Physical Properties of water: Ice

In our group I did not do my topic on ice but I was fascinated by Jesse's information on it. So I did some research on it because Anne sais we would have a quiz on all the presentations. Anyways I did more extensive research on that and found the the differences in densities between ice and water. One way to see this is to place ice on top a glass of water. The ice will float meaning ice must be denser than water. Most solids would penetrate the surface because they are denser than water and sink to the bottom. Water has a strong surface tension making it difficult for objects to penetrate its surface. I always thought ice was denser than water. I wonder why a solid such as ice is denser than a liquid such as water. Here is a good website that has 4 explanations for why ice floats on water. http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy00/phy00136.htm. According to this website matter that displaces a liquids surface has to rise equal to the matter that was displaced. So that would explain why a solid placed on a liquid makes the liquid rise.

Revise and Edit Script

Today I had to revise the script since it is due on Monday. I added some citations and came upon new information. Some new information included the health concerns of the Tijuana River. Apparently the Tijuana River is very polluted one can get diseases such as cholera, hepatitis A, and malaria. Sounds severe. http://www.american.edu/ted/TIJUANA.HTM. The source is probably reliable since the format is proffessional. The Tijuana River is definately in worse condition than the San Diego River. But I wonder why? Could it be because there is no one to guard the river from pollution, in Tijuana? I cannot make any assumptions because I am not that well informaed about this. Also, I could not find any information on how one can get malaria from just getting near the river? I always thought you get that from mosquitos not from just physical contact with the water. If anyone knows the answer to that question feel free to answer.

Article on Latin America

US border build-up worries Mexico by James Hider is an article about the fortification of the United States-Mexico Border. The author was somewhat biased stating that "the move as a show of force by Mexico's much more powerful neighbour, just six weeks before presidential elections in Mexico." The author gave evidence to oppose the fortification of the border but also stated that Mexico does not do enough to support its people so they leave it for United States. There was an interetsting quote by a man named Julio Hernandez Lopez who believed that the reason for the United States to foritfy its border right before the Mexican Presendential election. He said that the United States was trying to send a message to Mexican voters how risky it would be to vote for a president who does not understand the power of white people. Could the United States really be trying to show off its power? This is another possible example of the United States getting involved in Latin American politics. The author gave statistics that explained how the fortification of the border only increase the deaths of immigrants and makes people trying to corss the border more desperate. Being desperate, they will do anything to cross the border even hire people to transport them across the broder. Mexico had a muted response because during Bush's live speech about the border, Mexico did not bother to broadcast his speech over their soap operas. I believe a simple wall will not stop people from trying to improve their lives. They will only get more desperate and hire traffickers to cross them across the border. Here is the link to the article Spencer: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4987784.stm.

The Meniscus

http://www.chem.purdue.edu/gchelp/liquids/tension.html. There is a great flash animation plus description on surface tension. The author of this website explains how the meniscus is formed. It is really interesting how mercury, the only liquid with stronger surface tension than water, forms an upward parabola instead of a downward parabola formed by water. Because the attraction between unlike molecules in water is stronger than the attraction between same molocules in water, they cling on to the glass tube. The meniscus can only occur when the water is placed in a narrow tube. A wider tube will have to much gravity and the water will have to much to lift so it it will be too much to lift.

Surface Area

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/SurfaceTension.html. This is a complicated website that explains the physics of how hydrogen bonding reduces surface area. Do you know why warm water is better to clean with than cold water. You will have to wait for our presentation to find out. Anyways, I never knew how useful this stuff is because you can apply this information to you everyday life. From chemistry I can know what is better. Another thing I learned in physics is that everything in nature wants to be stable in other words nature is lazy and wants to exert very little or no force at all. So everything in nature tries to arrange itself to exert a net force of 0. That is an example of nature trying to maintain balance.

Sticky Water

Surface Tension is a pretty difficult topic to understand but it is definately a very interesting one. Today I found a great website that explains the phenomenon known as hydrogen bonding. Hydrogen Bonding is the attraction between a hydrogen atom and a oxygen atom that causes water to be "sticky." You can click on the link or wait till our fascinating presentation to find out how hydrogen bonding works and how that relates to surface tension. http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/bubbles/sticky_water.html. It is amazing how bugs like the water strider can walk on water because of the strong surface tension of water. That has more to do with physics than chemistry but it just is interesting that because of a low center of gravity and stable positioning it can walk on water.

Physical Property of Water...

I shouldn't have slacked because now I am having trouble finding a physical property of water because my groupmates took all the common ones so I must now do more extensive research to find different ones. After some research I found a good topic. It ios very interesting but a little difficult to understand. It is called surface tension and here is a geat website to research it http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/surten.html. Surface Tension is the tension every liquid has and it affects its stickiness. You can see this in the Meniscus. There is a slight curve in the water that is because of the stickiness of water. Water molecules at the surface are at a constant tug of war with each other. This great tension makes it a great support for objects trying to float on top.

Important people of Mexican independence

http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/santaanna.htm. A man by the name of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was responsible for a lot of chaos in Mexico and Texas. He started out as an enemy to the Mexican Independence movement but changed sides to plave his good friend Isturbide into power. After Isturbide lost power Santa Anna took his place. He was alected president but then Santa Anna declared himself a dictator because he felt his people were not ready for a democracy. He was thought to bring Mexico out from all this chaos it was in and take Mexico out of the hole Isturbide placed them in. Unfortunately Santa Anna only brought Mexico into further turmoil. Santa Anna lost and regained power constantly he was president and dictator 11 times. He cost Mexico more than half their territory and was eventually exiled. This man is thought to be the nemesis of Texas because he caused Texas a lot of turmoil which eventually led them to declare independence. It is kind of weird how Mexico fought for their independence because of an abusive country like Spain was controlling many aspects of their lives and they had very little freedom. They treat Texas the same way Spain treated them... Looks like that another example of humans not learning lessons from history.

Important Leaders

I found a very impotant person to Mexican Independence, Agustín de Iturbide. http://www.britannica.com/hispanic_heritage/article-9043055. He was a general who led the Mexican forces against the Spanish forces. As a younger man, he showed off his skills to many of his superiors and won many important battles. He was given comman over the military district of Michoacan and Guanajuato. With his forces and Vicente Guerrero's forces they overwhelmed the remaining Spanish forces and won their independence. Iturbide was an interesting man because of his military backround. He did become emeperor of Mexico but was so unpopular that he was exiled. When he returned to Mexico he was shot and killed. It is amazing how a man who fought vigurously for his countries freedom would be betrayed by it.

Enlightenment Ideals

Here is a website with a great amount of information on the whole Mexican Independence movement. http://www.teacherlink.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Byrnes-celebrations/mid.html. There is a great section on the Enlightenment values that infleunced their independence movement. That section somewhat defines the Enlightenment. Back at that time Mexican history education revolved around theology and most people had to survive with that. The Catholic Church dominated almost every aspect of life back then. Mexicans wanted to limit that power so that they could have some control. Science and reason were some of the dominating principles of the Enlightenment. People began to believe that they could improve their social status instead of being stuck whereever they were. This website helped me understand a lot better as to why the Enlightenment was so important why was it such a turning point in human history?

Mexican Independance

I found a great website that explains the causes of the Mexican Revolution but it is a bit biased. The author believes that Hidalgo was not a good leader and he just caused more suffering and bloodshed. The author believes that Hidalgo only got the Indians to fight for him and only caused more losses for Mexico. Heres the link: http://k12west.mrdonn.org/ColonialMexico.html#INTRO. The author said that the revolts caused by earlier men resulted in the unification of the middle class who banded together to fight against the Spaniards. So common hatred brought them together. From some of the information one can see of the ideals of the Enlightenment in the Mexican Revolution. Ideas that supported increasing ones social status contributed a lot to evolution The amount of informaton is enormous but becareful thearticle is based.

To confirm some of the information in my previous blog I went to a different website and found loads of information on one of the most impoartant figures in the Mexican Revolution. His name was Miguel Hidalgo. Another impoartant person wa Ignacio Allende, both were considered the fathers of Mexican Independance. http://www.mexonline.com/mexican-independence.htm. It contains detailed information on the beginnings of the Revolution. These two important people acted as martyrs for the Mexican Revolution because they died while trying to gain independance and the indiginous and mestizo rose against the Spaniards. This website confirmed other information from other websites.

Independance Movements: Mexico

Today I chose the country Mexico to research for the next week. For some beggining research I went to http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/mexico/independence/ for some basic information on the Mexican Revolution. Here some starting dates and end dates are given. Some information is given regarding important people in this revolution It does not go into much detail but is great if you want to write down basic facts about Mexico. The website looks reliable except for the fact that the layout seems simple and not much effort was put into the content.