My first blog in 2009!

Hey everybody!

Well, there has been only three days so far after the break and, let me tell you, we have already done so much! It's a bit of a contrast to over the holidays where I did next to nothing... But anyways here is what we have been learning in math and science.

We have only had one science class so far, but it was definitely an memorable one. To introduce our new part of the fluids unit, Mr. Foster did an experiment for us. He balanced a meter stick half on a desk and half off of it. On the side that was on the desk, he put three pieces of newspaper. He then said we had to make a prediction to what would happen if he got a metal bar and hit (hard!) down onto the side of the meter stick hanging off the desk. Our choices were:
a) nothing would happen
b) the meter stick would split the newspaper in half
c) the meter stick would break where the paper meets the wood
or d) the paper would be lifted up
I personally chose answer d) because I was thinking of the meter stick like a first class lever, in which case the load (the newspaper) would be lifted. I wasn't counting on Mr. Foster whacking the meter stick as hard as he did; I thought it would be a more smooth, slow movement.
But no, Mr. Foster hit the meter stick like it he wanted to kill it. Everyone in the class was so surprised at the huge "BANG" that was made. I think my heart skipped a beat I was so surprised!
So, what actually happened was c). The meter stick split in half where the paper had been sitting on it. And this was because of pressure (our new sub-unit). There was a ton of air particles in the room exerting a great amount of force on the large surface area of the newspaper so even though Mr. F whacked the meter stick with all his might, it was next to nothing compared to the air particles on the paper. So the force that Mr. F exerted on the meter stick went to where the paper met the wood, breaking it in half.
Overall, it was a very interesting experiment (as petrifying as it was at the time) and we learned a lot from it.

In math we started a new unit on fractions. Right now, our sub unit is on how to add and subtract fractions. We have learned about converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and back again, adding mixed numbers, adding improper fractions, and just adding normal fractions. I can't wait for the rest of the unit!

Until next Wednesday,
-K