Watching the movie I said that when the astronaut was blinded by the sun it was factual. After looking it up on the Bad Astronomy website I learned that Phil Plait disaggred with me becasue although he didn't know how close the comet actually was to the sun, he said that NASA would have given them built in visors or built in a UV block to their visors. They did have sun visors the astonaut was just in panic so he couldn't get it over his face in time therefore I disagree wiht Phil. Phil also believes that it is wrong that the sun blinded him becasuse he was only loooking at it for a few seconds but I think it easily would have blinded him considering they seemed to be very close to the sun and he is looking directly into the sun. Also while watching the movie I believed that the comet would have caused a huge wave of water when it landed in the ocean. Phil agreed with me that it would have caused a big wave but he disagrees that the water would have compleatly receded from the beach to be drawn up into the wave. Also the water would have been traveling faster than sound so we wouldn't have heard the huge wave.
I believed that it was wrong for the commet to be making any sound and Phil agreed with me that you have to have a medium for sound to occur and space is a vacum, therefore there would be no sound.
Lastly while watching the movie I believed it was false that the commet weighed 500 billion tons and Phil agrred with me. He says that the commet woul have actually weighed about 1,000 trillion tons!
Misconceptions:
Bad Moon Rising - Can you see the moon during the day?
During the day I have seen the moon before and I'm not sure why. It is usually in the morning but I have seen it before during the summer when I was at the beach...weird. My only explanation is that it could be a reflection but I honestly have no idea.
Okay so after reading I was wrong. The moon is always up during the day you just have to know where to look to find it. Apparently the few times I seen it I must have been lucky enough to figure out where it was that day.
The sky at Night - Do all starts look white?
Again I know nothing about space but when I look up at the stars they all seem white to me. It wouldn't surprise me though if they are different colors you just can't see them with a naked eye.
After reading I learned that all stars emit all of the colors of the rainbow. He says the best way to find out is to look at the stars in the summertime and look directly above at the brightest stars (Vega and Antares) which will clearly be blue and red orange.
A Step Farther Out - What's your sigh? Astrology and the zodiac.
I know that my sign is Sagittarius because my birthday is in December. There are also 11 other sign for the other months. Also I know that there is a constellation named Sagittarius that I'm guessing is directly overhead in December.
After reading I learned that there are more than just 12 constellations. There are actually between 13 and 24!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Climate Inquiry
"Climate Change | U.S. EPA." US Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/.
The term climate change is often used interchangeably with the term global warming, but according to the National Academy of Sciences, "the phrase 'climate change' is growing in preferred use to 'global warming' because it helps convey that there are other changes in addition to rising temperatures."
Climate change refers to any significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind) lasting for an extended period (decades or longer). Climate change may result from:
1. natural factors, such as changes in the sun's intensity or slow changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun;
2. natural processes within the climate system (e.g. changes in ocean circulation);
3. human activities that change the atmosphere's composition (e.g. through burning fossil fuels) and the land surface (e.g. deforestation, reforestation, urbanization, desertification, etc.)
Global warming is an average increase in the temperature of the atmosphere near the Earth's surface and in the troposphere, which can contribute to changes in global climate patterns. Global warming can occur from a variety of causes, both natural and human induced. In common usage, "global warming" often refers to the warming that can occur as a result of increased emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities.
"Global Climate Change / NASA's Eyes on the Earth." National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Author. Randell Jackson. http://climate.nasa.gov/effects/
Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner.
Effects that scientists had predicted in the past would result from global climate change are now occurring: loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise and longer, more intense heat waves.
Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gasses produced by human activities. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which includes more than 1,300 scientists from the United States and other countries, forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.
In North America they expect decreasing snowpack in the western mountains; 5-20 percent increase in yields of rain-fed agriculture in some regions; increased frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves in cities that currently experience them.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Sewer Treatment Blog
Last week we visited the sewer treatment plant. I learned a lot! Before last week I didn't even know where the plant was located let alone all the things they do the the sewer water to treat it. Besides the nasty smell, visiting the plant was a great leaning expenience. When we first got there we seen the water comeing into the plant and how it is initially filtered out and all the big chucks of stuff are removed. Next it goes into big tanks where the sluge is settled at the bottom and them removed. After that the water goes into even bigger tanks where little micro organisms eat the little chuncks of stuff out of the water. I was hoping we could get to see the lab where the water is tested but we ran out of time. Mabey we can vistit there again sometime so we can see the rest of the plant.
After leaving the sewage plant we went across the steet to recycle, (which I also didn't know it's location before last week). We recycled bottles and paper. Since I brought magazines which can't be recycled I picked up 25 pieces of trash and threw it away in the big granger dumpsters. This was very easy because unfortunally there was a lot of trash all around the recycling area.
After leaving the sewage plant we went across the steet to recycle, (which I also didn't know it's location before last week). We recycled bottles and paper. Since I brought magazines which can't be recycled I picked up 25 pieces of trash and threw it away in the big granger dumpsters. This was very easy because unfortunally there was a lot of trash all around the recycling area.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
City Talk
1.) Mrs. Byerly, who works as a project manager for the city of Eaton Rapids, came to talk to our class.
2.) The city upgraded our system for storm water in 2006 by putting in two parking lots that act as a filter because as all the rain water flows in the parking lot it goes through a rain garden where the water is naturally filtered through the layers of rocks and clay before it enters the river. Also all the construction that has been going on is the help make our river clearer by giving us a new sewage system so none of that stuff ends up in our river.
3.) These improvements will help our river water a ton by not allowing chemicals and other unwanted things into our water. For example, car brake pads that wear down into little particles that end up in our river and also oil and gas from the parking lots which will now be filtered rather than just flowing directly into the river.
4.) Since our group was responsible for the temperature of the river I don't think it will really be effected by the new improvements in our city. Im sure that many of the other tests our classmates did will have a big effect though because there will be a lot less pollutants in the water.
5.) I thought the two parking lots that were put in for filtering were interesting because i had no idea what those had another purpose besides added parking until she explained them to us. Also this might be surprising but I didn't know that our entire downtown is an island. I knew our town had the river going by it but I guess I never realized we are completely surrounded by it.
6.) Our bio bottles are doing really well. The grass and peas seem to be growing great. My bottle is the control one but both my group members have plastic in theirs and it doesn't seem to really be effecting the plants.
7.) For our action project we are promoting plastic recycling.
8.) Our group hasn't even started our power point because we have no idea how to do it. Were hoping to get some help with it this week and be able to finish it soon.
2.) The city upgraded our system for storm water in 2006 by putting in two parking lots that act as a filter because as all the rain water flows in the parking lot it goes through a rain garden where the water is naturally filtered through the layers of rocks and clay before it enters the river. Also all the construction that has been going on is the help make our river clearer by giving us a new sewage system so none of that stuff ends up in our river.
3.) These improvements will help our river water a ton by not allowing chemicals and other unwanted things into our water. For example, car brake pads that wear down into little particles that end up in our river and also oil and gas from the parking lots which will now be filtered rather than just flowing directly into the river.
4.) Since our group was responsible for the temperature of the river I don't think it will really be effected by the new improvements in our city. Im sure that many of the other tests our classmates did will have a big effect though because there will be a lot less pollutants in the water.
5.) I thought the two parking lots that were put in for filtering were interesting because i had no idea what those had another purpose besides added parking until she explained them to us. Also this might be surprising but I didn't know that our entire downtown is an island. I knew our town had the river going by it but I guess I never realized we are completely surrounded by it.
6.) Our bio bottles are doing really well. The grass and peas seem to be growing great. My bottle is the control one but both my group members have plastic in theirs and it doesn't seem to really be effecting the plants.
7.) For our action project we are promoting plastic recycling.
8.) Our group hasn't even started our power point because we have no idea how to do it. Were hoping to get some help with it this week and be able to finish it soon.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Water Testing Connection
1.) Our group chose to do plastic recycling.
2.) Using our bio bottles for support, our action project will be to promote plastic recycling and to show its importance. We want to help others become aware of the effects not recycling their plastics can have on our environment. Plastics take an extremely long time to compose and instead often end up in our water table so not only do they effect the growing of plants they also pollute our water. We want to show people that when plastic is littered it harms our environment severely.
3.) In our bio bottle we will be testing numbers 1 and 2 plastic and the effect they have on the growing of our grass and peas. We have 1 bottle that will be our constant and the other 2 bottles each have 10 pieces of plastic laying on top of the soil. We will compare the growth of our plants in the bottles with the plastic to our constant bottle and hopefully there is a significant difference between the plants so we can show others how harmful plastic truly is and how important recycling our plastics are to our environment.
4.) You assigned us temperature for our river test which I'm not really sure how that relates to plastic recycling but I do know that if plastic is not recycled it often ends up in our river which severely impacts our water table because it often causes the death of animals because they tend to mistake the plastic debris for food and then their bodies can't digest it so they die. Even worse when the animal eats it and dies, then its body decompose, the plastic does not and it remains in the water to be digested again and kill more animals. (www.buzzle.com)
2.) Using our bio bottles for support, our action project will be to promote plastic recycling and to show its importance. We want to help others become aware of the effects not recycling their plastics can have on our environment. Plastics take an extremely long time to compose and instead often end up in our water table so not only do they effect the growing of plants they also pollute our water. We want to show people that when plastic is littered it harms our environment severely.
3.) In our bio bottle we will be testing numbers 1 and 2 plastic and the effect they have on the growing of our grass and peas. We have 1 bottle that will be our constant and the other 2 bottles each have 10 pieces of plastic laying on top of the soil. We will compare the growth of our plants in the bottles with the plastic to our constant bottle and hopefully there is a significant difference between the plants so we can show others how harmful plastic truly is and how important recycling our plastics are to our environment.
4.) You assigned us temperature for our river test which I'm not really sure how that relates to plastic recycling but I do know that if plastic is not recycled it often ends up in our river which severely impacts our water table because it often causes the death of animals because they tend to mistake the plastic debris for food and then their bodies can't digest it so they die. Even worse when the animal eats it and dies, then its body decompose, the plastic does not and it remains in the water to be digested again and kill more animals. (www.buzzle.com)
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Eaton Rapids Water Treatment Blog
In the city of Eaton Rapids the water is filtered by going through these three huge blue holding tanks that have rocks and charcoal inside that clean all the debris out of the water. They backwash the tanks twice a week in order to get all the debris that the rocks catch out of the tanks. They clean the water by addding in clorine and another liquid that kills all the bacteria that could be in the water.
Our trip yesterday was really fun. I learned quite a bit about our city water that I never knew before. I didn't even kow where our towns water treatment plant was before yesterday. We learned that there is aroun 1,000,000 gallons of water in the two towers that are in our town, under water there is thousands more gallons. We also learned that there is 34 gallons of pipes throughout our town that our water travels through. If the power went out in our town there would still be water pressure in the city because they have a huge back-up generator and if that fails as well there is another generator that runs off chemical reaction or somehti like that so no matter what our city will always have good water pressure.
They also took us into the lab yesterday and told us a little about how they do lab testigs on the water in our school and at the hospital. They are required to take 6 samples of water throughout our town but they take more just to be sure there is no problems at all in the water system. They take the samples from our school and the hospital, places that there are alot of people drinking the water. They put the samples in a test container and then add some chemicals and put it in an incubator to see if there is any bacteria or anything bad in it. Laslty they told us about the part of their job that they don't like. They exlained that when there is a water main break they have to go repair it, even in the middle of the winter when its freezing outside.
Our trip yesterday was really fun. I learned quite a bit about our city water that I never knew before. I didn't even kow where our towns water treatment plant was before yesterday. We learned that there is aroun 1,000,000 gallons of water in the two towers that are in our town, under water there is thousands more gallons. We also learned that there is 34 gallons of pipes throughout our town that our water travels through. If the power went out in our town there would still be water pressure in the city because they have a huge back-up generator and if that fails as well there is another generator that runs off chemical reaction or somehti like that so no matter what our city will always have good water pressure.
They also took us into the lab yesterday and told us a little about how they do lab testigs on the water in our school and at the hospital. They are required to take 6 samples of water throughout our town but they take more just to be sure there is no problems at all in the water system. They take the samples from our school and the hospital, places that there are alot of people drinking the water. They put the samples in a test container and then add some chemicals and put it in an incubator to see if there is any bacteria or anything bad in it. Laslty they told us about the part of their job that they don't like. They exlained that when there is a water main break they have to go repair it, even in the middle of the winter when its freezing outside.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Water Treatment Blog
1.) The processes below are commonly used in water purification plants. Some may not be used depending on the scale of the plant and quality of the water.
1.Pumping and containment - The majority of water must be pumped from its source or directed into pipes or holding tanks. To avoid adding contaminants to the water, this physical infrastructure must be made from appropriate materials and constructed so that accidental contamination does not occur.
2.Screening - The first step in purifying surface water is to remove large debris such as sticks, leaves, trash and other large particles which may interfere with subsequent purification steps. Most deep groundwater does not need screening before other purification steps.
3.Storage - Water from rivers may also be stored in bankside reservoirs for periods between a few days and many months to allow natural biological purification to take place. This is especially important if treatment is by slow sand filters. Storage reservoirs also provide a buffer against short periods of drought or to allow water supply to be maintained during transitory pollution incidents in the source river.
4.Pre-conditioning - Water rich in hardness salts is treated with soda-ash (sodium carbonate) to precipitate calcium carbonate out utilising the common-ion effect.
5.Pre-chlorination - In many plants the incoming water was chlorinated to minimise the growth of fouling organisms on the pipe-work and tanks. Because of the potential adverse quality effects, this has largely been discontinued.
Widely varied techniques are available to remove the fine solids, micro-organisms and some dissolved inorganic and organic materials. The choice of method will depend on the quality of the water being treated, the cost of the treatment process and the quality standards expected of the processed water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_purification#Treatment
2.) Sewage can be treated close to where it is created (in septic tanks, biofilters or aerobic treatment systems), or collected and transported via a network of pipes and pump stations to a municipal treatment plant. Sewage collection and treatment is typically subject to local, state and federal regulations and standards. Industrial sources of wastewater often require specialized treatment processes.
Conventional sewage treatment may involve three stages, called primary, secondary and tertiary treatment.
Primary treatment consists of temporarily holding the sewage in a quiescent basin where heavy solids can settle to the bottom while oil, grease and lighter solids float to the surface. The settled and floating materials are removed and the remaining liquid may be discharged or subjected to secondary treatment.
Secondary treatment removes dissolved and suspended biological matter. Secondary treatment is typically performed by indigenous, water-borne micro-organisms in a managed habitat. Secondary treatment may require a separation process to remove the micro-organisms from the treated water prior to discharge or tertiary treatment.
Tertiary treatment is sometimes defined as anything more than primary and secondary treatment. Treated water is sometimes disinfected chemically or physically (for example, by lagoons and microfiltration) prior to discharge into a stream, river, bay, lagoon or wetland, or it can be used for the irrigation of a golf course, green way or park. If it is sufficiently clean, it can also be used for groundwater recharge or agricultural purposes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_treatment#Process_overview
3.) What is a micron rating?
How often do we have to clean out septic tanks?
1.Pumping and containment - The majority of water must be pumped from its source or directed into pipes or holding tanks. To avoid adding contaminants to the water, this physical infrastructure must be made from appropriate materials and constructed so that accidental contamination does not occur.
2.Screening - The first step in purifying surface water is to remove large debris such as sticks, leaves, trash and other large particles which may interfere with subsequent purification steps. Most deep groundwater does not need screening before other purification steps.
3.Storage - Water from rivers may also be stored in bankside reservoirs for periods between a few days and many months to allow natural biological purification to take place. This is especially important if treatment is by slow sand filters. Storage reservoirs also provide a buffer against short periods of drought or to allow water supply to be maintained during transitory pollution incidents in the source river.
4.Pre-conditioning - Water rich in hardness salts is treated with soda-ash (sodium carbonate) to precipitate calcium carbonate out utilising the common-ion effect.
5.Pre-chlorination - In many plants the incoming water was chlorinated to minimise the growth of fouling organisms on the pipe-work and tanks. Because of the potential adverse quality effects, this has largely been discontinued.
Widely varied techniques are available to remove the fine solids, micro-organisms and some dissolved inorganic and organic materials. The choice of method will depend on the quality of the water being treated, the cost of the treatment process and the quality standards expected of the processed water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_purification#Treatment
2.) Sewage can be treated close to where it is created (in septic tanks, biofilters or aerobic treatment systems), or collected and transported via a network of pipes and pump stations to a municipal treatment plant. Sewage collection and treatment is typically subject to local, state and federal regulations and standards. Industrial sources of wastewater often require specialized treatment processes.
Conventional sewage treatment may involve three stages, called primary, secondary and tertiary treatment.
Primary treatment consists of temporarily holding the sewage in a quiescent basin where heavy solids can settle to the bottom while oil, grease and lighter solids float to the surface. The settled and floating materials are removed and the remaining liquid may be discharged or subjected to secondary treatment.
Secondary treatment removes dissolved and suspended biological matter. Secondary treatment is typically performed by indigenous, water-borne micro-organisms in a managed habitat. Secondary treatment may require a separation process to remove the micro-organisms from the treated water prior to discharge or tertiary treatment.
Tertiary treatment is sometimes defined as anything more than primary and secondary treatment. Treated water is sometimes disinfected chemically or physically (for example, by lagoons and microfiltration) prior to discharge into a stream, river, bay, lagoon or wetland, or it can be used for the irrigation of a golf course, green way or park. If it is sufficiently clean, it can also be used for groundwater recharge or agricultural purposes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_treatment#Process_overview
3.) What is a micron rating?
How often do we have to clean out septic tanks?
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