The first day of spring and the vernal equinox is this week. The equinox will occur on Saturday, March 20th. The vernal equinox marks the start of spring, an autumnal equinox marks the start of fall. During the spring and fall equinox, the sun is directly over the Earth’s equator and day and night lengths are equal for most of the planet – 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness.
The earth rotates around the sun on a tilted axis, which doesn’t change. When the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, it experiences warmer, longer days. When the Northern Hemisphere tilts toward the sun, the Southern Hemisphere is tilted away, experiencing colder and shorter days.
As the earth continues on its path around the sun, there are two points at which the sun hits the Earth perpendicular to the axis. When the earth is in this position, the sun is directly over the equator and there is an equinox. The earth then continues to tilt the opposite side of the sun and the seasons change to winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Colorado Broadcasters Association held their CBA Awards of Excellence dinner on Saturday night, and we’re honored to have received second place for Best Single Show with the Spangler Science at Coors Field entry. The thirty minute show was an edited version of the live Weather and Science Day that took place at Coors Field in May 2009. Guinness World Records awarded the Spangler team a world record for the Largest Physics Lesson. Props to our video editor, Bradley Mayhew, for editing the entire project to fit into the half hour show format. And a special thanks to Kathy Sabine for co-hosting the event.
Earthquakes have been in the news a lot recently. It’s scary for children to watch the news and see the mass destruction, death and rubble caused by a quick shaking of the earth. From the damage in Haiti to Chile and most recently in Turkey, earthquakes occur across the globe.
The surface of the Earth is made up of many puzzle pieces, called tectonic plates. The pieces move and slide along each other all the time. The places where the plates meet are called plate boundaries. An earthquake happens when two plates slip past one another on one of these boundaries, also called a fault line. Most earthquakes occur along these fault lines.
The boundaries of the plates are rough and get stuck while the rest of the plate keeps moving, causing stress on the plate. Once the plate has moved too far, the stuck edges become unstuck along the fault and the boundary area moves suddenly, causing an earthquake.
The location directly above an earthquake is called an epicenter. The place below the earth’s crust where the earthquake actually starts
Believe it or not, snowboarding is a study in potential and kinetic energy. The athletes who maximize both kinds of energy are the ones on the medal podium at the Vancouver Olympics.
Twelve years ago, snowboarding made its debut as an Olympic sport. The sport isn’t just about crazy lingo, going fast and jumping high. The athletes use the laws of gravity to build speed and keep their balance. They also use physics to gain speed and height in jumps.
The physics of snowboarding uses dynamic balance. When the snowboarder is in motion moving up and down the ramps, their balance is different than if they were just going down a slope.
As gravity pulls the snowboarders down the halfpipe, they gain speed. At the same time, they are being pushed against the sides by contact forces.
Snowboarders push back against the G-forces and build speed by pumping their legs up and down. By standing up against the extra forces in the curve, snowboarders add to their kinetic energy – the energy of motion. It gives them the speed
A new sports car, made by Tesla Motors, is a tribute to Nikola Tesla, the most famous person few have heard of.
The car, which can go zero to 60 in 3.7 seconds is completely electric. It doesn’t use a drop of gasoline. The sports car also doesn’t lose power in altitude. It retails for $128,000.
Tesla came to the United States in 1884 from Croatia. He wanted to harness the power of Niagara Falls. Tesla began working in Thomas Edison’s lab in New Jersey and began improving upon Edison’s line.
Tesla was looked upon as an insane person, as he spoke of transmitting pictures, wireless electricity and transmitting electricity. But he was way before his time. He is credited with several inventions that we could not live without today – AC power, an electric motor, radio
The first day of spring and the vernal equinox is this week. The equinox will occur on Saturday, March 20th. The vernal equinox marks the start of spring, an autumnal equinox marks the start of fall. During the spring and fall equinox, the sun is directly over the Earth’s equator and day and night lengths are equal for most of the planet – 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness.
