CoMo Science

1/23/25

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in
  1. Greek and Latin Roots
  2. Important Points We Discussed
    1. Polarized Light
  3. Math
    1. Calculus
    2. Chemistry
  4. Details of Things We Discussed
    1. Polarized light
    2. Calculus
    3. Baking Soda and Vinegar
    4. Lab Skills
  5. Things To Do

You can find a list of posts from previous science clubs here.

Greek and Latin Roots

We did not cover any roots this week. We will cover last week’s list next week.

Important Points We Discussed

Polarized Light

  • Visible light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
  • The electric and magnetic fields oscillate in a plane.
  • Most light is unpolarized, meaning the light is oscillating in many different planes.
  • Polarized light oscillates in one plane.
  • A polarizer filters out light that is not oscillating in the plane that is lined up with the filter.
  • Polarized light microscopy can be used to examine crystals, minerals, and some biological specimens.

Math

  • Most people in STEM fields do not do higher math (advanced algebra trigonometry, calculus, for example) calculations very often.
  • However, the math concepts are frequently used even though the calculations are not actually performed.

Calculus

  • There are two major divisions in calculus: derivatives and integrals.
  • A derivative can be thought of as the slope of a line tangent to the curve.
  • An integral can be thought of as the area under a curve.
  • Roughly speaking, the derivative and the integral are inverse operations of each other.

Chemistry

  • Even though the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar is commonly used to introduce chemistry to young children and is very familiar, there is a great deal of chemistry to know in order to truly master it.

Details of Things We Discussed

Polarized light

See Crystals Photographed with Polarization Microscopy – The Canadian Nature Photographer for examples of microphotographs of crystals using polarized light.

Calculus

Baking Soda and Vinegar

Calculating the amount of baking soda and vinegar needed to make a specific volume of carbon dioxide requires a lot of basic chemistry knowledge:

  • the chemical names of baking soda and vinegar
  • their chemical formulas
  • the chemical equation for the reaction and what the products of the reaction are
  • how to balance a chemical equation
  • calculating molecular weights
  • converting moles into grams
  • calculating the grams of a solute in a solution when you know the volume and concentration
  • using the ideal gas law to convert a volume of gas into moles of gas
  • converting temperature from degrees Celcius to Kelvin
  • dealing with units of measurement in a multistep equation

Lab Skills

I’ve started a new series of posts on skills that are useful in the lab, particularly chemistry and biology labs.

Here are the first few in the series:

Let me know if these are useful.

Things To Do

  1. Fill out the list of Greek and Latin roots.
    • Write in the meaning of each root
    • Give at least one example of each, be prepared to give its actual definition and the way that it is related to the root word
      • Example: If I gave you the root “onym”, you could give the word “synonym” which has the definition of two words with the same meaning. The two roots in the word “syn” and “onym” mean “same name”, indicating two words that name the same thing.
    • Fill out the blank space at the bottom with your own root that you have discovered. This will likely come from some of the example words that you have already written. Give a different example than what you have used.
      • Example: syn- means “same”, example word “synchronous”
  2. Presentation
    • Research your topic of choice and be prepared to give a 5-minute presentation on the topic, geared toward people your age level.
    • Include the background information needed for someone who does not know the topic as well as you.
    • Be prepared to talk about how you found this information.

Next time we will meet on 1/30/25.

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