Shifting gears

Can you believe we are in the 6th week of school already?  It seems like we just started, but it sure is going fast.  Only 12 weeks left, and still so much to cover.  We are going to be leaving the subject of heat and energy for now, and we are moving on to a more in depth look at the structure of atoms....

The is the aurora borealis, or northern lights.  These beautifull colors are caused by electrons in the solar wind bumping into molecules in the upper atmosphere.  This make the molecules excited and they emit light. 
The colors seen can be white to red, green, orange, and others.  Different colors mean different things, like wavelenths (light travels in waves), energy, etc.

For Students:

Most of our understanding of atomic structure comes from a knowledge of how atoms interact with light and how excited atoms and molecules emit light .  In order to understand atomic structure, we will first look at electromagnetic radiation.  Electromagnetic radiation really is just waves of electric and magnetic fields working together.  In 1864 a man by the name of James Clerk Maxwell created a theory to describe these waves.  He proposed that electric fields produce magnetic fields and changing magnetic fields produce electric fields.  Two important properties of waves are its wavelength and its frequency.  A wavelength is symbolized by the greek letter lambda: and it is the distance between successive crests of a wave.  A frequency is symbolized by a lower case f and it is the number of cycles per second.  1 cycle per second is equal to a hertz. (Hz).  And finally, the speed of all electromagnetic waves (not just light) is 3.00x10^8.  Wavelength and frequency are related to a waves speed by this equation:

C (m/s) = lambda (m) x f(s^-1)

C = 

X Frequency

For Parents:

Thanks for your prompt attention to the permission slips.  Our field trip is next week!