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.

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.