This is the end of the year!  I'm the only 8th grader and its been pretty weird all year.  Iv had classmates sometimes in the year just because of some things that happened in the school year.  Iv also had one classmate named Won. (no really her name was Won)  She was the best classmate every but she only stayed for a week and 4 days.  She was going to stay for 3 weeks but it snowed and rained for most of the time.  Last year seemed like the year would never end but this year went by fast.  Iv meet lots of good people and their really nice here.  Im going to miss most of the people here.  (Emphasis on MOST!)  To all the people here goodbye and have a good time here at the amazing SHREINER ACADEMY!

ALL OF THE LIGHTS!

Hey I'm back! I know I haven't blogged sense March but I just had stuff to do.  So anyway now sense I'm back I'm going talk to you about light.  Lots of people use it every day but when someone asks you what it is you probably can't tell them.  First I'm goning to talk about artificial light.  Artificial Light is the light we use in our flashlights and cars and even our phones.

Next I'm going to talk about the Electromagnetic Spectrum. The Electromagnetic Spectrum is just light bouncing off a prism.  A white light hits the prism and reflects off of it and makes a rainbow.  That why when its done raining you sometimes see a rainbow.  The light bounces off the water and reflects back into the sky and creates the rainbow. 

Next is Electromagnetic Waves.  We have all made a circuit right? Well it's something like that.  The electromagnetic waves are flowing through the light so when you turn on you lights at home you know that there is an electromagnetic wave flowing through it.

Light can be described as packets of energy called photons.  Photons also have two parts that can make them more stable. 

Reflection is something we see every time we look in a mirror.  The light would bounce off the mirror and show you what you would look like.  But would you believe that what the mirror is showing you is wrong?  Every time we look in the mirror we see the our reflection looks like were turned the other way.  If you take a picture of yourself and look at it while looking at yourself in the mirror it shows that the mirror bounces the light back at you but doesn't show it right.  The picture doesn't bounce the light back at you so it shows what you really look like.

Refraction  is something like reflection.  When a wave of light passes through some sort of space, it slows downs, changes speed or changes direction.  That why when you put something in water it looks like its broken.

A prism is a device that shows rainbows.  When you shine a white light in a prism it shows the colors that we don't see or what we call a rainbow.

Magnets

Magnets are fun to play with.  Have you ever had two magnets and wondered why sometimes they wouldn't stick together?  Well on a magnet there are north and south poles like on earth.  If you try and put two north poles together there going to repeal each other. This same thing would happen if you tried to put two south poles together.  If you put a north and a south pole together then they would stick without trouble.  The reason the north to north and south to south wont stick is because they have the same magnetic field. 

Electricity and magnetism have something in common.  They both only attract if there opposite and don't if their the same.  On earth we have our north and south poles and they also have their own magnetic fields.  The core in the earth spins really fast and burns lots of cobalt thats why we have or magnetic field.  That's why when your lost and you have a compass the needle points north. 

Things that have iron, nickel, or cobalt are magnetic.  Did you know that your cars had cobalt in them?  That's why those big magnets can pick up the cars at the junk yard.  Some of the things we use in our homes are magnetic.  One time I was using someones charger to charge my phone and it was magnetic.  I walked past a refrigerator magnet and I saw it get stuck.  You never know what can be magnetized until you try it out. 

Hybrids...do we need them?

Hybrid cars have two things that make it go.  Most hybrids are gasoline-electric types.  The gas engine in the car is smaller then the ones in the gas powered cars and they also get more mileage.  The gas engine only goes to a certain speed.  So, if you wanted to go up a steep hill then thats when the electric motor kicks in. When your stopped at a red light or stuck in traffic then the electric motor can handle the job on its own so the gas engine shuts off.  The hybrid car never has to be plugged in to charge.  If the battery is low then the gas engine turns on and it burns extra electricity for the battery.  Another way the battery gets charged is that when its low the electric motor spins backwards and converts it into electricity.  Hybrid technology is getting better and getting much cheaper.  So for your first car you should go out and buy a hybrid car. 

          

WHY WON'T THIS THING TURN ON!?

  We all know what circuits are right?   Well for the people who don't, this is for you.  The people who do know, maybe you'll learn something today.  I'm going to start off talking about a complete circuit.  For there to be a complete circuit energy needs to be flowing through that object.  We've all watched TV right?  Well the cord at the end of the TV is where all the electricity is coming from.  The electrons from the outlet are flowing through the cord and into the TV.  Then they go back through the other side of the cord and back into the outlet and its start all over again. 

Have you ever made your own power source? Well you need a battery, two strings of wire, and a bulb.  The battery has a positive and negative side.  You put one end of the wire on the positive and one end of the other wire on the negative.  Then you put both ends of the two wires on the bulb and the bulb should light up!  

                               CLOSED CIRCUIT  OPEN CIRCUIT

You all have switches at home right?  Have you every wondered why the lights turn on and off?  When you flip the switch down the circuit is open so the energy can't flow through and the light can't turn on.  When you flip the switch up the circuit is closed so now energy can flow and the light turns on. 

Next is a short circuit,which is a current flow along a path where usually no electricity flows through.  Short circuits can have very high temperatures because of the high power waste in the circuit.  If you have a high voltage capacitor and its short circuited by a thin wire the wire could really explode.  Just know that some circuits are dangerous and that we all need to be more careful when we use and make things.