Quartz

We just learned that the most common mineral on the earth is feldspar.

The second most common type of mineral on the earth is called quartz.
It is not a chemical element by itself, it is made up of the elements of Silicon and Oxygen combined together.

Quartz is a very shiny type of crystal, and the different colors of quartz are used in jewelry a lot.

Another special thing about quartz is that if you squeeze it very hard, it will release electricity,
and if you zap it with electricity it will change shape.

Because of this special ability, scientists figured out a way to use quartz to make clocks that are very good at telling time.
They could zap a quartz crystal, look at how long it took to turn back to it's shape, then use that measurement of time to make sure the clock was correct.

(from: wikipedia - quartz)

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mass

Feldspar

We just learned about Pyrite.

The most common type of mineral on the earth is called feldspar.

The word feldspar comes from the German language and means "field rock that does not have ore".
Ore is something in rocks that can be used to make metal.

Over half of the earth's crust is made up of feldspar.
The crust is the outer part of the planet earth.

Feldspar is made from elements like potassium, sodium, or calcium combined with other elements like aluminum, silicon, and oxygen.

(from: wikipedia - feldspar)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Earth's Gravity

Pyrite

We just learned that rocks are made up of minerals, and that minerals are the building blocks of the world.

One type of mineral is called pyrite.
It is a shiny metal that looks so much like gold that people called it fool's gold because people would discover it and think they had real gold and were rich.

The metal pyrite is actually made up of iron and sulfur combined together.


(from: wikipedia - pyrite)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Acceleration

Minerals

We just learned about the rock Petoskey.

We've learned about how rocks are mostly made up of other types of rocks that have either been squished together, melted together or piled on top of each other.

The building blocks of rocks are called minerals.
Some types of minerals are like crystals, and some are more like metals.

When these minerals get crushed, melted or squished together, they can make up rocks.

Like the rock marble that we learned about before is made up of the minerals calcite and dolomite.
(from: wikipedia - marble)


(from: wikipedia - calcite)


(from: wikipedia - dolomite)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Kinematics

Periodic Table

We've learned about chemical elements and atomic numbers now,
but with all these different elements and atoms, how can anyone remember it all??

To help remember all of these different things, a scientist came up with something called the periodic table.
It takes all of the different chemical elements and puts them into a picture, organized by their atomic number.
Each element has it's own short name, like Oxygen is O, Hydrogen is H, Neon is Ne.


(from: wikipedia - periodic table)

Not all of the names match exactly like you would guess!
Like Gold is Au, Sodium is Na, and Lead is Pb.
There are some really crazy named elements too, like Darmstadtium (Ds) and Ununpentium (Uup)!

Atomic number

We already know that atoms are super small things,
and that they have even smaller protons, neutrons and electrons in them.

We also know that chemical elements and molecules make up all the things in the world,
from the air to the water to the earth.

Each one of those chemical elements is different, because of the number of protons it has.

And the number of protons an atom or element has, we call that the atomic number.
It's different for every chemical element in the world!

(from: wikipedia - atomic number)

For example, oxygen has 8 protons, and gold has 79.

Chemical Elements

We just learned how Molecules are a bunch of atoms stuck together.

Another fun thing to learn about is Chemical Elements.
These are the very simple types of atoms that make up all of the molecules that make up everything in the world.

So for example, Oxygen is a chemical element, and so is Hydrogen.
They're both types of gases,
and they both are atoms all by themselves.

But when these atoms get stuck together, they become a molecule and turn into water!

Every type of thing on the planet is made up of these chemical elements,
from the dirt under your feet to the clouds in the sky.

(from: wikipedia - chemical element)

Molecules

Remember we learned that ions are atoms with a mismatched number of protons and electrons.

When these mismatched atoms meet up with other mismatched atoms,
they can stick together to become a bunch of atoms, called a molecule.

(from: wikipedia - properties of water)

Ions

We just learned a little about Mass.

A while back we learned about atoms,
and the parts inside of them protons, neutrons and electrons

Electrons have a negative charge, and Protons have a positive charge.

If an atom has more electrons than protons or more protons than electrons,
then we call it an ion.

If we know the number of electrons and protons, we can figure out whether it is more negative or more positive.

So if an atom has 4 electrons and 2 protons, then there are 2 more electrons.
This would give the atom a negative charge of 2.
An ion with a negative charge is called an anion.

If an atom has 6 protons and 2 electrons, then there are 4 more protons.
This would give the atom a positive charge of 4.
An ion with a positive charge is called a cation.


(from: wikipedia - ion)

Mass

We learned before about Earth's gravity and how it pulls you to the ground.

The reason it does that is because of something called mass.

Mass is sort of like how heavy something is, but also how big it is.

So a marshmallow as big as a house may be heavy enough to squash you,
but if you had a marshmallow as big as a bowling ball, the bowling ball is heavier.

A bowling ball is pretty heavy, but a bowling ball the size of a penny would be pretty light.

The two things that work together for mass are size and something called density.
Density is another big word that means something like how thick a thing is for it's size.

If something has really big size and density (like Earth) then it has really big mass.
If it is big but fluffy like a cloud, it has small mass.
If it is small but really thick density like a marble, it has small mass.
And if it is small and fluffy like a marshmallow then it has really small mass.

(from: wikipedia - earth)


(from: wikipedia - marshmallow)

Solid, Liquid, Gas

We just learned a little about Light Bulbs.

Have you ever gone sledding in the snow?
What about swimming in a pool?
Have you ever seen water boil on a stove?
What about a bright neon sign for a store?

If so, then you've seen the four types of matter in our world:
solid, liquid, gas and plasma

(from: wikipedia - states of matter)

We see water all the time in three of the four types.
An ice cube is water when it's solid, and the steam that rises from boiling water is actually the water turning into a gas.
There are lots of types of solids made from things other than water,
like the dirt you walk on, or the chair you sit in.

Solids can turn to liquids when they get hotter, like lava is actually rock as a liquid!

Sometimes gases are really hot like steam from water,
but sometimes gases are just normal temperature like the air we breathe.

Plasma is what happens when a gas gets really hot, and when the parts of the gas get really full of energy, and whenever you see a bright neon sign, it's filled with plasma!

(from: wikipedia - neon sign)

Neutrons Protons & Electrons

We learned before about how small atoms are,
but there are even things smaller that that!

An atom is really made up of two parts.
The nucleus in the middle, and the electrons that spin around the nucleus.

(from: wikipedia - atom)


The nucleus can be made up of two types of things, protons and neutrons.

Remember we've talked about positive and negative?

The electrons have negative charges, the protons have positive charges,
and the neutrons have no charge at all.

Atom

We just learned about Binary.

What's the smallest thing you can think of?
A grain of sand?
A drop of water?

Well even smaller than any of those is something called an atom.

An atom is so small, that in one single grain of sand there aren't just millions,
billions or trillions of atoms, but quadrillions or quintillions of them!

A quintillion is a 1 with 18 zeroes after it: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000

Atoms are the building blocks of our world, they make up every part of our bodies,
and every thing around us from the ground we stand on to the air we breathe.


(from: wikipedia - atom)