Journal #17

                One way I would conduct an experiment to confirm college discrimination against Asian-American students would be to look at how many Asian-Americans apply to a certain college, and see how many are accepted into the said school.  Then compare the high school GPAs and SAT scores of the accepted Asian-American students to the non Asian-American students.  Then compare the high school GPAs and SAT scores of the Asian-Americans who were not accepted into said college to the GPAs and Sat scores of the non Asian-American s accepted into the school.  If the college is discriminating against Asian-Americans, then the data will show that the scores and GPAs of the accepted Asian-Americans will have similar scores and high school GPAs to the accepted non Asian-Americans.  The data will also show that the Asian-Americans who were not accepted into the college were much more qualified than the non Asian-American students.     I agree with the article that Asian-Americans are treated unfairly when it comes to being accepted into college.  “It’s not sufficient to earn near-perfect grades and test scores, or to excel at a musical instrument, or to win a science-fair contest.  Asian-American applicants do all those things, in droves.  But our elite universities don’t want too much of a good thing, if it all comes from the same racial group.”  This is extremely unfair.  Colleges are supposed to want the best of the best.  If a student is one of the best and happens to be Asian, why should they be turned away?  Colleges shouldn’t accept a student because of their race or where they live.  They should be accepted for their grades and talent. 

Journal #16 Natural Gas

The Avid Weekly Article, Natural Gas: Cheap, Clean and Risky is about the pros and cons of using natural gas rather than coal.  The article also talks about the effects of converting from coal to natural gas would have on the economy.  I believe that converting to natural gas is a great idea.  However, natural gas is only a good investment if there are not leaks in the system.

Using natural gas instead of coal is very beneficial.  One way it is beneficial is natural gas emits only half as much carbon as coal does.  This is extremely beneficial to the world because it would help decrease the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.  Using natural gas would create a new renewable energy.  This is very beneficial because there would probably be less conflict over other sources of fuel and people wouldn’t have to worry about what would happen if we run out of coal or oil.  Using natural gas rather than coal, oil, and other fossil fuels would be greatly beneficial to the Unites States because the cost per unit of energy is only a third of the cost of oil.

Unfortunately there are also many cons of switching from fossil fuels to natural gas.  One con is that natural gas could be a worse generator of greenhouse gases than coal.  This means that if there are leaks in the natural gas system, then global environmental issues could become worse because there would be more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  Global warming would increase.  Natural gas could cause massive local environment destruction and undermine energy efficiency and renewable energy.  Lastly, figuring out where to drill, and actually drilling would be very expensive.  There would be surface disturbances on roads, drilling rigs, compressors, pipelines, drainage ponds, and heavy equipment.  Even though money would be saved by not using oil, the money saved would be used to pay these expenses. 

In conclusion, I think that while there are many benefits to using natural gas and that finding a way to successfully use natural gas should become a priority, I do not think the United States is ready to convert to natural gas yet because the cons outnumber the pros and there would be many expenses.      

           

Journal #15 Amish Project

I think I would take up going for walks or going for bike rides, a lot like Jake Reilly because it is a good way to be productive, rather than spending a day staring at a screen and causing potential vision loss.  I would probably read more books as well, because it is a good was to pass the time and reading is one of my favorite things to do.  I would also practice the instruments I play more often for a larger amount of time because I wouldn't have something else catching my interest.  I spend my time reading a ridiculous amount of my American History textbook, because my class made a facebook group (and a giant google doc during midterms) where we share notes, documents, and talk about the homework.  I may take up painting because I am very interested in art.  I would probably take up visiting my friends at their houses because I woulodn't be able to talk to the via text. and I barely see most of my friends during school.        

How Mendeleev Created the Periodic Table

           Dmitri Mendeleev flipped through “Principles of Chemistry” anxiously looking for the next assignment to give to his class.  After scanning a few more pages he slammed the book shut, rushing to work on his next task:  A way to organize the elements. 

            Mendeleev pulled out his notebook and a pile of papers he had been studying and turned to the page he had left off on.   His first document to view was John Newlands “Laws of Octaves” in which John Newlands explained how the 56 elements that had been discovered so for were organized into eleven groups by physical properties.  He had also pointed out that similar elements existed in multiples of 8 in atomic number.  

            Making a mental note of this, Mendeleev opened his notebook, which contained a list of elements and their properties.  After looking at the page for what seemed like hours, he finally drew a table, and began to organize the elements by their chemical properties, rather than their physical properties.  Mendeleev began to notice patterns and excitedly began to take notes.  He noticed that if the elements were organized by their atomic weight they show periodicity properties and that the elements with similar chemical properties have atomic weights that are nearly the same.   He also noticed that their atomic weight corresponds with their valencies and that the atomic weight somewhat determined the character of the element.

            Mendeleev quickly redrew his table, organizing the elements based off what he had noticed from the patterns.  He left space on his table, knowing more elements would be discovered in the future.  He had just created the first Periodic Table of Elements.                  

Journal #12 Proton Poem

Far from being large
and a mass of one
a proton has a positive charge
while a neutron has none.

Inside the nucleus it will always hide
the atomic number is what it will reveal
while the electrons roam on the outside
there are many things a proton can conceal.

Journal #11 Fossil Fuels

One type of energy we have been studying in chemistry is fossil fuels.  Fossil fuels are made of the remains of living things in the earth.  Two examples of fossil fuels are oil and coal.  Oil forms at the bottom of an ocean, and coal forms in swampy lowland environments.  Fossil fuels are often used to create electricity to power homes, buildings, and other structures or devices we see on a daily basis.  According to the American Coal Foundation, “Nine out of every 10 tons of coal mined in the United States today is used to generate electricity, and more than half of the electricity used in this country is coal-generated electricity.”  I personally do not support the use of fossil fuels for energy.


How are fossil fuels turned into electricity?  The fossil fuel is heated in a boiler to create steam.  The steam is used to power a turbine, which changes the heat energy from the fossil fuel into mechanical energy, which makes the magnets and the copper coil in the turbine spin.  When the turbine spins, the mechanical energy is turned into electric energy, and used for electricity.  After this process is complete, a condenser cools the steam, turning it into water.  The water goes back into the boiler and the process restarts. The process for turning oil into electricity is slightly different than the process for turning coal into electricity, because coal is a solid, and oil is a liquid. Since the coal is a solid, a machine must grind the coal into a powder before it is heated in boiler.  The powder is mixed with hot air to make burning more efficient and is then moved to a furnace.  This is one reason why I am against the use of fossil fuels for energy is that the process of releasing energy from the fossil fuels is extremely harmful to the environment and causes acid rain. 


Fossil fuels are non renewable resources.  This means that after a while, we will run out of them.  A New York Times Article titled “Coal,” discussed the growing use of and need for coal.  The consumption of coal has increased, which will only add to the pollution and smog problem.  “According to a recent U.S. Energy Department study, world coal consumption could increase by 65 percent between 2005 and 2030.”  (New York Times)  The article also talks about how the burning of fossil fuels like coal creates coal ash, which is an extremely hazardous substance.  The article explains how the Democratic Party is fighting to regulate the usage of production of electricity from fossil fuels, and how the government is acknowledging that there is an issue, but does not really do anything about the issue yet.

Sources

Article- http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/coal/index.html?scp=5&sq=use%20of%20fossil%20fuels&st=cse

Other sources
http://www.powerscorecard.org/tech_detail.cfm?resource_id=8

http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/fossilfuels.htm

http://www.teachcoal.org/aboutcoal/articles/coalconvert.html

Nuclear Power Activity

PART ONE QUESTIONS

1) The eastern part of the United States is in a potentioally dangerous area, as is almost all of Europe and Southern East Asia. (Japan)

2) Thia map tells where it is safe to put plants, however since Japan is so small, plant designers probably put plants wherever they could..  This would affect the crisis in Japan because since there are dangerous nuclear areas, it would affect the amount of agriculture produced.

PART TWO QUESTIONS

3) One of the more important issues is fire protection problems.  Thia problem is thte most dangerous because it is the most life threatening and the second mot common safety issue among nuclear reactors.  One reactor is Browns Ferry Unit 1 Reactor in Decatur, Alabama.

4)  The Eureka California Reactor, The Clay Station California Reactor, The Avila Beach California Reactors, the San Clemente California Reactors, and the Wintersberg Arizona Reactors are dangerously close to an earthquake epicenter.  I think these reactors should be shut down because if an earthquake were to happen, then these reactors would cause a crisis close to what happened in japan. I think the Avila Beach California Reactor is in the most danger because it is right on the coast of California.