I Think It Was a Good Game

Yesterday was Super Bowl XLV (45). The Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25. My whole family are Packer fans except for one. We had a party at my grandparents home. My Grandma had a gigantic Steelers cookie that she forgot to give to her friend. She gave it to us. Earlier today we put a Packers helmet o a toy figure and took a picture of him "eating" the Steelers cookie. My Mom said that when we eat it, we will be crushing the Steelers (that disappointed my brother because he was the one that was a Steeler fan).

Now for the game summary.

After a few punts, the Packers got on top with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Nelson on 3rd and one. But that was not before "Donald the Driver" got injured, he's out. Pack 7, Steels 0. On the next play from scrimmage, the number 37 guy gets a forty yard pick-six. Then, out of the blue, a really questionable excess of celebration call on the Pack. That penalty is enforced on the ensuing kickoff so that's still fourteen push-ups for me (I did as many push-ups as they scored). Pittsburgh makes a short FG after that. A shocking touchdown follows on a 21-yard pass to Jennings. 21-3! Man, this is just going for the Pack. But then, a demoralizing (injuring Charles Woodson - out for the game), 7-play, 77-yard drive brings us to 21-10 at the close of the half.

The halftime show stunk but we had a good meal.

Back to the action an eight-yard Steeler touchdown brings us close. The Pack get stuck in a 3rd quarter pickle, despite a missed FG, on behalf of Pittsburgh. In the early 4th quarter, however, a touchdown pass to Jennings gives me more push-ups to do. 28-17. But then Rothesburger passes a killer 25-yard touchdown. The Steelers went for two. On the conversion, Rothesburger lateraled it off and they converted. Green Bay got a Field Goal, but I saw a possible Pittsburgh touchdown. On 1st down they made 5 yards. Rothesburger then threw it out of bounds to kill the clock. On 3rd down their pass fell incomplete. Then it was a nail-biting fourth down (my Grandma, all decorated with Packer helmet earrings and necklaces left the scene in a nervous state). Rothesburger looked ahead, dodged Clay Matthews, and threw. It floated back and it was INTERCEPTED! Final score, 31-25, Packers!!!!!!

Cast of Characters:
"Donald the Driver"..............Packer's record for best receiver
Charles Woodson.....................Best defensive back on the Packers (and former Michigan star)
Ben Rothesburger..................Steeler 6' 7" 250lb quarterback
Clay Matthews..........................Packer's best linebacker (with long, long girly hair)

I think it was a good game and it will go down in memory as the first FULL (every play) NFL game I have ever watched.  And about that cookie, it is going to taste great all smashed up in my mouth.

Gadolinium

This week's element is gadolinium.

Gadolinium is a lanathide. Its atomic number is 64 and its atomic weight is 157.3. Its melting point is 1312 degrees Celsius (that's 2394 degrees Fahrenheit or 1585 kelvins), and its boiling point is 3273 degrees Celsius (that's 5923 degrees Fahrenheits or 3546 kelvins). 

Above is a picture of the electron configuration. Gadolinium, like all lanathides, goofs around with its electrons and hides them. The electron configuration should be like  2, 8, 18, 18, 18  with an element that has 64 electrons, but gadolinium has it like, 2, 8, 18, 25, 9, 2. The lanathides all goof it with their electrons but it at least has 64 electrons to neutralize the positive protons.

About 440 tons of gadolinium is dug up in a year, but all that gets used for just one thing. Gadolinium is really good at absorbing neutrons, so gadolinium is used when neutrons are used. If a neutron was to hit you then, you would be radioactive, with a half-life of 15 hours (a half-life is how long it takes for half the atoms to decompose, in the case of humans you'd mostly likely die). Gadolinium absorbs the neutrons so you don't get hit by a neutron in the lab.  Don't worry there were no nuclear reactors before the discovery of Gadolinium.

Good thing it is found naturally occurring in Scandinavia and Sri Lanka - because now we can study neutrons.

Big Al

This is Big Al. He is the mascot of the week. He is also University of Alabama's official mascot. I googled up some pictures of him and drew him, using the pictures as a model. I think I will alternate element of the week and mascot of the week.
Big Al is just a goofy guy that runs around, in a costume. Some schools
(such as Colorado) keep real, live animals. Big Al has to move around in every sport just like every mascot. But unlike the players, who have to travel for one sport, he has to move around for both basketball, and football.
Alabama has an elephant, but there are two stories of how he came. Both of the stories come from the 1930 season.
One story says that the Alabama football team was borrowing some suitcases from a company. The company's logo was of an elephant standing on a red suitcase. When the team arrived in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl, some people associated the elephant to their logo.
The other story was like the linemen of the Alabama football team were so big, a fan called them "the red elephants". From then on, the Alabama linemen were known as "the red elephants. Then someone wanted an elephant mascot. Whatever the story, Alabama did not accept the elephant as an official mascot until 1979. The name 'Big Al' was a student vote.

Make sure that he doesn't mess with this guy, who he hates!

Rhodium, the element of the week

This is a continuation of element of the week. My mom picked out Rhodium because she never heard of it. Rhodium and Rhenium (75) are easy to confuse. When I first heard of the elements I had a hard time distinguishing the two because they both start with "Rh". Now forget about Rhenium, and think about Rhodium.

Rhodium is a supershiny metal. In fact it is too shiny. It is shinier than platinum (78), gold (79), silver (47), and palladium (46). It is found in South Africa, Russia, and in minute quantities around Sudbury,        Ontario. South Africa is the world's leading producer of rhodium. Rhodium is prone to price swings. As of October 2007 Rhodium was worth eight times as much as gold, and thousands of times as much as copper (wow!). It is now still worth twice as much as gold, which is still precious. Rhodium is used in jewelry because it enhances the luster. Rhodium's melting point is 1966 degrees Celsius and its boiling point is 3727 degrees Celsius. It is a transition metal located around gold and silver, in what I call "the precious metals corridor".
Although it is a precious metal it is sometimes used in the manufacturing of cars, but I don't know exactly how.

Now you know more about one of the most precious metals. And now, inform all the pirates that there is a metal more precious than gold.

Technetium, the element of the week

The last few posts were about elements. I am doing a new thing called "element of the week". I asked my brother to pick out a random element that he had never heard of. I got stuck with technetium. Please do ignore the four of hearts in the corners, I had to scan my periodic table playing cards in order to represent technetium. This darn old playing card just gave away all the facts for you. Its symbol is Tc, its atomic number is 43, It is radioactive, it is- WAIT STOP! there is something unusual here. All elements with atomic numbers over 83 are radioactive. There are only two elements with atomic numbers less than 83 that are radioactive (technetium and promethium). This is odd. Now, back to the facts, it is synthetic, it- STOP AGAIN! Again technetium and promethium (61) are the only synthetic elements until neptunium (93). All the others before 93 are naturally occurring although time to time technetium atoms appear (from the decay of other elements) but break down after about a minute. Technetium's atomic weight is 98.91 and, FYI the atomic weight is the number of protons plus neutrons. You might be thinking "how do you get 0.91 neutrons?". What we do is calculate the average of all the different isotopes of technetium and presto! you end up with the atomic weight. Technetium's melting point (the point when it changes from solid to liquid) is 2,172 degrees Celsius and the boiling point (liquid to gas) is 4,877 degrees Celsius. At the bottom of the card it shows technetium's uses. Medical research and radioactive diagnosis use technetium. Now remember, Tc, and not TCU, the college football team.

The halogens

The halogens are a group of five elements of the periodic table. They are Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, and Astatine. They all have seven outer electrons except for astatine. Their compounds and ions are called halides. Let's take a look at these elements.

This one is Fluorine. Alone it is F2.It is the most reactive of the halogens and it reacts with almost all the elements. Its atomic number is 9 and its atomic weight is 18.99. It is a pale yellow-green gas and is very poisonous. It is never used in school laboratories because it attacks glass, but it can be useful in substances like toothpaste. It is found in xenon tetrafluoride (XeF4), freon (CF2Cl2), fluorospar (CaF2), and cryolite (Na3AlF6)as well as many other compounds.

  After fluorine is chlorine. Chlorine's atomic number is 17 and its atomic weight is 35.45. In the picture it is shown on its own but it only occurs naturally in compounds. As with fluorine it is a gas but it is greener. Its most well-known compound is salt (NaCl). It is also found in sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl)which is used to make paper white. Hydrogen chloride (HCl) is a colorless gas that is made by burning hydrogen in chlorine. It dissolves in water to form hydrochloric acid which is used to etch metals.

Next is bromine. It is one of the two liquids on the periodic table (mercury is the other) and it gives off toxic fumes. Its atomic number is 35 and its atomic weight is 79.91. Alone it is Br2 but, like chlorine it is only naturally found in compounds. Its most common compound is sodium bromide (NaBr) which is found in sea water. Another compound, silver bromide (AgBr)is used in photography, while yet another compound, hydrogen bromide has the same properties of hydrochloric acid.

This one is Iodine. Its atomic number is 53 and its atomic weight is 126.90. It is found in foods such as seaweed, seafood, cod liver oil, and fruits and vegetables. Don't panic about that because it it healthy. When heated it gives off a purple vapor. Like the other halogens it is paired up with sodium, this time in sodium iodate (NaIO3). Iodine dissolved in ethanol (C2H5OH) is called tincture of iodine and is dabbed on cuts.

There is not much to say about astatine besides it is a radioactive, unstable element.

carbon is also in water (an expansion of the previous post)

Remember the post about carbon? Carbon is also in water. Just joking! This little fishy's name is Carbon (and you can tell why). But really there is carbon in Carbon. If you look in the molecules of DNA in any animal you will see carbon. Also there is carbon in that plastic treasure chest. Carbon is used in plastics such as polyvinylchloride. In the blue paper backdrop there is carbon. Paper is made from trees which in turn, has carbon (like every living thing). One more thing. The filtration system (not shown) has a carbon filter. It helps clean the tank for Carbon, and all the other fishies in the tank (also not shown) but sometimes we have to clean the tank.