I live on one of the main watersheds in the U.S. It is called the Chesapeake Bay. Now what is a watershed? A watershed is basically a large body of water that most of the water in an area flows into. In other words a big body of water, with lots of rivers flowing into it. This is why watersheds get so polluted. All of the runoff from surrounding areas flows into it. If that runoff is dirty then the watershed gets dirty. In the picture above you can see how all these rivers and tributaries flow into one large body of water that will later flow into the ocean!
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I just started this game called EyeWire. There is a community of over 500,000 people that are helping map the connections between eye and brain. It was designed by the lab at MIT. It uses something called crowd sourcing. This is where you obtain information or input into a particular task by enlisting the help of many people usually via the internet. So I have been to multiple beaches this Summer and I have figured out that the waves are very different in each area. At first I thought it was because of the moon and it sort of was. What I figured out was that waves are formed by friction on the surface. Friction on the surface basically means anything moving across the surface causing the water to move around. If you have ever looked behind a moving boat you can see waves or wake. This is made by the boat moving over the surface of the water. Once the surface water starts moving it becomes faster than the water below it. As the water on top speeds up it creates an arch above the water. This arch is the curve in the waves you see and the one in the picture below. The more the surface water moves the bigger the wave! It can also be formed by underwater earthquakes. That is how the tsunamis are usually formed. In VA beach the waves weren't very good until the last day when it was really windy. Then the big waves were more frequent.
I just got back from a vacation from Hawaii. It was really fun! The beaches were beautiful with their white sand. Did you know that there are many colored beaches! Many people believe that sand is made through erosion. In some cases that is true, but in the ocean what is there to erode? Coral? Sure, but that can't account for all the sand made. Ever heard of the black sand beach? That sand was made when lava flowed into the water and literally exploded. These small particles became sand. Some of it eroded slightly. Most of the white sand you see is small shells and bits of dead marine life that has washed up on shore. Sometimes though it is made by fish. Parrot fish can produce hundreds of pounds of sand every year. Everything that goes in has to come out right? That stuff becomes sand. Gross! So these beautiful beaches are actually fish poop! FoilingI just visited San Francisco, CA to visit my grandparents. It just happens that they are hosting this years America's Cup. It is one of the oldest cups in history. It was really cool to see all the boats practicing for their races. They can go really fast! This is how they do it. If you watch sailing you might see foiling a little. When boats get to about 20 knots they can begin to foil. This is basically when the main body of the boat is out of the water and it is just being held up by a small surface. This is when the boat can reach its top speed. Here is a video showing some America's cup boats. Light from the sun or even from a lightbulb comes toward you in vibrating waves. When it hits a reflective surface it shoots back at you which is why it seems so bright when you look at the lake on a sunny day. A polarization filter basically fixes this. The majority of reflected light waves come at a horizontal angle. A polarized filter is vertical only letting in vertical light waves. The majority of horizontal light waves can't make it through therefore eliminating them. I just got a new pair of sunglasses for fishing. They said they were polarized, but I wanted to make sure. To do this all you need is your glasses and a computer screen. Turn the computer on and put the glasses up to it. Now turn the glasses 90 degrees. If they are polarized you won't see anything anymore. I love my new sunglasses.
Here is a new experiment I tried that doesn't involve any type of magnification. My friend Hannah and I were looking for something fun to do and we decided to do this experiment! This is called a geode egg. Basically you add alum to heated water with a dye of your choice. After 24 hours it settles on the egg forming crystals! They get even more sparkly as they dry. Check out sick science to find even more cool experiments to try. Also check out steve spangler's website! Here is a video of a few worms I found in some water. They are pretty cool. You can see how they move around. They move kind of like an inch worm. This is the same sample of water that the flagellate was in. There were also ten more worms. This is at 40x. This is a picture of a dead bug I found in a sample o water. This is at 40x. You can see the small hairs coming off of it and the head and abdomen. I have this measurement box around it. I can't seem to figure out what type of bug it is, but its still pretty cool!
This is a video that shows a paramecium reproducing. A paramecium reproduces by splitting itself in half like this! pretty cool. They were found in a pond in my yard. |
BenI'm an eighth grader and want to share my love of science with others. Archives
December 2016
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