Posted in Scientific Saturday

First of all, before I get into what this post is really about, I would like to say a big "Happy Birthday!" to my now eight-year-old sister, Elisabeth! Like I posted about yesterday, please go over to her blog and leave her a comment. She would really like that! Thanks!

I came across the following paragraph on the internet several days ago. The article was talking about how sleep works. One paragraph said:

"For any animal living in the wild, it just doesn't seem very smart to design in a mandatory eight-hour period of near-total unconsciousness every day. Yet that is exactly what evolution has done. So there must be a pretty good reason for it!"

Um, excuse me? Let me get this straight. Evolution is what supposedly brought all life into existence. According to the theory, it did this all by random, accidental mistakes. But this article says that since random mistakes designed something, there must be a good reason for it! Are you thinking this through with me? Does it make any sense?? No. It does NOT make any sense at all. It all comes down to something that I posted a few weeks ago, which I entitled "Confronted With the Evidence" (if you have not read that post, please do). Does anyone have anything else to add? Comment away!

Posted in Scientific Saturday

I'm being lazy this time -- but at least I'm getting it posted! I'm sending you over to a different site this Scientific Saturday.

Did any of you see the harvest moon on September 26? Well, even if you did, you have got to check out this link. That is so awesome! I wish I had seen it!!! Wouldn't it be neat if it was that big all the time???

And by the way, it's my friend, Rose's birthday today! Everyone go wish her a happy one!!!!

Posted in Scientific Saturday

I haven't been very faithful to keep up with my Scientific Saturdays, but here's one for this week!

Here's a question for you. Think about it carefully before answering. When classifying animals, would a bird be classified with a snake or a butterfly? Think about that for a minute before reading the next paragraph, please!

A bird would be classified in the same general group as a... snake! Yes, that does sound a little bit strange, but it is true. That is because animals are classified according to their structure, not their function. Birds and snakes both have a backbone. A butterfly does not have a backbone. Butterflys and birds both fly, that is true, but remember that animals are not classified by their function (like flying). Can you think of some other animals that have the same or similar function but not the same structure? How about a grasshopper and a rabbit? In this case, they do both have a backbone, but a grasshopper is not a mammal, like a rabbit is.

And here's a fun fact: If you were to list every living thing that has been discovered so far in a medium-sized book with medium-small print and two columns, it would take over twelve thousand pages! Now, that's a lot of animals and plants!!!!

This doesn't have to do with science, but I'm going to put it in this entry anyway. I am sooooo excited about my new template!! It only took me maybe two hours at the most to do the entire "make-over". I'm thinking about re-doing my template every three months, to go with the seasons. Unfortunately, since I didn't start this in September, I will only get to enjoy one month of this template before I have to put up a winter one! Unless I decide to use it again next year in the fall. I did save the blue template that I had up here before, though, so if I get tired of a seasonal template, I can put it back the way it was. What do you think?

Posted in Scientific Saturday

I'm pretty sure that all of you have heard of evolution. I hope you don't believe it, but I think that you have probably at least heard of it! Something I like to learn about is how there is basically no physical evidence to support evolution, and everything in nature points to a Creator. If you have ever read or learned about that before, you might wonder, even with all the evidence going against them, why the evolutionists still believe all of their fairy tales (allow me to get side-tracked for a moment and point out that when people tell similar tales to little children, it is called fairy tales, but if they tell it to adults, and add a few fancy words, it is "modern science" and "facts").

The answer: they don't want to see it. They make up more and more ridiculous theories to support the original ridiculous theory, and so-on. But evolution is not about proving the origin of the universe or how we came to be; evolution is about proving that there is no God. They know that if there is a God, they will have to obey what he says, and they don't want to! They don't want to admit that what they do is wrong. After all, if we evolved, then there is no right or wrong. They don't want to admit that they will have to face God someday.

But if there is no God, then we are here by accident, and we have no purpose in life. NO PURPOSE. If that is true, then human life has no value. There is nothing worth living for! Trying to prove there is no God just so you can have "fun" sure gets depressing if you think about it long enough! God is the answer. His ways are perfect. He created us, and we DO have a purpose -- our life is to bring glory and honour to him. That is why he created us. And that is our purpose in life.

Posted in Scientific Saturday

I haven't done Scientific Saturday in a long time! Partly because I didn't know what to do it on, and partly because I had forgotten about it. But I'm going to start back into it, if you will allow me. Especially now that we have been back in school for over two months now!  

Oxygen is a gas that is essential to life here on earth. You could only exist for about three minutes without oxygen. People and animals use oxygen and give off carbon dioxide, while plants use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. God has designed the system perfectly! Since oxygen is so important, you may wonder "Why?" when I tell you that only about 21% of the atmosphere is composed of oxygen! God makes no mistakes, remember? God sure knew what he was doing not to make 100% of the atmosphere oxygen.

Besides the fact that plants could not survive, we would also have a huge problem with fires if there was that much oxygen in the air. We would not be able to control fire. In some ways, fire is a good thing. You use fire everyday! We take it for granted, but we use it! But fire is also very dangerous. Fire can seriously injure and/or kill. If the atmosphere was 100% oxygen, heated iron would burn strongly, as well! I have a feeling that we would not live very long if there was that much oxygen in the air!

God also knew what he was doing when he made almost 80% of the atmosphere nitrogen. Nitrogen is inert, which means that it will not quickly combine with other gases. Having so much nitrogen in the air "waters down" the oxygen in the air. As I mentioned before, if we had pure oxygen, the earth would burst into flames! The nitrogen keeps that from happening.

Posted in Scientific Saturday

Well, this isn't very scientific -- posting some of the cloud picutures I've taken from our house. I don't even know the names of the types of these clouds! But school will be starting up again soon, and then I will be learning more stuff and I will have something to post! Enjoy the pics!

Sorry they're so small -- I made them small on purpose because I didn't think they would fit within the margins... but obviously I overdid it! Maybe I'll fix them later...

Posted in Scientific Saturday

This week I am doing something very different from what I have posted on other "Scientific Saturday"s. Usually I post an experiment, a fun fact, or both. This time I am just going to say a little bit about a part of us that we couldn't live without.

The mind is amazing -- I wish I knew more of how it works. Well, lately I read something about how blessed we are to have a memory. I've been thinking about that more, and I've realized that you could not survive without it! Think about this for a minute. If you couldn't remember anything, you could never converse with someone. You would never learn how to do anything. You would probably starve because you couldn't remember how to eat or even TO eat!

Now think about what evolutionists say. There is NO WAY the human mind, especially the memory could have evolved from the "Big Bang". I love that verse, I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. (Psalm 139:14) How wonderful God is!

Posted in Scientific Saturday

Here is a fun science trick you can play on your friends.

You will need:
~ Water
~ A bowl
~ Some Black Pepper
~ A little bit of dish soap

Fill the bowl about halfway with water. Then sprinkle the black pepper over the water (be sure to get it all over, not in just one spot). Put a little bit of the dish soap on the end of your finger... and put your finger down in the middle of the bowl. What in the world? The pepper all flew to the edges of the bowl! Why would that happen?

The reason for this is that the soap spreads rapidly outward in all directions, pushing the pepper. The soap also breaks the surface tension of the water, so after a little bit the pepper will sink to the bottom of the bowl. Oh, and the other thing I have to tell you, lest you get confused, is that the pepper has nothing to do with it. It's just so you can see what's happening.

So here is how you trick your friends... tell this story as you follow the instructions above. But first you must have some soap on your finger (this is a secret, though, so don't let anyone know). There were some children all swimming in a lake, having lots of fun (sprinkle the pepper into the water). All of the sudden, a BEAR came and jumped into the lake! All of the children SCREAMED and ran away (put your finger down into the water)! If you want to do it again you will have to get new water -- if it already has soap in it the trick won't work.

This is a great thing to do with little children. Be forewarned, though, that they will want you to do it again and again! And if you let them know the secret, they will want to do it themselves... again and again! :o)

Posted in Scientific Saturday

Thanks, everyone for your comments on the last edition of Scientific Saturday! It was fun to read all of them. Well, last week I asked if a Frisbee would fly farther on the moon than on earth. Here is your answer.

If a baseball was thrown on the moon, it would go farther because since there is no air on the moon, there is much less friction. So would a Frisbee fly farther on the moon than on earth? Yes, I guess it would (because of the lesser amount of gravity) but only depending on how hard you threw it. Because of the way the Frisbee is shaped, air moves faster over the top than under the bottom. The difference in air pressure keeps the Frisbee flying longer. Since there is no air on the moon, this would not be true. Sorry, I don't know if the Frisbee would just flip through the "air" instead of sailing -- I guess we'll have to go up there and test it!

The same would be true about a paper airplane (although I really don't know what makes them fly). It wouldn't matter how you designed the plane; it would fly farther depending on how hard you can throw. So, the summary is, all things being the same, yes, it would fly farther. The difference is in how and why it would fly.

Be sure to join me next week for another exciting scientific fact!

Posted in Scientific Saturday

It's Saturday again, and you know what that means... this week I am going to ask you a yes or no question for you to answer using... science! Aren't you surprised? :o) Read on.

Could you throw a Frisbee much farther on the moon than on earth? Why or why not?

Using the facts you know about the moon, try to answer the question. Remember, this is just for fun! If you don't know or don't get it right, relax. I'll post the answer and the explanation next week. Have fun!