Kewl, right? I mean, if I could totally surf while taking the GED, I bet I’d do lots better. Only my answers’d be all wet.

Here’s what the article has to say:

The glorious sunshine and the Pacific Ocean provide the perfect conditions for Robert Liu and colleagues’ photochemical reactions, which use the sun’s rays to make variants of vitamin A.

The excess heat from the reaction is then effortlessly dissipated by the sea, presumably as the highly skilled chemist completes the reaction by riding a huge wave back to the beach.

Pop GED Practice Question!!!

A photochemical reaction creates a chemical reaction using….

A)  heat

B)  surfboards

C)  light

D)  water

E)  wind

Did you get the answer? You gotta look in the first paragraph of text up there… “photochemical reactions, which use the sun’s rays…” What are the sun’s rays? Wind? Water? Surfboards? Highly dubious, dude! You might think it’s heat, cuz the sun heats us up. But the sun’s rays are really light. Think about the word “photo…” like, a photograph uses light to make a picture, right? Well, a photochemical reaction uses light to make a chemical reaction. You might get a clue where it says “glorious SUNSHINE.” Dude, that’s definitely light.

Keep watching the science news for kewl stuff, and good luck on your GED studyin’!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

POP-POP, FIZZ-FIZZ

I took a “POP” bottle, and into the bottom I put some vinegar and water. Then, I took an empty balloon and put some baking soda in it. I attached the balloon to the end of the bottle, and then poured the baking soda from the balloon into the bottle, so it mixed with the vinegar and water.

Pop-pop! Fizz-fizz! Millions of bubbles started to appear! And my balloon started to BLOW ITSELF UP!!! So, here’s your “POP” quiz…what made the balloon blow up?

A) The air inside the bottle was pushed out by the baking soda.

B) The baking soda and vinegar caused a chemical reaction that released gas, which blew up the balloon.

C) The baking soda and vinegar caused an explosion that created extra air, which blew up the balloon.

D) The air inside the bottle was pushed into the balloon by the bubbles created by combining baking soda and vinegar.

Zaher answered “C”…sorry! Try again! It’s kinda close, though….this answer says it caused an explosion…but nothing really exploded. It says the explosion “created extra air.” That’s a sign to me that C’s not the right answer…. because what is “air” exactly? Huh? Huh? Think about it! You probably know that air’s got oxygen in it, and maybe some other stuff. So it’s not just one thing. And you know that air can have water in it, like when it’s really humid, or it can be dry. Sometimes air is really polluted, and sometimes it’s cleaner. So, you know air isn’t always the same. That means…”air” is kinda vague. Well, scientists like to be SPECIFIC. So if scientists are talking about something being created…it’s prolly not going to be something vague like “air.”

Okay, okay. Now I’m gonna tell you, the right answer is B, that a chemical reaction created gas. It’s a lot like answer C, so Zaher was on the right track, totally. Except, instead of saying “air” it says “gas.” Okay, so isn’t gas vague? Well, there are different kinds of gasses, but a “gas” is GENERAL instead of VAGUE. Air isn’t general…air is the stuff around you that you breathe. What is that stuff? Well, that’s what’s vague. GAS is a science word, meaning stuff that’s a vapor…not solid, not a liquid, but a gas…floating around. Look for science words in the answers instead of looking for everyday sort of words!

The other thing that’s different is it says “chemical reaction” instead of “explosion”. I love explosions! They’re pretty kewl!!! And you can make an explosion with chemistry….in fact, you can get kicked out of school for that… then you need your GED, like me!!! Seriously, tho, it’s the same sort of thing. “Explosion” is more like an everyday word. It means something blows up… BOOM! What does “chemical reaction” mean? It just means that two things come together and form different things. The atoms rearrange and attach to different atoms… and you get something different. Chemical reactions happen in explosions…but you don’t always get an explosion when there’s a chemical reaction.

So what happens when baking soda and vinegar get together? Well, that’s some chemistry. In chemistry, everything’s about the MOLECULES that something is made of, and there’s like a code that explains what all the atoms in a molecule are. Each kind of atom has a letter name, and they use numbers to say how many molecules there are. So, vinegar is HC₂H₃O₂ … that’s 4 (1 + 3) hydrogens (H’s), 2 carbons (C’s), and 2 oxygens (O’s). And baking soda is NaHCO₃ … that’s 1 sodium (Na), 1 hydrogen (H), 1 carbon (C), and 3 oxygens (O’s). When they get together, because of the way they’re made, the different atoms start attaching to different things and rearranging themselves to make something new. That’s a chemical reaction! And here’s what happens…

HC₂H₃O₂ + NaHCO₃ ===> NaC₂H₃O₂ + H₂CO₃

There’s the same amount of atoms…and same kinds of atoms… on both sides. They’re just organized differently, so they make different stuff. NaC₂H₃O₂  is a kind of salt, and it also give you H₂CO₃, which is UNSTABLE!!! OH NO!!! KIND OF LIKE ME!!! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT’LL DO!!!….

Well, actually, you do know what it’ll do. It does the same thing every time. It totally breaks up! I mean, literally! It breaks apart into two things…

H₂CO₃ ===> H₂O + CO₂

Good ol’  H₂O is water… and CO₂ is carbon dioxide. And guess what that is? It’s a GAS!!!! That’s back to the answer, right? The chemical reaction (all the atoms moving around and rearranging) make a GAS (carbon dioxide). That’s what fills up the balloon! Try it at home. Seriously! Try it! And there’s your GED science for today!!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

POP-POP, FIZZ-FIZZ

So…here’s what happened.

I took a “POP” bottle, and into the bottom I put some vinegar and water. Then, I took an empty balloon and put some baking soda in it.  I attached the balloon to the end of the bottle, and then poured the baking soda from the balloon into the bottle, so it mixed with the vinegar and water.

Pop-pop! Fizz-fizz! Millions of bubbles started to appear! And my balloon started to BLOW ITSELF UP!!!

So, here’s your “POP” quiz…what made the balloon blow up?

A) The air inside the bottle was pushed out by the baking soda.

B) The baking soda and vinegar caused a chemical reaction that released gas, which blew up the balloon.

C) The baking soda and vinegar caused an explosion that created extra air, which blew up the balloon.

D) The air inside the bottle was pushed into the balloon by the bubbles created by combining baking soda and vinegar.

So, what’s the scoop? Which is the most “POP”ular answer?  Tune in next time to find out what the science is behind this question.

Osmosis is what happens when water can move through something, called a membrane. You’ve got membranes in your body, on the outside of cells. It’s just a fancy name for a thin layer that water can move through.

Well, when there’s a lot of salt on one side of the membrane, and not a lot of salt on the other, the water moves to the salty side to “balance out” the amount of salt in the water. The water seems to want the two sides of the membrane to be equal…kewl, right? So when you put a bunch of salt on a mummy….the water comes out into the salt, and it gets dried up…which is why the mummy lasts…for eternity! Until it wakes! And comes after you!

Seriously, osmosis is pretty important in science… did you know that’s how plants get water through their roots? If the root is dry and the soil is wet…the water zooms in from the wet side to the dry side.

Just one more thing to know for your GED test.

Here’s a kewl link about mummification: http://www.egyptologyonline.com/mummification.htm

And here’s some more science about osmosis: http://curriculum.calstatela.edu/courses/builders/lessons/less/les4/osmosis.html

Since I want to be a spy, I figured that I’d better find out about DISAPPEARING INK! That’s right. GED science for kewl spying. Okay, maybe you made it as a kid, but it’s still kewl. And there’s real science… science about acids and bases. I don’t mean acid rock and bass guitar, even though that’s kewl too.

Here’s the scoop on acids and bases: everything’s got a pH. That’s a measure of hydrogen ions (an atom with a positive charge…it’s missing an electron!). What you really gotta know is, the lower the pH, the more acidic something is, like lemon juice. You know, an acid. The higher the pH is, the more it’s a base, like baking soda or Drano. (Yup, bases and acids can both dissolve things… like gunk in your drains.)

What’s all this got to do with disappearing ink? Well, there are chemicals that turn color depending on whether they’re in acids or bases. Like litmus paper, if you ever used that in school. You can use it to see if something’s an acid or a base, because it changes color.

So, you take these chemicals and put them in water that reacts with carbon dioxide in the air. Ready for some chemistry?

CO₂ + H₂O -> H₂CO₃

Each of those letters stands for an atom…C is carbon, O is oxygen, and H is hydrogen. And the numbers show how many atoms. Well, CO₂ is carbon dioxide (that’s in the air). And H₂O is water (duh!). If you add them together… get them to combine, you get H₂CO_3.

What’s that? It’s got all the atoms from the other side of the equation. Do you see? Just like math. There’s 3 O’s on both sides, 1 C, and 2 H’s. So you don’t lose anything, just rearrange it. And you get CARBONIC ACID. That’s right, it’s acid. That means it changes the pH of the ink when it dries in the air. It gets more acid. And the stuff changes color. Poof! Presto! It disappears.

You can see a video of disappearing ink here: http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/content/science-video/disappearing-ink

You think it’s just a kid’s trick? Well, there’s different ways to disappear ink… it all depends on different kinds of science. Science shows you how different things act, what they do, and then clever people think of new ways to make them work…that’s technology! Now, some scientists have got new inks for tattoos that is “disappeared” with lasers, so they’re easy to remove if you don’t want ‘em anymore: http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19025495.600&feedId=online-news_rss20

If only you could get a tattoo that disappeared and reappeared… hey, if you learn enough science, maybe you can invent it! So, do you get what acids and bases are? How about what chemistry equations mean? Remember that stuff for your GED…