Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Manatee


We just learned about Hippo Sunscreen.

The manatee is a large animal that lives in the water.

Some people also call it a sea cow because it is so big,
and there are legends that people used to think they were mermaids.

When a manatee blinks, it doesn't an eyelid like a human does,
it just has muscles around it's eye that close.

Try making a small circle with your fingers, and then close it up tight.
That's sort of how their eyelids work!
manatee
(from: wikipedia - manatee)


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Trapezius



Let's keep learning about the muscles in the human body!

Last time we learned about the pectorals

Next up is the trapezius.

The trapezius, which are sometimes just called traps
are used when you lift your arms over your head,
when you try to touch your elbows together behind your back,
or when you fold your hands behind your back.
trapezius
(from: wikipedia - trapezius muscle)


Monday, August 5, 2013

Denmark


Let's keep learning about the countries in Europe!

We've learned about Norway and Sweden, the two other Scandinavian countries.

The third and last Scandinavian country is Denmark.
It is not on the peninsula, but is actually connected to Germany.

Denmark is the oldest kingdom in Europe, and the people there are called Danes or Danish.

denmark
(from: wikipedia - denmark)

Famous author Hans Christian Andersen was from Denmark.
He was the original writer for famous stories like Thumbelina and The Little Mermaid
hans christian andersen
(from: wikipedia - hans christian anderson)
Danish scientist Niels Bohr helped us understand how the atom works.
niels bohr
(from: wikipedia - niels bohr)

The famous Kronborg Castle is in Denmark
kronborg castle
(from: wikipedia - kronborg castle)

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Ezekiel


Like Isaiah and Jeremiah, another prophet Ezekiel
also told people God's warnings about their coming exile and destruction.

During his life the Babylonian army came and took over their land
and kicked God's people out of their country!

He later told people about some day in the future when God would save them
and bring them back to their home land.
ezekiel
(from: wikipedia - ezekiel)


Saturday, August 3, 2013

Star absolute magnitude


We just learned that when scientists want to measure how hot a star is,
they use something called stellar classification.

Another thing they measure for stars is how bright they are.
They call this absolute magnitude.

We can't just measure how bright stars look to us in our sky,
because some are close (like our sun) and some are very very far away.

So we measure how bright a star would be if we were looking at it from 32.6 light years away.

They go from -15 which is very very bright, to 20 which is not very bright at all.
Our sun has an absolute magnitude of 5, so it's about in the middle of the brightness levels.

(from: wikipedia - stellar classification)

Friday, August 2, 2013

French - Counting to twenty nine


We just learned how to count to 20 in French, let's keep going!

21 vingt et un - sounds like vah-n-tay-un /?/
22 vingt-deux - sounds like vah-n-doo /?/
23 vingt-trois - sounds like vah-n-twah /?/
24 vingt-quatre - sounds like vah-n-cah-tuh-ah /?/
25 vingt-cinc - sounds like vah-n-sunk /?/
26 vingt-six - sounds like vah-n-see /?/
27 vingt-sept - sounds like vah-n-set /?/
28 vingt-huit - sounds like vah-n-oo-ee /?/
29 vingt-neuf - sounds like vah-n-nef /?/

Notice that for 22-29, it's always the word for 20 vingt (vah-n)
and then the word for the number by itself.

So 25 is 20 vingt (vah-n) and 5 cinc (sunk)
so it's vingt-cinc (vah-n-sunk).

It's pretty much the same way for all the numbers up to 79!


Thursday, August 1, 2013

Superconductor


We've learned that if something is kind of a good conductor but not really good,
we call it a semiconductor.

What about something that's a really super awesome conductor?

That's called a superconductor!

Superconductors don't work like good conductors or semiconductors do,
they're usually something normal like metal, but made really super freezing cold.

Not cold like when you go sledding in the snow, (about -10 degrees fahrenheit)
but so cold that you couldn't survive outside. (-300 degrees!).
Colder even than Antarctica, the coldest place in the world!

When the superconducting metal is that cold, it pushes out a magnetic field
that is so strong it can even push other magnets up off the ground!
superconductor
(from: wikipedia - superconductivity)