Gases and Climate Change

1.) Combustion

Hypothesis: If the oil is evaporation into a gas on the inside of the the bottle, then the gases will ignite and they will shoot out fire.


Observations: When the flame of the lighter was near the end of the bottle, the oil in the bottle ignited and then the bottle shot off of the table about 8 feet.


I now know that gases are everywhere. The greenhouse gases are in everyday things that we see everyday, but we do not realize it. Greenhouse gases act like a jar that keeps in the sun's energy. These gases make Earth a sustainable place to live. That is called the nature greenhouse effect. The atmosphere absorbs the sun's heat and then the ground absorbs the heat and sends the heat back into space.



2.) CO2 gas

Hypothesis: If the gases are released from the bottle and the fire ignites it, then the gas will create a flame.



Observations: When the vinegar and the baking soda combined, then they produced CO2. When the CO2 was surrounding the flame, the flame went out because a flame needs oxygen to burn and when it was surrounded by CO2 there was no oxygen.


3.) Hydrogen Gas

Hypothesis: If the water evaporates and turns into a liquid, then the gas will not ignite because it still have oxygen in the gas.


Observations: When the zinc was combined with the HCI, the liquid started bubbling and crackling. The zinc dissolved inside of the HCI. When the gas was ignited, there was a small burst and then the liquid had flames on the surface because of the gases that were being put out.



Solar energy and wind energy are both good sources of natural energy. Wind energy uses giant windmills that when the are turn they power a turbine that consumes energy from that rotation of the blades.

4.) Air pressure

Hypothesis #1: If we place the heated can with vapor inside and place it in the ice bath, then it will freeze and turn into a solid.

Hypothesis #2: IF we have the opening on the bottom of the ice bath, then it will exploded under the pressure.

Observations #1: When we had the opening on the top of the can not submerged, nothing happened.

Observations #2: When the we place the can face down into the ice bath, the can was crushed under the pressure.

In the article, it talked about how the air pressure on Earth has changed over hundreds of years. Its also said that air pressure can affect othher natural things such as rain fall and temperature. The pressure in the air can affect the rain by having the pressure basically squeeze the rain right out of the cloud because there is no other place for it to go. The temperature is affected because if is it colder, then there is more pressure because cold areas are more dense.

Ten Years of the Chornobyl Era

1. What could have triggered an explosion as big as this one?

2. What could be done to prevent this from happened again?

3. What were similarities to this explosion and the Love Canal?

4. What could have been done to prevent a $20-$30 million disaster?

5. Are there some people that are effected by the nuclear effects today?

Question for panel

1. What are some effects of chemical encounters?
2. Are there still chemicals in the area now?
3. What has been done to help the chemicals stay underground?
4. How much of the chemicals are still underground if any?
5. How have the chemicals underground become safe overtime?

8/30/10 Catalyst

 1.) What caused the toxic waste to begin being pushed to the surface?
After the blizzard of 1977 and heavy rain, there was an early spring and early thaw and all the water under the canal was forced up to the surface past the clay. An infrared scanner showed where the chemicals had spread to so they had an idea of where it spread to. The canal was 40 acres of land, so the chemicals spread a far distance.


2.) What are some of the health hazards associated with the chemicals dumped there?
Over 400 chemicals were found in the area of the Love Canal. The chemicals caused central nervous system problems and caused birth defects. When they found this out, everybody got scared because they wanted their families to be safe and healthy. One of the solutions to help contain the chemicals was to tear down the 99th street school and houses near by and put them over the canal. Then they placed a linen cover, then a plastic cover to help keep the rain out and from pushing the chemicals up again.


3.) Besides humans how are other parts of the ecosystem affected by this? 
Not just humans were effect in this process. Some of animals in the area may have drank the water or ingested some of the chemicals making them very sick or even killing them. The birds who may have bathed in the water probably died because of the toxic chemicals they were bathing in.

Hazards of Oil Dispersants

I have found that many of the chemicals in the chemical dispersants are harmful to the environment. These chemicals are polluting the water and getting the animals and humans sick. The chemicals come in many form and it does not go away easily. If you try and burn the oil, it pollutes the are but if you keep it in the water then it is just killing animals in those waters.

I do believe that getting rid of the oil in the gulf with dispersants is creating a bigger problem because the dispersants has bad chemicals that can hurt you. The bigger problem is that we are hurting more than just the fish in the water and the birds that swim in it, we are hurting ourselves. We need to make this world a better places for ourselves and by adding all of those chemicals to the water, we are not doing a very good job.

I believe that chemical dispersants is worse than the oil spill because chemical dispersants has more harmful to those who encounter it. Chemical dispersants has known to have toxic chemicals in it. Therefore, it is instantly sickening or killing the fish when we are supposed to be helping them. Also, anyone who swims in those waters has the probability of getting sick if people are even allowed in the water because it is polluted by chemicals or oil.

8th grade DLC Reflection

Three things I want to learn about chemical dispersants are:

1. What do the chemicals really do to the oil?

2. What chemicals are in the dispersants?

3. Are there any other uses for chemical dispersants?