-depth as they are here, but it's something fun I want to try.

I also want to try and add more pictures to my posts. I feel they can aid in explaining complicated concepts, or in helping to understand directions for an experiment. So if you find an old post suddenly has a picture when you swear it didn't before, don't be alarmed. You're not going crazy, I'm just updating it.

Plasma

I wanted to learn more about "weird" states of matter the other day, so I decided to start by researching plasma. I was shocked when I found out that plasma is THE most common naturally occurring state of matter in the universe. It is estimated to compose 99% of visible matter. And yet, in school I have learned virtually nothing about it. I heard about it only from when a teacher would ask "What are the 3 states of matter?" and some kid would answer plasma. The teacher would say "Well technically yes, but we're not going to talk about it now." And this has been happening for years.So here is an overview that hopefully helps your understanding.

Plasma is an ionized gas. A gas is a collection of atoms and/or molecules floating around freely. It is a fluid, meaning it flows like a liquid. It is also very compressible. A gas becomes a plasma after being subjected to either high temperatures or other energy. This causes the molecules (or atoms, but for the rest of this post I'm just going to say molecules and just assume I mean whatever type of particle the gas is composed of) to ionize.

Ionizing a molecule means either adding electrons or ripping them off. In this case, it usually means ripping them off. So the plasma is composed of the ions and the electrons that have been removed. Not all the molecules have to be ionized though. There can be varying ratios of ions to molecules. This ratio is called the degree of ionization. Plasmas are (usually) quasi-neutral, meaning they have approximately equal amounts of positive and negative charges.

Plasmas can be thermal or non-thermal. If it is thermal, that means the ions, neutral particles, and electrons are in thermal equilibrium. In other words, all the particles are roughly the same temperature. In a non-thermal plasma, ions and neutral particles will be the same temperature (normally close to that of the surroundings) while the electrons will be MUCH hotter.

Examples of plasma in everyday life include lightning, neon lights, and the sun. Although flames are present on this chart, there is some controversy over whether they are actually a plasma. The majority says no, and even if fire is plasma, it is a very weakly ionized one that doesn't show all of the properties. There has also been some work done in cooling non-neutral plasmas (plasmas composed entirely of one type of charged particle) done to temperatures within a few milli-Kelvins of absolute zero. In these instances the plasma forms a crystal lattice structure.

This is only a brief overview. It was very difficult to find information that was both trustworthy and at a level I could understand, so if there are any errors please notify me immediately (with sources).

To learn more, check out these links:
http://science.energy.gov/~/media/fes/pdf/about/Low_temp_plasma_report_march_2008.pdf
http://sdphca.ucsd.edu/index.html
http://www.plasmacoalition.org/edu.htm   (this one is actually a page full of more resources)

Ice Cream

Since Summer is nearly upon us, now is the perfect time to learn how to make ice cream at home!

You'll need:

1/2 cup milk
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 Teaspoon vanilla

1/2-3/4 cups salt
2 cups ice
1 small (sandwich) ziplock bag
1 large (gallon) ziploc bag


Combine the first set of ingredients (the milk, sugar, and vanilla) in the small ziploc bag. Seal it thoroughly. To ensure it doesn't leak, seal this bag inside the 2nd small bag. Now, take the large ziploc bag and fill it with ice and salt. Place your small bag inside the large bag. Move the large bag back and forth, keeping the small bag in contact with the ice at all times. Do this for 10 -15 minutes or until the mixture appears frozen, adding more ice if necessary. The ice cream won't harden, it will remain soft but will be thicker than it was originally. To harden it more, you can put this in the freezer for half an hour (in a covered container). Or, you can remove the ice cream from the large bag and enjoy as is!

To make it chocolate flavoured, simply add a Teaspoon of cocoa powder. Instead of using ziplock bags, you can use a large and small coffee can (be sure to clean it out first!), or a small bowl placed inside a large bowl. When using bowls, you must constantly stir the mixture with an electric mixer or whisk.

Observations

Last week was my last day (at least for a while) to work with the after-school program I've been with. I must say it was pretty fun. I got a different group of kids each time. The were usually pretty excited when it got to be their turns because they had seen the Glurch the other kids had made.

They definitely liked the messy activities best. After my first visit, I realized that in addition to the tablecloth, they would need something to keep them from being covered in food coloring and other stuff. I ended bringing in some workshirts I didn't mind them getting dirty. And thank goodness I did. As part of Oobleck, I had them touch the cornstarch by itself (because it feels unusually smooth). For some reason, they children really enjoyed throwing the cornstarch at each other. I would also not recommend doing these activities over a nice floor because every time we ended up having to wipe it off extensively.

Two of the kids I had in my first group liked the experience so much that they kept on trying to sneak into my other sessions. As long as I had enough materials I would usually let them. And I'm happy to say at least some things I taught them must have stuck, because they could explain a few of the activities to the new kids!

I admit, as I went through the sessions my explanations got progressively worse. This was partly due to the fact that the groups kept getting younger. The last group was full of second graders. We could discuss what state of matter the Oobleck was, but that was about it.

The Real World

Yesterday was my first time going into the real world with my kits. I'm working with an afterschool program in a nearby town. I get there a little after my school day ends, set up, run some activities, clean up, and head home.