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EAS 10600 #M Group A

Hi Students from EAS 106 #M, this is the Group A. You will be discussing here for the rest of the semester!

Admins:

Lab 2: Scientific Method

  • Over the next 1-2 days, take some time to observe your surroundings (home, nearby park, street, etc.) and make note of anything that stands out. Keep in mind that your observations are not limited to what you can see and may include smells, sounds, tastes, and touch or feeling (hot/cold, soft/hard, etc).  Do you see anything that you can\’t immediately explain, something that causes you to pause and ask, \”I wonder why….?\”

    For the purpose of this discussion, we will work together to solve this \”problem\” using the scientific method. Your goal is to find a solution that will stand up to the review of your peers.

    1. Describe your observation. Provide sufficient detail (or photos if needed) so that others in the discussion can visualize the problem you see.
    2. Ask a question about your observation for which you do not know the answer. This question will usually include the words \”how\” or \”why\”. Note that if you have trouble forming an initial question, you might want to consider a different observation.
    3. With your question in mind, make 2-3 additional observations that you believe will help you answer the question.
    4. Go ahead and try to answer your question. The answer is your hypothesis and it should come in the form of a confident statement, then you should justify your statement with your observations.

    When you have completed these steps, write a paragraph to summarize your \”research\” and post your research to the discussion board. You should use formal language and grammar (no text-message speak), and the paragraph should clearly explain identify: 1) Your research question, 2) your observations 3) your hypothesis, and 4) how you tested your hypothesis, 5) your results and conclusions.

    After you have submitted your post, return to the discussion board, and review the \”problems\” that your classmates have solved. Post a reply to a minimum of 2 different problems that were \”solved\” by your classmates. In your reply, consider the following:

    Do you agree with the author\’s conclusions?  If so, explain what evidence you found to be the most compelling or conclusive. If not, explain why you are not convinced and suggest some additional observations or tests that could be used to address any lingering questions and reach a more defensible conclusion.

    Based on the author\’s initial results, what are some new questions that you might ask?

    Due Dates

    Etiquette 

    When posting replies, please be considerate of your peers. The discussion is intended to promote a collaborative learning environment, so be careful of your tone and refrain from inappropriate language or personal attacks. You may challenge others if the intent is to facilitate growth, but do not demand, harass, or embarrass. Encourage others to develop and share their ideas.

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
  • Last night while walking my dog it began to snow. My dog really enjoys the snow and the cold weather so we tend to stay out longer during the winter months. Though it didn’t snow much compared to a week ago when it snowed 10 inches. Then i began to think why does it snow in New York City more often than a city like Los Angeles? Through some observations, the difference in climate is due to the fact the cities are in different regions facing the sun at different angles. Though I was thinking it might be because New York City is next to an Ocean, but Los Angles is also coastal city. After some research it was found that due to the fact that New York City is at a higher latitude than Los Angeles. Another factor would be polar jet streams. Colder air will particularly hit East of the country before it approaches the Atlantic. As opposed to California which gets westerly winds coming from Southern Tropical waters, causing California to have Mediterranean like climate.

    That’s some good observation

    Hypothesis
    The cold weather causes the formation on snowflakes
    Observation
    As I was walking around my block I notice that in some areas around the sidewalk there was ice and on others there was snow. It is known that as temperature drops whatever snow was melted turns into ice. But does the same principle apply when snow flakes are form?
    Analyze and interpret data
    As I did some research it was found that snow is form due to the fact that there is impurities in the air, such pollens or dust particles, and yes, temperature helps in the process of making snow flakes. Furthermore, the temperature has to be right, we know that waters freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. So, if the temperature is higher than that we are going to have a mixture of freezing rain. This happens because as the snowflakes fall and hit a layer of warmer air the snowflakes melt completely and then if they hit another layer of freezing air there’s not enough time for crystallization to happen.
    Conclusion
    To recap, our hypothesis is some what correct, as we mention above, temperature is one of the factors that cause snowflakes to form. But what we didn’t think of is if other factors were involved such as pollens and dust particle and layers of air in the atmosphere help with the creation of snowflakes.
    Results
    The results found can be tested by having two chambers where both will have ideal cold temperature, air and water droplets. But the only difference is that one will have air pollens and dust particles while the other remain as our control group. From their we can gather more data to further prove how snow flakes are form.
    Questions
    What determines how much snow are we getting?
    Why is Snow White?

    thanks bro

     

    so would it be bad to eat snow since it has impurities?

    Yes it would definitely be bad as smog and other impurities get trap in the snow. It wouldn’t harm you right away but anything done excessively is bad.

    Light is scattered and bounces off the ice crystals reflected on the snow which make it white.

    I totally agreed with your research. I believe altitude does affect how much snow we get. But there’s be rare cases were snow has fallen in places where it never snows. So that raises the question of wether other factors affect how much snow we really get. Furthermore, wouldn’t you agreed that nature is incomprehensible? There has be a case were fish have rained from the sky, would that be because of the polar jet streams?

    When washing my face in the sink in the morning, I noticed the formation of sparking water particles as water from the faucet dropped on the water in the sink. They lasted for at most one second, but they were being made as long as water continued to drop. As a result, I found myself with two questions, firstly, what were they and secondly, why they were forming while lasting for fraction amount of time.

    Through further research, I realized they were very small spherical water droplets that bounced on the surface of the water. It formed as water from a source poured on a water body. Furthermore, they can also be created via high frequency vibrations, and droplets made in such way remained as long the vibrations were made. Further research showed that, this kind of bouncing water droplets, is not exclusive to water, it is also observed in other liquids such as oil and liquid nitrogen.

     

    Hypothesis

    As long as energy is provided in the system, formed water droplets will remain on the surface of the water and will not mix.

     

    Experimentation

    Firstly, I turned the faucet on (cold water) while also letting the water from the sink to drain out (partially opened drain). I waited till the water level in the sink reached a static height. In other words, the water entering the sink and going out of the sink remained the same amount, resulting in an equilibrium state of water level in the sink. I observed the water droplet formation in this setup.

    Secondly, I turned the faucet on while closing the drain and watched the water level to rise to the equilibrium level and go past that point and stopped it before the sink overflowed. During the whole process the droplets formation was observed.

    I performed both step one and two while running steamy hot water in the sink and observed the formation of water droplets. These were steps three and four.

     

    Observation

    In all four steps, water droplets formed, and their numbers and time varied.

    Comparison between step one and step two (and step three and step four): When the drain was closed, more water droplets formed, and it seemed like they stayed on the water surface longer.

    Comparison between cold water and hot water: When hot water was used more water droplets formation was observed, furthermore, it lasted longer compared to cold water.

     

    Results

    Firstly, when the drain was partially opened the water level did not rise, nor the energy in the system did not accumulate. Whereas, in the closed drain system, the energy piled up and more ripples on the water surface formed. Due to the presence of excess energy and more vibrations in the second and fourth step (compared to first and third) the water droplets formation was higher, and longer lifetime was observed before they merged into the sink water.

    Finally, hot water has more energy than cold water, therefore, the observations from running hot water showed more droplets with longer lifetime.

    In conclusion, the water droplets required energy to form and more energy to sustain their life.

     

    Discussion

    There were several complications and limitations in this experiment. First of all, the observations of the lifetime of the water droplets were not measured using a timer, they not only lasted for a very small amount of time but also they moved very fast in the system making it difficult to keep track. Secondly, the observations were not made in laboratory conditions. Thirdly, this experiment did not provide any evidence to determine why they formed and how the water droplets remained separated from the larger water body without getting merged immediately. Finally, this experiment was not free from personal biases, such as expecting longer water droplet lifetime with hot water since there is more energy in the system. This might have affected my observation on the duration of the water droplets since the measurements were not taken using a proper instrument.

    Further research provided, evidences that water droplets formed using vibration lasted longer since the continuous vibrations were introduced which kept the water droplets bouncing and safe from merging.

    For interesting take on the water droplets and the physics involved in their formation, I highly recommend these two following YouTube videos:

    https://youtu.be/WIyTZDHuarQ from Veritasium (shows their ties with quantum mechanics)

    https://youtu.be/KJDEsAy9RyM from SmarterEveryDay (shows an actual experiment as well as going in deep in the physics of the water droplets)

    As I was walking over to my car on Saturday, I noticed that on all the cars in our driveway seemed to have low tire pressure in atleast one tire. My hypothesis for this was that the cold weather causes tire to deflate a little. I observed that on most of our cars, the tires only seemed slightly deflated, about 2-3 psi of air. To test this hypothesis I recorded my cars tire psi in the cold in the driveway, and got a reading of 29 psi. I then placed my car in the heated garage for a day, and recorded the tires psi the next morning, and got a reading of 32 psi. My results therefore support my hypothesis, that the cold weather causes the tires to deflate a little. In conclusion this is due to air condensing in cold temperature, which causes it to take up less space inside the tire. Once it is warmed up however, it goes back to the original condition.

    I’ve also made the same observation before but never bothered to research it! Interesting to read about the polar jet streams have something to do with it.

    I’m guessing this is also why there seems to be ice on the very bottom of snow pilled up on the sidewalks. The impurities on the bottom, on the sidewalk, cause the snow to form ice?

    As I was reading your lab, it reminded of one time where I bought balloons with helium in them. I remember that day it was freezing Cold and I notice my balloons started to deflate or it seem to me that way, so I went back to the store to get a refund and the lady at the cashier explained to me that because it’s cold the helium compresses therefore making it seem that my balloons deflated. Long story short I looked very dumb.

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