Sand

The big question addressed in the lab: 

Observations of sand and what they came from

What we did in the lab: 

In the lab, we looked at 11 different sands. As we looked at each sample of sand we took observations of them. We noticed if they were smooth or jagged, the color of them, the size, etc. After we observed all of them we then tried to determine where the sand came from water, wind, glacier, or volcanic. Something else we did was discuss the law of superposition. This is a principle that geologists go by to determine the age of the rock layers. The oldest layer is the bottom and the youngest is the top. 

A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture: 

In Thursday's lecture, we did a lab on buoyancy. We learned that an IPA and a Diet Coke floated. Our initial reasoning is that it does not have sugar and sugar is heavy. We learned about Archimedes and his principle. We looked at the displacement of water. First, we looked at how much the water rose with different items that are said to weigh the same. The law is specific gravity = (weight in the air) divided by (the weight of the air - the weight of the water). 

Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading:

- What did you learn?

I learned about Archimede's principle. I have tested this before in science labs but I never referred to it as this so it was nice to learn a name for a concept. 

- What was most helpful?

The most helpful was the part about weathering, erosion, and deposition. I think this is a big topic we have been talking about and is something we see every day so reading about this was very beneficial. 

- What do you need more information on?

Something I would like more information on is geodes. We did not discuss this in the lab so I only have the reading to go off of and would like to learn more. 

What questions/concerns/comments do you have?

Like how light beers float and dark beers sink do light colored pops float and dark pops sink?