Daily Archives: December 2, 2011

Hon Chemistry 12-2-11 Half-Life Problems

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HON CHEMISTRY: So what do you figure is the half-life of a banana? But I digress…. Here’s the lecture from Friday on half-life problems. (I’m still not sure what happened to the Power Point!) Keep thinking these problems through and you’ll do great!

Have fun with the half-life simulation lab! The report will go in your lab book – Title, Objective, Procedure, Observations (with data table), Conclusion, and Questions. Don’t forget that your graph needs to be drawn on graph paper, folded in half, and attached in your lab book. It can be stapled or taped.

flickr photo by Caro Wallis

Physics 12-2-11 Simple Machines

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PHYSICS: Happy Friday! Here’s the lecture from Friday on simple machines. We’ll add this little bit of chapter 7 to the chapter 5 test. At the very beginning of the vodcast, I say something completely wrong, and although we correct it later, let me do so again here. The two categories of simple machines are inclined planes and levers. Got it? Sorry about that!

I don’t think you’ll have any trouble with efficiency and mechanical advantage problems. How do you think the efficiencies of machines compare? Could you design a method to test that? Lab Monday and test Wednesday. Have a great weekend! 🙂


flickr photo by André Banyai

Chemistry 12-2-11 Atomic Number & Isotopes

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CHEMISTRY: Can you believe atoms are that small – and the nucleus even waaaaaay smaller! Here’s another picture of atoms from the IBM Almaden Research Center. These are iron atoms on top of copper. Being able to move atoms around like this was a giant leap in the field of nanotechnology! (Sorry about that, bad pun! 🙂 ) Here’s the lecture from Friday on atomic number and isotopes. It’s the last lecture for this chapter – and for this year!!

What did you think about Lise Meitner’s story? Amazing, huh? How are you doing on writing nuclear symbols? Also make sure you can use them to determine the number of protons, neutrons, electrons, etc. And now you’ve finally got the formula for average atomic mass. Use it to do the problems tonight.

Did you get a copy of the Carbon Isotope Mini-Project? Holler if you have any questions? Have a great weekend!


Image source IBM Almaden Research Center