rafaele.r's blog

ok this is a funny song.  I like it.  Atoms are the subject I chose because the people around me weren't choosing it.  Have fun.  It talks about the history of atoms.

The Manhattan Project was a project where they made bombs to kill the nazis.  They did not succeed in time to kill the Nazis so they decided they would blow up Hiroshima.  This was successful and now everybody has nuclear bombs.  This is how they work: Neutrons are fired at atoms that are close together. This triggers a chain reaction causing the bomb to go off.  The bomb however has problems because if it doesn't immediately kill you, the radiation will.  Plus there is a lot of dust generated.  Oops.  Slight design Flaw/

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-lasers-used-for.htm

Lasers are used for many things:

Torture (or death depending on the situation)

-Corrective eye surgery

-Surgery in general

-Science class

-Skin Grafts

-Numerous video games, used for numerous reasons

-To annoy people at the movies

-To annoy people at concerts

-according to the website up top, lasers are "Indispensable in our daily lives"

   So, lasers are used for myriad of things both good and bad.  They are fun to use and look very cool.  I think I could live without lasers, but I guess if your job requires lasers then they are useful ha ha.  I am kind of indifferent about lasers.  Also, the name laser is an abbreviation, but we use it as a name.  Huh.  Think about it.

             ~Rafe

REFLECTION ON PINHOLE CAMERAS
rafe
    Our pinhole camera didn't work.  We needed to get a new one made by 8s.  I doubt any of our pictures will turn out as even though we tried to block out all light it probably didn't work.  We took close up pictures and i think that movement may have affected our pictures.  I also think that the exposure times were not right.  So I think the pinhole cameras may have worked to some degree.  We took 3 pictures.  I think there might be some sort of blurry image but it may not be the best.  I cannot wait to see how the pictures turned out.   

 One of the hardest questions scientists in space face is - how do you go to the bathroom?  Well NASA has been pondering this problem for years.  The main issue is that since there is no gravity in space, your...ahem, waste... floats instead of going into the toilet.  NASA has spent 23.4 million dollars on the space toilet (which if you ask me, seems a bit unnecessary).  What they have come up with is as follows: In the very very beginning, there were no toilets.  A man by the name of Alan B. Shepard Jr. was stuck in his space suit, and he was busting to pee.  Cameras were on him, his zipper was stuck, he had no other option - he made himself a wet suit.  Soon after, Astronauts started wearing nappies (no joke) then  garbage bags taped to their butts (really, I'm serious).  NASA decided that enough was enough and made the WCS (waste collection system).  This thing strangely resembles a rollercoaster ride.  The astronauts get strapped in via a metal bar on their thighs, their feet get clamped down and they go to it (if you catch my drift).  Their waste gets sucked into a disposal tank and then at the end of the day... They watch their waste in space :)

       Now these toilets would be pointless without the invention of the space shuttle.  This shuttle is only part of the STS (Space Transportation System).  The full thing consists of the shuttle which is where the astronauts are, a dark orange external tank (for fuel and whatnot), and two booster rockets (to help the ship along the way).  Eventually all that is left in space of the STS is the shuttle, because the other parts are dropped during orbit around the Earth.  This shuttle stores the crew and payload so it is a very important piece of equipment and without it there would be no astronauts (well in space that is).  The orbit goes like so: first the STS launches, then the booster rockets drop off.  Next, the external tank drops off and the shuttle is free.  After more orbits, the shuttle shoots off into SPACE - THE (FINAL?) FRONTIER!!