Wow, bad idea. Somebody skipped school on the day they did predator-prey relationships.

Chile Quake Changed Earth's Rotation ... probably.

From Space.com:  The massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have changed the entire Earth's rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday. The quake, the seventh strongest earthquake in recorded history, hit Chile Saturday and should have shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 milliseconds.  Read this story here.

Penguin Wars and Stranger Things

A few years ago we did the same project in science that you are doing now, where students had to invent a board game that taught about simple machines. I am always impressed by the projects I get! Here is one with some pretty involved maps and rules about acquiring territory, in which the opposing players drive little Lego ATV's:



In this next one, called "My Little Boa", there's a simple objective (a Candyland-like path), but the player in possession of the board has to wear a feather boa and a tiara; there is also a song that goes with it. The loser has to wear a plastic bucket on her head.

I loved this one, a trivia game based upon Cheaper by the Dozen, or something like that.

Here is the board all set up for play:

Conclusion: I love my job.

By far the best game, an actually marketable game, was this one called "Penguin Wars," a battle strategy game involving conquest of igloo-building territory and materials.
And here are the little game pieces, drawn by the student in a drawing program, miniaturized, and mounted on foam squares. Have you ever seen penguin snipers or swordsmen? How about heavy gunners? Cavalry!??!!?

The Prandtl–Glauert Singularity, a.k.a. "vapor cone"

Many of you have ben asking how the vapor cone pictured in the sound barrier post forms.  This vapor cone is known as the Prandtl–Glauert Singularity or P.G. Singularity.  It is sometimes also referred to as a shock collar or shock egg.

This effect can be seen anytime air is forced to rapidly expand and contract, such as during supersonic flight, and even during bomb explosions.

Apollo 11

Operation Crossroads

F-18

The cause of the PGS is complicated & still being studied, but in general what occurs is that rapid air pressure changes in the wake of the aircraft traveling at or above the speed of sound cause a temperature drop.  If the tempertaure drops below the dew point, water vapor in the area condenses into water droplets.  So the cone-shaped shock wave is, in simple terms, a cloud that forms in the region of the shock wave, much like the cloud-in-a-jar that you saw in 7th grade.

Source: Wikipedia.org

One Crazy Ride [a must watch video!]

Woah!

(click link above)

Justification for posting on this blog: 
1. It is awesome.
2. Simple machines! (wheel & axle)
3. Acceleration!
4. Gravity!
5. Friction!
6. Momentum!
7. Collisions (hopefully not)!
8. Great music.
9. Makes me happy to be alive.


Disclaimer:Just because you see it on the interwebz does not indicate that you should do it.

Achtung! German fact of the day:

Donner and Blitzen mean Thunder and Lightning in German. 

Speaking of Sculpture...

Mask II                                                         wikipedia.org

         Boy                                    wikipedia.org

Ron Mueck sculpts gigantic, realistic human figures.  This style of art is called hyperrealism.  The figures look realistic from every angle, and have lots of detail.  Many of them are nudes (I warned you!), elderly people, and people with physical flaws like most people have.  Read more about him on Wikipedia here.

Tsunami

With the recent earthquake in Chile and subsequent Tsunami alarms across the Pacific Ocean, you may be wondering how a tsunami forms.  There is an excellent and lengthy description here.

                                   i.cdn.turner.com

Tsunamis are formed as a result of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or landslides that occur under the sea. When these events occur under the water, huge amounts of energy are released as a result of quick upward bottom movement. For example, if a volcanic eruption occurs, the ocean floor may very quickly move upward several hundred feet. When this happens, huge volumes of ocean water are pushed upward and a wave is formed. A large earthquake can lift thousands of square kilometers of sea floor which will cause the formation of huge waves. The Pacific Ocean is especially prone to tsunamis as a result of the large amount of undersea geological activity.

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