Nicolas Reed Science Blog

A Trio of Super-Earths (artist's impression)  by  ESO Is There Life in Space?        There is life in space. This is because their is so many stars and planets in the universe that it is unimaginable to picture. It is in fact so big that we had to create new forms of measurement to measure things in space. Even one of those measurements is still so big to us as just one light second is the equivalent of going around Earth's equator 7.5 times. There is at least one hundred billion galaxies in the universe. This means that at least one of those galaxies should have one star and one planet that can support life. That one of the galaxies in the incredibly large universe must have one planet that has life currently on it.        Currently their is two major methods for discovering planets, the transit method and Doppler Technique. Along with the use of technology such as the Kepler telescope, we have quadrupled the amount of plane...

Perseid and Milky Way  by  TheBrockenInaGlory Summary:        The universal force in which holds a galaxy together is gravity. There are three main different type of galaxies, elliptical, spiral, and irregular galaxies. The galaxy in which Earth is in is the Milky Way which is a spiral galaxy. Stars in galaxies produce energy through nuclear fusion where hydrogen atoms fuse into helium atoms. In order to measure the distance between stars or other things in our galaxy we use light years which is the distance that light can travel in one year. However, when measuring things in our own solar system, we use astronomical units in which are equal to about 8.2 light minutes. In order for scientists to discover new planets, they use two main techniques, transit method and Doppler technique. Both of these techniques use stars to find planets rather than trying to look for the planets themselves. The Doppler technique uses the fact that as a planet orbits aro...

Solar lunar eclipse diagram  by  Tomruen Summary:        The positions of the Earth, Moon, and Sun heavily determine eclipses, seasons, and tides. For example, both types of eclipses are caused when the Earth, Moon, and Sun are aligned. Solar eclipses are caused  when the Moon is in front of, and blocking the Sun's light from reaching Earth. This results in not being able to see the Sun, or the Sun being partially blocked by the Moon. A lunar eclipse is caused when the Earth is in front of the Sun which blocks the light from reaching the Sun. Thus, turning the moon to a gray color or a dark red color depending on if the Moon is in the penumbra (gray) or umbra (dark red). Another example of how the positions of the Earth, Moon and Sun effect things is with tides. Spring tides (when the difference between the height of the high tides and low tides is very great), which have very high tides are caused when the Earth, Moon, and Sun are aligned in an...

nreed1005 Ms. Garcia Science 8 4/5/19 Digital is Better than Analog        “There's an ongoing flood of new LP releases (Amazon currently lists 938,000 LP titles ). Kings of Leon, Taylor Swift, Nine Inch Nails, and Kanye West all have their latest releases available on LP.” according to the article titled, “Why does analog sound better than digital,” by Steve Guttenberg. Digital is better than analog. Digital allows you to have a clearer sound that is controllable and can last forever. Most importantly, it is cheaper, which means that it can used by almost anyone. Analog is the past, we must invest in the future and use digital.        Using digital means having high quality sound that can be manipulated. “Digital has certain perfect things about it [, it] immediately solved all the problems of analog background noise, hiss, where pitch control all of those things.” according to the video titled, “Analog or Digital? (1993),” from Past...

Summary:        Analog technology is a representation or analogy of some type of measurement. Analog technology usually consists of a dial. Some examples of analog technology are a clock and speedometer. Most of the time, when speaking of analog technology, we usually just mean something that is not digital. Digital technology is when information (measurements) are converted to numbers/digits and the numbers are stored or displayed. Sampling is when splitting occurs in regular intervals to convert analog to digital form. Sampling converts continuous signal to discrete signal then reconstruction turns discrete signal back to a continuous signal. Although, this new continuous signal created by digital technology, is not as exact as the original. This is due to how the accuracy of analog signal is more than digital because digital signal is finite. S&EP 8-Obtain, Evaluate, and Communicate Information:        This week in science I obtained...

Instrument Project | Luke Pires, Nathaniel Marino, Nicolas Reed, and Oscar Ponce Summary:        For this project, we had to create a completely new musical instrument with a full scale. With that, we also had to answer questions about out instrument and its function, use a program to measure it sound waves and answer questions about them, and play a song on our instrument. What I learned about percussion instruments (which is the type of instrument that we made) is that in order to create different notes, each thing that you hit (in order case, wooden sticks) needs to be a different size. This is due to how different sizes means that there is a different amount of space that the sound wave can travel (and vibrate molecules) in each note. I also learned that different materials create different tones. For example, when hitting a piece of wood and metal with the same amount of force, the two will create different sounds due to the difference of tone. Lastl...

Glass.harmonica.in.rome.arp  by  Arpingstone Summary:        Music is created through the vibrations of molecules when sound waves hit them. In order to create different sounds and have a full scale, you must be hitting things with different measurements. For example, to test this, you can hold an object such as a ruler, and grab on to a part of it that is somewhat close to an edge. Then, hit the side of the ruler that is smallest, and then hit the other side of the ruler. You will then notice a difference. This is due to how the amount of space that the sound wave can travel is different when changing the size of the object in which you hit. This is the exact way that some instruments function. Instruments such as the xylophone or glass harp (the one where the cups are filled with water). For the xylophone, the bars (the things that you hit) are all different sizes. For the glass harp, each glass is filled with a different amount of water, which...

Thoth08BigasDrumEvansChalmette  by  Infrogmation Summary:        Sound waves are longitudinal waves, meaning that the energy that they carry travels parallel to the wave. Sound waves are also mechanical waves, which means that they must travel through a medium such as a solid, liquid, or gas. With this, sound waves also travel through different mediums at different speeds. Due to how atoms and molecules are packed tightly together in a solid, sound waves are immediately transferred to the next molecule. Thus, in solids, sound waves can travel very quickly without losing energy. In a liquid, atoms and molecules are touching, but are not fastened to each other as strongly as a solid. In results, some of sound's energy is wasted when pushing the particles around (in a liquid) because they can slide past each other. This is due to how sound cannot travel across gaps between molecules, which can slow a sound wave down. In a gas, molecules are far apart, s...

“What effect can very loud music have on your hearing?” In your answer provide specific evidence, including organ names to help substantiate your claim.        The effect that very loud music can have on your hearing is that eventually, your hearing will begin to decline. As when consistently listening to very loud music, your hair cells inside of your inner ear will begin to become overworked and will die. This will causing leaking in your ear which is what creates the ringing sound in people's ears. When your hair cells begin to die, your hearing will become progressively worse as the hair cells are what allow your ear to interpret sound and so that the brain can understand the signal. Not only will your hair cells be affected, but so will the cochlea which will really damage your hearing. In closing, loud music will cause damage to the cochlea and more specifically the hair cells. This will result in ringing in your ears and your brain not being to understand soun...

Summary:        In order to successfully complete this project, you must have designed (and sketched) a roller coaster made of pretty common materials (a marble, insulation tubing, tape, popsicle sticks, straws, etc.). In addition, you had to create a timeline (which is the presentation) of your roller coaster along with an analysis. The analysis consisted of questions revolving around physics (force, velocity, acceleration, energy, etc.). Through this project I learned that the only real way to generate enough force to move a roller coaster (through the whole course) that is only pushed by gravity is by beginning with a big drop. On top of this, it is impossible for the height of the hill to be greater than the height at which the marble is initially placed. Due to how it is impossible for the marble to generate enough energy to be able to go up something larger than which originally placed. This is because the amount of potential energy at the top of the hill is...

Goliath (Six Flags Over Georgia) 02  by  Coasterman1234 Summary:        When creating a model of a roller coaster (so their is no motor or any other force acting upon it besides gravity), the factors that determine the amount of force/energy a roller coaster has are the mass and speed of the roller coaster. Also, when there is no friction, the only factor that affects the final speed of a roller coaster is the total height lost. Total height lost is equal to the first hill's height subtracted by the final hill's height. For example, if you have three hills where the hill's heights are 100 cm (for the first hill), 30 cm (for the second hill) and 60 cm (for the last hill), the total height lost is 40 cm. This is due to how 100 cm subtracted by 60 cm is equal to 40 cm. Thus, the total energy of the car does not change when going down a hill. In addition, hill two does not have an effect on its final speed. S&EP 1-Asking Questions and Definin...

Summary:        K inetic energy is energy an object has due to its motion. Potential energy is energy that is stored and waiting to be used later. Three types of potential energy are gravitational potential energy, elastic potential energy, and chemical potential energy. Gravitational potential energy is potential energy due to an object's position. Elastic potential energy is potential energy due to compression or expansion of an elastic object. Lastly, chemical potential energy is potential energy stored within the chemical bonds of an object. The formula for finding  0.5(mass x speed 2 ) . The formula for finding gravitational potential energy is mass x height x gravity. Both potential and kinetic however are scalar quantities meaning that they do not have direction. Both also are measured with same metric unit, this unit is known as Joules. One of the Charts From the Simulation that I Computed S&EP 5-Using Mathematics and Computational Thinkin...

Force  by Penubag Summary:        Force can simply be defined as a push or pull. Force is energy that results from a movement. Force also has a unique relationship with vector quantities as is it is a vector quantity, but it is also the thing that creates vector quantities. This is because a vector quantity is created by a force that has magnitude and direction. Due to how force and motion are directly correlated, force has much to do with motion. The first of the three laws of motion (according to Isaac Newton) is that objects in motion tend to say in motion. At the same token, objects at rest tend to stay at rest (this is also known as the law of inertia). The second law is, "the acceleration of an object as produced by a net force is directly proportional  to the magnitude of the net force (how big the force is), in the same direction, as the net force, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object (how heavy the object is)." In other words...

nreed1005 Ms. Garcia Science 8 1/11/19 Self Driving Cars Are Not Worth the Risk         Currently, the world is debating about whether or not we should use self driving cars. This topic has created tons of controversy and currently, we are torn on what the right decision is. Self driving cars are not worth the risk. Not only will these machines take people's jobs, but they also have other faults that will affect humans. They are simply not completely ready and sophisticated enough to be used. Most importantly, these vehicles will put many people’s lives in danger.        The use of self driving cars will create many issues that will affect many people. As according to the video titled, “The Pros and Cons of Autonomous Vehicles” by the Tech & innovations Channel, “According to certain estimates, about 4 million people are going to lose their jobs” due to the upbringing of self driving cars (autonomous vehicles). These jobs include t...