New question

Q: How does rock salt melt the ice?
A: Salt lowers the freezing point of the water. There is always a thin film of liquid water around the ice, so most of it will melt.

Don't panic

It's 2013. The Sun is at the end of it's 11 year cycle. We WILL have solar flares. THIS SPRING. In case you don't know what a solar flare is, it's a massive burst of solar energy that can knock out power grids. Hooray, right? But don't panic. We'll be fine. This happens every 11 years. You have probably heard about this already. But, I'm just telling you that it will be fine.

A few more questions

Here's an interesting question from Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer (www.badastronomy.com/index.html):

Q: You're the captain of a spaceship. Space pirates have taken your ship, and captured you. They leave you floating in the middle of a room with the gravity off. You can't foil the pirates and take your own ship until you get to the wall of your room first so you can escape. How do you do it?

A: If you are near the other wall, you can place your feet against it and propel yourself to the wall you want to be on, or if you sneeze, then it wil propel you backwards. Then get to the exit!

Q: Do hummingbirds ever perch?

A: Yes. They perch on branches, clotheslines, and bird feeders.

The next question

Q: How is water carbonated?
A: Carbonated water is water in which carbon dioxide gas has been dissolved. To make carbonated water, you need dry ice and cold water. Add one piece of dry ice to the glass using tongs, then another. Be very careful when doing this. Dry ice hurts if you touch it. When the first two pieces are gone, add another two. When those melt, you have carbonated water!

                                                      The dry ice will look like this.



                                                         

Astronomy website

If you are interested in astronomy and space, go here: www.slate.com/authors.phil_plait.html

The next 2 questions

Q: How is a rainbow formed and why? 
A: Each rainbow begins with millions of tiny raindrops. They serve as a reflector of light. White light enters one rain drop and exits as a specific color of the rainbow. Without all these raindrops, a rainbow could not occur. If you only had a couple of raindrops, you would only see a couple of colors. The rainbow forms in a complete circle, but the horizon only allows us to see half of it.






Q: If I have a bottle of water filled to 500ML and I keep it open, how much water will evaporate in 1 month?
A: Good question, Gabriel! This depends on if you keep the water out in the Sun, or indoors. It also depends on the humidity and temperature of the water. I'm sorry, but I don't have a good answer for you. Why don't you try this at home?

The next questions

Q: A can of pop just exploded in my car. Can you tell me how that happened?

A: If you shake it, the can could explode. If it was very hot outside, then that would have made it explode. But no one knows why.

Q: How can it rain in 26 degree weather?

A: The atmosphere is made of different layers and different temperatures. It could be 22 degrees up high, and 32 degrees lower.  When a drop of rain passes through these layers, it can freeze and unfreeze. If it was 26 degrees on the ground, and 37 degrees a little bit higher, then the raindrop would not have enough time to freeze.

The first 4 questions

Q: How are sleet & freezing rain different?

A: Sleet will mostly bounce off a surface, but freezing rain will form ice.

Q: How big is an atom?

A: An atom cannot be measured with centimeters or inches, of course. It is too small. But, if an atom was the size of a coin, you would be the size of a skyscraper. There are 2,000 billion billion atoms in a drop of water.

Q: Why do balloons stick to your hair?

A: This is because of static electricity. Static electricity happens when electrons build up. Static electricity is electricity that is not moving. Electrons have a negative charge, and protons have a positive charge, so they attract.

Q: What is the life cycle of the praying mantis? 

A: It consists of 3 main stages. These are: The egg stage, the nymph stage, and the adult stage. The egg stage happens right before winter. During autumn, the female praying mantis can lay 100-400 eggs. She secures the eggs on a safe, sturdy leaf or stem with a liquid that hardens and protects the eggs during the winter. 

 The nymph stage happens in the spring. After the nymphs get a first taste of the outside air, they will hang around the egg for a little while. Some of the babies will try to eat each other at this time.  Soon, they will start to hunt for small insects, like fruit flies. Not all of the nymphs will survive this stage due to larger predators. 

 The adult stage happens in the summer. The adult will spend this time hunting and eating anything that will not eat it first. They molt as muchas 10 times until reaching their full size at the end of summer. When they are done molting, they are strong and can lay the eggs.

My first post

Hi. This is my first post on The Science Blog. You can send in stuff that you want me to write about (it has to be about science, of course), and I will write about it.