Fun Facts

Fun facts about different topics all the time!

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Fun Fact #1

When you blush, your stomach blushes...

The inner lining of your stomach...

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Earth’s Structure 101

From Outer to Inner

1. Crust - 1% of Earth’s volume

2. Mantle - 84% of Earth’s volume

3. Core - 15% of Earth’s volume

Crust

-94% igneous and metamorphic rock

-4% shale

-0.75% sandstone

-0.25% limestone

-Average composition of continental crust (land): granodiorite (medium to siliceous igneous rock)

-Average composition of oceanic crust (ocean floor): basaltic rock (low silica igneous rock)

The Crust: Atomically

-62.55% Oxygen (the largest present)

-21.22% Silicon

-6.47% Aluminum

-1.92% Iron

-1.94% Calcium

-2.34% Sodium

-1.42% Potassium

-1.84% Magnesium

Types of Rock that Make up the Crust

1. Sedimentary (E.g. sandstone, shale, coal, limestone, and coral)

-Formed by the transformation of sediments, acid rain, or biogenic deposition

2. Igneous (E.g. granite and basalt)

-Cools from magma

3. Metamorphic (E.g. marble and slate)

-Transformed by high pressures, temperatures, or chemicals while keeping a solid structure

Mantle

-Iron

-Magnesium silicates

-870°C-2200°C (1598°F-3992°F)

-From the crust to the core the temperature goes from cooler to hotter

Core

-Nickel

-Iron

-Over 5000°C (over 9032°F)

-Outer core is liquid

-Inner core is solid because of the extremely high pressure

Data from: http://butane.chem.uiuc.edu/pshapley/Environmental/L26/1.html

Have questions, want further explanation, or want more topics? Reply below!

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Electrons 101

1. Lightest stable subatomic particle (subatomic particles are protons, neutrons, and electrons)

2. Negative charge

3. The electron is the basic unit of electric charge

4. The mass of an electron is 9.10938356x10^-31 kilograms (2.026893794531861352x10^-23 lbs), which is 1/1,836 the mass of a proton

5. The electron is considered massless and is not included in the mass of the atom

Discovery

-English physicist JJ Thomson in 1897 while using cathode rays

-Initially, electrons were called corpuscles

-This played an important role in revolutionizing the way we came up with the atomic structure

Electron Configuration

-Electrons are bound to the positively charged nucleus of the atom (opposites attract) and most usually balances out the charge so the atom’s charge is 0

-However, an atom can be negatively or positively charged and these atoms are called ions

-Electrons can roam freely outside of atoms in clusters called plasma

-Electrons are inside of nucleus and move in orbitals

-The closer to the nucleus, the more tightly the electrons are held

-As they move, they diffuse a negatively charged cloud that covers almost all of the volume of the atom

-Electron configuration determines the size and chemical nature of the atom

Classifying Electrons

-The electron is a fermion (having half-integral angular momentum)

-Described by Fermi-Dirac Statistics

-The statistics characterize by the spin of the electron which corresponds with the motion of the particle

-The concept of the spin is within the formula/equation for an electron called the Dirac equation

-Electrons can be further classified as leptons which only react with electromagnetic, weak, and gravitational forces

Fermi-Dirac Statistics (1926-1927)

-Quantum Mechanics

-One of two ways to separate particles into energy states

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)

-Italian-born American scientist who helped develop the Fermi-Dirac statistics

P.A.M. Dirac (1902-1984)

-English physicist who helped develop the Fermi-Dirac statistics

-Came up with the Dirac equation that determines the motion of the electron

Data from: https://www.britannica.com/science/electron

Have questions, need further explanation, or want more topics? Reply below!

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Dampiera Diversifolia 101

Scientific Name: Dampiera diversifolia

Meaning

-Dampiera after William Dampier (1652-1715)

-Diversifolia: Leaves of more than one kind

William Dampier collected Australian plants that are still preserved in Oxford at the British Museum

Basic Facts

1. Indigenous to the southwest of Western Australia

2. It is a spring wildflower

3. It is a prostrate perennial or undershrub (type of bush)

4. It ranges anywhere from 25 centimeters (9.84 inches) to 1 meter (3.28 feet)

5. It is a short, dense, and leafy plant with purple-blue flowers

Why is Dampiera Diversifolia different from other Dampiera?

-Short axillary penduncles (short stalks from which the flower grows)

-1-2 leaves and a pair of bracteoles per each flower

-The leaves vary from oblong-spathulate (imagine a kite with rounded sides) to oblanceolate (imagine the body of a minnow) that don’t tend to get bigger than 2.5 centimeters (0.98 inches)

Survival

-Resists frosts well

-Wide range of conditions

-Best: Well-drained site, protection from wind, protection from the invasion of other species

-If grown from cuttings, it will take roughly 12 months to establish itself

-Spreads quickly after being established

-Thrives in good, friable soil (crumbly texture)

-A general fertilizer in the spring and autumn should prevent total death of the plant

Have questions, need more explanation, or want another topic? Reply below!

Data from: https://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/gnp7/dampiera-diversifolia.html

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Asteroids 101

Definition: a small rocky body orbiting the sun. Large numbers of these, ranging in size from hundreds of miles to particles, are found in the asteroid belt most especially between Mars and Jupiter with orbits between a more eccentric orbit and orbits that pass close to Earth or even actually going through Earth’s atmosphere. The word comes from the early 19th century Greek word “asteroeidēs” which means “starlike”.

Basic Facts

1. Asteroids that pass close to Earth are called Near-Earth Objects, or NEOs

2. Currently, we know of 780,526 asteroids

3. Asteroids are left over from the early formation of our solar system

4. The total mass of all of the asteroids in our solar system is less than the mass of Earth’s moon

5. More than 150 asteroids have their own moon (or two)

6. An asteroid within 45 million kilometers (28 million miles) of Earth’s orbit has danger potential

Types of Asteroids

1. C-Type (chondrite)

-These are the most common and among the most ancient asteroids

-Made of clay and silicate rocks

-Dark appearance

2. S-Type (stony)

-Made of silicate and nickel-iron

3. M-Type (metallic)

-Made of nickel-iron

Note: Composition is related to the distance of the asteroid from the sun

Classifications

1. Main Asteroid Belt

-This is between Mars and Jupiter

-There are 1.1 million-1.9 million asteroids larger than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter

-There are millions of smaller asteroids

-The asteroids in this belt were formed by the gravity of newly-formed Jupiter which caused small planetary bodies to collide with one another (resulting in fragments we call asteroids)

2. Trojans

-These asteroids do not collide or share an orbit with a planet

-They gather in the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points which is a place between the sun and the planet where the gravity of both balances out

-Jupiter has the most numerous trojans

-Trojans are as numerous as the asteroids in the Main Asteroid Belt

-There is one Earth trojan that was discovered in 2011

3. Near-Earth Asteroids

-Asteroids that have orbits that pass close by Earth

-Asteroids that cross Earth’s orbit are called Earth-crossers

-As of June 13, 2013, there 10,003 Near-Earth Asteroids

-861 of these are over 1 kilometer (0.6 miles)

-1,409 are potentially hazardous to Earth

Any questions, further explanations, or other topics explained? Reply with what you’d like and I’ll make another post!

Data came from https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/small-bodies/asteroids/in-depth/