1st Quarter Reflection

I'm still holding out for explosions.  Hopefully this pie chart will change by the end of the semester.

I came into this class (seventh hour, actually) expecting a lot of lab write ups and experimental procedures.  It's probably best that most of our time was spent learning about the ever changing model of the atom and Bohr's obsession with hydrogen seeing as this is the time of year that has seniors (well, seniors like me and my friends) scrambling to finish college applications.  The labs we did for mixtures and light and such were fun and rather easy.

It was actually good to have all of the atom and light wave exposition.  Well, not so much atoms because I've had atomic structure down since middle school, but I'd completely forgotten that light is supposed to be made of photons and that electrons travel as a particle and a wave, which is pretty freaking awesome.

I still don't like the way elements are supposed to be written with their orbitals.  It's hard to keep straight in my head when you're supposed to jump back to s orbitals from d or p or whatever.  Hopefully I won't be needing this information later.  I can recite how many electrons go in which orbital (s=2, p=6, d=10, f=14) but I'll be reluctant to write out any atom except hydrogen (H 1s1)!

I'm pretty sure we're out of atomic structure now that we've taken a test on it though so I should be good. 

I'm gonna go back to watching Code Lyoko now.

Faster than the speed of light?

Sorry light, you're just not fast enough! - The Flash

So this short news clip and article from BBC is going to totally mess up quantum string theory if it's ever proven.
According to the news clip and article particles seem to have been found that can travel faster than the speed of light!  Einstein's theory of relativity claimed that light is the fastest thing out there.  If that's wrong then a large part of the scientific community is going to have to rethink a lot of equations and theories.  Which isn't going to be fun for them but I can't wait to hear about it. Particles traveling faster than the speed of light was supposed to be impossible but if they can prove that these nuetrinos travel faster that the speed of light then it opens up new doors!  Perhaps this would be the step mankind needed to find that one equation that unifies the universe?  That would be too cool, I'd probably die.  What could we do if we could incorporate those findings into technology?  Could we build a TARDIS with faster-than-light nuetrinos?
One of the interviewed guys said something about travelling in time and I stopped listening.  If travelling faster that the speed of light can make me a time traveler then bring on those nuetrinos!

Spectra Lab

There are three types of light spectra; continuous, absorption, and emission.  In class we did a lab to work on spotting the difference between these three spectra.  We took spectroscopes and looked at different types of light through them.  I took pictures through them with my iPad but they don't look the same as if you'd looked through with your own eyes so I have taken spectra drawings from the Chemistry Cat blog by Nikki Salo because she loves me.

First we looked at a continuous spectra, which is just ordinary light.  There is an orange in that ROY G. BIV down there but you can't really see it because orange is stupid.

Continuous spectra from iPad.

My drawing

Next, containers of colored water were placed in front of the light bulb we were all staring intensely at.  First we looked at red light, then blue light.

The colors are in the far top left corner

This is Nikki's drawing of the visible lights from the red light.

This type of spectra is absorption.  The red light absorbed most of the colors from the continuous emission spectra, mostly the blue and purple colors.

As you can see the iPad didn't quite do the colors justice.

Another of Nikki's drawings because I'm too lazy to draw on an iPad.

The blue light was also an absorption spectra.  This light absorbed the orange colors.  The iPad picture doesn't so that some red was still visible but if you've ever tried to photograph something through a spectroscope you'll understand why the images aren't perfect.

Hydrogen emission picture.

Another of Nikki's masterpieces.

Hydrogen light has an emission spectra.  Only certain colors can be seen through an emission spectra because only certain frequencies of light are emitted.  The lines observed through an emission spectra are spaced and more individual than continuous.

Argon's emission spectra through the iPad

Nikki's version of Argon's emission spectra.

Argon has a different emission than Hydrogen.  All atoms have different, characteristic emission spectra.

Mercury emission.

Inspiring artwork.

Mercury vapor was pretty to look at.  Lights are pretty.  It was the same color as a bug zapper...  The iPad picture does a very poor job of showing the emission spectra of mercury but thankfully Nikki's picture makes up for it.

Nitrogen from an iPad's perspective.

I want emission spectra on a T-shirt.

So here we have Nitrogen's emission spectrum!  The iPad picture for this was actually pretty cool.  Perhaps some day cameras will be as amazing and accurate as the human eye and I'll have a much easier time in class.  One can dream!

Helium emission!

Nikki's drawing of said emission.

The lines on helium's spectrum was a lot cooler than the iPad says it was but it still looks shiny.  Nikki's drawing will, as usual, provide a more accurate example of the visible colors for helium.

Neon emission according to a lying iPad.

Neon emission from my friend!

The last cathode light we looked at was neon.  The iPad doesn't show near as many lines as we were able to see with our own eyes through spectroscopes.  It was actually kind of intriguing to compare what I could see from my iPad with what I could see for myself.  Oh technology, you lying inconvenient thing!
And there we have it!  The three spectra!  Continuous spectra, which is a really pretty rainbow, like the kinds the prism in my car throws; absorption spectra, which is when some colors aren't visible because they've been absorbed by the colored light; and emission spectra, the fun way to characterize elements!
I remember doing this lab freshman year.  Only back then we used these things called colored pencils.  You take this 'colored pencil' and you scribble with it on something known as 'paper'.  It's kind of like Doodle Buddy only instead of your finger, you have a stick.

Protons are Quarky

Hank Green on YouTube made a song about quarks, the particles protons and neutrons are made of!  It's a great song called Strange Charm.

This tea.........tastes like.........AS!!!!!*dies*

Atomic Structure!

Augh! Sheesh.  Is that a drawing?  Yes, yes it is.  And I drew it because Mr. Ludwig wants us to cite picture sources and I just don't want to do that yet.  Besides, my tea cups are so cool.  It's almost better than most of my submissions to DeviantArt.  But I digress.
AS is the abbreviation for arsenic on the Periodic Table of elements.  Arsenic's Periodic data is also the reason I have the Periodic Table taped to my wall.  If you'd care to count the lovingly sketched electrons flying around the nucleus you'll count 33, which makes it arsenic because one must assume that 33 electrons means 33 protons.  How do I know?  Magic, but I'll explain it to you.  Eventually.

The picture lives here.

The atomic number, in the top left corner of this picture, is the number that represents how many protons are in the atom.  The protons are the positively charged particles in the atom.  So, for arsenic, there are 33 protons.  Elements are neutral, so there are also 33 electrons in this atom.  Electrons are the negatively charged particles.  Neutrons are the neutral particles in the atom.  The atomic mass, which is the number underneath the word arsenic, is the added total of the mass of all of the electrons, protons, and neutrons.
The protons and neutrons are clustered together to for the nucleus of the atom.  The electrons travel around the nucleus in paths called orbitals.  But, the atoms are very tiny so you can't see any of this, which means you wouldn't be able to see an arsenic atom if I put it in your tea.
Unlike protons and electrons, neutrons aren't restricted to the atomic number of their element.  It's not uncommon for elements to have more neutrons than electrons.  When this happens it's an isotope of the element.  Isotopes will have a different mass and a different number of neutrons from the original element but the protons and electrons will be the same, making it the same element.
And that's really all anyone needs to know about elements ever.