Posts Tagged ‘Blog Post’

Nikola Tesla and the Neon Lamp

Some people think Nikola Tesla invented the neon sign. But it’s really Georges Claude who invented it. (And yes, his name is spelled Georges, not George.)

Did Nikola Tesla invent the Tesla, then? Nope. That’s a different person. Then what did he invent? Well, he invented the neon lamp!

A neon lamp is a miniature gas discharge lamp. Simple as that.

How does a neon lamp work? “Neon lighting consists of brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain rarefied (thin) neon or other gases.” says Wikipedia.

Or, in simpler terms, a neon lamp is a light bulb that can make many colors when Noble gasses are inside of the bulb.

Fun Fact: Neon signs are made out of neon lamps! Pretty cool, right?

The neon lamp itself. Not too shabby.

Benjamin Franklin and the Bifocals

Benjamin Franklin. A Founding Father of the USA. You probably heard of him. He’s famous! If you haven’t heard of him, well, I’ll… I’ll… I don’t know what I’ll do!

But, today we’re not gonna talk about him. We’re gonna talk about the Bifocals.

“Bifocals are eyeglasses with two distinct optical powers. Bifocals are commonly prescribed to people with farsightedness.” states Wikipedia.

Yup.

Bifocals are glasses.

Benjamin Franklin used his own invention, too.

Bifocals are commonly prescribed to people with presbyopia, which means farsightedness caused by loss of elasticity of the lens of the eye, occurring typically in middle and old age. Presbyopia was a condition Benjamin Franklin suffered.

But the Bifocals weren’t perfect.

Bifocals can cause headaches and even dizziness to some users. It could take a few weeks to adjust to the Bifocal glasses, and the Bifocal line could be too high.

Bifocals. It looks like something an old lady would wear. (No offense to old ladies reading this.)

But I guess nobody can make a perfect invention.

Thomas Edison and the Vacuum Diode

An anode is where the electrons leave, and the cathode is where the electrons come in.
If you don’t understand this, neither do I, so don’t worry.Thomas Edison! We all know him!

Or do you?

But what is a vacuum diode? How do you even pronounce that? Well, thanks to Google, just look it up.

Jk.

It’s pronounced dai-owd.

So, what even is a vacuum diode, anyway? “A diode is an electronic component with two electrodes (connectors) that allows electricity to go through it in one direction and not the other direction.” states kiddle.co.

The anode is where the electrons leave, and the cathode is where the electrons enter the diode. If you don’t understand, neither do I, so don’t worry.

Although the vacuum tube was invented by John Ambrose Fleming, Thomas Edison was the one who later discovered the “Edison effect,” which says that electricity doesn’t definitely need a solid material to move through! It can move through gas or vacuums, too! Without this realization, vacuum tubes would never have been invented! Pretty awesome, right?

 

Plant Blog Post #3

We pollinated our plants for a few days with our fingers and q-tips and now we have a seed pod. At first I thought it was a very long pistil but my teacher told us that it’s a seed pod. We have 11 seed pods. Most of them are tiny though.

For our Controlled quad, it grew a lot. Even though cell 2, 3 and 4 are growing a lot, cell 1 it going to snap soon and are losing leaves. We didn’t break it because a few weeks ago, we thought it was going to snap but it didn’t snap. We have 1 seed pod in cell 3. It’s about 2 centimeters tall. We have many flowers in this quad. For our Manipulated quad, we still watered the dead cells but so far, it’s not doing anything. Cell 3’s tallest measurement is 8 centimeters tall.

I think what will happen next is our Controlled quad’s plants will grow a lot, cell 1 in the Controlled quad won’t snap and cell 3 in the Manipulated quad will still survive.

Plant Blog Post #2

For our Controlled quad, our tallest plant is about 11 centimeters tall. The leaves and stem is green and the flower is yellow. The most flowers we have are 3. At the beginning, our tallest was probably 2 centimeters tall. Our plants grew about 9 centimeters tall throughout the weeks. I think that the yellow flower is a Buttercup or Sunflower. Some of our plants are going to snap soon.

For our Manipulated quad, cell 1, 2 and 4 is dead. Only cell 3 is surviving. I think this happened because we have really little soil in the Manipulated quad. The tallest measurement for that cell is 13 centimeters tall. It has a tiny flower that is yellow and the stem and leaves are green. In the beginning, the tallest was about 6 centimeters tall. Our plants grew about 7 centimeters tall throughout the weeks.

The outcome are a few yellow flowers. The yellow flowers bloomed from the buds. I think this outcome happened because of the seeds, water and sunlight. Also, photosynthesis.

Maglev Post #3

Our first design on the track was to use strip magnets, 4-6 each and in a row to fill the track. Our first design on our train was to use disc magnets, 1-2 each and put them on opposite sides.

One of our problems was that the train magnets weren’t lined up with the track magnets so we lined up the magnets on the train with the magnets on the track. We looked at the track and the train to do it.

For our final design, for the tracks, we used strip magnets like our first design, 6 of them and 3 on the long sides. For the train, we used strip magnets instead of disc magnets, 2 of them and 1 on two opposite sides. Our model worked because our magnets on the train lined up with the magnets on the track, our train levitated and our train moved across the track with the rocks in a paper cup safely and efficiently.

We were excited in the beginning because we never made a model of a maglev train. We were frustrated a lot in the middle and the end of the process because sometimes our magnets attracted when it was suppose to repel. And also, a lot of times, the train couldn’t levitate across the track.