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October, 2006
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October, 2006
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Our assault on Biology....begins! It begins with the Sun (see the speed of light: below)
January 6, 2006 Lesson Review 3A.. Click on the Link for valuable Information! Spectacular photos take time in loading!
Sunlight and its Effects on Rubber and Glue Cleophas "Mike" McAlpin...Executive Director/Chief Tutor
Written by… Cleophas "Mike" McAlpin to provide information for Shalay's Science Project
The Sun
What an awesome display of power! Here we see solar flares of the sun being propelled outwards for more than 200,000 miles from the surface! If our planet Earth could somehow become like our Sun, then the moon as we know it, would be incinerated by such power!
Our solar system--the Sun and its family of planets--has not always existed. Nearly 5 billion years ago, there was only a vast cloud of dust and gas called a nebula, similar the one at the right. This cloud had been slowly swirling for perhaps 10 billion years, held together by its own gravity. It was more than 99 percent hydrogen and helium, and less than 1 percent heavier elements. A star exploded near the cloud and pushed the gases of our nebula together.
This strengthened the gravitational pull of those gases, and they began to come
Together even more, swirling faster and faster, growing smaller and smaller.
As the nebula shrank, most of the matter gathered into the center as a huge, hot, very tightly packed ball of gas. In this heat and pressure, hydrogen atoms collided and combined with each other to form helium.
This fusion released huge amounts of energy, which spread to the outer layers
of the ball, causing it to glow. Away from the center of the cloud, the dust and gas were thinner. This material collected into a disk of hot gases. As the gases cooled, tiny
particles began to form. Nearer the hot center, only rocky elements could become solid particles.
Farther from the Sun, the cooler gases could form icy particles. The larger clumps could gather more material, increase in gravity, and grow even more. Meanwhile, the energy created at the center of the Sun was beginning to reach the surface and radiate into space, along with a "wind" of energetic particles. This radiation and solar wind began to push out the remaining dust and gas of the nebula, sweeping the solar system clean.
The Sun is by far the largest member of its solar system family. It weighs about 500 times as much as everything else in the solar system put together. It is the only object large enough for its center to undergo nuclear fusion. It produces so much energy that it shines.
From the innermost outward, the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. A neat way to remember all of them is to say “My Very Excellent Memory Just Served Up Nine Planets!”
Only Earth, closest to the center of the sun’s “hot zone”, has the best-suited temperatures
for supporting life. See photo: below.
The Sun’s “hot zone”. (along the heavy yellow lines)
Earth is closest to “hot zone”, where its atmosphere is suitable for producing life.
Out of the dust of swirling superheated gases, come the Planets: Thank God for Planet Earth!
The sun in all of its glory sends life-giving energy to us. Through photosynthesis, which is the making of food by plants in the presence of sunlight, we are given oxygen during that process: the plants take in carbon dioxide and in the presence of sunlight, make food and give off oxygen. The sun is our most loyal of friends because it keeps us warm and full of its energy. It is definitely our friend when it allows all life to be reproduced. Those life giving rays of the sun have to travel 93,000,000 miles to reach Earth: with the speed of light known to be 186,000 miles per second that gives the light of the sun just 8.33 minutes to reach us. It is a simple matter to calculate that time by using basic algebra: Units Conversions Internet Physics
Velocity = Distance/Time or Time = Distance/Velocity.
The distance = 93,00,0000 miles; the Velocity of light = 186,000 miles/ second
So, Time = 93,000,000 miles x 1 second/186,000 miles = 500 seconds (the miles cancel
out, and we are left with seconds!)
We multiply… 500 seconds x I minute/60 seconds = 8.33 minutes (the seconds cancel out, and we are left with minutes)
So, when the rays of the sun reach us, they have traveled over 93,000,000miles, and it has taken them 8.33 minutes to reach us! Within those rays, which contain visible light, are the good and the bad. The visible light is a part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum of Waves. Go to:
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/dict_ei.html#em_spectrum A Scientific Dictionary
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
The visible light part of the Spectrum is good news for us! We can see the waves that make up that part of the Spectrum. You know, all of the colors of the rainbow!
Thank God, we can “see” the visible light waves of the Electromagnetic Spectrum of Waves.
The rays of the sun also contain “not so good” stuff. They contain cosmic rays, and a whole lot of others that can do serious harm to us, and all of the things that we love and possess. Our skin, for example has to be protected from the harmful rays of the sun: that is why we use sun screen to block those harmful rays. Some of those rays can cause skin cancer, you know. Some dark skinned people have a built-in protection for their skin in the form of a chemical called “melanin”; they have little use for sun screen (Africans and Afro-Americans, mostly)
The sun can also dehydrate us if we are not careful. We need moisture in our bodies: our sun will “dry us out”, causing death.
The sun can do terrible damage to rubber and glue. Leaving those items to bask in the sun can cause them to crack and crumble. It is due to the make-up of rubber and glue, but mainly due to the super-power of the Sun!
Rubber is defined as: (www.dictionary.com Dictionary Assistance)
A yellowish, amorphous, elastic material obtained from the milky sap or latex of various tropical plants, especially the rubber tree, and vulcanized, pigmented, finished, and modified into products such as electric insulation, elastic bands and belts, tires, and containers. Also called caoutchouc, India rubber.
Glue is defined as: (www.dictionary.com Dictionary Assistance
a. A strong liquid adhesive obtained by boiling collagenous animal parts such as bones, hides, and hooves into hard gelatin and then adding water.
b. Any of various similar adhesives, such as paste, mucilage, or epoxy.
We can reach the conclusion that the Sun is our very good friend, but it can also be our worst nightmare. We should learn as much as we can about it and respect its good wishes. It is there to give life to us and not damage us and cause us to suffer.
Assisted by…A Free
