Mr. Furlan Sci.

Question: I do not understand #12 and #16:

Question: Can you show how to do some Punnett Squares (2/5/2012):


Sure can. Let's first look at something about genetics:

When you get a trait from a parent (sometimes) you deal with one dominant gene and one recessive gene. Now why do we deal with two "genes"? Because you have two people each giving a gene for one trait (1+1=2)

Dominant and Recessive? Lets just think of it this way:
A = Dominant (A is capital. He's strong and all As want their way.)
a = Recessive (a is lower case. He's weak and wants his way, but if there are any Capital As around he'll loose)

So we have 3 possibilities - AA, Aa, aa

Whaaa so why do we deal with four total letters? Cause just like you get two genes from each parent, your parents got two genes from their two parents and so on. Therefore, we have to deal with the fact that the mom and the dad both have two genes (2 + 2 = 4)

Punnett Square Creation:
Place the two genes from each parent in a box that has 4 areas.
Bring the Top letters down to both boxes (Straight down in their column)
Bring the Side Letters over to both boxes (Straight Across in their row)
Always Place the Capital Letter in Front

So lets look at a few examples I threw together -







Question: I don't understand the scientific method, the order confuses me sometimes. (2/5/2012)


Is the scientific method that complicated? No, not really. Though it does take two things to make sure you have it down right.

1st: The order in the scientific method
2nd: Understanding what the order means to actually apply it to something.


Order:

• Observation
• Hypothesis
• Experiment
• Results
• Conclusion

Now how to apply the scientific method? Lets think of a situation and apply it in common language.




Lets say you're walking down the street and you make an observation that there are a lot of people standing in line to get into a restaurant. You're hungry and want good food so you make the hypothesis that if people are standing in line for food, that the food must be good. You then experiment by waiting in line with the others to get the same food. The results were that even though you waited forever for the food, the food tasted good. Therefore you made the conclusion that there was a long line because the food was good.

• What was your independent variable? The restaurant you chose.

• What was your dependent variable? You measured how well the food tasted. Oh, by the way that's a qualitative measurement since you rated food quality, you didn't measure a number (Quantitative - Think Quantity or Amount)

Question: I don't understand elements what makes up an element? (2/3/2012)

What makes up an element? Elements are really just a substance of "stuff" that can't be broken down anymore. A single atom of something like Calcium, Hydrogen, or Helium cannot be broken down to a smaller "thing", and they have their own property.

For example if we look at a picture of copper metal below, it has certain properties that make it unique. The color, how easy it is to bend, the melting point. All of that has to do with the atoms that make up the copper metal... Copper metal is actually a bunch of copper atoms (tiny) close together and they all share the same property, therefore we place the name of copper (Cu) on the periodic table and it is a unique element by itself.

Side Note: In the picture below we see Copper Atoms close together. The little (e)s you see are electrons moving around. Copper is happy with its own electrons so electrons can move around freely without being snatched up by the copper atoms. This is why copper is used for wiring in electronics much of the time, because it is a great conductor! (It allows electrons to flow through without problems)