S aying “Ow!” Makes You Hurt Less www.sciencea-z.com
SCIENCE in the NEWS
April 2015
What Happens W h e n Po p c o rn Po p s ? Popcorn is fun to eat. But two scientists wanted to know more about how popcorn works. Why does it make a popping sound? Does popcorn always jump in the same way? Physical Science
HOW A KERNEL POPS High-speed cameras help us understand how a kernel of popcorn pops.
To start, they put popcorn seeds in an oven. Popcorn seeds are called kernels. The scientists used special cameras to film what happens when a kernel pops.
1 T he kernel breaks open 2 Steam and the insides at 180°C (356°F).
As a kernel gets hot, water on the inside changes. It turns into steam. The hard inside of the seed gets soft. Soon, the outside of the kernel can’t hold the steam. The kernel breaks open and pops!
shoot out. “Legs” form. You hear a pop!
“pop” hull
The soft inside parts shoot out. They start to cool off right away and make “legs.” These are the soft parts you eat. The legs push off the pan. The popcorn flies up and spins in the air. All of this happens in just a blink of an eye. The scientists studied many pieces of popping corn. They found that each kernel moves the same way when it pops. There may be more going on in your popcorn than on the movie screen! v
legs
3 A popcorn leg pushes against the pan. The kernel jumps.
Sea Turtles Find Their Beach Earth has a magnetic field. Some animals can use this field like a compass.
A baby sea turtle breaks Earth Science out of its shell on a beach. It leaves the nest and crawls into the water. Then it swims around in the ocean as it grows up. After many years, the turtle returns to the same beach. How does the turtle find its way home after swimming for so long? Sea turtles can sense Earth’s magnetic field. Earth is like a giant magnet. It has a magnetic field around it, but you can’t see it. Every place on Earth has its own spot in the magnetic field. This is how sea turtles remember the beach where they were born. Then the turtles can find their way home many years later! v
A loggerhead turtle digs a nest on its home beach.
F-Shaped Holes Make a Better Violin Violins have two thin, curved holes. Each hole looks like the letter “f.” When you play the strings on a violin, air moves out from inside the instrument. The moving air makes the sound you hear. Some older string instruments have round holes. Others have holes shaped like the letter “c.” These instruments do not make sounds as loud as violins with f-shaped holes. Physical Science
Why does the shape of the holes matter? The f-shaped holes speed up the air as it leaves the violin. This faster air makes louder sounds. So if you are giving a violin a grade, an “f” is a good thing! v
When you fall and hurt your knee, what do you say? “Ow!” of course. We all do it, but why? Life Science
A team of scientists wanted to know. They asked people to put their hands in ice-cold water and keep them in the water for as long as they could. Some people could say “Ow!” or push a button when their hands started to hurt. Other people had to stay quiet and do nothing. Some people listened to someone else saying “Ow!” The people who said “Ow!” or pushed a button kept their hands in the cold water the longest. Doing something while in pain may give the brain something else to think about. That makes pain easier to handle. v
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Saying “Ow!” helps you put up with pain.
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Show What You Know Draw a line from each word on the left to what it means on the right.
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The starches instantly cool off and form what the scientists call âlegs.â These are the soft parts you eat. When one leg quickly pushes off against the surface of the.
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