I was just searching around for cool science experiments when I came upon this one. Adding a little bit of water to a balloon can actually keep it from popping. Its simple how it works. The thin rubber membrane can only take a small amount of heat before breaking. When water is added though, it soaks up some of the heat so the membrane doesn't have to withstand as much. Eventually though the balloon will pop. By the way, when I did the experiment, I could hold the flame under the balloon for up to 7 seconds, whereas without water it was an instant pop.
My mom and I were listening to this really interesting podcast from RadioLab about coral and I thought that I would post it. Scientists decided to take random pieces of coral and cut them open. Just like a tree, there were small rings that indicated a year, but in between these larger lines, were smaller ones. There were around 360- 365 rings which each represented a day! So what the scientist decided to do was the exact same thing with coral that was millions of years old. He found that , again there were lines that marked each year and lines that marked each day. When he counted these small lines he counted 400 or so! Basically what that means is that the days were shorter then, then they are now! To be exact each day was 22 hours long. So why does that happen? As per The Daily Beast article about Neil Shubin's book The Universe Within "Like a slowing top, Earth spins slower and slower with each passing moment, making days longer now than in the past. As the planet rotates, the water in the oceans moves about and serves to brake the spin of the planet. That is why today is two milliseconds longer than yesterday. Fossil corals are silent witnesses to the lengthening of days. Clocks and calendars abound in the natural world, sometimes in the most surprising places."
|
BenI'm an eighth grader and want to share my love of science with others. Archives
December 2016
Categories |