Science Essay: Acid Rain

          Acid rain is yet another form of pollution.  Caused by burning coal, driving cars, erupting volcanoes, and other means – both natural and man-made, acid rain can cause serious harm to the animals and people around it.  Acid rain is caused by an excess of nitric and sulfuric acids in the atmosphere.  When it falls down in the form of rain, or is combined with dust, it affects the environment around it in negative ways.  When you add acid to ponds and lakes, aquatic life is put into danger.  Fish die out and those that eat them must starve.  When acid lands in soil, many plants cannot survive, and herbivores do not have enough food.  The effects of acid rain snowball out of control, like a wave of dominoes.  Acid rain can destroy a whole way of living for the animals living in one area.  However, many scientists are trying to figure out ways of preventing this big problem.  Acid rain is an issue we must all try to change. 

When gasses such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and substances like lead and other air pollutants are released into the atmosphere, acid rain is produced.  Acid rain is the product of this pollution: an excess of nitric and sulfuric acids is spread over large areas of land through rain (in wet places) and dust (in dry places).  There are many reasons why acid rain is caused – both man-made and natural.  Erupting volcanoes and rotting plants can cause the toxic gasses to go up into the atmosphere, but the majority of acid rain is caused by humans.  When we drive cars and ride in planes and trains and boats, we release carbon dioxide and other dangerous substances into the air.  Acid rain can fall in two categories: wet deposition and dry deposition.  Wet deposition occurs when acidic chemicals are blown into wet areas, which results in acidic water.  Dry deposition happens in very dry areas, where there isn’t very much rain.  The acid chemicals end up being distributed in dust and dirt, instead of water.  Both of these ways of releasing acid rain into the environment are very harmful for people and animals. 

            Acid rain can affect both humans and animals, but it is most dangerous towards aquatic life.  As acidic water flows downhill, it deposits aluminum in nearby streams, rivers, and lakes.  When it settles in a lake, the pH of that lake goes down, becoming more and more acidic.  This means that even as more acid is being added to underwater ecosystems, toxic aluminum is being deposited there as well.  Many fish and other marine animals cannot survive in areas of low pH.  At a pH of five, most fish eggs will find it impossible to hatch, and at any pH lower than five, many more adult fish will die.  Some animals, such as frogs, have developed a tolerance toward acid.  However, the insects they depend on for food may not be able to withstand water with a low pH.  So even if a particular species can survive in acidic conditions, the prey they catch cannot, so they will die anyway.  Not only is the livelihood of frogs and fish damaged, but birds are affected, too.  Snails find it difficult to survive in areas of high acidity, because they depend on calcium found in soil.  Much of this mineral is lost when it is replaced by acid.  If snails don’t find enough calcium in their habitat, they cannot survive, and die out.  This causes a problem for the birds.  Snails are a high source of calcium, and eating them helps birds to lay strong eggs.  When there aren’t enough snails for birds to eat, then the eggs, the birds can’t get enough calcium in their systems, and they are forced to lay eggs with very thin shells.  Many eggs are unable to hatch because of shell breakage and other accidents.  If the population of birds is depleted, then there is less food for predators who depend on birds to eat.  This, in turn, affects the carnivore population.  It is one big chain reaction. 

            There are many good things being done to help reduce the amount of acid rain produced by factories and cars.   According to the website epa.gov, instruments such as catalytic converters help reduce the amount of harmful gasses released into the atmosphere when we drive.  Also, “scrubbers” are used to reduce the amount of nitric acids that escape from factory smokestacks.  Not only can we try to reduce the amount of nitric and sulfuric acids we produce, but we can also attempt to prevent them from reaching the air.  We can do this by using alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric power.  These are examples of “green” energy sources, and they have very minimal negative impacts on the environment.

            Acid rain is a serious issue that we all need to be aware about.  It is an overdose of nitric and sulfuric acids in the atmosphere that become absorbed into the natural environment.  It is caused by cars, factories, and other sources that produce exhaust.  Acid rain affects the natural habitats of animals and people around it in very negative ways, and can damage a whole way of living in an ecosystem.  Fortunately, scientists are learning how they can help prevent the spread of acid rain, and, in doing so, help our environment.  

Works Cited

“Acid Rain.” Protecting the Home we Live in:  Environmental Issues. Novi Meadows Elementary, 2002. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. <http://library.thinkquest.org/‌CR0215471/‌acid_rain.htm>.

“Acid Rain.” US Environmental Protection Agency. US EPA, 24 Mar. 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. <http://www.epa.gov/‌acidrain/‌index.html>.

“Acid Rain/‌Prevention.” PB Works. PB Works, 2007. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://acidrain.pbworks.com/‌w/‌page/‌1319114/‌Prevention>.

Burning Paper Lab

Science Paper Lab

Research Question:  How does changing the state of paper affect how fast it burns?

Background Information:  The reaction we are creating is a chemical reaction involving turning paper into ash.  This cannot be reversed, so it is a chemical reaction.  

Hypothesis:

Riena:  I think that if we use paper that has been wet and then dried, it will burn the longest.  This is because remnants of water may still remain in paper.  The more wet a piece of paper is, the longer it will take to burn.  

Variables:
    -Independent Variable:  This is the variable that we change.  In this experiment, it will be the state of the paper we burn that is the dependent variable.
    -Dependent Variable:  This is the variable that is the response of what happens to the independent variable.  In this case, the dependent variable is the time it takes for each paper to burn.  
    -Controlled Variable:  The controlled variable is one that stays the same throughout the experiment. It does not change and is not allowed to change unpredictably.

Safety Cautions:
-While burning the paper, make sure that you burn it in a fire-safe container
-Be careful that none of the fire escapes from the container
-Do not let anyone touch the paper while  it is burning
-Do not get too close to the paper while it is burning
-You may want to wear goggles to protect your eyes, although these are not vital to the experiment

List of Materials:
-Four sheets of A4 paper
-Matches
-Something to burn the paper in
-Writing Materials
-Stopwatch

Procedure:
1.) Burn a regular piece of paper
2.) Record observations*
3.) Crumple up that piece of paper the same size as the first, and burn it
4.) Record observations
5.) Wet another piece of paper, let it dry, crumple it up, and burn it.
6.) Record observations
7.) Wet another paper, let it dry, and then burn it.
8.) Record observations

*Fill out all observations in data table below


Data Table:

State of Paper:	Time it Takes to Burn (seconds):	Other Observations:
Regular	78	Had to re-light
Wet and Dried	31	Much wind
Crumpled	67
Crumpled, Wet and Dried	105

Graph

Conclusion: 

          My hypothesis was correct.  The "crumpled, wet and dried" paper took the longest to burn by a long shot.  As you can see in both the graph and table above, the paper that we soaked in water, dried, and crumpled up took 105 seconds to burn, whereas the paper that burned the second slowest took 78 seconds to burn.  The "wet and dried" paper might also have taken a longer time to burn, but while we were burning it, a gust of wind hit us.  This meant that there was more oxygen, and therefore more fuel, which meant that the paper burned more quickly. 

Further Inquiry:

          While we were conducting the experiment, many things went wrong.  There was an inconsistent amount of wind, and we had to re-light some of the papers.  The amount of wind in an experiment matters because wind affects how much oxygen is present.  Oxygen fuels fire: the more oxygen, the greater the fire.  Also, too much wind will blow out a small fire, and then we have to re-light the paper.  One of the fires went out, so we had to relight the paper, which took time.  This would have made us collect incorrect data.  If we were to do this experiment again, we should light our papers on a wind-less day.  This means we would not have wind, and our experiment would be unaffected.  If we wanted to collect even more information, we could measure the mass of each paper before and after we soaked them in water and dried them.  If we did that, we could see if paper gains mass after being soaked in water. 

Color Experiment

         In science class, we conducted a lab to figure out whether or not food coloring from skittles was polar or non-polar, and whether or not food coloring has more than one color in it at a time.  The way we did this was we dropped some water on different colored skittles to get the color out.  Then, we dabbed the color onto coffee filter paper.  After that, we put the paper in water.  Water traveled up the paper, and the idea was to see if the colors would travel up, too.  Since water is polar, and polar substances wash polar substances, if the colors rose, then they would be polar.  The coffee filter paper is non-polar, and since non-polar sticks to non-polar, we knew that if the color stayed, it was non-polar.  Also, if there were many different colors in one dye, they should have risen so that there was one color on top of another.  As you can see in the picture above, the experiment was done properly, and you can see that there are multiple colors.  The colors that rise the most, will be the most polar, as they will have traveled the furthest with the water.  The colors at the bottom near their dots are not as polar, because they have not followed the water up so far. 
As you can see in the picture to the left, we started out by putting the color on the dots.  However, we could not get enough dye to go on, or it was too diluted by water, so the colors are not very clear. 

In the photo to the right, you can see that the water traveled up the paper, but there is not very much color visible that has traveled up from the dots.  We did this experiment wrong, because we didn't put enough color on the paper, so it kind of failed.  We can't see anything going up the paper.  If we were to try this lab again, we should add more skittle dye to the paper, and we might want to use white paper instead of brown so that the color would show more. 

Candy Molecules

 During science today, we made molecules out of candy.  Different candies were used to represent different atoms. 


1.)  The first molecule we made was sodium chloride (NaCl).  As you can see, the gummy circle is sodium, and the big chocolate marshmallow is chlorine.  All the x's around the chlorine atom represent its seven electrons, and the little dot by the sodium atom represents its one electron.  They are sharing sodium's electron, because if chlorine gains one more electron, it becomes stable, which is what all molecules want to become. 


2.)  The second molecule we made was water, or H2O.  The pink candy represents the oxygen atom, and the two gummy circles represent the hydrogen atoms.  The x's are the hydrogen atoms' electrons, and the dots are the oxygen's electrons.  As you can see, both hydrogens are sharing their electrons with oxygen, so oxygen has the use of eight electrons.  Therefore, it is stable.  

3.)  The third molecule we made was carbon dioxide or  CO2.  The big chocolate marshmallow in the center of the molecule is a carbon atom, and the two gummy circles represent oxygen atoms.  As you can see, the carbon atom is sharing two of its electrons with each of the oxygen atoms, and each of the oxygen atoms are sharing two of their electrons with the big carbon atom.  This means that each atom has a total of eight electrons each.  They are all stable, and they are all "happy". 








4.)  The last molecule we made was CH4.  The picture doesn't show it, but there were really four gummy bears surrounding the Turkish Delight, not three.  Each gummy bear represented one hydrogen atom, and the Turkish Delight represented the carbon atom.  We drew the diagram incorrectly.  Correctly drawn, all the hydrogen atoms would have only one electron, which they would be sharing with the carbon atom.  That way, the carbon atom, which already has four electrons, will end up having eight - one more from each of the four electrons.  However, each hydrogen atom has five electrons, so just ignore that and pretend that they each only have one. 

Current Events: New Zealand Oil Spill

Dead Seabird - Killed by the Oil

        There has been a massive oil spill in the sea around New Zealand recently.  Over 50 tons of oil has been released into the sea, and so far, only 10 tons have been removed.  Over 300 Defense Force personnel are working on getting rid of the oil, as well as specialists from Australia, the Netherlands, and the UK.  This oil spill is a big threat to the local oceanic wildlife of New Zealand.  Birds that depend on water for food, like penguins, swim through the oil and get it all over their feathers.  When they preen, they could get the oil into their system, and there is also a large risk that they will contaminate their chicks with it.  Birds like petrels, which don't swim in the water, but dive down to catch fish, will also be affected.  When they get oil in their feathers, it makes it harder for them to fly.  Orca whales, bottlenose dolphins, baleen whales, and beaked whales are also threatened as oil spills into their migratory routes.  Some animals, which are already endangered, are in the most danger from this oil spill.  If too many of them are wiped out, they may become extinct.  There are several volunteer groups working very hard at protecting and cleaning the animals that are being affected by the oil, but they can only do so much.

For more information, go to:  Oil Spill

Making an Atom

          During class, I made a scale model of a sodium atom.  The scale was 250 picometers/cm.  The only things that were not modeled to scale were the electrons.  Electrons are supposed to be 2000 times smaller than a proton or neutron, but the electrons I made were probably only about 100 times smaller.  There is a picture of my atom to the right.  As you can see, the neutrons and protons are showed separately in different shades of green, and the electrons are laid out in levels like a Bohr model. 

Current Events: Gold May be a Bad Investment

          According to CNN, investing in gold may be a bad idea.  All over the world, people believe that gold will always have the same price, even if the cost of everything else collapses.  This is because of the value we have for it.  In the past decade, the price of gold has risen by 600%, even though the global demand for gold has gone down by 18% since 2004.  Many people consider gold as something to invest in, not something to actually use, which is why the price of it has gone up, but the demand for it has gone down.  Also, gold has become much more accessible.  You can now buy gold more easily than you can buy stocks and shares, and in some countries, you can actually obtain this metal from dispensers like ATMs.  According to the article, this is very strange, and the fact that everyone is using gold is more psychological rather than reasonable.  Everyone is so attracted to gold, and that is why it is so expensive.  Once gold goes out of fashion, the gold market will collapse.  So, contrary to what you might think, investing in gold may not be the brightest idea ever. 

For more information, go to:  Gold Investments