Living Structures: Skin, feathers, scales Part two

I reorganized things the presentations a bit and included the labs we talked about last week.

schedule

1. presentations (4-5:30)
2. Helium lab review [^1]
3. lab (5:30-7)

[^1]: Let's look at the spectrograms produced in the Helium lab. Devin suggested the software and I hope that he will interpret the results for us.

question	presenter
What materialistic quality is found in soap that gives soap the ability to create bubbles compared to other liquid substances? Additionally, what makes soap soap? What elements fight off bacteria, etc.?	Arielle
When a muscle tears, how does it repair itself?	Patrice
What material has the same tissue with flesh?	Roksana
What elements make up fuel and what differences are found in fuel for each type of transits (cars compared to planes compared to trains, etc.)?	Arielle
How does temperature affect sound waves? (See NPR’s article on new fireman technology for fire procedures)	Arielle
Can you really charge an iPhone with a watermelon? What other objects can conduct enough electricity to charge an iPhone?	Patrice
How many feathers do human beings need to fly?	Di
Skin is the largest organ in the human body. What kinds of materials do we take in from our (respective) environments?	Rebecca
Why do we lose skin elasticity as we age?	Carmen
Why the feathers are waterproof, but not our hair?	Di
Can the skin generate enough electricity to power a kind of machine or a light bulb?	Nicole
What difference would it make if people have one giant layer of skin instead of cells?	Lindsey

Buoyancy Diagram

Here is a diagram that illustrates the behavior of three objects in air and in water.

LABS

Lab A: Static Friction

• three panes of glass or one pane with three "lanes" * six wood blocks * two cameras (iPhones will do) * NeverWet hydrophobic coating

instructions

1. coat two of the six wood blocks with NeverWet, let dry 2. put two dry blocks on the glass plane. 3. position cameras: one in front to catch movement of blocks and one on the side to measure the angle. 4. place blocks and roll video 5. announce to video which blocks you are recording 3. lift plane on one end until both blocks break free of the static 4. stop video

repeat the experiment with two wet blocks

do the experiment one more time with the NeverWet-coated blocks. collect the video giving everything good names and upload it to our Dropbox.

please use our new microscope to take pictures of all the surfaces

Lab B: Directionality of Air Pressure

• a cardboard box * a balloon filled with Helium and tied with a string * a small mass on a string * two small video cameras, one with a light * duct tape

instructions

1. tape the camera with the light to the bottom of the cardboard box. 2. suspend the small mass from the top of the box 3. tie the balloon string to the bottom of the box. make sure that it cannot interfere with the small mass or anything else in the box 4. start the video, turn on the light and seal up the box 5. put the other video camera on the table so that it may record the movement of the box 5. quickly accelerate the box in one direction, then bring it to a quick halt. Do it a few times. 6. be sure to make enough noise so that the videos may be synchronized. 7. retrieve the camera and look at the footage.

Can you explain what you're seeing? Record your thoughts and upload the media to upload it to our Dropbox.