Johannes Kepler, the Astronomer Who Discovered "Kepler's Laws", Died 380 Years Ago

Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) was a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution. He is best known for his three laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers, based on his works that also provided one of the foundations for Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation.

Kepler's laws give a description of the motion of planets around the Sun.

Kepler's laws are:

1. The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci.
2. A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.
3. The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit.

- Wikipedia

Science Fair Project Information
Title: Stars And What They Can Become
Subject: Aviation
Grade level: Primary School, Grades K-3
Academic Level: Ordinary
Project Type: Descriptive
Cost: Low
Awards: 1st place, Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (2008)
Affiliation: Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (VSF)
Year: 2008
Description: Main topics: How are stars born? What different types of stars are there? How do stars die? What are binary stars? All about our sun.

Link: http://www.odec.ca/projects/2008/lafl8s2/

 

115th Anniversary of the Discovery of X-Rays

On November 8, 1895, German physics professor Wilhelm Röntgen stumbled on X-rays while experimenting with Lenard and Crookes tubes and began studying them. He wrote an initial report "On a new kind of ray: A preliminary communication" and on December 28, 1895 submitted it to the Würzburg's Physical-Medical Society journal. This was the first paper written on X-rays. Röntgen referred to the radiation as "X", to indicate that it was an unknown type of radiation. The name stuck, although (over Röntgen's great objections) many of his colleagues suggested calling them Röntgen rays. They are still referred to as such in many languages, including German and Russian. Röntgen received the first Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery.

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Science Fair Project Information
Title: Research the technology and applications of today's modern forms of diagnostic imaging (X-Rays, CAT Scans, and MRIs).
Subject: Medicine
Grade level: high School - Grades 10-12
Academic Level: Ordinary
Project Type: Descriptive
Cost: Low
Awards: 2nd place, Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (2004)
Affiliation: Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (VSF)
Year: 2004
Description: Main topics: X-rays: discovery, physics, protection; CAT scan: invention, technology, procedure, applications; MRI: procedure, compared to X-rays and CAT scans, safety and risks, applications.
Link: http://www.odec.ca/projects/2004/sitt4b0/public_html/

 

George Boole, the Founder of Boolean Algebra, Was Born

George Boole (1815 – 1864) was an English mathematician and philosopher. As the inventor of Boolean logic—the basis of modern digital computer logic—Boole is regarded in hindsight as a founder of the field of computer science.

Boole proposed that logical propositions should be expressed as algebraic equations - logic is reduced to algebra. Boole replaced the operation of multiplication by the word and and addition by the word or. For example, if x is the set of all brown cows and y is the set of all fat cows, then x+y is the set of all cows that are brown or fat, and xy is the set of all cows that are brown and fat.

Let z = the set of all Irish cows. Then z(x+y) = zx+zy; in other words 'the set of Irish cows that are either brown or fat is the same as the collection of cows that are Irish and brown or Irish and fat'.

- Wikipedia

Science Fair Project Information
Title: Implementing Logic Gates With Relays
Subject: Mathematics / Electronics
Grade level: Middle and High School, Grades 7-12
Academic Level: Ordinary
Project Type: Experimental
Cost: Medium
Affiliation: Science Fair Projects and Experiments
Description: For beginners: Build from relays common logic gates and demonstrate their truth tables with LEDs or suitable bulbs connected at the input and output.
For advanced students: Construct from relay logic gates half or full adders and demonstrate their truth tables. Adders are central components in any modern computer's ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit - the main part of CPU). Build from relays alarms, counters etc.
Link: http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/zusecomputer.html

The first transcontinental telegraph message was sent in 1861, bringing to an end the Pony Express

The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 1860 to October 1861. It became the west's most direct means of east-west communication before the telegraph and was vital for tying California closely with the Union just before the American Civil War.

This original fast mail Pony Express service had messages carried by horseback riders in relays to stations across the prairies, plains, deserts, and mountains of the Western United States. For its 18 months of operation, it briefly reduced the time for messages to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to about ten days, with telegraphic communication covering about half the distance across the continent and mounted couriers the rest.

- Wikipedia

Science Fair Project Information
Title: Build Your Own Morse Telegraph System
Subject: Electromagnetism
Grade level: Middle School, Grades 7-9
Academic Level: Ordinary
Project Type: Building project
Cost: Low
Affiliation: Science Fair Projects and Experiments
Description: A very basic and simple apparatus consisting of a morse key, battery, bulb or LED, buzzer and an electromagnet.
Link: http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/morsetelegraph.html

2010 Nobel Prize Winners in Physics Announced

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was awarded jointly to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene"

Graphene is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The term Graphene was coined as a combination of "graphite" and the suffix "ene" (containing a double carbon bond).

The possible practical applications (though most of them sill not realized) for graphene include microelectronics, composite materials, solar cells, mobile phones, and more.

- Wikipedia

Science Fair Project Information
Title: Does radiation from cell phones affect our health?
Subject: Health
Grade level: Elementary School Grades 4-6
Academic Level: Ordinary
Project Type: Descriptive
Cost: Low
Awards: 1st place, Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (2005)
Affiliation: Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (VSF)
Year: 2005
Description: Main topics: Why does your cell phone emit radiation? Is this radiation dangerous for our health? How to fight cell phone radiation.
Link: http://www.odec.ca/projects/2005/lamn5n0/public_html

Chile's Trapped Miners are Free!

On August 5, 2010 33 Chilean miners ranging in ages from 19 to 63 became trapped 700 metres (2,300 ft) below the ground surface in a copper and gold mine located in the Atacama Desert. The trapped miners gained contact with the outside world 17 days after the mine collapse through a 3-inch diameter hole that was drilled to reach the trapped miners. Through this hole, the trapped miners have received food and other supplies. A video message released to the public on August 26, 2010 showed the miners living conditions 2,300 feet below the ground surface.

At approximately 11:30 pm on 12 October 2010 (Eastern Daylight Time) the first of the trapped miners reached the surface, after an approximately fourteen-minute ascent in the rescue Fenix capsule. All of the remaining miners were rescued successfully within 21 hours of the first miner's arrival on the surface.

- Wikipedia

Science Fair Project Information
Title: Diamonds Around the World
Subject: Chemistry
Grade level: Elementary School Grades 2-4
Academic Level: Ordinary
Project Type: Descriptive
Cost: Low
Awards: 1st place, Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (2006)
Affiliation: Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (VSF)
Year: 2006
Description: Main topics: How diamonds are formed, diamonds in Saskatchewan, Canada, production, uses, how is the value of diamonds evaluated, crimes, wars, legends.
Link: http://www.odec.ca/projects/2006/malh6d2/

2010 Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry are Announced

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for the development of palladium-catalyzed cross coupling.

Carbon is a stable element and carbon atoms do not easily react with one another. In this method carbon atoms bind to a palladium atom, an act that brings together the carbon atoms and starts the reaction that ends up with a new carbon-based material.

This chemical method is very useful for the electronics, platics and medicine industries.

Science Fair Project Information
Title: Toxicity of Carbon Nanotubes in Daphnia magna
Subject: Chemistry / Material Engineering
Grade level: High School, Grades 10-12
Academic Level: Advanced
Project Type: Experimental
Cost: Medium
Awards:
2nd place, Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (2010)
WWSEF Life Science Gold Medal
Affiliation: Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (VSF)
Year: 2010
Description: The main goal of this project is to test the toxicity of carbon nanotubes by exposing Daphnia magna to solutions of carbon nanotubes and humic acid.
Link: http://www.virtualsciencefair.org/2010/kimexe2