Gateways 2018-2019

Magnetism in credit cards Shahminah Mahar-ullah 3/29/19 The ­stripe on the back of a credit card is a magnetic stripe, often called a mag-stripe. The mag-stripe is made up of tiny iron-based magnetic particles in a plastic-like film. Each particle is really a very tiny bar magnet about 20 millionths of an inch long. After you or the cashier swipes your credit card through a reader, the EDC software at the point of sale, terminal dials a stored telephone number via a modem to call an acquirer. An acquirer is an organization that collects credit authentication requests from merchants and provides a payment guarantee to the merchant. When the acquirer company gets the credit card authentication request, it checks the transaction for validity and the record on the mag-stripe for merchant ID, valid card number, expiration date, credit card limit, and card usage. In my opinion I think this can get us pretty far in the future. We already use magnetism in so many things

Helium atoms Shahminah Mahar-ullah 3/28/19 A helium atom is an atom of the chemical element helium, a basic element found on the periodic table of elements. Helium as a chemical element is composed of  two protons, two electrons and two neutrons. Because it has two protons and two neutrons, helium's atomic weight is 4. It is an inert gas and therefore one of the noble gasses. A substance being inert indicates that it does not chemically react. When a balloon is filled with helium, it rises because of the difference in densities between the inside of the balloon and the air outside of the balloon. Because helium itself is a very light atom, the helium gas in the balloon is lighter than the air around it, making its density relatively low and so it rises. If a balloon is filled with helium slowly deflates over time. That's not including temperature and without puncturing the balloon, because the helium atoms are small enough to escape between the molecules of the b

Earth's Magnetic Poles Shifting Earth's north pole has seemed to start moving faster than usual. For earth's magnetic poles to move is not unusual and actually happened often in the past. The north pole which located in the Canadian Arctic, has slowly started to move to the Russian, around a staggering 37 miles a year. In the 1800 it was known for the poles to drift but in the later 1900 the poles have seemed to move at a faster rate. It even went so far to cross over a national date line in 2018, this shows how fast the magnetic poles can switch. The question on why this is happening might show up. Well the magnetic poles have switched before around 720,000 years ago. From what scientist can estimate we are in the stone age of the magnetic poles flipping. This is a result of earth's liquid iron core, and the large magnetic field running through it has a center that center is decreasing every year and increasing more somewhere else. Through the years it will  

Claudia Morales                                                                                                           3/27/19 Are Electricity and Atoms the Same? Electricity is the movement of electrons between atoms.  The electrons stay a constant distance from the atom`s nucleus in specific shells.  The inner shell can hold 2 electrons while the outer shell can hold up to 8 electrons or more.  The inner shell attracts more protons than the outer shell.  Since the outer most shell doesn't have as much of a strong force with the protons those electrons start to shift.  This shift is what causes electricity. While atoms are made up from smaller particles called protons,electrons, and neutrons.  Atoms are basic building blocks of everything around us.  protons and neutrons make up an atoms center while electrons fly around it.  Protons and electrons are usually the same amount while the neutrons are less or sometimes the same. https://www.eia.gov/energyexpla

Magnetic Tattoos   Tattoos have been a prevalent part of culture since ancient times. They represent a rite of passage and could symbolize religious meaning. Throughout history tattoos have improved and changed ever since the invention of the tattoo gun in the 1800’s. Currently, some tattoo inks contain certain amounts of ferrous metals such as iron oxides. Red tattoo ink is most commonly the carrier of these types off metals and can rarely have negative effects. One example is that these metals can sometimes react to very powerful electromagnetic fields.    Red tattoo ink only contains trace amounts of iron and that can react very violently to powerful electromagnetic fields in certain circumstances. But imagine if magnetic materials were purposefully added to tattoo ink. Nokia had patented for an idea for tattoos that could potentially buzz when your phone rings.   Only very few metals are magnetic regardless of popular belief. Iron, nickel, and cobalt are some of

Atoms in the Human Body Atoms are the smallest things known to humanity, and the human body is just riddled with them. In other words, the amount of atoms in the human body is more than a billion times more than the amount of people on Earth.  The amount of atoms in our bodies is approximately 7*10^27 atoms. Basically, 7 and 27 zeroes. That number, for reference, looks like this: 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. In addition, 99% of these atoms have six  elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Around 0.85% is made up of five  other elements: potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. 

Claudia Morales                                                                                      3/25/19 Why does Oil and Water not Mix? Its obvious that oil and water do not mix but why?  Oil and water dont mix because water molecules are more attached together than the oil molecules.  Water and oil dont mix because water is polar and oil is non-polar.  Oil is less dense than water that is why oil always floats on top.   There is one way oil and water could mix.  DETERGENT!  Detergent mixes with both water and oil because it is hydrop hilic (which means water-loving) and hydrophobic (which means water-fearing).  so when you add detergent to both the oil and water at the same time they would mix.  Thats why all the grease and oil come off your cloths when you do the laundry.  Detergent lifts off the grease and oil and the water would wash it away. https://sciencing.com/oil-wont-mix-water-7996109.html https://www.questacon.edu.au/outreach/programs/science-c

Claudia Morales                                                                                                           3/22/19 Why Does Iron Rust Rust forms from a compound called iron oxide.  Its formed when iron and oxygen is exposed to moisture in the air.  Its very hard to find very pure iron because its always exposed to oxygen and at least some moisture in the air. Iron can also rust in chloride.  Pillars under a pool would turn a green color instead of the brown color.  If iron meets with its alloys like steel and corrode, the pieces of iron would rust and disintegrate when its meet with water and then left alone for a long while. The rust process is a combustion reaction, kind of like fire.  But the process is way longer that fire turning in to a flame.   There are things that speed up the process of rusting and things that slow it down such as water speeding it up and galvanization slows it down.  Galvanization is coating an object with zinc so that the iron wont

Mixtures Are Everywhere By: Shahminah Mahar-ullah Date:3/13/19 The amount of mixtures that can be created is infinitive. Everything you combine is a mixture, not only is this the case in the laboratory but even in your own house. Think of your kitchen, if you bake a basic cake your combining each of those ingredients to make a mixture that becomes your batter that you then put in the oven. Even the metal creating your water bottle is a mixture, the stainless steel and chromium is melted together then formed to make the bottle you use everyday. Mixtures are all around us in everyday life. Solutions are also mixtures, but since all the molecules are evenly distributed its then considered homogeneous mixtures. There are many examples of this in the kitchen is  lemonade, I say lemonade because all the ingredients in the drink dissolve or mix in with each other. Another type on mixture is a homogeneous mixture. A homogeneous mixture is a mixture that consist of visibly diffe