Helpmyphysics

The distances in space are far too large to be measured in kilometres. It is a bit like marking the road distances in millimetres.
Instead astronomers use the light year. The light year is the distance a beam of light travels in one year.

You can use the fantastic Wolframalpha website to explore the distances in space and on Earth in terms of how quickly a beam of light will take to cover he distance.
All you have to do is type into the box light year. You will find the distance a light year in metres.

Try typing in:
Glasgow to Paris. You can equate the distance in terms of how long it would take light to travel this distance = 2.99milliseconds. So we could say that Paris is about 3 milli-light-seconds from Glasgow.
Try typing in Earth to Mars you`ll find that the distance between Earth and Mars is 9.6 light-minutes.

You can download a special worksheet which you can use with Wolfram Alpha.

Download worksheet here. (pdf)
WolframAlpha

Have fun converting distances into lightyears, lightminutes or even lightmilliseconds.

I hope you have completed your bootcamp question booklet and you now have to complete your Easter revision booklet.
I will post the answers over the holidays, so keep looking at the Standard Grade Zone.

Anyway have a happy Easter holiday but remember to work hard.

Get a Voki now!

Click on the picture below to read an interesting article about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which will be switched on this week

Sunday Herald
28 Mar 2010

viewVideo.php?video_id=167203&title=Carbon_Dioxide_Experiment&ref=dmallon

Here is a video taken with my first year class when we demonstrated that carbon dioxide gas is heavier than air.
We put two plastic bags at the end of a long piece of wood.
Then we balanced the beam of wood and poured out the invisible gas made by adding vinegar and baking soda.
Later we tested the gas with lime water. The gas turned the lime water milky. This test told us the gas was carbon dioxide.
Well done 1/7.

My S1 class enjoyed making three dimensional pyramids showing the numbers of organisms at each level of the food chain.
The base of the pyramid is larger because there are lots more plants than rabbits. Lucky rabbits.

Some questions.

1. What kind of consumer is the fox?
2. Can you think of a pyramid of numbers which is an upside down pyramid?

You can download a pyramid of numbers cut out sheet and enjoy making a 3D pyramid of numbers for homework.

Download your own cut out pyramid of numbers here.

Click the above picture to have some fun completing food chains.

This is a great site to help you understand the electric circuits you have been studying.
You can run it on your computer or download it and use it offline.

PHET Circuit Construction

I set my young scientists a Christmas Poster competition, all they had to do was dream up the best present that a scientist could find in his/her stocking on Christmas morning.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.