Cool Simulation Site

Happy Tuesday to everyone!

As discussed in last Friday's class, here is the website for the online, interactive simulations from CU Boulder's Physics Department. The one we used last week was Salts and Solubility, but some personal favorites of mine include Electric Field Hockey, Lunar Lander, and John Travoltage.

I had a student looking at my cool physics calendar (a big thanks to Jamie S. and her mom) yesterday and they asked me what the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is. Here is the bare bones of it. The LHC is the world's largest particle accelerator, which means that high-energy particle beams are accelerated to within 0.0000009% of the speed of light (299,792,458 meters/second) and smashed into each other. The LHC has large detectors that are designed to look for theoretical physical particles, hopefully shedding light upon the creation of the universe.
More information can be found at the LHC website, but here is a summary of what the LHC is all about. Thanks to The Fischbowl for finding the video.

Class Pet

We are now one step closer to having a class pet in our room!  My dad and I set up the aquarium today with some rocks and nice plants.  The branch that I had cut to put in there turned out to be about 4 inches too long.  Dang it.  I'll probably be putting some fish in tomorrow or Monday once the water is at room temp.  I'll post some pictures once the fish are in, and then our new class pet will have a beautiful home with plenty of food!