Introduction
This goal of this project was to understand the chemistry of the universe. This understanding began at the formation of the universe then broadened out into knowledge of the creation of elements and stars. There were two main physical outcomes of this project, the universal timeline, and our star model. On this page I will show my product from both and explain concepts for cosmic chemistry.
Concepts
Subatomic particles - Particles smaller than an atom
fission - When an atom is divided into two smaller atoms, energy is released and two new elements are created
fusion - When two atoms collide and their nucleus fuse into a new atom, gives off lots of energy
radioactive decay - The breakdown of atoms into lighter elements, there are three types, alpha, beta, and gamma
half-life - The amount of time it takes half of an element to decay
nuclear transmutation - When an atom's nucleus changes in order to stabilize, giving off energy, mass and creating a new element
radiation - Energy emitted through electromagnetic waves
nucleosynthesis - The formation of atoms other than hydrogen
alpha particle - A helium nucleus (2 proton, 2 neutron) emitted by alpha radiation
beta particle -
gamma rays -
fission - When an atom is divided into two smaller atoms, energy is released and two new elements are created
fusion - When two atoms collide and their nucleus fuse into a new atom, gives off lots of energy
radioactive decay - The breakdown of atoms into lighter elements, there are three types, alpha, beta, and gamma
half-life - The amount of time it takes half of an element to decay
nuclear transmutation - When an atom's nucleus changes in order to stabilize, giving off energy, mass and creating a new element
radiation - Energy emitted through electromagnetic waves
nucleosynthesis - The formation of atoms other than hydrogen
alpha particle - A helium nucleus (2 proton, 2 neutron) emitted by alpha radiation
beta particle -
gamma rays -
COSMIC Timeline
The first thing that we did in this project was create a timeline of the creation of the universe. We planned it out together as a class and decided to split off into groups, each one focusing on a different time period from the big bang to now. My group consisted of Christopher Griggy and myself. We focused on the final section of the timeline, the development of life on earth.
Star Model
The other project done in this unit was the modeling project, where we were tasked to create a model of a concept from this unit. My group for this project was Tyler Leighton, Jackson Roberts, Nico and I. We decided that our model would be of star life and how it works, also that it would be a poster.
Reflection
Both of these projects worked out pretty well, I feel that Chris and I nailed the timeline and that that went excellent. While the poster is a little crowded it definitely turned out well. One thing I think was done well in both of these was planning, in both groups the plans we made we executed and went very well. Another thing that worked well was the collaboration, the teams in both projects worked well together and we had a fairly good time. On thing that didn't go so well was time management for the poster, this was mostly out of our control as I ended up being busy the weekend before it was due so Tyler had to do a lot of extra work for the group. The other issue we had was that our group for the poster got distracted quite easily so we didn't really have perfect focus. All in all though this project went well.