Here’s your chance to make your own wind speed gauge also known as an anemometer.

http://www.miamisci.org/hurricane/windscale.html

©2000 Miami Museum of Science

Measuring Wind Speed

At one time, sailors would use flags and streamers to measure the strength of the wind. In 1805, Sir Francis Beaufort published his table of wind speeds based on what happened to the sails of a man o’war. With some modifications, his scale is still used today. You can use a flag and the Beaufort wind scale below to find out how fast wind is moving.

Materials

• a printed copy of “Beaufort wind scale #1″, below
• a printed copy of “Beaufort wind scale #2″, below
• scissors
• sharpened pencil
• brad paper fastener
• colored pencils or crayons

To print this page

1. PLACE the mouse pointer on the File menu at the top of the screen.
2. CLICK and HOLD the mouse button down while DRAGGING the pointer to Print.
3. RELEASE the mouse button. The print dialog box is displayed.
4. PRESS RETURN. The wind scales will begin to print.

Instructions

1. CUT OUT each Beaufort wind scale along the outside circle.
2. COLOR each Beaufort wind scale if desired.
3. CUT OUT both shaded areas on Beaufort wind scale #1.
4. With a sharpened pencil, PUNCH a hole through the black dot in the center of each circle.
5. PLACE Beaufort wind scale #1 on top of Beaufort wind scale #2.
6. PUSH the brad fastener through the center hole of both circles.
7. FLIP your Beaufort wind scale over and spread open the fastener.
8. SPIN the wheel to make sure it moves freely.
9. USE your new Beaufort wind scale to see how fast the outside wind is moving .

Beaufort wind scale #1

Beaufort wind scale #2

Yum-yum…have some fun!!

Materials

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup whipping cream (heavy cream)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup sodium chloride (NaCl)  or rock salt
• 2 cups ice
• 1-quart Ziploc bag and 1-gallon Ziplocbag
• Thermometer
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Cups for eating your treat!

Procedure

1. Add 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup whipping cream, and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla to the quart ziploc bag.
2. Seal the bag securely.
3. Put 2 cups of ice into the gallon ziploc bag.
4. Use a thermometer to measure and record the temperature of the ice in the gallon bag.
5. Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup salt (NaCL) to the bag of ice.
6. Place sealed quart bag inside the gallon bag of ice/salt.
7.  Seal the gallon bag securely.
8. Gently rock the gallon bag from side to side. Hold by  top seal with cloth  between the bag and your hands.
9. Continue to rock the bag for 10-15 minutes or until the contents of the quart bag have solidified into ice cream.
10. Open the gallon bag. Measure and record the temperature of the ice/salt mixture.
11. Remove the quart bag, rise with cold water, open and serve! ( When you  take the smaller bag out, rinse it off with cold water. One partner needs to take the larger bag and it’s contents to the trash or outside. DO NOT DUMP IT DOWN THE SINK!!!)

Why it works:

Explanation For Salt and Ice Cream Experiment:

Ice has to absorb energy in order to melt, changing the phase of water from a solid to a liquid. When you use ice to cool the ingredients for ice cream, the energy is absorbed from the ingredients and from the outside environment (like your hands, if you are holding the baggie of ice!). When you add salt to the ice, it lowers the freezing point of the ice, so even more energy has to be absorbed from the environment in order for the ice to melt. This makes the ice colder than it was before, which is how your ice cream freezes.

Compounds that break into two pieces upon dissolving, like NaCl breaks into Na⁺ and Cl^-, are better at lowering the freezing point than substances that don’t separate into particles because the added particles disrupt the ability of the water to form crystalline ice. The salt causes the ice to absorb more energy from the environment, becoming colder.

Recipe Variations

• Chocolate Ice Cream: Reduce vanilla  and add two squares of melted, unsweetened baking chocolate to the mixture.
• Strawberry Ice Cream: Reduce vanilla and add strawberries after mixing the ice cream.

Rocks do change into other kinds of rocks.  Rocks do change size, going from big to small and back again.  Rocks and the building blocks of rocks, minerals, have never been alive so they are inorganic.  There are Earth materials, however, that…” are made up of plant and animal matter.  Over millions and millions of years ago, when plants and animals died, their bodies decomposed and were buried under layers of earth.  Millions of years later, we have the three forms of organic (once alive) earth materials called fossil fuels.”

To test your rock cycle knowledge and rock classification skills visit the following sites:

Interactive Rock Cycle

Rock Cycle

Rocks and Soil

Have you ever wondered what the moon will look like on your next birthday, a holiday or even on another continent?  Do you think there is a way to find this out?  The answer is most definitely YES  because the moon has its own special cycle.  The changes of the moon, called phases,  have been observed and recorded over time so we know exactly  how it will look during its repeating four week cycle.  (Also, think about what causes the tide cycles……..

What other Earth cycles do you know that are fun to observe and study? How about the water cycle?  Would there be clean, fresh water on Earth without the water cycle? Absolutely not.  Do we get “new” water on Earth from outer space?  Can we just make more?   It’s important and interesting to know where our water comes from and how we can conserve it.  (To learn more–click on Where does our water come from?)

How about the cycle that gives us our beautiful sunrise and sunset, day after day, year after year?!! How about the 4 seasons?  How about all the cycles that make life work?? Cycles drive the science behind why and how everything on Earth works, survives and constantly changes.

Earth’s  cycles are endless (no pun intended) so put on your cycle cap and think of all the cycles you know.  Thinking about what makes them work and why they are so important.

Hang on as you rotate, orbit, tilt and experience life as part of our solar system!

The ground feels solid beneath your feet. Of course, the Earth is rotating, turning once on its axis every 24 hours. Fortunately gravity keeps you firmly attached to the planet, and because of momentum, you don’t feel the movement – the same way you don’t feel the speed of a car going down the highway. But how fast does the Earth rotate?

You might be surprised to know that a spot on the surface of the Earth is moving at 1675 km/h or 465 meters/second. That’s 1,040 miles/hour. Just think, for every second, you’re moving almost half a kilometer through space, and you don’t even feel it.

Want to do the calculation for yourself? The Earth’s circumference at the equator is 40,075 km. And the length of time the Earth takes to complete one full turn on its axis is 23.93 hours. So 40,075/23.93 = 1,675 km.

The speed of the Earth’s rotation changes as you go North or South away from the equator. Finally, when you reach one of the Earth’s poles, you’re taking a whole day to just turn once in place – that’s not very fast.

Because you’re spinning around and around on the Earth, there’s a force that wants to spin you off into space; like when you spin a weight on a string. But don’t worry, that force isn’t very strong, and it’s totally overwhelmed by the force of gravity holding you down. The force that wants to throw you into space is only 0.3% the force of gravity. In other words, if the Earth wasn’t spinning, you would weigh 0.3% more than you do right now.

Space agencies take advantage of the higher velocities at the Earth’s equator to launch their rockets into space. By launching their rockets from the equator, they can use less fuel, or launch more payload with the same amount of fuel. As it launches, the rocket is already going 1,675 km/hour. That makes it easier to reach the 28,000 km/hour orbital velocity; or even faster to reach geosynchronous orbit.

by FRASER CAIN on MARCH 6, 2009

We have written many articles about the Earth for Universe Today. Here’s an article aboutwhy the Earth rotates.

Want more resources on the Earth? Here’s a link to NASA’s Human Spaceflight page, and here’s NASA’s Visible Earth.

We have also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast about Earth, as part of our tour through the Solar System – Episode 51: Earth.

References:

When a whale kicks the bucket, all that blubber has to go somewhere. This absolutely gorgeous short film  (click here) by Sharon Shattuck and Flora Lichtman depicts what happens to a whale’s corpse after it falls to the bottom of the sea. See all of your favorite deep-sea scavengers in puppet form! I mean you, polychaete worm!

 

What are Plate Tectonics??

Most people know that Earth is moving around the Sun and that it is constantly spinning. But did you know that the continents and oceans are moving across the surface of the planet? Volcanoes and earthquakes as well as mountain ranges and islands all are results of this movement.

Less than 100 years ago, many scientists thought the continents always had been the same shape and in the same place. A few scientists noted that the eastern coastline of South America and the western coastline of Africa looked as if they could fit together. Some also noted that, with a little imagination, all the continents could be joined together like giant puzzle pieces to create one large continent surrounded by one huge ocean.

To learn more about the Earth’s crust, how it moves and plate tectonics click to learn more. Make the puzzle, move the puzzle. Get to know the Earth’s crust and it’s inner/outer workings.

http://sio.ucsd.edu/voyager/earth_puzzle/