Galileo Galilei

Galileo is often called the founder of modern science. He made many discoveries in astronomy and physics and he built telescopes to study space.

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy in 1564. His father sent him to the university to study medicine, but young Galileo was more interested in science and mathematics.

Galileo made one of his greatest discoveries as he sat in a cathedral of Pisa. As he watched a chandelier swing back and forth he noticed that longer and shorter swings took the same time. This discovery became known as the law of the pendulum. These and other important discoveries made him so well-known that Galileo became a professor at the University of Pisa.

 Galileo often questioned scientific facts of his age. For a long time people thought that heavier objects fall to Earth faster than lighter ones. By dropping objects of the same size but different weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa Galileo showed that this wasn’t true.

 In 1609 Galileo constructed his first telescope. He used it to observe the stars and the planets. He saw things that nobody had ever seen before. Galileo discovered that the moon’s surface was not smooth and flat, like everyone thought, but had a rough surface and was full of craters.

In January 1610 Galileo discovered 4 moons revolving around the Jupiter. They were named after him, the Galilean moons. These observations proved that not the Earth was the centre of the solar system, but the sun. It was a discovery that Copernicus had made 60 years earlier.

The Roman Catholic Church did not always like what Galileo taught. It still believed that the Earth was the centre of the universe and everything revolved around it. The church ordered him not to teach such ideas any more.

In 1633 Galileo was brought before the Inquisition, the Church’s court. It sentenced him to life in prison because of his teachings. Galileo was put under house arrest because he was old and not so healthy any more. He spent the last years of his life in Florence, where he continued to work on his theories and even published a final book. He became blind and died in 1642.

In 1992 Pope John Paul II published a document that said the Church made a mistake by condemning Galileo.

WORDS

      

WORDS

     acid = a strong liquid that can burn holes in materials or damage your skin

• alloy = a metal that is made up of two or more metals mixed together
• amino acid =one of the substances that combine to form proteins
• artist = a person who paints or makes drawings
• bacteria = very small living things that can lead to illnesses
• billion = a number with 9 zeros
• boil = when a liquid becomes hot enough it turns into a gas
• bombard = to shoot at
• bond = two or more things become fixed together
• building block = the pieces or parts of an object
• carbon =a chemical substance that is in coal, oil or diamonds
• carbon dioxide =the gas that is produced when people or animals blow out air or when carbon is burned
• chain =line that is connected
• charge = electricity that is put into an electrical object, like a battery
• chlorine = a greenish yellow gas with a strong smell
• combine = to get together with
• common = you can find it very often
• complicated = not easy
• compound = is made up of two or more elements
• condense = if a gas becomes a liquid
• consist = are made up of
• copper = a reddish-brown metal used to make wires and pipes
• corrode = to rust
• create = make
• creature = anything that is living
• crown = a top for a bad tooth
• decorate = to make something look nice by putting objects on it
• diameter = a straight line from one side of a circle to the other
• drilling heads =the bottom part of a tool that you use to drill a hole into the earth to find oil or gas
• electrical charge =electricity that is put into an electrical object, like a battery
• engine =motor, a machine that produces power
• feature = characteristic, quality
• fertilizer = something that you put into the soil to make plants grow
• fission = when you split atoms to produce energy
• fuel = material like coal or oil that can be burned to make energy
• gain = to get one more of something
• graphite = a soft black material you can find in pencils
• haemoglobin = a red substance in your body that has iron in it and carries oxygen
• hydrocarbon = a compound made up of hydrogen and carbon
• hydrogen = a colourless gas that is the lightest of all elements
• in combination with =together with
• inhale = to breathe in something
• inorganic = everything that is not organic
• iron = a hard metal that is used to make steel
• isotope = different forms of an element
• jewellery = small things made of gold or silver that you wear
• lab = short word for laboratory
• laboratory = a special room in which scientists make experiments
• lead = a soft grey metal that melts very easily. It can be found in pencils.
• limestone = a kind of rock that has calcium in it
• liquid = something that is not solid or gas, like water
• lose = if you don’t have something anymore
• magnesium =a silver, white metal that burns with a bright white flame
• mass =the amount of material in something
• melt = if something changes from solid to liquid
• mine = to dig large holes in the ground to get raw materials
• mixture =combination, mix
• molecule =the smallest unit made up of two or more atoms
• naturally = by nature and not with the help of scientists
• nitrogen = a gas that has no smell or colour; it forms most of the Earth’s atmosphere
• noble gas = a pure gas that does not combine with other materials
• nucleus = the middle part of an atom with protons and neutrons
• occur =can be found
• orbit = to travel around an object in a circle
• ore = a rock that has metal in it
• organic = something that is living or is made by living things
• ounce =a unit for measuring weight = 28.35 grams
• outer = far away from the centre
• oxygen = a gas that is in our air and that we need to live
• particle = a very small piece of something
• periodic table = a list of elements that are in groups
• petrol = a liquid that comes from oil. It makes your car drive
• poisonous =a substance or material that can hurt or kill you
• polish = to make something bright and shiny
• pots and pans = steel objects that are used for cooking
• power =to make something run or work
• power plant = a building where electricity is produced
• pressure =the weight or power that you put on something
• pure = something that is not mixed with anything else
• radioactivity = if an atom sends out energy when the nucleus breaks apart
• ray = a line of light
• react = to change when mixed with something else
• reactor = a large machine that can produce nuclear energy
• rise = to go up
• rust =a reddish-brown substance that forms on iron or steel when it gets wet
• scientist =a person who is trained in science
• shape = the form that something has
• share =to have the same
• sheet =layer
• shell =path, layer
• sodium =a silver white metal that usually exists together with other chemicals , for example in salt
• solid =an object that is not a gas or a liquid
• split up = to divide into two or more parts
• structure = the ways things are connected to each other
• suffer from =to have pain
• surface =the top layer of an object
• tie = to hold together
• tin = a soft white metal that is often used to cover and protect steel
• uranium = a heavy white metal that is radioactive and used to produce nuclear power and bombs
• use =function, purpose
• weight = how heavy something is
• wire =thin metal that has the form of a thread; it is used to carry electricity or telephone signals

Compounds

Compounds

Compounds are groups of two or more elements that are tied together. They are created when two different atoms share the same electron or when electrons travel from one atom to another.

Every compound has certain features and a chemical formula. Water, for example, is a compound that has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom in it . Its chemical formula is H 2O. When sodium (Na) combines with chlorine (Cl) you get a compound called salt (NaCl). Carbon and hydrogen atoms form methane, or natural gas (CH 4).

Compounds can be divided into two groups: organic compounds always have carbon atoms in them. You can find them in all living creatures, in plants and in a lot of our food, for example sugar and fat. All other compounds are called inorganic compounds.

Compounds can be solids, liquids or gases. They may also turn into many different colours. Some compounds react very quickly, others don’t react at all.

Important Elements 

Hydrogen

The hydrogen atom is the smallest that we know and it has a very simple structure: one proton with a positive charge and one electron with a negative charge.

Hydrogen occurs as a gas that you can’t see and can’t smell. It is about 14 times lighter than air. When you combine two atoms of hydrogen with one atom of oxygen you get a water molecule H 2O. Like nitrogen, hydrogen can also be condensed to a liquid that freezes at – 259°C (-434°F) and boils at -252°C (-423°F)

Hydrogen is one of the most common elements in our universe. The sun and many stars are made of hydrogen. It can also be found in the earth’s crust. Hydrogen is in many compounds of animals and plants.

Hydrocarbons are compounds that only have hydrogen and carbon in them, like petroleum, natural gas or plastic.

Hydrogen has many uses. When two hydrogen atoms get together they form a molecule and give off a lot of heat. That’s why, together with oxygen, hydrogen makes a good fuel. It, for example, powers the engines of space rockets. Power plants use hydrogen to produce energy. There are even cars that run on hydrogen fuel. When you add hydrogen to coal you can make petrol.

Helium

Helium is a light, colourless gas that you can’t smell. It belongs to the group of noble gases because you cannot combine it with other elements. It has two protons and two neutrons.

Like hydrogen, we can find helium everywhere in our universe. On Earth, helium can be found in natural gas and in the atmosphere. It is so light that it rises and escapes into the atmosphere.

Helium is used to fill balloons. They can rise very high because helium is lighter than air. It is also safer than hydrogen because it does not burn.

People who suffer from asthma sometime inhale helium and oxygen because helium can enter the lungs more easily.

Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a colourless gas that you can’t smell. It makes up about 78 % of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Nitrogen’s chemical symbol is N. Its atomic number is 7 and its mass is 14. Nitrogen gas has two atoms bonded together to form a molecule. The gas can be made into a liquid that freezes at -209° and boils at 195 ° C.

All plants and animals must have nitrogen to live. It is part of all amino acids. Plants produce these acids themselves, animals only produce some of them and get the rest by eating other animals and plants,

Nitrogen is also used as a fertilizer, which plants need to grow.

Iron

Iron is a silvery, white metal that you can find in rocks. Its chemical symbol is Fe, for ferrum. It has 26 protons and a mass of 56.

The industry gets pure iron out of ore that is melted at a high temperature about 1,500 ° C.

All plants, animals and human beings need iron. Most iron in our body is in the red blood cells where it helps to form haemoglobin. Haemoglobin carries oxygen to all parts of our body. We also need iron in your muscles. So it’s important to eat enough food with iron in it, or else you might get tired and weak

Carbon

Carbon is one of the most important elements. All living creatures have carbon in them and the industry uses carbon in many ways.

Carbon’s chemical symbol is C. Its atomic number is 6 and it has a mass of 12, but there are other isotopes of carbon too.

Carbon atoms like to form bonds with other atoms. They can link together with other elements and form very long chains.

A lot of carbon on Earth is found together with other elements. Carbon dioxideis in the air that we breathe out. Minerals, like limestone have carbon in them. Mixtures of carbon and hydrogen are in petroleum and natural gas.

Pure carbon does not occur very often on Earth. The best known forms of pure carbon are diamonds and graphite.

Diamonds are the hardest objects on Earth. They are in the Earth’s crust, formed under high temperatures and pressure. Diamonds are very valuable. Most of them are used in industry—to cut or polish other objects or as drilling heads in oil fields.

Atoms

 

Atoms

An atom is the smallest building block of everything that exists. The smallest object you can see under a microscope has more than 10 billion atoms .

There are over a hundred different types of atoms, that we call elements. They form the world we live in.

Well known elements are hydrogen, oxygen, iron or lead. When two elements get together they form a compound. For example, water has two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen.

Atoms all have about the same size, but they have different weights. Plutonium is one of the heaviest atoms , about 200 times heavier than hydrogen , which is the lightest element. 

Parts of the Atom

An atom consists of three parts : protons, neutrons, electrons.

Protons and neutrons are in the centre of an atom, which is called the nucleus. It is very small if you compare it with the whole atom and it has almost all of an atom’s mass. If an atom had a diameter of about 6 km the nucleus would only be as big as a tennis ball. The rest of the atom outside the nucleus is mostly empty.

Electrons fly around in an atom very, very quickly. They have almost no mass and travel around the nucleus millions of times every second.

The parts of an atom have electrical charges. Each proton carries a positive electrical charge and each electron has a negative electrical charge. Neutrons have no charge. In most cases an atom has the same number of protons and electrons. It is electrically neutral.

The energy of the nucleus keeps the electron inside the atom—just like the Earth keeps the moon in its orbit. But electrons have energy themselves. They want to break away from the nucleus. If an electron has a lot of energy it moves around farther away from the nucleus.

Electrons move around the nucleus in up to seven round paths , called shells. The first shell is closest to the nucleus. It can hold two electrons. The second shell can hold 8, the third 18 and the fourth 32 electrons. In most atoms, the outer shells are never completely filled with electrons. The inner electrons travel fastest, the outer ones are the slowest.

 Properties of an Atom

Atomic Number

The atomic number tells you how many protons an atom has. For example, every hydrogen atom has the atomic number 1 because it only has 1 proton.

Elements that have atomic numbers of up to 92 can be found in nature; those over 92 are created by scientists in a laboratory.

The atomic number tells us where we can find an element in the periodic table. This table shows all the atoms in groups.

Atomic Mass

The atomic mass is the number of portions and neutrons in an atom. Although all atoms of the same element have the same number of protons, they sometimes have more neutrons. Such atoms are called isotopes.

For example, hydrogen has three isotopes. Most of the time a hydrogen atom has one proton and one neutron. Sometimes you can find hydrogen isotopes that have two or three neutrons, but they too have only one proton.

In most lighter elements the nucleus of each atom has the same number of protons and neutrons. but heavier elements have more neutrons than protons. Uranium , for example has 92 protons and 146 neutrons. It’s atomic mass is 238.

The atomic mass is never a whole number, because scientists do not just add protons and neutrons together. They use a complicated formula. 

Electric charge

Normally, an atom is electrically neutral. But it can gain or lose electrons when it crashes with other atoms. Atoms that gain or lose electrons are called ions. They have an electric charge.

Atoms that lose electrons become positive ions; atoms that win electrons become negative ions.

Radioactivity

In some atoms the nucleus can change naturally. Such an atom is radioactive. When a nucleus changes it produces rays.

In nature, there are some elements that are radioactive, like uranium or radium. In labs scientists can produce radioactivity by bombarding atoms with smaller particles.

 Atomic energy

In the 1930s and 40s scientists found out that if they bombarded a uranium atom with a neutron the nucleus would split up into two parts. When this happens energy is set free. We call this nuclear fission.

Fission was first used in atomic bombs that the Americans dropped over Japan to end the Second World War. The bombs released so much energy that they killed hundreds of thousands of people. Later on scientists found out how this energy could be used in a peaceful way.

In the 1950s the first atomic reactors were built. They produced energy by splitting atoms.

Smog

 

Smog

Although freezing rain, thunderstorms, and tornadoes are significant weather events, one of the most important things impacted by an inversion layer is smog. This is the brownish-gray haze that covers many of the world’s largest cities and is a result of dust, auto exhaust, and industrial manufacturing.

Smog is impacted by the inversion layer because it is, in essence, capped when the warm air mass moves over an area. This happens because the warmer air layer sits over a city and prevents the normal mixing of cooler, denser air.

The air instead becomes still and, over time, the lack of mixing causes pollutants to become trapped under the inversion, developing significant amounts of smog.

During severe inversions that last over long periods, smog can cover entire metropolitan areas and cause respiratory problems for the inhabitants.

In December 1952 such an inversion occurred in London. Because of the cold December weather, Londoners began to burn more coal, which increased air pollution in the city. Since the inversion was present over the city, these pollutants became trapped and increased London’s air pollution. The result was the Great Smog of 1952 that was blamed for thousands of deaths.

Like London, Mexico City has also experienced problems with smog that have been exacerbated by the presence of an inversion layer. This city is infamous for its poor air quality, but these conditions are worsened when warm subtropical high-pressure systems move over the city and trap air in the Valley of Mexico.

When these pressure systems trap the valley’s air, pollutants are also trapped and intense smog develops. Since 2000, Mexico's government has developed a plan aimed at reducing ozone and particulates released into the air over the city.

London’s Great Smog and Mexico’s similar problems are extreme examples of smog being impacted by the presence of an inversion layer. This is a problem all over the world, though, and cities like Los Angeles, Mumbai, Santiago, and Tehran frequently experience intense smog when an inversion layer develops over them.

Because of this, many of these cities and others are working to reduce their air pollution. To make the most of these changes and to reduce smog in the presence of a temperature inversion, it’s important to first understand all aspects of this phenomenon, making it an important component of the study of meteorology, a significant subfield within geography.

Autumn Air

 

Autumn Air

Like winter, autumn's crisp, clean smell is partially thanks to the drop in air temperature which suppresses strong odors. But another contributor is autumn's hallmark symbol; its foliage.

Although leaf peepers are disappointed when fall's brilliant crimsons and golds fade to grayish-brown, this is when leaves take on their sweetest smell. During the autumn season, a tree's cells begin the process of sealing off its leaves in preparation for winter. (During winter, temperatures are too cold, sunlight too dim, and water too scarce and susceptible to freezing to support growth.) A corky barrier is formed between each branch and each leaf stem. This cellular membrane blocks the flow of nutrients into the leaf. As leaves are sealed off from the rest of the tree and lose moisture and nutrients they begin drying out and are further dried by autumn's sun and lower humidity. When they fall to the ground, they begin to decay; that is, they're broken down into essential nutrients. Also, when leaves are brown it means they're carbon-rich. The dry, decomposition process gives off a mildly sweet, almost floral-like aroma. 

Wondering why the leaves in your yard don't smell as sweet in other seasons? It's largely because they're full of moisture and are nitrogen-rich. An abundance of moisture, nitrogen, and improper aeration generates pungent, rather than sweet, odors. 

Tornadoes' Terrible Sulphur Scent

Most of us are familiar with the sound a tornado makes, but what about its accompanying smell? According to a number of storm chasers, including the late Tim Samaras, the air sometimes smells of a mix of sulfur and burning wood (like a freshly lit match) during a tornado. Researchers haven't determined why this is a recurring smell with observers. It could be from broken natural gas or sewage lines, but no one knows for sure.  

In addition to sulfur, others report the smell of fresh-cut grass during a tornado, likely as a result of tornado debris tearing tree limbs and leaves, and of the storm itself uprooting trees and turf.

Which smell you get depends on how close you are to the tornado, how strong of a twister it is, and what objects it destroys.   

Eau de Exhaust 

Temperature inversions are another weather phenomenon linked to atmospheric odors, but rather than trigger a certain smell, they exacerbate odors that are already airborne.

Under normal circumstances, air temperature decreases as you move from the ground up. However, under an inversion, this is reversed and air near the ground cools faster than that a few hundred feet above it. This setup of relatively warm air overlying cooler air means the atmosphere is in a stable configuration, which, in turn, means there are little wind and mixing of air. As the air sits motionless and stagnant, exhaust, smoke, and other pollutants build up near the surface and hang in the air we breathe. If you've ever been under an air quality alert in summer, an inversion (and the presence of high pressure domed over the region) is likely the cause. 

Similarly, fog can sometimes hold a light smoky smell. If gasses or dirt particles are suspended in the air and weather conditions are right for moisture to condense onto them, these pollutants essentially dissolve into the water droplets and are suspended in the air for your nose to breathe them in. (Such an event is different from smog, which is a dry "cloud" of smoke that hangs in the air like a thick fog.) 

Your Nose vs. Your Forecast 

While being able to smell the weather may mean your olfactory system is as acute as they come, take care not to depend solely on your sense of smell when sensing your weather risk. When it comes to forecasting approaching weather, meteorologists are still a nose above the rest.