Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 04/28/2007 - 06:36
Forums
Ask Ms. Prevenas

Ms. Prevenas, We enjoyed listening to everyone on the phone last week. 5 students ended up joining me after school and had questions for you:

Megan: How much radon is in the ice cores you talked about and what does that do to the water?

Alexis: How cold was the water that the foam balls were in?

Lollie: We had transmission problems when you were explaining the results, can you repeat what happened? And do you have any ideas for an analogous experiment we can do?

Thanks!

Mon, 04/30/2007 - 09:01

Maggie Prevenas

Hello! 
I had to ask one of the researchers on the ship about the question on Radon. So much research is happening. I wanted to make very sure your answer was correct.
 
Megan: How much radon is in the ice cores you talked about and what does that do to the water?
 
Dr. David Shull said: We found very little radon in the ice cores.  This suggests that they might be relatively permeable to gas (the radon leaves the ice soon after it is produced)
 
Alexis: How cold was the water that the foam balls were in?
 
The water started out colder at the surface (like 30 degrees) and then warmed up a little bit as it sunk to the bottom.
 
Lollie: We had transmission problems when you were explaining the results, can you repeat what happened? And do you have any ideas for an analogous experiment we can do? Thanks! 
 
What happened to the styrofoam balls? They were smashed to half their size. They didn't smash evenly, but look more like eggs. The bowls didn't squish at all, because they were very thin to begin with. Robyn's cups smashed really nice, they became about half the size that they were originally.
 
An analogous experiment? What I think of is taking a 5 gallon bucket and drilling three holes in the side, one at 4 inches up, the next at 8 inches up, and the third at 12 inches up. Put small corks in the three holes, then fill up the 5 gallon bucket with water. Take the corks out and measure how far the water spurts out. 
 
Thanks for your questions and keep those questions coming!