Zach+Gause

Polymers in the Field I found a few things interesting in this article. The first thing I found interesting was that because grass could not be grown in the Texas Astrodome and the artificial surface was installed it became known as astroturf. The second thing i found relates this article to class. In the section about the turf temperature it says that the manufacturer of the turf recommends the hot turf be sprayed with water before a game. They say this because the high heat capacity of water helps keep the system from changing temperature. Also the evaporation of the water carries away thermal energy making the turf cooler. This relates to class because we are currently learning about heat capacity.

Alternate Energy I read the article on off shore wind farms. New Jersey officials are planning to build a 350 megawatt farm 16 miles off the shore of New Jersey. The state's officials want to build many more of these wind farms by the year 2020. They hope to have at least 3,000 megawatts, or 13 percent of the state's electricity, worth of these farms. Greg Watson, a senior adviser on energy technology, said "Three thousand megawatts is significant. With that you're able to offset or even prevent fossil fuel plants from being built." I found this interesting because if fossil fuel power plants are offset or even prevented then the pollution from them is lessened and therefore making the air cleaner.

Einstein One thing I learned in this article is that Einstein used Robert Brown's theory (the Brownian motion) to help prove the existence of atoms and molecules. Einstein used this theory, which describes Brown's observation of the apparently random movements of pollen particles suspended in a liquid, and observed the movement of dust particles suspended in water using a microscope. Then using very careful calculations he calculated the dimensions of an atom. Einstein used other experimental evidence combined along with his other work to help convince many of the atomic non-believers to start believing that the atomic theory was true.

Periodic Table I think that the Spiral Design for the periodic table is very interesting. I like the idea that Jeff Moran came up with to include the lanthanides and actinides in the periodic table since they are technically elements. I also find the idea of trying to keep the continuity of the table by making it a spiral. This entire article pertains to what we are doing in class because we are currently learning about the specific trends within the table, and this article shows how other people have taken these trends and reorganized the table into what they think is a better way.