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Wonderblog! Fun And Cool Articles For The Village School Newspaper!
By: Abram Chen Photo Courtesy By AsapScience
Introduction If you’ve ever thought about chicken, you probably either thought about the chicken nuggets that are going to be for lunch, or which came first the chicken or the egg. You would be arguing with yourself for a long time. “The chicken came first, because it had to lay the egg! But the egg has to come first to get the chicken to come out” Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter put it as “A circle has no beginning”. But without background knowledge about genetics, your head would spontaneously combust (So don’t start thinking about it yet, otherwise, the school district will have to explain to the government how they found brain remnants in the school). How did this happen? You have probably heard of climate change, the world might be doomed, blah blah blah… This may have affected the birds back then. So a past-chicken (I’ll be using the term “past-chicken” by meaning the bird the chicken descended from), was living in an environment that was changing. The past-chicken needed a better way to survive, so its descendant was changed a little bit, that would help it survive in the wild. So while the climate changed, the past-chicken changed, eventually resulting in the extremely dumb bird that normally ends up on your plate at dinner. Why did this happen? Going back a long time ago, there were no chickens, but there were a lot of birds back then. But to get the chicken, you would have to have a mutated egg, different that what the parents came from, giving it a better chance to live in the environment (but the chicken still has a very low chance of surviving, though). So over the years, the process repeated, as a result of climate change. Then the well-known chicken descended from all the past-chickens, is born in an egg. Conclusion So now we’ve answered the question. The past-chicken gets altered, over the course of climate change, and it has to adapt to the environment. Then the last Beta-chicken lays the chicken egg, then we get the chicken. Source That Made This Possible: ASAP science
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by Julian M.
It has been 41 years since the Vietnam War ended, making the North Vietnamese won the war. It has since established itself as one of the most famous wars in history. But the question remains, why is the Vietnam War such an important one? It all started when the struggle between French colonial forces and native Vietnamese citizens supported by Chinese communists was one of the root causes of the Vietnam War. United States forces entered the conflict in support of the French in order to fight communism. When the French left, they never actually fought in the war, as they left in 1954, a year before the war started. The Americans fought the war alone against the North and South Vietnamese. More and more countries kept joining, in support of the Vietnamese and some in support of America, but everyone thinks it was just a war between the South and North Vietnamese, with America joining a little bit later, but there were a lot more countries in the war. In total, 31 countries and republics fought the war. The Tet Offensive was a big turning point in the war, when the favor turned to the North Vietnamese. This time period (around 1958) was also when the military accepted new recruits, when they needed them to continue fighting. Remember, this was a war with the North Vietnamese against the South Vietnamese. More and more people from America kept on being stationed in Vietnam, which made it a really important war because everyone knew the strength of America’s military, and some people think that more and more countries kept joining because they wanted to become allies with the Americans, as I also think. In conclusion, the Vietnam War is such an important war in history because a lot of countries joined the war and it became famous over all the countries and it was the longest war in American history. ![]() By: Devon J. During your lifetime you may ask yourself, what happens if the earth is no longer capable of us anymore? The answer, go to the moon. So how much does it cost to live on the planet with four astronauts? Transportation For this, we’ll use the Saturn V. Its load can be up to 90,000 lbs with a per launch cost of $5,123,000,000 or $12,500 per pound (including research & development costs). That would make $2 million to transport one person to the moon. For landing, we’ll use twelve Lunar Landers. NASA created the LM Truck which could deliver items to the moon. They can carry 11,000 pounds and with the Saturn V can store 2 of them. With that, we can get the per pound cost to $318,000. Housing So we don’t really have a lot of knowledge of how everything is worked out or even half the information about it. Although Bigelow Aerospace has developed housing called the B330 spacecraft. The company has said that renting the B330 out for one day would be $1.25 million per day or $465 million for a year. The B330 is 43,000 lbs so it would take four truck landings and two Saturn V launches will equate to about $14 billion dollars. Food & Water The best way to plant it is to just grow it. We can bring 4.3 lbs of sweet potatoes, 0.8 lbs of tomatoes, and 0.4 lbs of strawberries. All four astronauts will need 12,000 calories. That means we need 7 lunar greenhouses and 510 lbs of fertilizer per year. So that would be $4.9 billion for food and $162 million for the fertilizer. We need water. Using water recycling and also for the greenhouses we need 12,030 lbs. So that would be in total $3.825 billion. Oxygen We need 2,701 lbs of oxygen for this journey or $860 million, although greenhouses can produce oxygen. That would be 0.75 pounds per day so that would be 5.25 lbs of oxygen it produces. So we just need 785 lbs of oxygen or $250 million. Electricity The best way to bring electricity is to bring a nuclear reactor. A little one is sufficient but we need it to carry out fission reactions during our mission. NASA says that it can make one for $1.4 billion. Conclusion After adding everything up. My estimate of four people living on the moon for one year is $36 billion. Is all of this worth it, maybe. If we have to leave earth because of the environment that we created, that $36 billion investment might just the best investment we’ve done. Sources That Made This Study Possible: https://bigelowaerospace.com/b330/ https://www.google.com/?safe=active&ssui=on#safe=active&q=calculator https://www.nasa.gov/ http://www.arizona.edu/ by Rohan J.
Solar panels generate electricity through multiple steps. But before I can tell you about that, I need to talk about direct and alternating currents. Direct currents(DC) are electric charges that flow in only one direction. Alternating currents(AC) are electric charges that change direction while it flows. Now, I can tell you the steps that solar panels take to power up your house. First, sunlight reaches the solar panels, creating “DC” electricity. Then, the electricity goes into a machine that turns it into “AC” electricity. That electricity powers up your house. The unused electricity helps power up other houses. This helps generate extra electricity using a natural resource that can’t get used up. By Reese P.
On the first day of school, the first thing a thought was….Village School is HUGE compared to my old school! And the bricks were lighter and the sign of Village School was newer. If Village School is this big, then the amount of students in Village School must be big. Maybe too big to be answered, but you can still make a prediction. That’s what I am going to do. I know that 3rd grade in my old school had around 150 kids. I also know that kids that go to Village School usually came from Dutch Neck and Maurice Hawk, plus kids who moved. If there was about 150 kids in 3rd grade in both Dutch Neck and Maurice Hawk, then there would about 300 kids in Village, plus 15 for people who moved. Right now, I am guessing there is about 315 4th graders in Village School. Plus 5th graders, which might be 315 too. If that's true, 4th grade and 5th grade would have a total of 630 students. Then there would be 630 students in Village School. But I need to know if my answer is reasonable. So perhaps there is 10 classes per grade, and 20 students in per class. But remember, there is 2 grades. So there would be about 20 classes in Village School. Another grade means there would probably be 20 more students in 5th grade too. 20 plus 20 is equal to 40. 40 times 20 is equal to 800. So right now I think Village School has 800 students. Plus preschoolers. I know there is less preschoolers in a class than in a 4th grade or 5th grade class. So I am guessing there is 10 kids in each preschool class. I also know there is even less preschool classes than the amount of preschoolers in a class. So I am guessing there is 5 preschool classes. 5 times 10 is equal to 50. 800 plus 50 is equal to 850. Now, I predict there is 850 kids in Village. 850 is not that close to my prediction at first, 630. Then I went to the front office to see if my prediction was accurate, and they confirmed that there are 751 students. 800 is only 49 away from 751. So my prediction was pretty accurate. But now I know, that Village School has 751 students. by Ethan Song ![]() You’ve probably heard the word Tesla before. The word has been used before to describe a scientist and an electric car company. Only recently has it applied to something totally new and beautiful: the Tesla solar roof. Solar Cells You’ve probably seen large blue rectangles perched upon a roof, and you probably know they are solar panels. But with the new Tesla solar roof, it will be much harder to spot exactly which houses have this new solar roof. This new solar roof is designed to blend in, using specialized glass tile, color louver films (the next section), and a solar cell. So how do solar cells work? A solar cell is comprised of two main layers made of silicon: N-type silicon and P-type silicon. Regular silicon has a neutral electronegativity (charge), so N and P-type silicon is necessary, because they are negatively and positively charged, respectively. These are two forms of doped silicon. A common dopant for P-type silicon is boron gas, while phosphorus gas is often used for N-type silicon. The two layers of the silicon are connected by a conductive wire. When photons strike the N-type silicon, the electrons are conducted through the wire into the P-type silicon, creating an electric current. Solar cells are very good for the environment, because they harness the boundless energy of the sun for human use, and when combined with the Tesla Powerwall or Powerwall 2, the energy is stored in a lithium ion battery for night use and cloudy-day use. One of the downsides of solar cells is that when exposed to high temperatures, they are not as effective, and sometimes even cease working on such days. The Tesla solar roof uses high efficiency solar cells, which minimizes the negative effects of high temperatures, but the issue still exists. Color Louver Films Color louver films are often installed into computer screens so that anyone looking from an angle will not be able to see the screen, but in this case, they are inserted into the glass solar tile to hide the solar cells, and give them color. When viewed from the street, the cell is opaque, but when facing the sun (usually the rays are perpendicular to the cells), they are transparent to allow maximum light exposure. Inside the film, there are microscopic tubes that are made of transparent material, but often coated in an opaque, colored substance. The tubes are parallel, in this case, to the light source, and perpendicular to the solar cell, allowing light to pass through the glass, and through the film, and to hit the solar cell. On the other hand, when viewed from a shallow angle, the opaque coating of the tubes does not allow the viewer to see the cell, while still allowing them to see a beautifully colored panel. The Whole Enchilada When combined together, the three components make up a functional, strong, and beautiful glass solar tile, and many glass solar tiles make a beautiful and environmental roof. The cell is covered with strong tempered glass, which resists impact, and does not obstruct light exposure. Compared with terra-cotta or clay roof tiles, the glass tile is much stronger. While allowing for functionality, Tesla and SolarCity incorporated some special features never seen before into this solar roof to allow it to be beautiful. The roof comes in four types: French textured slate, textured glass, Tuscan glass, or smooth glass. They are all colored glass tiles, only with slightly different hues. All are just as functional, and just as beautiful. by Ethan Song ![]() Imagine being on an airplane. Listen to the comforting rumble of the jet engine outside your window. Ever wonder how it works? In a regular jet engine designed for commercial airplanes, there are large turbofans to suck in air. As air goes through the blades, a portion of the air enters the core. The rest “bypasses” the core and takes a shortcut to the back of the engine. In the core, the first main component is a compressor to raise the pressure above regular atmospheric pressure at the altitude of roughly 35,000. This way, if fuel is injected, then it will immediately ignite. So, next, up to twenty nozzles spray fuel into the ignition chamber. This part of the engine is usually made of ceramic to withstand the 2700° heat. After igniting, they become hot gases pushing out of the engine. The gases then pass through the turbine, and the turbine spins, also spinning the intake fan blades and the compressor. The gases are then mixed with cool air to reduce the noise of the jet engine, and then they are pushed out of the nozzle. Supersonic Jet Engines (Ramjets) A ramjet follows a similar concept to the standard subsonic (slower than sound) jet engine. If you want to travel at speeds higher than ≅763 mph, then you need a different type of jet engine. In a standard jet engine, there are a lot of moving parts at risk of being broken off. However, in a supersonic ramjet, there are no moving parts at all. At high speeds, it is easy to compress air. The air is just forced into a narrow space, and is compressed. There is no need for intake fans and/or compressors. The next component is the combustion chamber. Fuel is injected through nozzles, and ignites, creating high pressure exhaust gases to produce thrust. The gases exit the engine through the nozzle. This type of engine works best at around Mach 3 (approx. 2301.81 mph) because at those speeds, the air is moving at just the right speed: fast enough to be compressed, and slow enough so that the air will not be too hot after compression. If the air is too hot, then the hot exhaust gases will not provide much thrust (the plane will also get hot from traveling through high speed air). When the plane travels faster than that, you need a scramjet (supersonic combusting ramjet). Supersonic Combusting Ramjet Engines (Scramjets)The scramjet is what you need when you go faster than Mach 5 (approx. 3836.35 mph) because at these speeds, a ramjet will not be effective. The X-43A was an unmanned experimental aircraft that used scramjets. But, like ramjets, scramjets only operate at hypersonic speeds. Scramjets are still experimental, and are not used often. Like ramjets, scramjets rely on high craft speed to assist in the compression of the air. But, unlike in ramjets, the air in scramjets remain at supersonic/hypersonic speeds, while the air in ramjets is slowed down to subsonic speeds. A scramjet is composed of three main components. First, there is a converging inlet into which super/hypersonic air enters, and is compressed as the airways narrow. Next, there is the combustor, where gaseous fuel is injected through nozzles and burned. Finally, there is a diverging nozzle used to accelerate the exhaust to produce thrust. Scramjets are much easier to manufacture than turbojets because there are no moving parts. Unfortunately, due to aerodynamic heating (a problem in high-speed vehicles), with no protective heat shield of some sort, a hypersonic craft will heat up to dangerously high temperatures, and possibly melt the material the craft is made of. This is one of the main reasons that scramjets are not being used. So now you know the three main categories of jet engines. The next time you are on a plane, you will know how the engines under the wings of the plane work. Sources: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/UEET/StudentSite/engines.html http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/engines-equipment/ramjet.htm by Ethan Song ![]() Ever wondered how much fuel the average plane uses? Take a guess. Now let me tell you. Drumroll…. 1 gallon of fuel PER SECOND. It is simply crazy to think about. If you had a ten hour flight, each hour, the plane would be combusting 3,600 gallons of fuel to send you to your destination. Currently, one of the most fuel efficient engines is the GEnx Jet Engine, designed for the Boeing 747-8 and Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 airplanes. The GEnx-1B engine was designed specifically for the B-787-8 and B-787-9 planes, and the GEnx-2B engine was designed for the B-747-8. The GEnx 1B engine has a lower fan blade count, from 22 to 18, and they are made of carbon fiber, to reduce the weight of the engine. The engine also has an advanced low-pressure turbine (LPT). It contains Titanium Aluminide blades in stages 6 and 7 which reduces the engine weight by up to 400 lbs, and that contributes to fuel efficiency. This engine also uses twin-annular pre-swirl (TAPS) combustor, which like many other parts, contributes to fuel efficiency. The GEnx-1B and 2B will offer up to 15% improved fuel efficiency and 15% less carbon emissions compared to the GE CF6 jet engine. These features greatly reduce engine weight, reduce emissions, and increase engine efficiency. Sources: http://www.geaviation.com/commercial/engines/genx/ by Leeann Shaw and Madeleine "Maddy" Mau ![]() What email service do you have? Gmail, Yahoo, Windows live, Hotmail, Outlook or others as well? Have you ever wondered if that email was safe or if it was fast enough? Best Email Services The best email service is Gmail. It is secure, user-friendly and very efficient. If you use Gmail to email a friend who also has Gmail, your friend will get the email in a matter of seconds! The second best email service is Microsoft Outlook. Outlook isn't as good as Gmail but it'll do if you want to send good email. OK Email Services An OK email service is Yahoo. Yahoo is not that good anymore because it’s security is low. Worst Email Services The worst email services are Hotmail and Windows Live. Hotmail's security is good but the email takes a long time to pass through and you don't even know if the person on the other end is going to receive good email or not. Let's say your best friend has a Hotmail account and you are sending them an email Friday night to tell them that you are going to have a party on Sunday. The email will probably not even pass through by Sunday and you will be really sad that your friend never got the email. Windows Live is a really bad email service of inferior quality to any other. The speed is horribly slow and the security is very uncertain and you don't even know if the email shows up on the other end; it takes so long and the person on the other end use doesn't reply. For instance, I sent my friend Mateusz, (who uses Windows Live), an email on Saturday. The email didn't arrive until 2 weeks after I had sent it and the response had a lot of weird mutations in it, and was cut off in the middle. So now you know all the email services; which ones to avoid, which ones to trust. And I hope that you send better email in the future. Happy emailing! by Madeleine Mau Have you ever went to a salon and gotten a UV gel manicure? A UV gel manicure is a form of nail color that promotes long-lasting wear and shine. And it's cured by ultraviolet (UV) light, a very high frequency of light that is very toxic to your skin. This high frequency light, when exposed to the skin, can be very harmful and damaging. It can cause skin cancer. PROS and CONS The good side of the gel manicure is that it lasts longer than the average nail color. Also, it cures with a glossy, shimmery finish. The cons, however, are rather more than the pros. The light used to cure the gel is toxic for you. Also, when the gel peels, the top layer of your nail plate comes off with it, therefore resulting in the dramatic thinning of the nail. SAFETY CONCERNS The safety concerns, of course, of the utmost importance. The salon workers that do the gel manicures are constantly exposed to UV light, therefore increasing their risk for skin cancer. Also, if you are doing your gel manicure yourself, it is guaranteed that you are exposed to the dangerous rays the gel-curing lights produce. Now I hope you have learned the secrets behind your UV gel manicure. And I also hope that you will be able to limit your exposure, and make life better for yourself in the future. |