Energy: From Stars to Stomachs
This is me and my intern, Marcus, teaching a classroom full of 6th and 7th graders the basics of Gravity, The Weak and Strong Atomic Forces, and the relationship between electricity and magnetism. We started with Google Maps to get kids to think about zooming in and looking at relevant and relative things with more thought. Then we zoomed in to the basics of our lesson.
The Grand Tour: From Energy to Big G
Once we knew we were doing a grand tour from outside the planetary solar system of the star “Sol” (aka our sun and its solar system) we put out a fifth dimensional ad for tour guides from elsewhere in the galaxy. We found two aliens (The Glaxloid and Mxxxxbirhic races) to give a tour of the M-class star in the arm of Orion in the Milky Way galaxy. This star (called Sol) has eight planets and millions of smaller rocky objects orbiting it.
We are touring the third planet in the system revolving around the star Sol’s “solar system”. The inner rocky planet is actually a binary planet system. Two planets tidally locked in orbit with each other. They apparently refer to the smaller planetoid as “The Moon”.
Wait, Which Planet?
which planet?
The guides were confused — as Sol has a binary planet system in the space of the third planet. There were two planets; One with a super thick atmosphere FILLED with Nitrogen and oxygen, and trace elements, and liquid water and then a smaller planet with 1/3 the mass that orbits the larger planet. But the smaller planet also has a thin atmosphere and water frozen at its poles. Which one to visit?
Well, we want to go to the planet with gaseous, liquid, and frozen water, a higher gravity, and a robust, nitrogen-rich atmosphere, where at least 30% of the planet is solid ground above the water, and where diverse bio-organic life is abundant. This planet also has oceans of water floating in the atmosphere between the planet’s surface and the vacuum of space. The call these Clo-uds and often they leak liquid water and cause disruptive ionizing storms in the atmosphere.
Welcome to “Farth”
The dominant species on the planet (a race of bipedal hominids that are called, Hoo Mans) call it “Farth”. We later learned that the bottom of their Earth Letter “E” had been rubbed off the sample of their atmosphere contained in a vessel made of SiO2 (glass). The planet is actually called “Earth” (urth) (we think Farth is appropriate because of the large amounts of CO2 and CH4 in their atmosphere).
There are FOUR parts of planet Farth:
The atmosphere
The pedosphere
The hydrosphere
The radioactive and super-hot magnetic core
Our focus will be on a single vertebrate mammal hoo man on the continent of the planet above the equator, and between the large, deep, tectonically active planet-spanning ocean and the shallower, less geologically active smaller ocean. This vertebrate mammal is of the species homo sapiens and in a building in the country US, state Ohio, City Columbus, Neighborhood Old North, Street East 19th Avenue, Building Metro High School, Room 220, Hominid up front - 17 year-old male of his species named Marcus.
Things were going well with the Alien tour guides until — It was time to dive deeper into the biome and into the organism itself. One of the alien tour guides wanted to eat all of the hominids in the chamber space they congregated. The other alien was from a gas giant planet and decided to float lazily up into the lower atmosphere where is was destroyed by a trauma helicopter traveling to one of the three trauma hospitals around the location.
Marcus listening to a primate from planet Farth
This Is Where Things Get Weird
Marcus had been hired by the Galactic Backwoods Tour Corporation to give a tour of the habitable planet “Farth”. But Farth was more complicated than he had thought. Not only did he and his team of alien tour guides have to find Farth amongst a billion other stars, now he had to give a tour down to the quantum level — even smaller than the atom — of this planet.
When the electro-magnetic, weak and strong atomic forces and Big G don’t matter anymore, things get strange real quick. Stay tuned to hear how Marcus and his team of intrepid (and hungry) alien tour guides pulled this off!
Exploring Gravity with the hominids of Farth
Another species of vertebrate that inhabits Farth
