David Webb Demonstration

So on Wednesday, David Webb and his wife Joan Webb came to our chemistry class and did a bunch of great experiments that had to do with pressure!!! He told us that gases and liquids, which are fluids, go from high pressure to low pressure. He showed us a soccer ball and told us that the pressure inside the ball is above the atmosphere pressure and that's why the ball bounces. I learned that the higher you go up, for example all the way up Mt. Everest, the less gas there is, so its harder to breathe. David Webb told us that there is 14.7 pounds per square inch of pressure here on Earth and 0.1 pounds per square inch of pressure on Mars. He also did an experiment with a washer and a feather. Outside of the vacuum, when the feather and washer are dropped to the ground at the same time, the washer drops to the ground faster. But inside the vacuum the feather and washer drop to the bottom at the same time, this is because there is not a lot of air molecules in the container to resist the feather from falling. I learned that sound transition needs gas molecules, gas density, to work. I also learned that Otto Von Guerike was the first person to do the magdeburg experiment. In class when we did the experiment it took 168 pounds to separate the two hemispheres. Click on Magdeburg to learn about the experiment.

half-day of school

So on Friday we had a half day of school meaning i got off at 12:30!! Right after school i had to work on an English project with my group of friends. we had to make an infomercial for a product we had to sell. Check out our infomercial!!! The project took us more then 5hrs. i went home at 6:30. When i got home i slept for 10 minutes then i got a call from my cousin and she told me to get ready to go to the city with her to go decorate for her party. my sister, my two cousins, my cousins friend, and my cousins other friend, and i were all in the car. We stopped at Safeway to get food for the party, we stopped at the dollar store to get glow in the dark necklaces and bracelets because the party was going to be a black light party, we stopped at the store of my cousin's friends dad to get to the key to the restaurant where the party was being held, and finally we got to the actual restaurant. Because the party was a black light party we had to cover the walls with black paper, we had to hung up streamers, covered the tables with a certain paper, splashed paint on the walls, and put up the lights for the party. It was SO MUCH WORK! When we were done decorating we turned off the lights and looked at the room, it looked AWESOME. anyways i got home at like 2, i was exhausted all i wanted to do was sleep!!! My Friday was supposed to be relaxing, but it was hectic!

Cousins Birthday

So on March 17 my cousin, shes like my sister, turned 21!!!! Before her birthday i decided i wanted to get her a gift. I knew this gift had to be pretty awesome because come on she turning the big 21. So me and my aunt went to Macys. At first i wanted to get her a coach purse, but i did not see anything i liked and that was in my price range, so i decided to get her a pair of coach shoes!!!! they were so cute. they were brown and had the original coach design on them. After i bought her shoes i went home and wrapped it up in some gift wrapping paper. All i needed to do now was wait two more days to give her the gift. That same day my cousin came over and she knew i bought her gift because i had this sly look on my face. She begged me to giver it to her and i could not say no, she opened the gift. She loved her new shoes!!!! Check out this website to look at more coach products, Coach!!!

Equilibrium

This week in chemistry we learned about equilibrium!!! Equilibrium is when there is an exact balance between two opposing forces or opposing processes. We also learned about Le Chatelier's Principle. Le Chatelier's principle states "if a system at equilibrium is disturbed, the system shifts to counter the effect of the disturbance." Also in chemistry this week we learned about activation energy. We learned that activation energy is the least amount of energy needed for a chemical reaction to occur. The basis of all chemical reactions is collisions because collisions make energy. Four different things affect reaction rates: temperature, concentration changes, particle size, and a catalyst. Learn more about Le'Chatelier's principle.

basketball

A couple weeks ago my basketball team and i played in a tournament called CCS. In CCS the best of the best basketball teams play. The tournament is not like a regular tournament where if you lose you get put in a lower bracket. In CCS if you lose your out. This tournament would end our basketball season here at Mills meaning this would be the last time i got to play with my senior teammates. We had three intense practices before our first game and the practices paid off! We won our game against Palo Alto, they were a good team and it was a really close game,in fact we won by two points a buzzer beater! Winning our first game meant that we would move on to play Presentation. Unfortunately we did not win that game and that was our last game for this year of basketball. :( Check out our MIlls basketball page!

thermochemistry

So, now in chemistry we have been introduced to a new topic called thermochemistry which is the chemistry of energy. In class we learned that heat energy is measured in calories and joules. we also learned how to calculate a loss or gain of heat energy of a substance using this formula: Q=mc(delta)T. I learned that Q equals heat energy, C equals heat capacity, (delta) T equals equals temperature change, and m equals mass. I learned that convection is the flow of heat through matter and conduction is when heat flows from a warm object to a cool one with no flow of matter. Oh also heat capacity is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance by one Celsius degree. In chem class i learned that the specific heat capacity of water is 1cal/ g degrees Celsius or 4.184 J/grams degrees Celsius. i also learned how to calculate for deltaT the formula is this: deltaT=T(Final)-T(Initial). Next Monday we are going to have a test on this subject hopefully i am ready!!! Check out this website for more on specific heat capacity and Q=mc(delta)T