Gravity and it's Effects

 Hi! What do you know about gravity? It's basically all around us, like oxygen. We can feel it's effects every day. It makes sure you or just everyday objects aren't floating away. It's also what Sir Isaac Newton formulated when an apple fell on his head. But, back then he didn't realise what type of effects it would have on your body.

Changes To Body

Do you suffer from varicose veins, swollen feet or an aching back? If you responded yes to any of these questions, you are a victim of the inescapable, compressive force of gravity. The results of gravity's constant downward pull on our faces, shoulders, backs, necks, chests, organs, legs and feet are painfully obvious to most of us. Gravity never gives up. We will all experience change to our bodies as a result of life on this planet. The most noticeable effect of gravity on the body is compression of the spine. 

1. Is gravity the same on all planets?

Definitely not. It all comes down to depending on the size, mass and density of the object, the gravitational force it exerts varies. More mass gives you more gravity. For example, if you go to Jupiter you'll be compressed to the size of a basketball due to the strong gravitational pull.

2. How is gravity related to mass?

Like I mentioned before, more mass equals more gravity. Since Mercury is the smallest planet, it has the least about of gravity. Jupiter is the biggest planet, so it has the most amount of gravity.

3. Which planet would you weight the most on? The least?

Bigger the planet, the more you'll weigh. For example, if you weighed 50kg on Mercury you'd weigh 18.9kg but on Jupiter, you'd weigh 117kg. Big difference, I know. 

4. How would your life be different if you lived on a planet with higher gravity? With lower gravity?

Living on a planet with higher gravity would come with more health-related issues. Humans would turn out to be shorter. On the other hand, living in a place with lower gravity would make us weaker, exercise would be necessary in order to maintain a healthy body.

5. What's the difference between mass and weight?

Mass: If you could count up the number of protons, neutrons, and electrons in an object (which you probably can't), this would be a measure of the mass. The mass is essentially "how much stuff" is in an object. Common units for mass are the kilogram and the gram. 

Weight: There is a gravitational interaction between objects that have mass. If you consider an object interacting with the Earth, this force is called the weight. The unit for weight is the Newton (same as for any other force).

Most humans on the surface of the Earth can get away with saying either "weight" or "mass" because they are proportional to each other. If you know the mass of something (m), then the weight (W) can be found as:

6. How do boats float?

The oxygen inside a ship is much less dense than water.  The average density of the total volume of the ship and everything inside of it (including the air) must be less than the same volume of water. As a ship is set in water, it pushes down and displaces an amount of water equal to its weight. The closer the total density of the ship is to the density of the same volume of water, the greater the amount of the ship that will be in the water. If the average density of the ship is greater than the density of water, then the ship will sink beneath the surface of the water.

Sphero's - Science

 Hi! Today in Science, we used Spheros. We had to use paper to make a course. My partner and I decided to cut out triangles so the robot could travel in a zig-zag pattern. We decided from either blocks or drawing. The block one was where you actually had to code out what you wanted the sphero to do. On the other side, with the drawing part, you had to draw out where you wanted the robot to go.

The videos and pictures are not currently uploading but I will edit this blog post later when it's possible.

Kindness Acrostic Poem

 Hola! Last week in class we got a task to make either a rap, song, digital poster or poem about kindness. A couple of friends and I decided on an acrostic poem. Read below and give us feedback! 

How do you show kindness?

Self Introduction - Japanese

 Konnichi wa! Today in Japanese we created our self-introductions but of course, in Japanese. Read below and find out more about me. Leave me feedback! Also, do you know how to speak Japanese, if not, would you learn the unique language?

Hajimemashite　ohayougozaimasu.            Watashi wa namae wa shureiya desu.

Nice to meet you, good morning.                  My name is Shreya.

ni juu san desu.                                              kuraisutochaachi ni sunde imasu.

I’m 13 years old.                                              I live in Christchurch.

denwa bangou wa zero hachi zero zero no yon ni go no ichi nana kyuu desu.

(My) phone number is 0800-425-179.

Indo kara kimashita.                                          Nettobooru ga suki desu.

I come from India.                                                    I like netball.

suugaku ga suki janai desu.                  douzo youroshiku onegaishimasu.

I don’t like Maths.                              (Please be nice to me) / Nice to meet you.

Gold Rush Chinese Miners & Discrimination

Salve! Today in Social Science I'll be telling you about the Chinese Miners and Discrimination in the 1800s and onwards. 

Here are four things I discovered about Chinese miners.

- Some Chinese miners became well known in their communities

- Chinese miners were paid less and there were about 7000 of them.

- In a small rural county in the Guangdong province of China, far away from the hustle and bustle of big cities, the homelands of the first Chinese settlers to came to New Zealand. 

- About 5000 Chinese miners migrated to the Goldfields of Central Otago in the 1860s.

- Most of the Chinese didn't speak English, and they preferred to build small stone houses away from the other miners. They often had their own shops, run by their own people. Working patiently through the pile of rocks they left behind, some Chinese miners were rewarded with gold, but mainly remained poor and far away from a home they never saw again.

And, here are four things I learnt about discrimination in the 1800s.

Discrimination is treating someone differently or unfairly because of their skin, race, age, gender, politics, gender identity, religion, the way they look, a past criminal record, the person's lifestyle, their choice of clothing, their age or their disabilities whether they are a member of or fit in with a social group, social class, social status or caste, and many other reasons.

- There was a common belief that the Chinese carried infectious diseases and were dirty and unhygienic.

-  The relatively restrained nature of anti-Chinese legislation and the virtual absence of collective violent protest against them scarcely indicate that the mass of colonists hated the Chinese. 

- The Chinese were also believed to threaten to swamp the European population.

- Also, the immigrants were believed to be associated with gambling, opium smoking and people said that they never contributed to the New Zealand economy.

Navigation in Space

Chào! In Science today I will be answering some questions about navigation in space and also, just space in general. Leave me some feedback! If you got the chance, would you ever visit  space? 🪐

1. What is a solar system? The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly. Of the objects that orbit the Sun directly, the largest are the eight planets, with the remainder being smaller objects, the dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies.

2. What is a star? Describe a Nebula A nebula is a giant cloud of dust and gas in space. Some nebulae (more than one nebula) come from the gas and dust thrown out by the explosion of a dying star, such as a supernova. Other nebulae are regions where new stars are beginning to form.

3. How do stars die? Most stars take millions of years to die. When a star like the Sun has burned all of its hydrogen fuel, it expands to become a red giant. This may be millions of kilometres across - big enough to swallow the planets, Mercury and Venus.

After puffing off its outer layers, the star collapses to form a very dense white dwarf. One teaspoon of material from a white dwarf would weigh up to 100 tonnes. Over billions of years, the white dwarf cools and becomes invisible.

Stars heavier than eight times the mass of the Sun end their lives very suddenly. When they run out of fuel, they swell into red supergiants. They try to keep alive by burning different fuels, but this only works for a few million years. Then they blow themselves apart in a huge supernova explosion.

4. Is there an up or down in space? There is an up and down in space. "Down" is simply the direction gravity is pulling you, and "up" is just the opposite direction. Since there is gravity everywhere in space, there is also an up and down everywhere in space. Gravity is a centrally attractive force, so "going down" means falling or being pulled towards the center of the nearest massive object. If you are in space and the earth is the nearest astronomical object, you fall towards the earth. Down is therefore towards the earth's center and up is away from the earth's center when close to the earth.

5. How can stars be used to navigate? By learning where the stars are in the night sky with your palm facing towards the sky you can figure out where you're going. Some primitive tribes accomplished amazing feats of pathfinding using only the sky as their guide. The Māori came to New Zealand from eastern Polynesia, probably in several waves between the years 1280 to 1300. With no instruments or tables to consult, they very carefully observed the night sky as well as local weather patterns and ocean currents. 

Bonus Questions

1. What does the word spaghettification mean? Spaghettification means theoretical stretching of an object as it encounters extreme differences in gravitational forces, especially those associated with a black hole.

2. Find 3 facts about a black hole 

1. You Can’t Directly See a Black Hole

A black hole is called a black hole because of its colour, especially since light can’t escape. What we can see, though, is the effects of a black hole. Analyzing the surrounding area of a black hole, we can see its effects upon its environment. For example, a star that’s close enough to a black hole can be seen being ripped apart.

2. Our Milky Way Probably Has a Black Hole

But, don’t be alarmed, Earth isn’t in danger! The major black hole that astronomists believe to be within our Milky Way is light years away from Earth.

3. Dying Stars Lead to Stellar Black Holes

The death of large stars leads to black holes because a star’s gravity will overwhelm the star’s natural pressure that it maintains to keep its shape. When the pressure from the nuclear reactions collapses, gravity overwhelms and collapses the star’s core, and the star’s other layers are thrown off into space, and this process is also known as a supernova. The remainder of the core collapses, a spot overcome by density and without volume – a black hole.

Gold Mining & Discrimination in the 1800s

Bună! This week we started learning about the Gold Rush in New Zealand. In the 19th century discovering gold was a way out of poverty. From the 1860s gold rush followed gold rush, and thousands flocked to the fields. Only a lucky few found riches in the rock. However, the collective value of the gold was discovered kick-started the young colony's economy. Gold was the making of early New Zealand.                                                                         

One of the main locations was Gabriel's Gully, located in the South Island, it's now filled with greenery and I believe no one resides there anymore. You can still visit the monumental location and go on an interpretation walk, there's historical sightseeing.

A short video of Gabriel's Gully