Squares, Primes, Etc.:
The Air Apparent and
Abundant
Today's Snack: Since we're looking at air today, whip a lot of air
into a bowl or glass with Jell-O with a spoon. Then add a dollop or two of
non-dairy whipped topping for a pretty and tasty treat. Try this with a glass
of chocolate milk.
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Supplies:
Empty plastic liter
bottle | 8-oz. measuring cup | paper and scratch paper
An
"heir apparent" is someone who's in line to take over when somebody big retires
or passes away. You don't pronounce the "h" in "heir," so it sounds like "air
apparent."
Well, guess what? Air may not LOOK
apparent to you - you can't really see it - but its effects are as clear as
day.
As a matter of fact, the air is not only apparent
- it's also abundant.
Let's
look a little closer at this. Guess how many molecules of air there are in one
liter bottle? Let's find out.
Get
this: in that empty liter bottle, there are this many molecules of air:
1044
Want
to know how big of a number that is? Well, turn the scratch paper on its side
so that you'll have enough space to write all these numbers. Now write a
"10," and then write 43 more zeroes after it.
That's
how many molecules of air there are in that one little old liter bottle. Now,
THAT'S abundant!
For
fun, you can pour water into the empty liter bottle until it is full. Then pour
out water into the 8-ounce measuring cup to see how many ounces there are in
one liter. (See answer below)
Round
that to the nearest whole number.
Now,
using long division, figure out how many molecules of air there are in one
8-ounce cup. Write it out using scientific notation.
(33.8
ounces in a liter; rounds up to 34 ounces as the nearest whole number)
