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Learning Journal 6-29-04
Jun. 29th, 2004 06:33 pmIt finally happened. I figured it would eventually. My learning project stalled.
So, in the course of looking into the Formation and Structure of the Earth, I've gotten into weather systems, basic chemistry, plate tectonics, electromagnetism, nuclear reactors, and centripetal force; I've figured out why (in theory) volcanoes happen along plates, why the center of the Earth could theoretically be heated by a giant fission reactor, how the magnetic field might be generated, and the surprising massive abundance of water in the universe.
And now I'm stuck. I don't know where to go from here. Partially this is because I'm physically exhausted after the last few days, partially it's because I've never had as much time to research this as I would like, and partially it stems from the answers I've been getting.
"Why does the Earth generate a magnetic field?"
"We don't know."
"Is the center of the Earth radioactive?"
"We don't know."
"How did the oceans form?"
"We don't know."
"Why does the movement of charged particles create magnetic force anyway?"
"We don't know."
I have yet to bring in a single activity. I haven't found a good interactive webpage on any of my topics. I'm too tired to think of a good following question from what I know; or I don't really care about the ones I do have. ("Do other planets have hot cores/tectonic plates/magnetic fields?") And of course I have to have more stuff for this by tomorrow, as always.
Sigh.
UPDATE: Well, I was wrong. The interplanetary stuff is awesome. And I found this really cool set of activities about how to build your own magnetometer.
Interesting factoids:
1) Venus has basically no magnetic field. No one knows why.
2) While most planets' magnetic fields are more or less aligned with their axes of rotation, Uranus' magnetic field is off by sixty degrees. No one knows why.
3) Gas giants have magnetic fields because they also have a liquid metal at their cores-- hydrogen.
4) The magnetosphere of Jupiter, if visible, would appear from our standpoint to be as large as the moon.
So, in the course of looking into the Formation and Structure of the Earth, I've gotten into weather systems, basic chemistry, plate tectonics, electromagnetism, nuclear reactors, and centripetal force; I've figured out why (in theory) volcanoes happen along plates, why the center of the Earth could theoretically be heated by a giant fission reactor, how the magnetic field might be generated, and the surprising massive abundance of water in the universe.
And now I'm stuck. I don't know where to go from here. Partially this is because I'm physically exhausted after the last few days, partially it's because I've never had as much time to research this as I would like, and partially it stems from the answers I've been getting.
"Why does the Earth generate a magnetic field?"
"We don't know."
"Is the center of the Earth radioactive?"
"We don't know."
"How did the oceans form?"
"We don't know."
"Why does the movement of charged particles create magnetic force anyway?"
"We don't know."
I have yet to bring in a single activity. I haven't found a good interactive webpage on any of my topics. I'm too tired to think of a good following question from what I know; or I don't really care about the ones I do have. ("Do other planets have hot cores/tectonic plates/magnetic fields?") And of course I have to have more stuff for this by tomorrow, as always.
Sigh.
UPDATE: Well, I was wrong. The interplanetary stuff is awesome. And I found this really cool set of activities about how to build your own magnetometer.
Interesting factoids:
1) Venus has basically no magnetic field. No one knows why.
2) While most planets' magnetic fields are more or less aligned with their axes of rotation, Uranus' magnetic field is off by sixty degrees. No one knows why.
3) Gas giants have magnetic fields because they also have a liquid metal at their cores-- hydrogen.
4) The magnetosphere of Jupiter, if visible, would appear from our standpoint to be as large as the moon.