Silly Putty!

In class we did a small lab, and we made what we called a "silly putty". For this experiment, we used a bunch of different materials. The most important ingredient out of all was probably the borax acid, because that is what gave the putty a more gooey, and less sticky feel. However, before we used the borax, we mixed water and glue together. We added just a few drops of borax acid into the mixture, because if too much is added, the putty wouldn't turn out the way it's supposed to. Once we mixed all the ingredients together into a plastic cup, I used a spoon to take the putty out, and shape it. The putty is quite flexible, and if you break it off into many little pieces, you can still put them back together again into one putty, just like with clay, or play-doh. However, I realized that after a while the putty started getting quite difficult to bend, and if you broke it into little parts, it wouldn't blend together again. In order to get the putty gooey again, I had to put it under warm water. The putty was basically a covalent compound, because H2O was mixed with an acid, and glue.


 
This is what a silly putty would look like if food coloring was added to it.

Atom Simulation!

What happens when you add a proton?
When you add a proton to a completely empty atom,you get hydrogen. When a proton is added to a atom, the atom becomes stable.

What does it mean when an atom is stable? What does it mean when an atom is unstable?
A stable atom is an atom that is able to hold the nucleus together, including the electrons, neutrons, and protons. Unstable atoms are radioactive. They are unable to hold all of their parts together, and therefore radiation is released. Initally, radioactive materials are made of unstable atoms, who do not have enough binding energy to hold themselves together.

How do you make an atom stable? What do you need to do?
In order to make an atom stable, you need to add or subtract a certain amount of protons, depending on the amount of neutrons an atom has. I have noticed that the easiest way to stabilize an atom is to have the same amount of neutrons and protons within it. However, there are some exceptions, like, for example, helium. Helium is an element in the noble gasses family, and it has one neutron and two protons. To my surprise it was still stable!

What is the valence electron pattern as you move across the periodic table?
Valence electrons are the electrons that are placed in the outer shell of an atom. These electrons can become parts of another atom, or can be shared among two atoms. It is when valent electrons "connect" atoms that compunds are created. The valence electron pattern in the periodic table is very simple. When you go across the period, the number of valence electrons increases. When you start a new period, or a new "row", the number of valence electrons decreases, and drops to one. Then, the number starts increasing again.

What happens to the atom when there is more protons, more neutrons, or more electrons?
The atom becomes unstable, but like in the case of helium, there are some exceptions!

What's the difference between a positive and a negative ion?
 Ions are formed when an atom, or an element, loses or gains an electron. An ion becomes positively charged, when it loses an electron, because in that case the number of protons is bigger then the number of electrons. An ion is negatively charged if the opposite happens; an atom gains an electron. In that case, there are more electrons then protons.

Currents Events 2 - T-Rex was even bigger than we thought!

Published on October 14th, 2011
By: Meera Dolasia
Original title: OMG! The Mighty T-Rex May Have Been Even Bigger Than We Thought
Link: http://www.dogonews.com/2011/10/14/omg-the-mighty-t-rex-may-have-been-even-bigger-than-we-thought

Out of all the dinosaurs that existed on our planet long ago, Tyrannosaurus Rex, or T-Rex for short, was probably the fiercest and most dangerous. However, new studies have shown that scientists have miscalculated the actual size of T-Rex, and that this dinosaur was 30% bigger than originally thought! The new measurements of T-Rex’s skeleton were discovered by a group of British and American paleontologists, who used five T-Rex fossils to make scale models, and conduct their research.  

SUE is the most well-preserved fossil of T-Rex ever found. By using the forensic scanners, scientists found that just the skull of T-Rex is 3.3 feet wide and about 5 feet long!  The team also tried to accurately measure the body volume of T-Rex, by separating the different parts of the skeleton (the head, tail, etc.), and skin-wrapping them. Before the detailed tests, it was thought that this giant dinosaur weighed around five tons. New estimates say that the minimum weight was nine tons!

 Once scientists figured out the weight of T-Rex, they also tried to estimate how these massive beings grew. When they were born, they probably weighed around 11 pounds. They probably hit two major growth spurts; one when they were 10 years old, and one when they were 17 years old. It is possible that during those two periods of their lives, T-Rex’s gained around 3, 950 pounds. Most of the weight that made the T-Rex so big was in the torso, while the legs remained very short throughout their life.