What Darwin Observed Darwin sent specimens collected on his voyage back to England to be examined by experts Fossils collected were confirmed to be large versions of the present-day sloth and armadillo The Galapagos Island’s bird specimens were in fact many different species of birds Darwin originally thought they were just variations of the same…
What Really Happened with the Apple? There is a popular story that Newton was sitting under an apple tree, an apple fell on his head, and he suddenly thought of the Universal Law of Gravitation. As in all such legends, this is almost certainly not true in its details, but the story contains elements of…
Capillary action, or capillarity, is a phenomenon where liquid spontaneously rises in a narrow space such as a thin tube, or in porous materials such as paper or in some non-porous materials such as liquefied carbon fibre. This effect can cause liquids to flow against the force of gravity or the magnetic field induction. It…
Surface Tension (N/m² = J/m³) Fluid property associated with the presence of a surface toward air Interfacial tension- is used to describe analogous phenomena for fluid having interfaces with solids or other liquids (can be +/-) Water molecules are forced toward the surface of a fluid due to placement on other molecules and attractive forces.…
Fluid: system that yield to any force that attempts to alter their shape, causing system to flow until it reaches mechanical equilibrium; fluid conforms to shape of container Molecules of liquid in condense state; maintain CONSTANT intermolecular distance. Liquid will form SURFACE. Gas will not form surface; adjust intermolecular distance to fill space provided (compression/…
Intrinsic property of particles that comprise matter Point charge: charged particle with negligible size Mass and charge are independent from each other Positive Charge (q+) and Negative Charge (q-) Coulomb’s Law Magnitude of electric force between two charged spheres is proportional to the absolute amount of charge on each sphere, and is proportional 1/r2 where…
Capacitor: two conducting plates charged with equal amount of charge of opposite signs, with insulator in between (we assume a vacuum unless said otherwise) Three quantities characterize a capacitor: 1) surface charge density 2) capacitance 3) dielectric constant Capacitance (q= C x ∆V) Unit: Farad (F) The potential difference across a parallel plate capacitor is…
Stress: force exerted per unit area of surface on an extended object. STRESS LEAD TO STRAIN Three types of deformation due to strain: Stretching (change in length) Twisting (change in angle) Compression or Expansion (change in volume) ***Each of these strains is caused by a different form of stress Tensile stress= Stretching Shearing stress= Twisting…
There are critics who disagree with the expenditure on space exploration, which they claim can better be used to solve earthly problems. However, they seem to forget that this is one of the fields which tests a man’s intellect. But, how does a common man draw benefits of space exploration? The advances made in the…
A lunar eclipse is an event during which Earth’s shadow prevents the sunlight from reaching the moon. When an eclipse occurs, the moon usually remains visible, but has a dusky red or coppery color, which results when Earth’s atmosphere bends some sunlight-mostly longer red wavelengths-into the umbra. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the moon…
Lunar craters are basically circular hollows on the surface of the moon. They are formed because of the impact of the meteoroids strikes. The smallest craters are microscopic pits, but the largest, the Aitken Basin, is nearly 21000 kilometres wide. Just an interesting fact, one of the most interesting craters on the moon is Copernicus.…
From Earth, one can look towards the night sky and observe that the moon appears to have areas that are lighter, and areas that are considerably darker. These dark areas are referred to as lunar maria, which are basically land basins on the moon in varying sizes. These basins were formed when hot, molten lava…
Induction: Induced & Permanent Charging Static electricity can be generated through: Friction, Conduction, INDUCTION Induction INDUCTION involves the movement of electrons in a neutral object when a charged object is brought close to the neutral object. The movement occurs WITHOUT DIRECT CONTACT between objects. Induced Charge Separation/ Temporary Charging When a negatively charged rod is…
Hydrologic Cycle: 97% of Earth’s water is stored in the oceans, evaporated then precipitated on land – some soaks in (infiltration), some flows over the land as streams (runoff), some evaporates back into the atmosphere and is transpired by plants, and some is stored in glaciers, but most returns to the oceans by streams Stream…
Reasons for Involvement Unrestricted Submarine Warfare: In January 1917, failed crops as well as a naval blockade caused severe food shortages in Germany. Desperate to attack back, Germany decided to establish its own naval blockade around Britain. They decided to sink any ship in the waters around Britain without warning, through the use of submarines.…
Down syndrome is a genetic and chromosomal disorder where a person has either half of or a full extra 21st chromosome. The disorder was first discovered by John Langdon Down, a British doctor, who first described the disease in 1866. Down syndrome is caused by a chromosomal abnormality which causes a replication of the 21st…
Purpose To see how the acceleration of a cart depends on the resultant force acting on the cart and the mass of the cart, and how this relation can be expressed in a single equation. We hypothesized that with a constant mass of the system (a decrease in cart mass) and an increased net force,…
Great Barrier Reef, Australia The Great Barrier is the world’s largest system of coral reefs. The Great Barrier Reef is made up of more than 2000 individual reefs and it extends 2000 kilometres. The Great Barrier Reef stretches 2300 kilometres along the Northeast coast of Australia going from Queenstown to Bundaberg. Ocean animals called coral…
The Panama Canal, Panama The Panama Canal is one of the greatest engineering achievements and most frequented waterways of all time. The Panama Canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and links the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific. This canal was built in order to shorten the voyage between New York City and San Francisco…