Climate Change

Combustion
Hypothesis: If Miss Leland ignites the alcohol, then it will start smoking and possibly create a fire, because alcohol naturally reacts that way.
What actually happened: It did set on fire, but only momentarily due to the rubbing alcohol not being as strong as alternate fuel sources- and due to the fact that there was barely any alcohol in the bottle. It flew across the room due to Miss Leland building up the pressure in the alcohol beforehand, and became a bottle rocket, and made a WHOOSHing sound. The second time it didn't work, since Miss Leland didn't build up the pressure inside the bottle enough.
Thoughts on combustion: It's obviously linked to pollution. All these diffent and dangerous chemicals are interacting with each other, causing a potential threat.


CO2
Hypothesis: If Miss Leland exposes the mixture to the candle flames, they will become stronger. This obviously isn't safe.
What actually happened: The mixture put the fire out! Fire needs oxygen to burn, and the baking soda deprived the fire of oxygen.
Thoughts on CO2: It's dangerous for the climate, which is unfortunate considering there is so much of it. Most is being emitted by humans, while some is being emitted naturally.


Hydrogen Gas
Hypothesis: If Miss Leland exposes the hydrogen gas to the flame, then it will create a huge fire because hydrogen is extremely flammable.
What actually happened: There WAS a huge fire, but it died down once the chemical reaction slowed. Even when the gas was lit on fire again, it didn't flame for more than a few seconds. However, the fire was pretty awesome for the time being.
Thoughts on hydrogen gas and renewable energy: 86 percent of energy is fossil fuels. This shows that we are too dependent. However, wind energy seems to have potential for the future- between 1997 and 2006, the use increased by a factor of ten. The majority of energy comes from the sun, with the exception of tidal and nuclear, and geothermal. We are beginning to use the sun's energy more directly in the form of solar energy, and this is proving to be pretty promising as well. Solar power is only 0.01 percent of all the world's energy use, but it's becoming widely used.


Air Pressure
Hypothesis: If Miss Leland places the hot soda can full of water vapor in the ice bath, the can will explode due to cooling too quickly.
What actually happened: Absolutely nothing. Miss Leland says she's doing a second test using the soda can in the ice bath... hopefully it will be more interesting.
Hypothesis: If Miss Leland places the can upside down in to the ice bath, then it will explode due to contact with the inside of the can.
What actually happened: It IMPLODED, as if an invisible force had crushed the can from the inside! All of the water began pouring out from the can. A change in direction can affect an object's air pressure, which is exactly what we saw here- the can was a 'vacuum.'

Chernobyl Article: Basic Summary & Reflection

This was an extremely long and complex article, and it was impossible to finish or take decent notes on. However, I'll try to summarize it as best as possible.
Basically, it addressed the many health problems caused by Chernobyl's radiation. Thyroid cancer was the most common, with 237 cases in the beginning. 28 of those patients died.
High levels of radiation caused problems sooner, and showed early symptoms like vomiting. Days after, the patients' white blood cell counts dropped severely. Low levels of radiation caused cancer later on. No matter how much radiation a person was exposed to, they always suffered some sort of disease.

My opinion on the article was that it was informative, even though it was complex. It went in- depth with the effects of radiation.

Questions: Were there any parts of the world not affected by radiation?
What sorts of diseases did the surviving nuclear plant workers get?

What other early symptoms were shown when a person is affected by radiation?

What diseases did animals get?

How did diseased animals and plants suddenly flourish and become the almost-paradise that Pripyat is today?