Reasons for Seasons

Lab Report- Reasons for the Seasons

Guiding Question- How does the tilt of Earth’s axis affect the light received by Earth as it revolves around the sun?

Materials:

    Flashlight

    Paper

    Shish Kabob

    Protractor

    Toothpick

    Acetate Sheet with Grid

    Plastic Foam Ball

Procedure:

       I.            Push shish kabob into foam ball at the South Pole.

     II.            Use protractor to measure 23.5 degrees tilt of the axis away from the flashlight.

  III.            Hold the stick so that the Earth is steady and 23.5 degrees.

  IV.            Use the flashlight to light the side of the Earth.

    V.            Carefully stick the toothpick straight into the model about halfway between the equator and the North Pole. Observe and record the length of the shadow.

  VI.            Turn the model once on its axis. Observe and record the length of the shadow.

VII.            Tilt toward the flashlight. Repeat previous steps.

Observations:

Winter:

·        The sunlight is more direct at the equator and below it, and the grid is stretched at the edges.

·        The shadow of the toothpick is short.

Summer:

·        The sunlight is more direct at the equator and above it.

·        The shadow of the toothpick is longer

Conclusion:

The 7 questions to be written on blog:

1.     When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the north gets the least sun and the south by the equator gets the most sun. In the summer the North gets the most concentrated sun and the south has average sun.

2.     The light is stronger at the equator and the squares are smaller and closer together at the poles, the squares are bigger and more spread out.

3.     The heat in each square is less when they become larger.

4.     The warmest place is the equator it always receives light, at the poles it is the coolest but it also depends on the season, in summer the North Pole gets lots of light.

5.     In the winter the shadow of the toothpick will be the shortest and in the summer it will be the longest.

6.     When the squares are longer the area is cooler, when they are smaller

7.      The tilt, the revolution around the sun, and the revolving causes the axis to tilt near or far from the sun.  Near is summer and far is winter.  The hemispheres are opposite seasons (ex: northern is summer southern is winter at the same time). The sun hits the earth at an angle because of the axis this creates direct and indirect areas of sunlight. The more direct the sunlight the warmer it is.

Current Event Jan. 25, 2012

Hubble Catches Jupiter's Largest Moon Going to the Dark Side
NASA
Hubble Space Telescope
Dec. 20, 2008


       This article has some interesting information about Jupiter, the Hubble, and Ganymede (Jupiter's largest moon). Due to Jupiter's huge size you can only see part of its southern hemisphere. Ganymede is larger than Mercury, but looks like a pebble next to the massive Jupiter. You can see Jupiter's red spot which is a storm that has been blowing for more than 300 years, it is twice the size of Earth. You can also see some clouds and their shape. Ganymede has a 7 day revolution and travels around the giant. It is made of rock and ice and is the biggest moon in our solar system (even though it looks like a marble next to Jupiter).

         This article was great for my project and it is amazing how sharp the planets are even though they are so far away. I wonder which gases make up Jupiter's atmosphere, it says they know a few because light reflected off of Ganymede can show different gases. This is full of facts needed for my project and an overall interesting piece of information. I wonder how the Hubble telescope works. Anyhow this was a great article.

Bibliography
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). "Hubble Catches Jupiter's Largest Moon Going To The 'Dark Side'." ScienceDaily, 20 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. 

Interactions Between Living Things; My Choice: Canis Lupus (the grey wolf)

The Gray Wolf 

Scientific Name: Canis Lupus

       The gray wolf is usually a misrepresented animal, but in spite of everything bad that is said about them, what is interesting to me is the symbiotic relationship they share with ravens. The ravens provide a sort of alarm system (thanks to their always hovering around wolves), if there is notable danger the ravens fall silent or fly away. The wolves have learned to interpret this as a threat so they are known to take shelter and protect their pups. The ravens also help the wolves find prey. The ravens need the sharp teeth of the wolves to tear open the carcass of carcasses, this is why they can't just find previously dead animals and eat them (the wolves tear open the carcasses of carrion and the ravens get the leftovers). Wolves are predators, they hunt prey ranging to smaller than them to much bigger than them. In the North (From Northern USA to various parts of the Arctic circle) they eat mainly dall sheep, caribou, deer, elk, and moose. They regergitate food for their young (primarily when in the first few months of life).

 

two gray wolf pups observed by Helen and Bill Thayer

Charlie (Helen and Bill's) husky mix interacting with a wolf (possibly the one they nicknamed Mother)

A typical successful hunt ending with a young elk, notice the ravens

Rabbit Bean Populatin Results

                                                                        
This graph shows how the rabbit population grows over the years. The population doubles yearly so the rise in population becomes more dramatic the longer the rabbits reproduce as you can see from 1 to 15 years the change is size of the population is little noticed, but 16 to 20 years the population dramatically rises.


This is a closer view on years 1 to 10. You can see that the population was changing with similar results.

These are the calculated results.