Fun Facts

Many people will certainly say “enjoy.”  Those who are lovers of the sea will of course appreciate and love this phenomenon.  Can you imagine that you can enjoy staying underwater without any gadgets at all?  You can catch fish as long as you want and enjoy the beautiful scenery down there.

You can take photos anywhere without the fear of suffocation due to loss of breath.  You can even go to far places and even at the deepest part of the ocean without carrying anything with you.  All you need is something that you can use to catch fish.  You can enjoy your favorite water sports anytime of the year without worry on giant waves.  Incredible isn’t it?

There is no problem with storm or any form of weather disturbances when you are in the middle of the ocean because you are not afraid of drowning.  You can perform more than a scuba diver and hey, you can be hired to lead a search and rescue team to save victims of wreckage in the sea.  What more, you can establish a business conglomerate involved in sea rescue business.

You can even search for treasures beneath the sea with your unique ability of staying underwater for so long.  But wait; is this true or just the works of plain imagination?

In the year 2007, a stunning experiment went underway at the Tokyo’s Waseda University by scientists whose primary aim was to produce a perfect system of installing an artificial gill in human beings.  This will enable divers to stay beneath the sea for as long as they want without any breathing apparatus on hand.

The outer layer of the device to be installed is taken from silicon strands which shield a membrane containing hemoglobin solution.  Oxygen is drawn by the liquid thru the inflow of superfluous hydrogen.  When the hemoglobin is heated, it will release its cargo which will pass thru the windpipe of the swimmer by means of a scuba mouthpiece.

Two interested Americans who saw the initial launching of this innovative phenomenon in the TV have already tried the operation in Tokyo.  Their account based on their experience stated that a certain Mr. Mitsubishi is conducting the operation in Tokyo.  If you are serious about the operation, you will be required to sign a bunch of papers concerning the whole procedure, the risks, side effects if any, and refunds if it won’t be successful.  They found out later that indeed, they can stay beneath the water for so long.  The only drawback is that they prefer eating fish all the time.

This scientific procedure is being perfected based on the breathing ability of fish under water.  However, the scientists are faced with the problem on how to extract a sizeable amount of oxygen from the hemoglobin solution.  There is still an ongoing discussions and brainstorming on how to settle this problem.

But scientists consider this as a minor problem and soon, they would be ready to unveil this perfected unique breathing system under the water, in perfect form.  When this is ready, you can stay beneath the sea for hours without fear except for your body’s capacity to endure the cold water down there.

Science Fun Fact breathing under water, water

If you have the chance to go on a bonfire during winter, cast a snow chunk on to the fire.  You will observe that the chunk will slowly melt given the size and heat of the fire.  On a layman’s point of view, water actually can take a great quantity of heat in raising its temperature.

The snow melted probably because it gave some cooling power to the fire surrounding the snow.  The question is, the fire could be very hot and there is a belief that any object has only certain capacity to absorb extreme heat at a given time and any heat added in this case is wasted.  This explains the process of melting in a layman’s point of view.

On the scientific side, there are 2 ways to transfer heat into the snow block.  The heat that comes from something like sunlight known as radiant heat will not have the capacity to force its strength against a snow block because it can discard much of that heat away.

The size of the snow block could have been much cooler than the heat of fire and has the potential to impede the rise of hot air with its own coolness thus somehow protecting itself as it melts.

Considering the amount of heat involved, the fire heated the block snow reaching its melting temperature subsequently followed by heating the melted snow to its boiling point and the process of transforming it finally from liquid to vapor.

As the fire was attempting to reach the boiling point of the snow, the water beneath was also trying to drip into the fire below, not to cool it but slow it down to the extent of trying to extinguish the fire on the surface below.

From this point of situation, there are 3 theories involved in the process of slowing down the melting process.  The first theory concerns the cooling power of the ice to cool down the fire in such a way that it hindered its full strength to melt the snow immediately.

The 2nd is that the snow was not strong enough to absorb the heat and be melted right away considering that it is not a combustible object.  This is the reason why it melted slowly.  The 3rd is that it needs a strong amount of energy to turn the ice crystals to vapor.

The air surrounding the ice is not an effective heat conductor and has a very low heating capacity.  This can be further explained in the scientific process of heating capacity and conductivity.  Water has a high heating capacity and it absorbs too much energy transforming from solid to liquid, and liquid to gas.

You can test this when you finish your shower, you feel so cold.  This is because water consumes a lot of heat in vaporizing off your body temperature.  In case of ice, it can help to keep the ice colder for a little longer if put into fire.  The driving force that induces heat transfer is temperature.

Science Fun Fact fire, melt snow, snow

When a pin is placed vertically in the surface of water, it will surely sink because it pierces the water.  The pressure on the small surface of the water is not big enough to enable the pin to float.  But if the pin is placed horizontally, a bigger area of water surrounding the pin is covered enabling the pin to float.

This is because the forces between the water molecules underwater and around the straight pin are wide enough to balance the pin on the water holding it to float.  Even in this modern day, many people still consider the science of magnetism as mysterious.

The magnetosphere of the earth explains the interaction of the earth’s magnetism to the solar wind and magnetic phenomenon on the sun’s surface.  In ancient history, the Greeks and Chinese were aware about the existence of natural magnets coming from iron-rich mineral called lodestones.

The Chinese people were aware that if you rub a metal pin with a lodestone in one direction, the metal pin will also become a magnet.  It was also later discovered that if a magnet or lodestone is put on a small boat floating in a container of water as an experiment, the magnet will always point in one direction which is either the North or the South.

If you rotate the container in any direction, the magnet will still point in one direction.  A wire coil wrapped in iron bar which has current becomes a magnet.  If you use a magnet to attract a group of nails, all the nails will stick to the magnet and each nail will stick to each other afterwards.

Soft iron tends to become a magnet when rubbed in a magnet and its polarity is fixed in one direction which enables it to adhere to another nail. As we all know, the earth is the largest magnetic sphere and it is the great source of magnetic compass.

If you come to think of it, if the power of lodestones was not discovered, it would be impossible to discover the magnetic compass.  In this connection, Columbus would not have succeeded in his expedition in foreign lands without the small and simple equipment known as compass.

Going back to the floating pin, if you try to experiment it in a container of water, you must use the thinnest size of a pin measuring about 3 cm; heavier than this can cause the pin to sink.  The pin should be dry and holding it adds up to its floating ability as it gets some grease from your fingers.

Strike it with a magnet in one direction and you will notice that when you place it on the surface horizontally, it will float but points to one direction either to the North or the South as you verify in your compass.

Why does it float then?  Floating is possible for the pin because the thin skin of the layers of water molecules above the water surface will adhere together to form a blockade that prevents the pin from sinking.

Science Fun Fact pin float, pins, water and pin