Waves - 3/25/18

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Waves involve the transport of energy without actually transporting matter. In fact, some waves require matter while other waves don't. In addition, there are two different types of waves. This includes Mechanical waves and Electromagnetic waves. A Mechanical wave is a wave that is an oscillation of matter, and therefore transferring energy through a medium. Mechanical waves can travel through matter in the form of a solid, liquid, or gas. An Electromagnetic wave is a wave that can travel through the vacuum of outer space, therefore Electromagnetic waves don't travel through the movement of molecules. Electromagnetic waves work by carrying transverse vibrations in electrical and magnetic fields. The obvious difference between the two types of waves is that Mechanical waves require matter to transfer energy because the wave travels from molecule to molecule, vibrating the matter and causing them to bump into each other. While Electromagnetic waves don't require matter to transfer energy given that the wave travels through vibrations in electrical and magnetic fields. 

S&EP - SP1: Asking questions and defining problems

I formulate testable questions when I observed the worksheet that was assigned to the class and read over the questions that I would need to answer. This worksheet contained articles and boxes where I needed to annotate the text. To annotate, I answered questions on the text that I read, wrote down notes that summarized the text, and wrote down connections or questions that I had. I established what is already known about the articles and text that I read by answering the questions that were being asked when I found the answer and wrote down annotations about the text in the boxes provided. I determine what questions have yet to be answered when I looked back over the questions on the worksheet and figured out what questions I hadn't found the answer to yet or the questions I was confused on. In addition, by going through the packet once more, I could see which boxes I didn't fill and add on to previous things I had written.

Sound - 3/11/18

http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/soundproofing101/what-is-sound/

Sound is a vital part of life on Earth. Sound is everywhere, it surrounds us whether we prefer it or not. But have you ever took a second to deeply analyze sound and where it comes from? How it travels to your ears? How do sounds, sound different? Well to start off, Sound is a type of energy made by vibrations. These vibrations that travel through the air or another medium, can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear. In addition, vibrations are caused by the movement of air particles. These air particles bump into the particles close to them, which makes them vibrate. Thus causing them to bump into more air particles. This movement of air particles is known as sound waves. The process of vibrations in sound waves keeps going until they run out of energy. Now let's talk about the different parts of a sound wave. The highest point on a wave slope is referred to as the crest. The lowest point on a wave slope is referred to as the trough. A sound wave can be measured by its amplitude. The amplitude is the distance from the middle of a wave slope to either the crest or the trough. Lastly, the length between the same exact point on two waves is referred to as the wavelength. How you hear the sound, is if your ears are in range of these vibrations. Sound waves can create different sounds depending on the frequency of its vibrations. When the vibrations are fast, it gives off a high note when heard by your ears. In contrast, when the vibrations are slow, it creates a low note when heard. The frequency is another way a sound wave can be measured.

S&EP - SP3: Planning and carrying out investigations

I identified questions to be investigated when I asked which bottles filled with different amounts of water, would make a sound that is more high pitched or low pitched. In addition, I asked this question to determine the order in which the bottles would be placed from highest pitch to lowest pitch. I asked these questions for both experiments. The experiments included tests of making sounds by blowing across each bottle and hitting each individual bottle. I identified my variables and controls of the experiments. The controlled variables were that all bottles in the experiment were almost identical (all being glass bottles of the same size and the same shape), all bottles were being blown across or hit the same way, all bottles were filled with water, and all bottles were set on the same surface. The manipulated variable is the different amounts of water in each bottle because no bottle had the same amount of water, some had more or less water than others. I designed and performed experiments to test my hypotheses. I thought that the bottles would have the same reaction with pitches in both experiments and the evidence I tested did not support it. My evidence proved that with the first experiment, the more water in the bottles made the sound more low pitched when being blown across. On the other hand, in the other experiment the more water in the bottles made the sound more high pitched. The reason being is sound travels faster through solids or liquids than air. So when the bottle is hit, the water is being vibrated and sound travels faster. But when the bottle is blown across, the sound is reflected off the water and is caused by vibrations in the air molecules.