Spinning planet(Science project)

Spinning planet(Science project)

The Earth is like a giant ball spinning in the darkness of Space.

The only light falling on it is the light of the Sun glowing 150 million kilometers away.

The Earth turns once a day, and it orbits the Sun once a year.

The experiments on these pages investigate the two ways of moving, and explain why night and day, and the seasons, occur.

The ball represents the Earth and the torch the Sun.

In the final project, you can make a simple thermometer using water to record changes in temperature from night to day and from season to season.

Variable sunlight

The Sun’s light does not fall evenly over the Earth because our planet is round.

Imagine three identical beams of sunlight falling on the Earth. One falls on the Equator and the others on the North and South Poles.

The beam falling on the Equator covers a much smaller area, so its energy is more concentrated and the temperature Is higher.

YOU WILL NEED

Night and day: felt-tipped pen, plastic ball, piece of thin string, non­-hardening modelling material, torch.

Night and day

(1)

Draw or stick a shape on the ball to
represent your country. Stick the string to the ball with modelling
material.Tie the string to a rail, such as
a towel rail, so that the ball hangs freely.

(2)

Shine the torch on the ball. If the
country you live in is on the half

of the ball in shadow on the far side,
then it is night because it is facing
away from the Sun.

(3)

Your home country may be on the
half of the ball lit by the torch

instead. If so, it must be daytime here
because it is facing the Sun. Keep the
torch level, aimed at the middle.

(4)

Turn the ball from left to right. As
you turn the ball, your country will

move from the light half to the dark
half.You can see how the Sun comes
up and goes down as the. Earth turns.

Solar power

The Sun pours energy on to the Earth as heat and light.

The amount of energy received in any one place on the Earth changes with the seasons.

This is because the Earth’s axis is tilted. In summer, one half of the Earth tilts towards the Sun, and is warmer.

In the winter, it tilts away from the Sun and is colder.

The seasons

YOU WILL NEED

The seasons: felt-tipped pen, plastic ball, bowl just big enough for the ball to sit on, torch, books or a box to set the torch on.

(1)

Use the felt-tipped pen to draw a
line around the middle of the ball.

This represents the Equator. Sit the
ball on top of the bowl so that the
Equator line is sloping gently.

(2)

Put the torch on the books so it
shines just above the Equator. It is

summer on the half of the ball above
the Equator where the torch is shining,
and winter on the other half of the world.

(3)

Shine the torch on the Equator. It
sheds equal light in each hemisphere.

This is the equivalent of spring and
autumn, when days and nights are of
similar length throughout the world.

Make a thermometer

YOU WILL NEED

Make a thermometer: water, bottle, food colouring, clear straw, reusable adhesive, card, scissors, felt-tipped pen.

(1)

Pour cold water into the bottle until it is about two-thirds full. Add some food colouring. Dip the straw into the water and seal the neck tightly with reusable adhesive.

(2)

Blow down the straw to force
some extra air into the bottle.

After a few seconds, the extra air
pressure inside will force the water
level to rise up the straw.

(3)

Cut the card and slot it over the
straw. Let the bottle stand for a

while. Make a mark on the card by the
water level to show room temperature.
Take your thermometer outside.

(4)

On a hot day, the Sun’s heat will make the air and water expand,forcing the water level in the straw

above the room temperature mark.Cool the thermometer in the fridge. Mark the different levels.

Inside The Earth

Inside The Earth

 

There are different parts to the Earth.
There is a thin, rocky crust, a solid middle called the mantle and a center called the core. The outer part of the core is liquid but the inner core is made of solid metal.

Around the center of the Earth Flow a hot, liquid layer of iron and nickel.
This lager is the outer core and is about 2200 kilometers thick. As the Earth spins, the metal ball and liquid layer move at different speeds.

At the center of the Earth is a huge metal ball called the inner core. It is

2500 kilometers wide and is made mainly from iron, with some nickel.
The ball has an incredible temperature of 6000°C — hot enough to make the metals melt.
They stay solid because other parts of the Earth push down heavily on them.

( If the Earth could be cut open, this is what you would see inside, It has layers inside it like an onion.)

The largest part o-f Earth is a layer called the mantle, which is 2-900 kilometers thick.
It lies between the core and the crust. Near the crust, the mantle is made of slow-moving rock. When you squeeze an open tube of toothpaste, the toothpaste moves a little like the rocks in the upper mantle.

The Earth’s surface is covered by crust.
Land is made of continental crust between 20 and 70 kilometers thick. Most of this is made from a rock called granite. The ocean bed is made of oceanic crust about eight kilometers thick. It is made mainly from a rock called basalt.

The crust is divided into huge slabs of rock called plates.
Most plates have land and seas on top of them but some, like the Pacific Plate, are mostly covered by water. The large areas of land on the plates are called continents. There are seven continents — Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Oceania and Antarctica.

Very, very slowly, the continents are moving.
Slow-flowing mantle under the crust moves the plates across the Earth’s surface. As the plates move, so do the continents. In some places, the plates push into each other. In others, they move apart. North America k moving three centimeters away from Europe every year!

Where did the Earth come from?

Earth Born!

The Earth came from a cloud in space.

Scientists think the Earth formed from a huge cloud of gas and dust around 4500 million years ago. A star near the cloud exploded, making the cloud spin. As the cloud spun around, gases gathered at its center and formed the Sun. Dust whizzed around the Sun and stuck together to form lumps of rock. In time the rocks crashed into each other to make the planets.

The Earth is one of these planets.

At -first the Earth was very hot.

As the rocks crashed together they warmed each other up. Later, as the Earth formed, the rocks inside it melted. The new Earth was a ball of liquid rock with a thin, solid shell.

Huge numbers o-f large rocks called meteorites crashed into the Earth.

They made round hollows on the surface. These hollows are called craters. The Moon was hit with rocks at the same time. Look at the Moon with binoculars — you can see the craters that were made long ago.

( The Moon was also hit by rocks in space, and these made huge craters, and mountain ranges up to 5000 meters high.)

The oceans and seas formed as the Earth cooled down.

Volcanoes erupted, letting out steam, gases and rocks from inside the Earth. As the Earth cooled, the steam changed to water droplets and made clouds. As the Earth cooled further, rain fell from the clouds. It rained for millions of years to make the seas and oceans.

(Erupting volcanoes and fierce storms helped form the atmosphere and oceans .These provided energy that was needed for life on Earth to begin.)

VIDEO

Click on below image to watch video 

 

AMAZING FACT

Millions of rocks crash on the Earth as it speeds through space.

Some arger ones may reach the ground as meteorites.

Where did the Earth come from?