Search This Blog

Friday, November 18, 2011

Current Events: Light Out of Nowhere

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228392.700-light-pulled-out-of-empty-space.html
By: Michael Brooks
Source: New Scientist

               Did you know that you can literally get light out of nothing? As long as you're going at the speed of light. The whole idea of getting something out of nothing revolves around a 41 year old principle that says that there is no empty space, but particles are constantly moving in and out of existence. This is a fact that has been long established since the discovery of the Casimir effect in which two mirrors face parallel two each other with a  tiny space between them. They are pushed together by the radiation pressure since the number of virtual photons on the outside is much grater than the ones in between which pulls the two mirrors together. This experiment, however, is conducted by one mirror moving at the speed of light through virtual photons in empty space. Since it is quite hard to move a mirror at the speed of light they instead used a superconductor to simulate this. This produced particles right out of the vacuum, out of nothing.
              I thought that this article was really fascinating because I've never actually heard of virtual photons or the Casimir effect which is really interesting. I thought the principle that nothing is empty, but rather particles jump in and out of existence was really interesting and new to me. I chose this article because  writing about something complex and new to me helped me understand what was going on and how the experiment worked.

Current Events: Faster than light

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15791236
By: Jason Palmer
Source: BBC News

             It is well known as being the fastest thing in the universe, light, but a group of scientists believe that they have found something that is faster than light. They set out to prove this by launching Neutrinos through 730 kilometers of solid rock, from Cern, Geneva, to Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy. The Neutrinos arrived 60 billionths of a second faster than light would have proving that neutrinos travel faster than light. This is a major discovery because throughout history scientists believed that light was the fastest thing in the universe but now tests suggest that light isn't the fastest thing in the universe, which could shatter basic principles of physics. When a test like this is run the timing has to be completely perfect, which means that even if they are off by one millionth of a second the whole experiment is invalid. Because of this they are now working on addressing any potential errors although after 20 consecutive tests they all yielded more or less the same results.
              I chose this article because it was very surprising to me when I first saw it because I've always thought that light was the fastest thing in the universe. After I read into it I thought that it was quite interesting even though the time difference is only 60 billionths of a second. This could be a massive scientific breakthrough and I thought it was cool to read and write about it.

Graphic of the Opera experiment

Current Events: Jupiter Moon has "Shallow lakes"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15754786
By: Jennifer Carpenter
Source: BBC News

                According to Brittney Shmidt  life may exist on Jupiter's moon, Europa. When scientists further studied the moon's surface, there was evidence that suggests Europa might have water underneath it's surface. Europa's surface is a thick layer of ice about 6km deep, but something about the surface isn't quite right. The ice on the surface is not flat, but crushed and cracked. This suggests that small lakes underneath the ice are forcing the ice up making cracks and destroying it. Not only do scientists see evidence of small lakes but there also might be a whole ocean roughly 100 miles deep and resting 10-30 kilometers beneath the surface.All of this could mean that there is life on Europa. This discovery has inspired a mission to Europa, and scientists hope that by the end of the decade or at the beginning of the next decade.
           When I first saw this article I was a bit surprised since I've always thought that there is no water outside of Earth. This was a very interesting article and I think that if there is life on Europa it could have a huge impact on the scientific world. I chose this article because I thought that it was really interesting and other people should see it too. 

Current Events: Metallic Hydrogen

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336191/title/Metallic_hydrogen_makes_its_debut%2C_maybe
German scientists claim to have produced a long-sought material
By: Devin Powell


           For 76 years scientists have been trying to create a material that would be a prefect conductor for wires in spaceships because of its low electricity loss, this material is called metallic hydrogen. Two German scientists claim to have created this metallic hydrogen by squeezing a room temperature sample of hydrogen between two diamonds at a stunning 2.3 millions times the pressure of earths atmosphere to create an opaque and reflective metal. Other scientists are skeptical though because scientists before have thought to have created this material. In 1996 William Nellis and a few of his colleagues used shock waves to create hydrogen that conducted electricity though it only lasted a fraction of a second. Erments plans to silence critics be recreating the experiment and recreating this metal. “Hydrogen attracts so much attention in our field,” says Eremets. “Of course there will be a lot of emotion, of course there will be a lot of demands.” 
               I chose this article because I thought it would relate well to what we were doing in class since we were learning about elements and chemical reactions/changes. I also thought that the method they used to achieve this change was very interesting since they pretty much crushed the hydrogen between two diamonds. I thought this was a very cool article and I think that if they actually did make this that it could be a great innovation for mankind.

Atoms Simulator

What happens when you add a proton? 
When you add a proton with nothing else it becomes Hydrogen which is a positive ion.

What does it mean when an atom is stable?  What does it mean when an atom is unstable? 
When an atom is stable it means it has an equal amount of protons and neutrons resulting in the atom being stable. When an atom is unstable it means that it has an uneven number of protons and neutrons and is essentially what makes something radioactive.

How do you make an atom stable?  What do you need to do? 
If an atom is unstable that means that there are either too many protons or too many electrons. To fix this you would have to even out the number of protons and electrons making the atom stable.
  
What happens to the atom when there is more protons, more neutrons, or more electrons?  
In an atom, if there are more protons or more neutrons the atom will be unstable. If there are more electrons then protons and neutrons then the atom is a negative ion while if there are less electrons than protons and neutrons then it is a positive ion, if the neutrons, electrons, and protons are all equal than it is a neutral atom.

What's the difference between a positive and a negative ion? 
A positive ion is made when an atom has lost electrons or given them away so there are more protons than electrons. A negative ion is when an atom has gained electrons from another atom and therefore has more electrons than protons. This is the difference between a positive and a negative ion

How do you make a neutral ion (charge of 0)? 
To make a neutral ion you have to have an equal number of protons, neutrons and electrons

Evidence of a Chemical Reaction

Bromine and Alchohol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVK9Om4wzBM
It took a while for the chemical reaction to occur. At first red bubbles started to fizz at the bottom of the cup and then more and more came until the whole cup was red. It stayed like that for a few seconds and then red smoke started to come out of the cup. Eventually it died down and the alcohol had become red while the Bromine looked the same.

Lithium and Water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ypUVpwgcAA&feature=related
The Lithium began to smoke as soon as it went into the water, then it set on fire and moved around in the water for about five seconds before going out.

Cesium and Water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=896vJj6eWYw&feature=related
The cesium com busted instantly as soon as it came in contact with the water.

Potassium and Water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRmNPKVEGeQ&NR=1
The potassium instantly started sparking and set on fire when it came in contact with the water. The fire gre larger and then the potassium went out.

Sodium and Potassium in Water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJslbQiYrYY&NR=1
At first nothing happened when the sodium went in the water but then it set on fire and a few seconds later exploded. The potassium did more or less the same thing except that the explosion was a lot smaller.

Aluminum Foil and "The Works Reaction"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n7kBkBcXgo&NR=1
At first you could slowly see the foam rising up and then it suddenly sped up and started overflowing. You could see that the liquid was going down while more foam was coming out. A few seconds later it started foaming even faster for a while and then it slowed down. At the end there was barely anything left in the beaker.

Gummy Bear Oxidation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pk6s1MbszA&feature=related
The Gummy bear seemed to set the chemical on fire and after a few seconds the whole beaker was completely blazing with flames.

Wicked Chemical Reaction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrNA8-eipGE&feature=related
It seemed that when the chemical was put in that the salt crystals started moving around or something though I didn't really understand what was happening.

Elephant Toothpaste
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezsur0L0L1c
The chemical reaction happens really fast. Foam comes out of the beakers and seems to be extremely hot because there is smoke coming from it. Although it looks solid it actually is just like a lot of bubbles.

Where's the Evidence


Guiding Question: What are signs that a chemical reaction has occured?



Hypothesis:
 I think that some signs of chemical change are color change, bubbling, overflowing, combustion. I think that most of the reactions will be either bubbling or color change. I think that all of the reactions will be easily spotted and there won’t be any reactions that will not be visible.



Materials:
1) Na2Co3- Sodium Carbonate
2)CaCl2- Calcium Chloride
3)HCl- Hydrochloric Acid
4)CuSO4- Copper Sulfate(acid)
5) Aluminium Foil
6)Zinc Pieces
7)Baking Soda
8)Vinegar
9)Magnesium Tablets
10)Spatula
11)Graduate Cylinders
12)Stirrer
13)Candle
14)Goggles
15)Beakers
16)Starch
17)Iodine








Analysis Table:
=
Reaction
Observations Before Reaction
Predictions
Observations During Reaction
Observations After Reaction
Baking Soda + Vinegar
Vinegar is clear in the tube, the baking soda is white powder
It will bubble up and overflow
The liquid is bubbling up and the baking soda dissolved in the vinegar creating a fizz
The liquid is much less in volume and the baking soda is gone
Sugar + Heat
The sugar is grainy and hard, clear white
It will melt and become black
The sugar on top is bubbling while the sugar underneath is melting and becoming brown
The sugar became a brown liquid and the aluminum blackened.
Iodine + Starch
The Iodine is a dark purple though it is recognizably purple
It will change color
It is slowly becoming darker and darker
The Iodine is pitch black and very different from when it started.
Copper Sulfate + Aluminum Foil
Copper Sulfate is light blue and aluminum ball is shiny and gray
It will dissolve
It is becoming red and the copper sulfate is losing color
The Aluminum foil is dark red as if it rusted out and the copper sulfate has lost its color.
Zinc piece + HCl
The liquid is clear with the zinc piece normal
The zinc will dissolve
The zinc has bubbles coming out
The zinc seems the same and the HCl is a very whiteish blue
Copper Sulfate + Sodium Carbonate
Everything is normal
It will change color
It bubbles up
Its color has changed

Analysis of your results

How do the results of each reaction compare with your prediction? 
My predictions were all more or less correct except for a few. For the Zinc and HCl I predicted that the Zinc would dissolve. At the end the zinc was still there which meant my prediction was wrong, I also didn’t predict any color change. My prediction for copper sulfate and aluminum foil was also w bit off. I thought that the aluminum would dissolve but instead it just turned reddish, and the Copper Sulfate lost all its color.



How did you know when each reaction was over?  What was the evidence of a chemical reaction in all results?
From my observations I noticed that usually the way that you can see if a chemical reaction is over is quite obvious. For example, the baking soda and vinegar had a very noticeable reaction which was that the combination bubbled up and overflowed. It was easy to see that when it stopped bubbling and the foam receded that the chemical reaction was over. Another example is the zinc piece and HCl, which was also a noticeable reaction. When the reaction was happening the zinc had bubbles coming from it and the HCl was turning white-ish. When it eventually stopped and the zinc piece was normal I could tell that the reaction was over. I think that the evidence of a chemical reaction being over in all cases was that at the end everything had noticeably changed, be it color change, loss of liquid due to overflowing, but all of them had some sort of change you could see.

  Were there any endothermic or exothermic reactions?
Throughout the lab there were a few exothermic but no endothermic reactions. An endothermic reaction is when something’s temperature drastically drops down, there were none of these.


  Were the products always the same as what you started with?  How do you know?  
None of the end products were the same as what they started as because all of them had a chemical reaction happen. When a chemical reaction happens it means that chemical change has occurred resulting in something different than in the beginning. A chemical change, by definition, is when molecules change and cannot go back to their former state. This is how I know that none of the products stayed the same.



Conclusion:
The guiding question asked how to know when chemical change has occurred and I thing that this lab showed most ways to known when chemical change occurred. I think that my hypothesis was correct because I did see a lot of color change and bubbling though not much combustion. Some of the chemical changes were a lot harder to see than other ones, for example the copper sulfate and aluminum foil took a while to have effect but the baking soda and vinegar was nearly instant. My hypothesis stated what happened to most of the chemical reactions although one thing I think I missed in my hypothesis was dissolving. The zinc piece in the hydrochloric acid seemed to dissolve when put in it which I did not predict. It was the same thing with the baking soda and vinegar, and the starch and Iodine

Further Analysis:
I think that this was a goof lab and I dont know if I would make any changes to the procedure. I did have a few questions during the lab and probably the one I wondered most is that when we did baking soda and vinegar and put in a lot of vinegar and baking soda, the reaction was the same as if we put less. This was quite strange to me and I hope to find out why in our next lab.

Monday, August 29, 2011



Interactions



  • Zinc replaces Hydrogen in Hydrochloric acid
  • Neon + Hydrogen = no attraction
  • Hydrogen + Carbon = attraction
  • Carbon attracts 4 hydrogen
  • Noble gases do not bond
  • Oxygen bonds with itself
  • Hydrogen breaks Oxygen bond
  • Water + Potassium = explosive reaction
  • Sodiumchloride + electricity = element seperation

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Back in Grade 8

Hello to all my followers, this year I will be returning for Grade 8 this year. I will be keeping everybody up to date and letting you know all about my work.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The Moon Phases





What are the phases of the moon and what causes them?


In class today we did a test using two Styrofoam balls and a flashlight. There was a larger Styrofoam ball that represented the Earth on a 23.5 degree tilt simulating the tilt of the Earth. A smaller ball representing the moon  is positioned around the Earth in different places to represent the different phases of the moon. The flashlight would shine on the Earth and the moon to represent sunlight and the when the moon was in different areas then it would like the different phases of the moon. From my observations I learned that the phases of the moon are the new moon which is when the moon is completely dark, then go into a waxing crescent, then go into a waxing gibbous. After that it is a full moon, then a waning gibbous and a waning crescent. All of these phases take place over approximately 29 days that it takes for the moon to go around the Earth. I learned a lot in terms of what causes the different phases of the moon and it was very interesting to me. When the sun shined on the moon in different places it looked a lot like the test we did with the Earth. The movements of the sun around the moon was interesting and it was cool to see that the one side of the moon never faced the Earth  This was a cool activity and is very realistic to show the phases of the moon even with the Earth.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Noise Pollution



Noise is usually defined as unwanted sound, an airplane flying by, construction workers working on a building, but when is there too much noise? When there is too much noise it is considered noise pollution. Noise pollution is excessive noise created by nature or by machines that disturbs our everyday lives. Noise pollution can be extremely dangerous and can cause hearing damage and even complete loss of hearing.  Noise pollution can even damage animals in the environment by disrupting mating calls and other uses they have for sound.

Noise pollution has been around for a very long time and has given many people hearing damage and loss. Noise pollution can affect both humans and animals alike, having similar or different consequences. In humans’, noise pollution can affect both physiological and psychological health, which can result in annoyance and aggression, hypertension, high stress levels, tinnitus, hearing loss, sleep disturbances, and other harmful effects. All of these things that affect humans can be very dangerous and can also be dangerous to the people around you. Noise pollution can also make life harder with hearing loss and damage, and even when you’re older the effects will stay with you. Noise pollution can be devastating to people’s lives, making them disabled, or unable to work, but animals also face problems with noise pollution since it can interrupt mating calls making it harder for them to find mates. IT can also affect animals by changing the balance between predator-prey detection and avoidance. These effects on animals can seriously affect their lives; sometimes even more than ours.
             Noise pollution can be a huge problem in some areas, affecting animals and people. In some areas with high noise pollution some daytime birds sing during the night to have clearer messages because of the noise pollution. To humans it can also be a problem that there are high levels of noise pollution. Noise pollution can have very bad effects on people and can also cause annoyance and aggression, hypertension, high stress levels, tinnitus, hearing loss, sleep disturbances, and other harmful effects. In big cities noise pollution can affect lots of people. Imagine sitting in your car in the middle of traffic with extremely loud noises of horns honking, people yelling. Wouldn’t this make you stressed? The negative effects of noise pollution can be worse than people may think. Probably the most common effect of noise pollution is hearing loss and damage. Many people have lost their hearing to noise pollution which means they probably can’t work; this would make their lives much harder.
            Many things have been done to stop noise pollution on highways and other areas. On some highways they do things such as adding sound barriers, limiting speed, limiting heavy vehicles, changing surface texture, and tire design. This has significantly reduced sound on some roads and even something as small as changing the tire of your car can make the streets so much quieter. Speed limits are not specially used for sound reduction but they can be used not only to prevent accidents but also to limit sound. Sound barriers obviously can’t be used on downtown streets and suburbia streets, but on large highways it can be helpful to limit sound. A good example of a more modern sound barrier is the Sound Tunnel in Melbourne, Australia. During the 70’s and 80’s there were many attempts at making quieter jet engines. Although not much progress has been made, some reduction to airplane sound has been made.
            Science has many limitations in solving the issue of noise pollution. Probably the biggest problem is that sound cannot be totally removed (At least not yet). Noise pollution is bad because of excessive noise so the solution would be getting rid of some of the sound but not all of it. This can be an issue because if you are trying to remove some sound from a lot of sound there are tons of factors causing the sound so you can’t just quiet down the cars without quieting something else. The limitations of getting rid of noise pollution are very large, but there are some advantages in getting rid of it. Since the biggest problems of noise pollution are man-made, we know how to quiet them down but actually making the changes is what holds us back. It is hard to make large changes to our everyday lives just to make the world a little quieter. It would be impossible to stop people from driving cars in the name of making the world quiet. The limitations of preventing noise pollution far outweigh the advantages, making noise pollution something very hard to get rid of.
            Noise pollution has been annoying people for many, many years but still we seem unable to prevent it. There have been laws to prevent noise pollution but to fully exterminate it would be like setting ice on fire. The first law was produced in 1975 for Portland, Oregon, with funding from the EPA. In Portland fines for violating noise codes can reach as high as $5000! The many efforts to get rid of noise pollution have made small improvements but have ultimately not been extremely effective. Since sound is something we absolutely need in our lives we can’t get rid of noise pollution, but still, we can keep making small improvements.


Bibliography
Naik, Abhijit. "Noise Pollution Facts." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. <http://www.buzzle.com/articles/noise-pollution-facts.html>.

"Noise." World Health Organization. World Health Organization. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. <http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/environmental-health/noise>.

Stop Boom Car Noise, Motorcycle Noise, Car Alarm Noise, Barking Dog Noise, Neighbor Noise. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. <http://www.noisefree.org/>.

"BBC NEWS | Health | Road Noise Link to Blood Pressure." BBC News - Home. 10 Sept. 2009. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8247217.stm>.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Tuning Fork Lab



Guiding Question: How does the density of a material affect the properties of sound traveling from a tuning fork? 


Hypothesis: I think that the density of the material will have a large effect on the properties of the sound. I think that the pitch and loudness will be the biggest factors that change.  When the density of the object is higher I think it will be much quieter and the pitch will be much lower. When the object is less dense than the loudness will be much louder and the pitch will be higher.



Procedure:

  1. Get a Tuning fork
  2. Hit the tuning fork on an object then put the bas of the tuning fork on the object and put your ear to the material. Record how it sounds.
  3. Repeat step 2 with 4 other materials
  4. Find the densities of all the objects

Controlled Variable: 256 C, same temperature, hard hit


MaterialSoundDensity
Desk (Oak)High pitch, quiet, short0.65 g/cm3
Wall (Concrete)Almost no sound1.1 g/cm3
Metal Rail (Aluminum)High sound, long2.7 g/cm3
White Board (Aluminum)High, Very long2.7 g/cm3
Wooden Box (Oak)Low, Buzzing0.65 g/cm3
Locker (Steel)Loud, High, screeching7.859 g/cm3



Conclusion:
This lab was very interesting and I think the most fun in the whole year. The tuning forks were very fun to listen to and the different frequencies made it so much more interesting. The sounds on the different materials were all different so steel didn’t sound like wood and glass didn’t sound like concrete. I think that our tests were accurate because we always hit the tuning fork the same way and had it the right distance away from our ears. The sounds were also very varied which made it interesting to see what the different sounds were. I think the most intense sound was the wooden box because it was made to project sound of the tuning fork. My hypothesis was mostly correct although I was surprised to see that concrete was less dense than aluminum. Even though the wall was less dense than the metal railing the concrete wall made almost no sound which surprised me when I saw the densities.

Further Inquiry:
This lab was very interesting to me and taught me a lot about the way sound travels and also the density of some materials. It was fun to see how the distance that your ear was from the object affected the sound and also to hear the different frequencies although we didn’t use them in our test. When we tried the metal railing it was interesting because I tried going very far away from where the tuning fork was and the sound was still very clear. It was strange to me when I heard that sound travelled slower through air than other materials so it was cool to hear it in reality. The sound would usually be very bad when it went through air but if you put your ear to it it would be very clear. This was my favorite lab this year and I hope that we will have more like this one.


Bibliography:


Wolfram Alpha. "Density of Oak - Wolfram|Alpha." Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Density of oak>.


Wolfram Alpha. "Density of Concrete." Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Density+of+Concrete>.


Wolfram Alpha. "Density of Aluminum - Wolfram|Alpha." Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Density of Aluminum>.


Wolfram Alpha. "Density of Steel - Wolfram|Alpha." Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Density of Steel>.

Japan Tsunami Current Event

At exactly 2:46 PM on Friday, March 11th 2011 a 9.0 earthquake hit just off the shore of Tōhoku, Japan. The earthquake has had devastating results on the Japanese people and has killed more than 9000 people. The tsunami has destroyed most of Japan's wast coast and has traveled very far inland. Tons of cities have been completely destroyed with results of leaving people homeless or, in many cases, dead. One of the other devastating results of this has been the nuclear reactor that could have had very bad results if it had not been treated. The nuclear reactor melted down and was close to being worse than Chernobyl. Since the earthquake has happened thousands upon thousands of people have been dead or injured. You can help save the people of Japan by donating to Convoy of Hope or many other organizations. 


Here is a video I found showing the tsunami:



Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Bill Nye- Sound notes


  • Sound is tiny vibrations in the air
  • Oscilloscope- makes sound waves visible
  • The ear is like a funnel that helps sound go into the eardrums
  • Sound travels faster through metal and brick faster than through air
  • Sound travels 18 times faster through metal than air
  • An echo happens when sound bounces off something
  • When sound enters the ear canal it becomes smaller
  • Higher frequency = Higher pitch
  • Lower frequency = Lower pitch

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Properties of Sound Lab



I. Guiding Question: Determine how changing amplitude and frequency can change how a sound is perceived.

II. Hypothesis: I think that when the rubber band is plucked the amplitude and frequency will change the sound a lot. When the amplitude becomes higher then I think the sound will be much deeper and maybe even more muffled because of the vibrations and the top of the rubber band hitting the bottom. When the amplitude is lower I think the pitch will be much higher but the sound will also be quieter.

III. Exploration:
Materials:
thin, thick, long, and small rubber bands, partner

Procedure:
     1.
Have 2 partners each hold one end of the thicker rubber band, pull until the rubber band is not loose.
2. Pull the rubber band 1 cm away from the middle. Let it go. How far does the band move? (1 cm) Describe the sound you hear in the table below.
3. Repeat step 2 four more times. Each time, pull the band back further. Describe how the sound changes each time in the chart below.

IV. Record & Analyze:

Experiment 1:
Distance Away from MiddleDescription of Sound
1 cm
Low, quite pitch
2 cm
Higher, louder
3 cm
high pitch, very quiet
4 cm
low pitch, very quiet
5 cm
short, low pitch




Thickness of Rubber BandDescription of Sound
Thick
low pitch
Thin
quiet, high pitch



Tightness of Rubber BandDescription of Sound
Loosealmost no sound
Tighthigh pitch
Tightestlouder high pitch




Length of Rubber BandDescription of Sound
Longest
Low pitch
Long
short low pitch
Short
quit high pitched


    
V. Conclusion:
1. How did the sound change when you changed the amplitude?
When I changed the amplitude it became a higher pitch up to a certain point where the vibrations would hit the bottom of the rubber band and completely stop the sound.
2. What happened when you changed the thickness, length, and tightness of the rubber band?
The thickness of the rubber band changed mostly the pitch, making it very much lower. When the length was shorter it would be a higher pitch but a shorter sound. When it was longer it would be a lower pitch and last much longer. The tighter the rubber band was the higehr the pitch would be.