Class
79:
Thursday,
6/6/24 Warm-up: Fred is conducting a laser experiment on a very, very, very fast train. He attaches a mirror to the roof of the train car and shines a quick pulse of laser light directly upward at the mirror. Hank is standing still outside the train. The train car is made of glass, so Hank can see the whole thing. The pulse of laser light goes up, reflects off of the mirror, and then goes back down to the floor. There's enough dust in the air to make the laser pulse visible. 1) If Fred and Hank were to draw the laser pulse's "flight path" (as each of them sees it), what would each of them draw? 2) Who would see light travel a greater distance? 3) Assuming that the speed of the laser light is the same for both observers, who sees it travel for the longest amount of time?
Today:
Homework:
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Class
78:
Tuesday,
6/4/24 Warm-up: Some more review questions... 1. Which produces clouds and rain -- sinking air or rising air? 2. What causes winds? 3. What type of pressure belts create deserts? 4. Give one reason why the Earth is hot on the inside. 5. At divergent plate boundaries, are there rising mantle currents or sinking mantle currents? 6. What type of lava can be found in a volcano at an ocean/continent convergent plate boundary -- mafic, felsic, or both? 7. How many weeks after a full moon does the next new moon arrive? 8. By looking at the moon, how can you tell if moon is waxing or waning? What do waxing and waning mean? Today:
Homework:
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Class
77:
Friday,
5/31/24 Warm-up: Some review 1. Where, in the United States, is there a famous transform plate boundary? 2. Which way does a comet's tail point? 3. What is the Sun's primary fuel? 4. What keeps planets from flying away from the Sun, and what keeps them from falling into the Sun? 5. What's the name of the Earth layer between the crust and the outer core? 6. What's the word for "turning from a gas to a liquid?" 7. When we see clouds, which of the following are we not seeing: solid water, liquid water, water vapor (gas). Today:
Homework:
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Class
76:
Wednesday,
5/29/24 Warm Up: A positive feedback loop occurs when an effect increases the cause that created the effect. A positive feedback loop causes change and instability. Negative feedback occurs when an effect decreases the cause that created the effect. Negative feedback results in stability. 1. What type of feedback is microphone feedback? How does it work? 2. Which of these is an example of positive feedback, and which is negative? A) A room gets hotter. The thermostat senses this and turns off the heater, causing the room to get cooler. B) The Earth gets hotter. This melts snow. As the snow disappears, the darker ground below is better able to absorb sunlight, causing the Earth to get hotter. 3. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and there is a lot of methane trapped beneath frozen permafrost. How might this cause a positive or negative feedback loop. Today:
Homework:
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![]() ![]() Warm Up: What is the greenhouse effect? How does it work? Today:
Homework:
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Class
74:
Wednesday,
5/22/24 Warm Up: No warm-up today. Get right to work. Today:
Homework:
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Class
73:
Monday,
5/20/24 Warm Up: Sadly, you're going to run out of free Screencastify videos, because the school does not have a Screencastify license. So, we're going to be using the WeVideo app instead, because the school does have a WeVideo license. The major differences (vs Screencastify): instead of cropping, drag the picture to move and resize; use the EWSD account/license. Right now, for practice, lets use WeVideo to make and edit a video, at put it in your slideshow. Get out your chromebook... Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: How can you make and edit a video like this one (and put it in a Google Slideshow) using your chromebook and screencastify? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: A monsoon is a "seasonally reversing wind" that can cause changes in precipitation and weather in general. India's monsoon rains are caused by either rising air or sinking air. 1. What causes the air to rise or sink? 2. Why does that cause rain? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. What are the Horse Latitudes? How did they get their name? 2. What is(are) The Doldrums? Where did the name come from? What's another name for The Doldrums? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: What are gyres? What causes them? How can the concept of gyres help you draw ocean currents? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: A Canadian company is building a compressed air "battery" to store renewable energy. 1. Why is renewable energy storage important? 2. How does it work? 3. Why is there a "heat storage" unit? -- Does this relate to rising air or sinking air (and its role in weather)? 4. What is the purpose of the water (in the cavern, shaft, and reservoir?) Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. When we make a cloud in a bottle, does the cloud appear when we squeeze or when we release? Why? 2. When winds pass over mountain ranges, which side of the mountains is wetter, and which is drier? 3. When winds pass over an ocean, which coast is wetter, and which is drier? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: Where did this storm occur? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: The diagram on the right shows water in its three phases. 1. What are the three phases? 2. Which arrows require heat to be added to water? Which require the removal of heat? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: The paper deliverer throws the paper from a moving bicycle. From their point of view, where should they aim if they want the paper to land on the doorstep? Why? How does this relate to the Coriolis Effect? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. How do hovercrafts work? 2. How many psi are necessary to make a high school student to hover? 3. How can we measure the pressure produced by a hovercraft? 4. How high does a hovercraft hover? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. How much heavier will this bottle become if we pump air into it? 2. What can we do with that pressurized air? Today:
Homework:
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![]() ![]() Warm Up: 1. Why is the sky blue? 2. Why are sunsets red? 3. Why didn't the sun turn red when it disappeared during the eclipse? Why did everything just get gray before dark, rather than turning golden like at a regular sunset? 4. Did anyone see anything else interesting during the eclipse? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: If I half inflate one balloon and 1/4 inflate another, what will happen if I connect the two balloons with a straw and let air flow between them? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. What causes meteor showers? 2. Why is it best to view meteors between midnight and 4AM? 3. When is the next meteor shower? 4. What's a Nor'easter? Today:
Homework:
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Class
58:
Monday,
4/1/24 Warm Up: Shadows don't always look like the objects that cast them. 1. How can one solid block cast a shadow with any of the shapes below? 2. What shape can cast a circular shadow, no matter how its is oriented? 3. How did question #2 help people figure out that the Earth is round?
Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. Let's practice identifying moon phases, times of moonrise, time of day, etc. 2. Based on what I have shared with you, you might think you could tell me the time of high tide for any moon phase. How could you do that? In reality, why doesn't it work? 3. What we can figure out is how much the times of high and low tide change every day. For example, if it's high tide right now, when will the same tide occur tomorrow? Approximately when will the other tides (high and low) occur? Today:
Homework:
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Class
56:
Tuesday,
3/26/24 Warm Up: 1. Has anyone seen the moon recently? What phase is it? When has it been rising? 2. During what two moon phases can we have an eclipse? How long until we reach the next one? 3. What type of eclipse can occur during each? NASA Eclipse Stuff 4. During those moon phases, why do we usually not have an eclipse? Today:
Homework:
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Warm Up: Today:
Homework:
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![]() ![]() Warm Up: 1. Why do clocks go clockwise? 2. Does the Moon rotate? Do we ever see a different side of the Moon? 3. On the diagram to the right, can you identify the rotation and revolution(s) of the Earth and Moon? ![]() Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1.Why do we have time zones? 2.How many time zones are there? 3. Where is the International Date Line? 4. What happens at the International Date Line? What is its purpose? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. How is an igneous rock made? 2. How is a sedimentary rock made? 3. How is a metamorphic rock made? Today:
Homework:
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Class
51:
Thursday,
3/7/24 Warm Up: Absolute Dating Review 1. What is a half-life? How are half-lives useful? 2. A rock sample contains 27 parent atoms and 123 daughter atoms. How many parent atoms did the rock have when it was new? What percentage of these atoms are parent atoms? 3. How many half-lives old is the rock sample from the previous question (approximately)? Answer choices: 0-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 4. A rock sample has 30 daughter atoms and 65 parent atoms. What percentage of the atoms are parents? 5. How many half-lives old is the rock sample from the previous question (approximately)? 6. How would we determine the age of this sample, in years? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: The object on the right is a piece of rock. The big dots represent parent atoms in the rock, and the small dots represent daughter atoms. The half-life of the parent element is 2 million years. 1. What is the age of the rock sample, in half-lives? 2. What is the age of the rock sample, in years? 3. Does anyone in B5/6 want to try explaining this to B7/8? Today:
Homework:
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Class
50:
Wednesday,
2/21/24 Warm Up: None -- Mr. Stapleton is gone today Today:
Homework:
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Warm Up: The diagrams on the right show some rock layers in two different parts of the world. 1. What do the buried fish, snail, plant, bug, and human represent? 2. Which layer is probably older, Layer S (in diagram A) or layer H (in diagram B)? 3. Which layer is probably the oldest of all? Why? 4. Which layer is probably the youngest of all? Why? Today:
Homework:
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Class
48:
Thursday,
2/15/24 Warm Up: ![]() Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: What would each of these features look like from a satellite view? A. Continent/Continent Convergent B. Continent/Ocean Convergent C. Continent/ Continent Divergent D. Ocean/Ocean Convergent E. Ocean/Ocean Divergent F. Ocean Hotspot G. Transform boundary Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: We have covered 7 different plate boundaries (or features). 1. How many can you find in this diagram? 2. How could we add the remaining one(s) to the diagram? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. When did the scientific community first accept the theory of Plate Tectonics? 2. What was Pangaea? 3. What evidence first convinced the scientific community that Plate Tectonics was a valid theory? Today:
Homework:
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![]() ![]() Warm Up: 1. At what type of plate boundary(ies) might each of these eruptions have taken place? 2. What is the difference between magma and lava? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. Which lettered item on the right is not a plate boundary? 2. Name all of the plate boundaries in the diagram on the right. 3. Which of the convergent plate boundaries will be subduction zones? 4. Why won't the other convergent plate boundary be a subduction zone? ![]() Today:
Homework:
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![]() ![]() ![]() Warm Up: 1. How are the items on the right similar? How are they different? 2. In the bottom picture, what makes the "diapirs" rise ![]() Today:
Homework: Study the Rock Types Quizlet |
Class
41:
Friday,
1/26/24![]() ![]() Warm Up: 1. If I boil some water and some spaghetti sauce, which one will splatter more? 2. What causes the little explosions that power the splatters? 3. Why are some of those explosions more powerful? Today:
Homework: Quiz next class -- study the first two pages of notes, the quizlet, and today's practice quiz. |
Class
40:
Wednesday,
1/24/24 Warm Up: Oops! I forgot the warm up! Today:
Homework: Study this quizlet |
![]() Warm Up: 1.How many plates are shown in the picture on the right? What kind of plates are they? 2. In which direction is each plate moving? 3. Where is there a rising current in the mantle? Where is there a sinking current? 4. Which plate boundary sits over a particularly cool part of the mantle? 5. Where is lava most likely to come to the surface? 6. Where are tall mountains likely to form? Will there be a volcano? Today:
Homework: Prepare for the midterm. Work on your notecard. Review. |
![]() Warm Up: 1.How many plates are shown in the picture on the right? 2. Which is more dense, the crust or the mantle? 3. Which type of crust is most similar to the mantle? 4. There's light colored sediment on top of the ocean crust. Where did that come from? 5. Which plate boundary is convergent, and which is divergent? 6. Where is a very tall volcano likely to form? Why? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: The first picture on the right shows an air current being blown across a dish of water sprinkled with pepper. 1. What currents will form? 2. What currents will form in the other 3 situations? 3. What are the names of the Earth layers labeled A and B? 4. What are the pieces of layer A called? 5. What currents will form in layer B? 6. Which letter points to a convergent plate boundary, and which points to a divergent plate boundary? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. Guess the difference in temperature between a thermometer at floor level and a thermometer at the ceiling. 2. Why should there be a difference? Today:
Homework: |
![]() Warm Up: What happened at 10:27PM, last night? What does this mean for us? What does it not mean? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: Why do the blobs in a lava lamp rise and sink? Today:
Homework:
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Class
34:
Monday,
12/18/2023 Warm Up: Can you identify any of these locations on Earth? Do you know how they formed? ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Today:
Homework: None |
![]() ![]() Warm Up: If you fell into a black hole, you would be spagettified. The Sun, Earth, and Moon are continually spaghettifying one another. We see the effects of this spaghettification in the form of tides. 1. What is spaghettification, and what causes it?
Today:
Homework: Quiz next class over waves and The Big Bang (similar to notes and practice) |
![]() Warm Up: What's this? Today:
Homework: #1-15 of Practice: Waves and The Big Bang PDF |
![]() Warm Up: The picture on the right shows an explosion. This explosion shares some similarities with the Big Bang theory of the Universe's formation. 1. In the picture, which bits of matter are traveling fastest? How can you tell? 2. One result of this explosion is the movement of bits of matter. What are some other results of this explosion?
The expansion of the Universe after the Big Bang was not like the expansion after the explosion above. It was more like the expansion of the surface of a balloon. Coins glued to the balloon represent galaxies.
3. If we drew some waves between the coins, what would happen to the wavelengths as the balloon expanded? Today:
Homework: None |
![]() Warm Up: If you're standing next to a race track, which of the following do you hear as the cars pass you? a. The cars' pitch changes from high to low. b. The cars' pitch changes from low to high. c. There is no change in pitch. Today:
Homework: Study -- quiz next class over the lives of large stars |
![]() Warm Up: 1. Do this: hold a tennis ball on top of a basketball and drop them to the floor together? See what happens. 2. Guess why it happens. 3. Watch this video to find the answers and to see how this relates to supernovas. Today:
Homework: Study for a quiz next class over medium-sized stars |
![]() Warm Up: Where does the "helium ash" come from, and how does it get to the center of the Sun? Today:
Homework: None |
![]() Warm Up: What are the hottest and coolest parts of this picture? How can you tell? Today:
Homework: Quiz next class over the information on today's quiz review. Study! |
![]() Warm Up: The diagram on the right shows the life cycle of a star like our Sun. What's wrong with the diagram? Today:
Homework: None! |
![]() Warm Up: How can you demonstrate static electricity with ordinary clear tape? Good YouTube demo Today:
Homework: None! |
![]() Warm Up:
1. The first diagram on the right shows four hydrogen
atoms that combine to make one
2. E = mc2 is a famous equation. What do each of the letters in the equation represent?
Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: Why does the bird keep drinking? Today:
Homework: Complete the Solar System Formation practice questions (PDF)-- If we didn't finish them in class. |
![]() Warm Up: 1. If you rub a balloon on your head and then hold it next to your hair, your hair is attracted to the balloon. Why? 2. Your hair may also stand on end after being rubbed by a balloon. Why? 3. How can we produce this same effect with tape?4. How does this relate to the Earth's formation? Today:
Homework: Study for the uiz next class over Birth of The Earth questions |
Class
22:
Thursday,
11/2/2023![]() Warm Up: 1. Why does frost sometimes form on propane tanks, even when the weather isn't very cold? 2. Does this frost make the propane tank perform better or worse? Explain why. 3. Is the propane in a tank solid, liquid, gas, or a combination of states of matter? Today:
Homework: Stirling Engine Slideshows are due on Tuesday, by midnight. There won't be class time to work on this on Tuesday, but I will remind you. |
![]() Warm Up: If you add heat and coolness to a Stirling engine, this generates force and causes movement. You can reverse the process if you add force, turning the flywheel of a Stirling engine to cause heating and cooling. Explain. Today:
Homework: Stirling Engine Slideshows are due on Tuesday |
![]() Warm Up: 1. How does a simple D.C. electric motor work? 2. What does D.C. mean? ![]() 4. What interesting thing can we do with two Genecon generators? Today:
Homework: None! |
![]() Warm Up: The diagram on the right shows a basic refrigeration unit. I have circled the compressor and the expansion valve. In this system, a substance called a refrigerant, moves through the pipes. 1) What happens to the temperature of the refrigerant when it is compressed? 2) What happens to its temperature when it is allowed to expand? 3) In which direction is the refrigerant flowing through the pipes? 4) Can you guess the purposes of the fans and radiators? Do you know what a radiator does? Today:
Homework: Friday's class will be a make-up day, when you can make up any missing assignment or retake any quiz. Take a look in PowerSchool and decide what you might need to do to prepare for Friday. Here are some materials to help you prepare for a retake...
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![]() Warm Up: Nuclear fusion happens when the core of the star is hot enough to fuse Hydrogen into Helium. This diagram was made to help explain how stars keep "burning" evenly, without cooling off or heating up. For most of their lives, stars don't overheat, and they don't cool off. These questions explore why this happens...
Today:
Homework: Friday's class will be a make-up day, when you can make up any missing assignment or retake any quiz. Take a look in PowerSchool and decide what you might need to do to prepare for Friday. |
![]() Warm Up: When you go outside on a clear, moonless night, how far away are the closest and farthest objects that you can see with your "naked eyes?" Today:
Homework:
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Class
16:
Tuesday,
10/17/2023 Warm Up: How can we make a stirling engine go even faster? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. What is the purpose of a flywheel? 2. How do gasoline engines work? ![]() 4. How is this diesel engine different? Is it a 2-stroke or a 4-stroke? 5. What does a crankshaft do? How many cylinders does the engine in the video have? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: What makes this Stirling engine puff out and "suck in?" Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: I measure the amount of force it takes to open my freezer door. I close the door again. Then I measure how much force it takes to open the freezer door a second time. Video 1. How is the required force different the second time? 2. Why? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: In the Phet States of Matter simulation, the container has a movable lid. What happens if you use the finger to push the lid downward when the substance is in gas phase? 1. What happens to the volume? 2. What happens to the pressure? 3. What happens to the temperature? 4. Why? Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. What would happen if you made a hole through the center of the Earth, and you jumped in? 2. If you made it all of the way through, where would you come out? (antipodes map) Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up:
Today:
Homework:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. Find Polaris (the North Star) in the picture on the right 2. Why might Polaris be harder to find tonight? 3. Suppose you went out last night and looked at the night sky, and it looked like the picture on the right. What time was it? Follow these directions for telling time with the Big Dipper. Did you know that the Big Dipper isn't a constellation -- it's an asterism?Today:
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![]() Warm Up: What do you notice about this hot air balloon that I saw yesterday? Today:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. What will happen if I put a balloon over a flask of water and then boil the water? 2. What will happen if I put the flask on ice? 3. Will the balloon behave differently if I put it on after the water is already boiling? 4. What will happen if I inflate a balloon, tie it off, and then place it in cold water? 5. Why does all of this happen? Today:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. According to this diagram from Wikipedia, on what date are we closest to the Sun? 2. Is this diagram correct? 3. Seasons on the Earth are not the same length. In Vermont, which of our seasons would you guess is the longest? Which is the shortest? Orbit Simulation -- Explore a bit... Can you make the basic orbit more ellptical? When, why, and how does the speed of the satellite change? Is the Moon's orbit circular? What happens if we get rid of gravity? Today:
Homework:
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![]() ![]() Warm Up: 1. Suppose you hold an object at arm's length and use it to cover up the moon. How large does the object need to be to perfectly cover up the moon? Quarter sized? Dime sized? Something else? 2. What if you wanted to cover up the Sun? What object would be just the right size? 3. This picture shows how eclipses happen as the moon revolves around the Earth. Why don't we have two eclipses every month? Today:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. How can I crush a soda can using a hot plate and ice water? 2. Forces are either pushes or pulls. Is the force that crushes the can a push or a pull? 3. What exerts that force? Today:
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![]() Warm Up: 1. Why can't we see our breath right now? 2. What can I do so that you can see my breath? 3. How does that work? 4. How does this relate to meteors? Today:
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![]() Warm Up: Suppose one egg floats, one egg sinks, and one egg neither sinks nor floats. What can you infer from this? Today:
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![]() Warm Up: The bottle on the right contains a "cartesian diver." The diver dives when the bottle is squeezed, and the diver rises when the bottle is released. 1. Why does this happen? 2. How does this relate to space science? Today:
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