Plate Tectonics

This week the topic of interest of the Fist of Science Corp. is plate tectonics. This process may sound familiar to many of our readers, but to those of you who are unfamiliar, here is how it works. Deep within the center of the of the earth, the superheated magma swirls around solid  inner core. This heat wants to escape and balance out the colder magma at the surface(note: colder magma, does not mean COLD, it just means not as hot, this stuff still melts solid rock like its butter on warm toast)

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This CONVECTION (10 point vocab word right there) moves the rigid Lithospheric plates around causing them to crash into, pull away from or rub up against one another. These interactions are the reasons why we surface dwellers are plagued by earthquakes, volcanoes and the like.

The first pieces of  this theory were brought to our attention in the early 1900’s by Alfred Wegener (pronounced Veg-ner,  He’s German, don’t judge). This first step was the theory of Continental Drift. What he realized was that there were fossilized flora and fauna that were found on all continents in ways that did not make sense, it was almost as if the continents were once one supercontinent. On further investigation, he realized that the continents fit together, rather like puzzle pieces. However, he had no clue as to how the continents moved.

Many years later, based on the discoveries of patterns on the ocean floor that indicated global polarity shifts, and the given age of different parts of the seafloor, some rather knowledgeable guesstimations were made. The hypothesis is theory of Plate Tectonics which was explained in paragraph 1, so we won't repeat ourselves.

So to recap, Wegener looked at continents and questioned why they fit together and have similar features, but are not attached; he had not clue why. Then some scientists had this CRAZY, but well educated guess that the mantle was actually swirling around and moving massive chunks of the crust. The interactions of these chunks are what cause natural disasters and other problems like that.

Finally one final word of advice from our sponsor in regard to Plate Tectonics, Don’t Talk About the Mediterranean, It's super complicated and even the Science of the Fist of Science does not fully comprehend.

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The Fist of Science Labs: Working with mini-ITER

The Fist of Science, being the thorough workers we are, put the whole the ‘ITER is hotter than the sun’ theory to the test. After about 2 weeks of vigorous study, the entire lab team here at The Fist of Science agree that is very, very hot. In fact, we bought a mini-ITER, which is very useful for cooking frozen pizzas and TV dinners. Despite numerous attempts by secret spies from the government saying this was a ‘Microwave’ and ‘Not a new advance in science at all’ we were able to create numerous midnight snacks for the whole team here at The Fist of Science Labs.

The Fist of Science’s very own mini-ITER

No one here can contain their excitement for such a great advancement in science. We’ve reached the consensus that this should be a very, very good thing for everyone. And with full stomachs and nuclear radiation in our breath, we all cheer, “YAY ITER!”

EDIT: We here at The Fist of Science, possibly after trying to nuke 15 Hot Pockets® agree that the world not be ready for nuclear fusion just yet.

The aftermath of nuclear fusion the The Fist of Science breakroom.

Citation:

Alpine Ridge Drive Duplex Fire Devastates Trio of MU Students. N.d. The Maneater. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. <http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2009/8/28/alpine-ridge-drive-duplex-fire-devastates-trio-mu-/>.

A Dirty Microwave Oven. N.d. LookingForAdventure. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. <http://www.lookingforadventure.com/photopages/microwave.htm>.

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POLICE LOG #455

The top class Forensics Inspector Pestry entered the crime scene. The stench of death hung about the air, with the hint of Mike’s Awesome Bakery’s famous cream puffs. ‘God, I love those cream puffs.’ the Inspector thought to himself. Pestry shook off the thought of such pastries, and focused at the problem at hand.

“Fillipo,” the Inspector snapped. “Show me to the body.”

Fillipo, the amazingly annoying investigation firm intern, obediently, showed the Inspector to the back room, where the body has been discovered.

Although blood seemingly covered the room and there was fake fingerpaints all over the shelving, Pestry knew what he should be truly looking for.

“There’s some white powder on the body… And the rest of the room. It seems to be coming from that bag.” Pestry examined.

“Sir, I highly doubt that will help us conclude who did this.” Fillipo rudely interrupted.

“Fillipo!” Pestry shouted, “I know what I’m doing!” Pestry took a moment to compose himself, as his therapist had told him. 10 deep breathes, in and out.

“Alright, sir. If you insist, the source of the white powder is from one of those bags on the shelf.” Fillipo stated. “Flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cornstarch….  Well, the only open bag is the baking pow--”

“Mediocre work, Fillipo! Now, we have to figure what this powder all over the room is.” Pestry thought aloud.

“Sir, I just said that it is clearly the baking powder. There’s even a knife right over there! We should be investigating t--” Fillipo began to rudely rant.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself yet, kid. Now, ring in to the chief and tell him I’ll need at least 10 days for this investigation.” Pestry demanded, in his very confident and smooth voice.

For the next 10 days, Pestry worked without break. By way of testing the substances with assorted liquids, he was finally able to conclude that it was indeed baking powder. Seemingly irrelevant, but however noteworthy; Fillipo was no help at all. The next morning, Pestry met with the chief inside the bakery.

“Chief,” Pestry said, confidently. “I have concluded that the murderer was every baker of Mike’s Awesome Bakery. They all had traces of the substances found in the crime scene on their clothing.”

“Even the blood?” the Chief questioned.

“Um,... Yeah. Yes, yes. Blood was found on their hands. Yeah. Oh, except Mike. Unless he stopped making cream puffs.” Pestry assured him. And so concluded the murder of Mike’s Awesome Bakery.

--POLICE LOG #445, WRITTEN BY FORENSICS INSPECTOR PESTRY DONIT.

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The Experiment of Flame

The Experiment

It was a really cold day, mid-January in southern New Hampshire. Two students (our most wondrous selves) were testing their first experiment in Honors Science, little did they know, by the end, their hands would be incredibly cold. They clasped their frigid hands upon the cold metal bowl they were using as a container for the experiment.

The bowl was rested into a thin layer of ice. The variations of paper were nestled into their place betwixt a paperclip contraption, the contraption of holdiness. The flame of wrath, which came from the lighter of fury, was set to burn each of the small 3x4” pieces of paper. The flaming wrath consumed each piece of paper with the ferocity of a bear-lion-minotaur-naked mole rat-creature(basically the most demonic, horrific and violent creature that you can imagine multiplied by the largest number you can think of, infinity excluded).  

Each piece’s courage and flammability was whetted in a true test of temperature. The following results can be concluded and derived from such a tale.

Art Paper	1:26
Copy Paper	0:30
Lined Paper	0:15.5
Newspaper	0:12.8
Magazine Paper	0:10

Such results were in our mental grasp, as we had predicted that art paper could resist the roaring flames for the longest. However, our fortune tales could not make clear the fate of the other variations of paper.

If the gods would allow such practices as to retry time itself, and to attempt this experiment yet again in a more detailed analysis, we would try the same procedure, which entailed

1. Collecting the given resources
2. Cutting the paper into 3x4 inch pieces
3. Attaining a lighter

Now the fun begins

4. Place the art paper into the contraption
5. Hold a flame to it for a slow count of three
6. Measure the amount of time taken for the paper to burn completely
7. Record thine results
8. Repeat steps 4-7 with all other paper types until no paper is left

The Fist of Science

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