Chapter 7 Essay Question and News Article Choose one of the Essay Questions for Chapter 7 and answer it with a short essay then read and summarize a current physics or technology news article Part A Everyone knows that an earthquake is the shaking of the ground Describe the ways in which it acts like a wave How can the S and P waves be used to determine the location of the epicenter and the nature of the interior of the Earth An earthquake happens when two plates of the earth slip past one another The earth is made up of four major layers the inner core outer core mantle and crust These different layers slowly move from time to time sometimes when they do the bump into or slide under each other it then causes an earthquake Earthquakes do act a lot like waves do This is because earthquakes are vibrations that travel through the earth s layers and these vibrations cause different sizes of waves throughout and example of waves are compressional P and transversal S Seismograms are used for not only measuring but for locating earthquakes It is done by looking at the P and S waves P waves are very abrupt and can be compared to lightning S waves are slower and can be compared to thunder You first see lighting then count and the thunder flows This is how P and S waves are You first feel the P wave its very abrupt and then the S wave follows but is slower This is how scientists locate the earthquake they look at the amount of time that are in between the P and S waves on a seismogram From that scientists are able to tell how far away the earthquake was but not where exactly it happened So a method called triangulation is used to find exactly where the earthquake occurred A triangulation is conducted by having 3 seismograms measure the waves and then finding the epicenter of the seismograms S and P waves are used to be able to determine the nature of the interior of the Earth Scientists are able to study how the waves move throughout the Earth by observing S and P waves S waves are able to travel through only solids while P waves can travel through both solid and liquid material Because S waves are only able to travel through solid materials they know when the S waves show up they are traveling through solids They are also able to tell when the Earth s layers are liquid because P waves will be traveling through them but S waves will not Scientists are able to see how and when these waves go through the material of the Earth and study them Part B Find and read an article on physics or technology from some serious website Give the link to the article and summarize the article drawing connections to class and or explaining what you do not understand about the article Recently there has been an experiment like no other the Wendelstien 7 X experiment It is a type of fusion device that needed a supercomputer to help design it This device was funded by the European Union and by the German federal and state governments The idea behind this experiment is it will be able to contain a super heated gas plasma in a type of vessel that is able to use magnets which are able to navigate their way through the donut shaped vessel There are many reasons why they are making this machine The first is the plasmas that are produced are extremely stable and are also have very high densities If this experiment is successful the plasma in the donut shaped vessel will be even hotter than the sun which is crazy Another perk is that this would create clean and safe energy that can be used for power This experiment could be a major breakthrough to becoming able to have fusion power Part A The Science of Earthquakes U S Geological Survey http earthquake usgs gov learn kids eqscience php Part B American Physical Society Peak performance New stellarator experiments show promising results Wendelstein 7 X superconducting stellarator successfully completes first operational phase ScienceDaily ScienceDaily 5 November 2018 www sciencedaily com releases 2018 11 181105105445 htm
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