Saturday, February 23, 2013

Tsunamis



Tsunamis
Richard Koys 7A
Science, Miss. Medenica
2/23/13

Tsunamis are the most dangerous natural disasters. They destroy anything in their way and also carry float-able objects with it. There are many tsunamis happening every year and they come in different sizes. Every single tsunami kills hundreds of lives and scientists are still trying to figure out on how to save people. Tsunamis knock down houses and the people that survive become homeless. But what are Tsunamis? Just as I said in the beginning, tsunamis are a part of natural disaster. They are a huge chunk of wave that gets bigger when they move forward. Then they fall down when they are close to land and send water charging at the people and buildings. How are Tsunamis caused? Tsunamis are usually caused by earthquakes that happen at the bottom of the sea floor (people call it the seabed) or they are caused by very strong winds. The way tsunamis are caused by earthquakes is that the seabed floor cracks and the floor moves up very fast that the waves go up as well and start to get bigger. The effects that are on people and animals are that they will drown if they stay in the tsunami too long or they will die if they hit something hard when they are inside the tsunami. The best thing to do when a tsunami is coming your way is that you should quickly get inside your house so that the tsunami wouldn’t carry you. Also the buildings and houses have effects too. When a strong tsunami hits in, the tsunami can knock the buildings and houses down that they will also fall on people. The approximate estimate of how many people die in a year is between 25,000 to 150,000. Scientists have created this new technology called the tsunami generator. It has been engineered and developed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Or people call it the EPSRC in short. This generator creates waves and also mini tsunamis. This only works when you add water to the generator. You may ask yourselves why this is helpful. This is helpful because this helps the scientists to study the waves on how they behave, how and when do they form and how powerful is a tsunami. In the future, scientists will make something like a barrier or anything else that will save lives for all the people. In conclusion on how to stay safe, here are some tsunami survival tips: number 1, when you are in any coastal areas always be alert for tsunami warnings. Number 2, Plan an evacuation rout that will take you to safety. Number 3, Know the warning signs when a tsunami is about to hit in: rapidly rising waters and rumbles in the sea.  Number 3,  Never stay close to the shore when a tsunami is coming. Number 4, be sure you take some survival supplies if you are in danger. Finally number 5 ,  never return to a affected coastal area unless authorities say it is safe. So that's all. The worst thing is when you live next to the beach.
http://baghdadbythebaysf.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/karachitsunmai.jpg http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/332/cache/japan-earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-unforgettable-pictures-wave_33291_600x450.jpg

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Create your lab: Waves

Science
Miss.Medenica
20/2/13

What happens when you drop a small and light object into the water? What happens when you drop a big and heavy object into the water? What kind of waves will these objects make?
What I am sure of is that light and small objects make small waves that quickly disappear. Bigger and heavier objects make bigger waves that last longer. Because The bigger the object, the bigger the wave and the bigger the wave, the longer it lasts.

What you need for this:
1. plastic pan
2. water
3. heavy and light objects
4. ruler
5. timer

Fill up the plastic pan of water. Next find some light and heavy objects in your house. Drop either the light or heavy object into the water. Pay attention on what waves does the object make. time how long the wave lasts and measure the height quickly.

Here are my observations:
small rock: height 0.1 mm, time: 2 seconds
dragon statue: height 0.5 mm, time: 4 seconds

When I dropped the small rock into the water, it made a small splash. it lasted for only 2 seconds and its height was 0.1 mm. The dragon statue made a big difference. it made a big splash and the wave lasted for 4 seconds and its height was 0.5 mm.

I saw that the relationship was that how did the small rock and dragon statue react when they hit the water. They both made different waves because the small rock is small and the dragon statue is big.

So in conclusion, Objects with different kind of weight and different size make the wave either big or small.
I did have some errors while doing this. When I was dropping the objects into the water, they made the splashes too quickly and I couldn't get the height. Next time I should use a different strategy of how to measure the height of a wave.
I also have one final question. What happens when you drop the small and light object and the big and heavy object at the same time? Would they make the wave bigger or would it just be the same? 

Monday, February 18, 2013

Meteor kills hundreds in central Russia

Richard Koys
Science
Mrs. Medenica
2/18/13
Around 9:20 am, People have seen a bright light that blinded everyone. When the light was gone, There was a meteor! it was headed straight to central Russia. It was enormous and exactly the size when you are looking at the sun. But the confusing part was when the meteor was falling, all of a sudden the meteor disappeared. The meteor has killed about 950 people and 46 of them are right now in the hospital. But not only did the meteor killed the adults, it also killed about 204 kids! The meteor also hit a part of Kazakhstan and also Moscow. Scientists predict that the meteor was going 1,500 km per hour and traveled about 930 miles. But nobody cannot figure out how did the meteor got so small all of a sudden. But there is prove. The meteor was going at the speed of 1,500 per hour and it went so fast that it got on fire and soon it vaporized, The explosion created giant shock waves and waves that destroyed all the buildings in its wave and send people flying. Mr. Putin the doctor promised that all the injured people that survived the meteor crash but got hurt will get medical treatment. But he is going to need a lot of doctors to do that or else the people will die. A lot of houses were lost and destroyed and nobody knows how long it will take to build new ones. Also nobody knows where the people will live (that is if they survived) In the link below shows the video of the meteor. It is pretty cool!
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21468116