One World Blogpost- Hurricanes

            Every year there are few, but devastating hurricanes, tornadoes and other strong winds forming usually near the Unites States of America (USA). In every day we don’t talk about them very much and it is not usual one to occur so this is why I chose this topic. For those who don’t know what a hurricane is and want to be informed, a hurricane is a rotating oceanic wind that usually forms over tropical oceanic regions. This is because they way they occur.
            Their birth is a complicated and detailed thing to explain. First, think that it is an engine used to warm and its source is moist air. Since it needs moist air, it forms over warm oceans, near the equator, and causes the air to rise. As there is less air near the surface of the sea, less pressure, air with high pressure from other areas comes near the ocean surface forming a ‘new’ air which also rises. As it rises, it swirls and as it slowly cools down it forms clouds. Then it spins and continues while moving by the provided ‘fuel’. When it is formed north of the equator it goes counterclockwise and in the south it moves clockwise because of the rotation of the Earth on its axis.
            As I just mentioned, a hurricane needs moist air as fuel so it forms in the biggest ocean, the Pacific. It only once formed in the Atlantic Ocean on August 23, 2005 and caused huge disaster to the citizens of Bahamas and Florida. When there is a hurricane to occur and we kind of prevent it, is by the season. When it is April-December it forms northern, near India, but when it is October-May it occurs in the southern regions.
            A hurricane is very strong and always damages and effects cities/regions/areas. The effects of it are sort surges- strong winds that push the water near the coast, heavy rainfalls-6-12 inches) high winds, rip tides and sea currents. Its disadvantages are many and cause both physical and emotional pain. First, it transports warm air in cooler places that can be both bad and good-the poles may melt even a little bit, people and aniamls die, buildings, houses, agriculture areas are ruined, trees and other vegetation is ruined and it spreads out lots of debris. Although I would never believe it a hurricane has its benefits. It reduces population- we are overpopulated, although it causes suffer and pain- it helps agriculture by bringing the fertile soil on top, architecture get improved my building more stable houses and it brings people together.

            It’s not very easy to predict hurricanes although high pressure system can tell whether there is low pressure and there is not a way to prevent them yet. Scientists can use information they already have from tornadoes or hurricanes passed because they keep track of them on the computer and can tell in how many days or hours the next one will occur approximately.  Since 1492 there is a scale called the decadal scale that shows us the different amount of hurricanes occurred every 10-30 years so we can study the record to see if ‘it’s time’ for a hurricane to occur.   From this study, we have learned that there are 6 hurricanes, small or big, every season that occur. It’s really interesting. A really good thing that could help us stop or reduce the size of a hurricane is cool the water down since it will not take us much fuel and grow as much. A very interesting fact is that it is stronger on its right side so you should have your eyes open if you live on the right front quadrant. Because of all the disaster it causes, several government sponsor projects for the design of the study of storms and finding ways to control them. In my opinion, people should built their houses from brick, so it is more stable and find a way to cool don’t the ocean or at least the seas near the land so it doesn’t ‘eat’ that much so it stops before millions of lives are lost.
            You might have noticed that I have mention cyclones and other words that have nothing to do with hurricanes but in fact, they mean the same thing. It all depends in where they occur. Their scientific term is tropical cyclones but in the Atlantic Ocean they are called hurricanes, although we use it for the Pacific too. Another word is typhoon. My biggest question from this whole topic is how they are named. What I found out answered fully my question and what I found out is really interesting and it was unexpected. Before the 50’s, they had no name and till 1952, they had simple names like Dog, Cat or George. In 1953, someone deiced to give only women names, since lots of people say they are a disaster, but in 1979 this changed. It had names between the two genres. Now days, they are named alphabetically every year and the second letter depends on the order. For example the name Wilma came from a season that was very but very busy since I is one of the last letters in the alphabet.
                My opinion about the topic is pretty clear. Since almost the only place that has hurricanes is America, they should build their houses from brick, like in Europe and it doesn’t matter that it costs more. It saves lives and money for the next hurricane. The best action in my opinion they should take is when they hear about the hurricane leave town and come back when it is over. And don’t forget the basic thing! ARCHITECTURE!!! BRICK!!

Bibliography:

•  "The Benefits/Advantages and Disadvantages of Some Natural Disasters (Floods,

     Volcanoes, and Hurricanes)." Loi-Renee. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2012.
     <http://loi-renee.hubpages.com/hub/
     The-Benefits-and-Disadvantages-of-Some-Natural-Disasters-Floods-Volcanoes-and-Hur
     ricanes>.

• "Effects of a Hurricane." Teachertech. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2012.
       <http://teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/louviere/hurricanes/
       effects.html>.  
• "How Do Hurricanes Form?" Space Place. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2012.
       <http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/hurricanes/>. 
• "Hurricane Features." Comet. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2012.
       <http://www.comet.ucar.edu/nsflab/web/hurricane/311.htm>. 

• "Hurricane Information." Mars Bunny. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2012.   <http://www.marshbunny.com/hurricane/storms.html#3>.

• "Hurricanes Facts & Features." AccuWeather. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2012.
       <http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/hurricanefacts/
       when-and-where-do-hurricanes-o/31028>. 
• "Hurricanes/Tropical Cyclones." NASA. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2012.
       <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/multimedia/
       AtlanticHurricanesWithJeffPage7.html>. 
• Meinelli. Interview. How do Scientists Predict Hurricanes Today. NASA. N.p.,
       n.d. Web. 2 June 2012. <http://www.nasa.gov/mov/
       264644main_119_Hurricanes_Today.mov>. 
• "Science: The Benefits of Hurricanes." Time. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2012.
       <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907967,00.html>.
  

Epicenter Analysis

Analayze and Conclude

1. Observe the 3 circles you have drawn. Where is the earthquake's epicenter? The epicenter of the earthquake is somewhere near Kentucky (Frankfort)
2. Which city on the map is closest to the earthquake's epicenter? How far, in kilometers, is the city from the epicenter? The closest city, in the map, to the epicenter of the earthquake is Nashville  and it is 100 kilometers far
3. In which of the 3 cities listed in the data table would seismographs detect the earthquake first? Last? The first one is Chicago the next one is Houston and the last one is Denver
4. About how far from San Francisco is the epicenter that you found? What would the difference be in arrival times of the P waves and S waves for a recording station in San Francisco. The difference in arrival times is 2,800 kilometers
5. What happens to the difference in arrival times between P waves and S waves as the distance from the erthquake increases?
6. 
   

Video Of The Week - Garrett McNamara's Record Breaking Wave Ride

by Meera Dolasia on 05/15/2012 


In the last few classes we have been talking about different kinds if waves but for now we are only focusing at 'water' waves.  My previous blog post was about buoys allover the world and the highest wave ever. This blog post is again related to waves but not the ones that pass the buoys... the ones that are surfed....! This is the highest wave ever surfed and the size of the wave on this video compared to the man on the board is pretty huge!
One day at November 2011 the 44 years old Hawaiian man named Garret was not in the mood for surfing and decided to break the Guinness World Records. This happened in Nazare, Portugal
when the professional surfer’s friends convinced him to ‘catch’ a few waves. When he saw THAT wave he supposed it was 90 feet tall but when experts looked at it “closer” they found out that it was only 78 feet but it is still tall.
This is an amazing video and short article. It is amazing how someones mood can change for minutes and do something impressing like that… He better must have thanked his friends because I guess there was something coming up after breaking the record!

Video:

National Data Buoy

   In class we visited a site that has all the buoys and keeps track of the waves in certain places or when the last tsunami occurred and where the highest wave took place. You goal that we have achieve with this log post is to make a hypothesis and find out where the lowest and highest wave are and what we think was the cause the atmospheric pressure or wind speed that was at that location that it was last updated.  We also have to find out how many types of buoys there are and why they are so helpful to meteorologists, cities on the coast (seaside), boatsmen, you...? 
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

My hypothesis about where the highest wave occurred is in Japan where there are a lot of earthquakes and tsunamis happening in a decade and  the lowest wave I guess it occurred  somewhere in Europe in Mediterranean sea.
he highest wave is in UK Met Office (Station 6405) which is 22.0 meters heigh and the lowest is can't be actually found because waves are just everywhere. But if we had to say which one is the lowest from the big one it would be in the gulf of Mexico NDBC (station 42001) and the height is 1.6 ft.

Buoys are very helpful to boatmen is that they give them instructions where to go or to warn them that there might be a big or low wave. This can also be helpful to meteorologists because they can find out what's the genera; weather in a place. The people that must be concerned about this topic are the citizens in coasts with lots of tsunamis so they can be aware of the next one coming. The last people that knowing the buoys topic and be aware of this site is us because it helps us is science to study waves in different places  and we get concerned about the events that are happening in our planet that destroy people's lifes.

Waves Interference

The week before spring break we started the wave unit. We went and visited a government building where they did experiments and generalized while showing us the waves. This week we finished a lab where we needed to drop drops in a pond with or without obstacles, paper towels and clay, and see what was going to follow after the drops. We observed it and recorded at a sheet. In order to see how the waves work, we needed to visit this site (http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/wave-interference) and try the application the helps us observe how the wave will be if the amplitude and frequency increase or decrease. This is a really good way of observing the affects that the changes have in the appearance of the waves because you can see it from both side at top, add slits like obstacles, add drips and changed frequency and amplitude that has a really big difference.

Try different combinations. Try increasing the amplitude or the frequency. Add another dripping faucet. Add a barrier (wall) or try a slit or two.  Try turning the sink to the side view.  How do these changes affect the appearance of the waves?  What have you learned about wave properties (wavelength, frequency, and amplitude) and how waves interact

• When the frequency and amplitude is low the wavelength is big but the wave is short
• When the frequency is low ans the amplitude is medium, the wavelength is about the same, as the first observation but the wave is taller.
• When it is the opposite, frequency medium and amplitude low, both wavelength and height is short
• When botg are medium the wave is medium size but the wavelength is short
• When the frequency is high and the amplitude remains the same, the wavelength is even shorter so is the height
• When it is the oposite, the waves are taller and the wavelength is big
• When they are both high, the wave is short so is th ewavelength
• When there is high frequency but low amplitude or the opposite, there is not wave
• When there is one or more slits but no space between them the wave stops suddenly when it meets the barrier(s)
• When the space between the slits increases, more and more waves come at the other side

When you change the frequency of the wave you control how many waves are in a time period.  The amplitude is the size of the drop you want to drop and it affects the waves by making them bigger or smaller.  
Pictures of Data I recorded in class:

Making waves lab:
Data Analysis: What pattern or relationships do you see in your data/ sketches/ images? In my sketches with the relationships between the waves created, I see that when we have the clay, the wave goes around it. When we have the paper towel the wave stops and when we have the foam ball, it rises it while moving it its direction. When we have both the clay and the foam ball, the clay slows the wave down a little bit and affects the ball by not moving that much as if the wave had come directly. Another important thing that my partner and I observed in this is lab is that the wave in the sides of the pond bounces, reflects, and creates another smaller wave going the opposite way. To add to this fact, when the waves don't have an obstacle or something to affect on, the wave keeps  up the same speed and has the same wavelength but when it has obstacles it kinds of slows down.

Conclusion: What do you conclude about he behavior of waves in the various situations you created today? Can you answer the guiding questions now? What I have concluded about the behavior of the waves is that in various situations it has a different affect. When it has obstacles it goes around it, in real life if it is a big wave it usually overlaps it or reaches a point of it. When there is an obstacle that is not stable and can be moved, not as powerful as the energy, it moves it. When there is not an obstacle or something on its way it keeps the same speed till it reaches the limits.

Guiding Questions:
When water is dropped from a pipette into a pan of water, how does the wave behave? The energy that we do creates a wave and forms other waves. When it meets the limits (Walls) it bounces off (reflects) and creates other smaller ones What properties does a mechanical wave have? The properties of a wave are: amplitude, frequency and wavelength  How do waves interact with each other and with solid objects in their paths? When two waves interact is when they meet each other. When they meet and have the same energy they continue but when they don't have the same energy they slow don't and suddenly stop. If there is an object in its path, it either goes around it, cover it or move it (like the foam ball used at the lab)

Hypothesis:

The water will create lots of ripples which each of them is bigger than the one before and often covers objects or smashes them if they stand on the wave's way.

End of Astronomy Unit Reflections

by Despina Katsirouba
4/24/12

End of Astronomy Unit Reflection:

Using the knowledge about astronomy that you gained during this unit, reflect on each big idea and what they mean to you.

                                               

1.      Students will understand that scientists are using the knowledge they have of Earth’s surface and atmosphere in search o extraterrestrial life. Explain what you have learned. All these years scientists are examining Earth and its atmosphere and have learned a lot of information that taught us what our body needs to survive. Scientists have studied the Earth’s surface and have learned that the plants that grow on it give us oxygen, the water is one of the most precious and important substance for our planet, our health, our daily life and the animals that grow on our planet. Also because of water full of minerals, we have fertile land so we are able to plant crops and survive. The basic thing that Earth has but other planets don’t is stable and solid ground that helps us grow plants, crops, build houses and walk on. Another thing to consider about is climate; it is in the perfect position between the sun so it is not too gold or too hot. Scientists have spend a lot of years studying our atmosphere and have learned that it composites of different gasses such as carbon dioxide, water vapor and other. All these precious information is used to find other planets that have the same or similar features so once we destroy our planet, we know it is going to happen if we don’t take actions but we don’t know yet how soon, we will have another one. Earth also has gravity that keeps us on the ground, stable and not floating around but it is one of the things that we don’t consider when looking for another planet.

      Students will understand that the International Space Station and space probes as well as satellites are excellent tools for further space exploration. Explain what you have learned.  Some many years scientists from all over the world have put together their powers to create the International Space Station (ISS) and I have to tell they have done a really good job as much as I know. Telescopes and satellites but also space shuttles are made are made every day so they can help improve our lives. Using telescopes scientists but also us can observe the sky but there is a small difference. Scientists use much more powerful telescope that help them see and analyze the galaxies, stars, planets and our moon. Some stars or planets are very far away so we can’t really see the through a telescope. That’s why we have invented satellites that can take pictures of the planets and send them to NASA for observations. The last thing that was a huge step for us humans was when we stepped the first time one the moon’s surface. But in order to go there, astronauts spent hours in a space craft. The space crafts were a really important invention because we can observe planets much better than the satellites  and space probes can  because astronauts can actually feel how it is up there and can tell more precise if we can survive or not there. As we improve our technology we can improve shuttles, satellites and space probes so we can go and explore the universe even further than we can now.

3.      What effects are caused by the motions of Earth and the Moon? As we all know, Earth does two movements while it is completing its orbit around the universe; it rotates and revolves. These two movements have a lot of effects on Earth’s surface. First, tides are caused when the moon and earth are rotating and revolving. Every 6 hours the tide changes (low, high/ high, low). Depended on the moon’s position, days and nights are caused. Also while Earth’s rotation, seasons, equinoxes and solstices are caused because of its tilt. At last weather and climate is caused. At last at Earth we can see the moon phases that are different every night of the month.

4.      How has the development of technology and space flight helped astronomers learn more about the other parts of the solar system and the structure of the universe? Throughout years, astronomers and scientists have made improvements in the way technology is. They have worked hard on creating much more powerful telescopes so we can observe even further but that is not always enough. Because the universe is a really big place, we don’t always have the right tools, methods or abilities to explore the whole place at one time or even at all. For this reason scientists have improved space probes and satellites so they can take pictures of the solar system and the structure of the universe and look into it much closer. An advantage of flying to space is that we get to feel how it is up there, what it looks like and make experiments that help us knowing whether we can survive on another planet or not.

5.      How are the conditions in space different from those on Earth? How has space technology benefited modern society?  The conditions in space are much different from those in Earth. First there is water and oxygen which are one of the most important things that we need to have in order to survive. Then, there is not weather and the temperature can be extremely high or low, depending on the position you are and the shadow. At last there is not gravity. In order astronauts to make it all the way back to Earth, they have these special suits that help them have oxygen and not freeze or ‘burn’ from the extraordinary temperatures. Space technology is really important to modern society because that’s how lasers, frozen and dry food, fire resistant clothing, smoke detectors and other useful things for our daily life.

6.      Did you enjoy this unit? Did you feel like this was something of importance to your life to learn about? Did you make any connections in your life while you were studying this unit? What are some things you liked and didn’t like? What are some ways for me to improve this unit, other than making it shorter? In my opinion this was the most interesting unit we have done throughout the year. We learned useful things about us humans, our abilities, our inventions, goals we have achieved, goals we want to reach, risks we took and the best thing how fun space can be. This was a really important thing to know about our society and our lives because up to this point, I always thought that space exploration was something easy; you just have to send the shuttle or the satellite but in fact it is not like that at all. There is complicated work going on and it needs a lot of effort to create and actually make all these things work. While we were studying about all this interesting things, I thought about the movies and documentaries I have watched on T.V. and the truth is that it actually looks simpler than it is and it impresses how things are in reality than in movies. I will repeat myself by saying that this unit was really fun but the only thing that I didn’t like was that we had to do a few labs but the good thing was that we didn’t have to do not even one at the end of this unit. Also the best part was that we only had one test and it was really easy because we wanted and were interested in studying it. A thing that I would change from this unit is the project at the end to be with fewer details and have more time.

Space Exploration: Is it worth the cost?

              Moon, Earth, Venus,Mars and many other planets have been discovered along with galaxies, black holes, stars and many other interesting facts about space have been seen by astronauts, scientists either from Earth or space. Every year NASA spends a huge amount oh money on telescopes, spacesuits, crew, building etc. but is it really worth the cost?  
                 Space exploration can be really risky and very expensive, is it really worth it? When we are sending people to space, there are certain reasons we do it. It is maybe because they want to place satellites, do scientific experiments or to see if we can survive on another planet because we are beginning to destroy Earth. The benefits in exploring space are that we get to know other planets and see if there are any other beings in the whole universe and scientists do experiments that improve our daily lives. One example of exploring the universe is when the Apollo 17 crew landed on the moon for the first time and it was a really important and remarkable moment for us humans. The space exploration cost is a really big amount of money that is spent every year on things that are not really necessary for our planet (except when people lose their lives) for example space crafts and shuttles, suits, training and crew salaries, supplies, building and telescopes. We could use this amount of money to educate the poor kids in Africa, provide medicine and clean water but also shelter to the people leaving in poor countries with deadly diseases and at last to be provided at environmental unions that will help to save our planet and then we can have better lives… The space exploration dangers are as many as the benefits but ‘cost’ much more. Some dangers are the risks the astronauts take to travel somewhere that is sometimes new to them and can often cause accidents, the safety of the spacecraft, for example the accident that happened in the first of February in 2003 that the crew died while they were in the atmosphere and it was called the Columbia disaster, and at last the training of the astronauts. My opinion is that robots should be sent to space for certain purposes and astronauts also for certain reasons but Earth based research is much safer. First of all when we send humans into space, we can say more accurately whether we can survive or not to other planets, we can place satellites and generally can do certain things and experiments that robots or from Earth based research can't for example to sense or even enjoy. When sending robots, it is much safer because they can’t actually lose their lives but can only be destroyed that it is not that bad (people have families, friends and lives but robots are just things) and it is sometimes more accurate plus they don’t have needs. In my opinion it is worth the cost because if we hadn’t traveled at space we wouldn’t have equipment for firefighters, easier ways to package frozen food and effective heart monitors that help us every day and make our lives much easier than they were before space exploration started and when Neil Armstrong and other astronauts landed on the moon.When we do Earth based research we are only basing it on satellites and telescopes but we can't explore as much as we are able to plus we can't say it that accurately. But on the other hand it is much safer.  If I was a member of the government in my country and I had the right to change the budget or at least vote for a new one, I would make a list with several things that are more important in my country than space exploration so the money will hopefully go to the other options that come first before the space exploration. First I would donate money to the organizations of my country that clean areas, protect forests and animals, the second area I would donate money is health, hospitals, new systems and machines and third I would give money to education for poor children. After space exploration would be on the list and at last but not least provide help to the children and people that are homeless and with no family that their only home is the road and the food is the garbage…
            To review my point, I said that space exploration has its benefits, costs and danger. We learn a lot of things threw doing Earth based work, traveling to space and by sending robots to explore it even better than us can. In my opinion space exploration is really worth the costs but it is not one of the first areas on my personal list that I would spend money on for community service.


Here is a nice but long video with the plans and budgets of NASA for next year. Hope you enjoy it:http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=132377741

bibliography: 

• Jessa, Tega. "Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster." Universe Today. N.p., 22 Mar.
       2010. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. <http://www.universetoday.com/60400/
       space-shuttle-columbia-disaster/>.  
• Padilla, Michael J., Ioannis Miaoulis, and Martha Cyr. "Space Exploration- Is it
       worth the cost?" Prentice Hall Science Exlporer: Astronomy. Boston,
       Massachusetts: n.p., 2009. 92-92. Print.