Yes. Atoms. But what are atoms? Well, they make up everything! They’re made up of 3 teeny weeny particles: the proton, the neutron, and the electron.
The biggest idea from all time, is that stuff, is made, from atoms.
When the theory was proposed, it sounded absolutely insane! Nobody believed it! Now, nobody would run around shouting “Atoms are just a theory!” But not so long ago, people did do that. And you wanna know who settled it for good? Einstein.
Yes. The amazing scientist and mathematician. Of course it’s Einstein. Atoms had been theorized for a long time by the 20th century, but only when Einstein proved its existence in 1905 with amazing math skills (which I will never have), is when the matter was really settled.
Here’s the story about how the ancient Einstein found out about atoms. But it first started with a botanist.
In 1827, a botanist named Robert Brown was looking at pollen grains in water through a microscope and he noticed that they moved around even when there was no movement in the water to cause it! It was a mystery that lasted a really long time.
Until… In 1905, when Einstein theorized that this incident was caused by as to-be-proven atomic particles actually hitting into the grains of pollen. He wrote some fancy complicated math equation, proving that his theory predicted this motion almost perfectly, so everyone had to agree that yes, tiny bits of matter were really smacking into the pollen, and so atoms, had to exist.
Yes, a very interesting story indeed. I wonder how complicated Einstein’s math equation really was.
I-Beams. When you first hear it, you might think, “Oh, it’s a beam that’s shaped like an I!” Well, you are correct! I-Beams are used in many places. I-Beams are used in the structural steel construction industry. They are often used as the main support for trusses.
(Trusses means triangles.)
For our project this week, we’re supposed to make 2 beams: One of them is an I-Beam, and the other one is a beam of our own design.
On 9/23, I built my 2 I-Beams. One of them was longer, and the other one was shorter. I made both of them in the Zoom for extra help. (At the Zoom, I was eating my lunch, dumplings, but the teacher couldn’t see me. Tee-hee! But later, my longer one broke. Whoops.)
The second part of the project was to film a Flipgrid (an app) video, and you’re supposed to show you testing your beam.
My I-Beam withstood eight pounds before it collapsed. Pretty good, if I do say so myself. 🙂
I think that this project was super fun. You know, I actually made another beam to use as my main beam because my main beam was too short.
Whoops.
The first day of actually going to Scarsdale Middle School in person was really intimidating. I was so nervous when my mom dropped me off. She said: Don’t worry! You’ll be okay. Everyone is nervous on their first day. I knew that, but still, I was scared. But who isn’t? It’s a big transition from elementary school to middle school. The building is bigger, there’s more classes, more teachers, and most importantly, more homework. (This is what I’m most afraid of.)
I walk into the doorway on the upper circle, and ask a lot of teachers for help to find my homeroom. Finally, I get to my homeroom/science room. Dr. Williams was at his desk, and some other people were already there.
“Go to a desk with an iPad case on it.” Dr. Williams said, so I sat at the front row. How do I put on my iPad case? I wondered while awkwardly putting some of my things on my desk. I awkwardly looked around at all the people around. Wow, there are so many boys! How am I gonna survive?
Soon, class started. Dr. Williams introduced everyone, he helped me with putting on my iPad case (he said his thumbs are still sore from putting on the case), and I really enjoyed the class.
Next, we had technology. It was really interesting! Mr. Calvert talked about the Dee Bridge Incident, the 1986 Challenger Explosion, the Titanic, and how they all had the incident not because of the design, but because the choice of material.
Social Studies was a bit different. Ms. Castiello was zooming in from Zoom. It was a little bit echo-y because we also joined the Zoom from our iPads, but it was a really good class!
At the end of the day, I was so sad that I had to go home! School was already over! So sad 😥. (Yes, yes. I know. I enjoy school. Don’t judge. Humph.) I saw some of my friends while waiting for my mom to pick me up. We talked a little, but then my mom called me and I left.