Anesthesia

The main difference between local and general anesthetics is how much area of the body is affected. Local anesthetics only affect one part of the body such as your skin, teeth and gums, or even the spinal cord. General anesthetics affect the whole body.

There is a difference between a loss of consciousness from a general anesthetics and a deep sleep, although they are similar. In a dream, the brain forms dreams and processes information. However, the loss of consciousness does not create dreams, or even store memories.

An anesthetic is called an inhalant when it is administered through the lungs.

Nitrous oxide can cause the lungs to collapse and lower oxygen levels in tissues, so it is not used as much anymore as in the past.

Diethyl ether isn't used as much anymore either because it is very flammable, especially in the presents of oxygen, and was a fire hazard during surgeries.

Anesthetics work by preventing the nerve's communication to the brain. When this connection is interrupted, no pain can be felt. They prevent the sodium ions from getting from one nerve to the next.

Reflection Blog

     On Monday during the "Blow up Kid" activity, we learned that the reason the bag inflates is because of air pressure. We also learned how to show this on particle diagram. Before that class period I didn't realize that air pressure played a role, and I would have assumed it was just the space the air took up when moved inside the bag.

     On Tuesday, we took a closer look into how a straw works. The straw works when you draw on it and remove the air, creating a vacuum and eliminated air pressure coming from the top of the juice in the straw. The air pressure remains pushing on the juice in the pouch, and therefore pushes it up the straw and into your mouth. Now, I understand how this works after all the particle diagrams and group discussions. 

     On Wednesday during the longest straw activity, we were testing how long of a straw is possible, and that scientist use similar ideas to measure air pressure, connecting to the manometer notes we took later on. From the straw activity, I took away that there is a limit on air pressure, and that a straw can't go on forever.

     We also took notes on the different measurement units of air pressure. We learned about millimeters of mercury (mmHg), kiloPascals (kPa), and Atmospheres (atm). They can be converted back and forth using proportions like we used earlier this year. I need to work on remembering the different equivalents of the units.

     When we were taking notes on Manometers on Wednesday, it tied all the ideas we learned so far together. Reading a manometer is different if it is closed or open. When it is closed, the gas pressure is just the difference in height of the two sides of the mercury. If it is open, you have to add or subtract the difference to the air pressure depending on if the air pressure or gas pressure is lower or higher. For me it is hard to remember to look if the manometer is open or closed before starting the problem or reading the measurement. 

Archimedes Reading Articles

Archimedes went through all 5 steps in the scientific method. He asked a question; he wondered if there was a way to tell if the crown is pure gold without knowing the volume. Then, he went through the background knowledge he knew; gold is the densest medal known at that time. He also realized in the bathtub that whatever volume he put in the water, that's how much water flows out. This was an important realization for his experiment. 

Next, he formed a hypothesis. Although the article doesn't say exactly what it is, I think he would have predicted that the crown was not pure gold. When he tests the hypothesis, he put a block of gold of the same mass as the crown in a bucket full of water and let it slowly overflow. He said that if the crown has the same volume, the water level would reach the top of the bucket. However, if the crown has a larger volume, more water would spill out.

In his conclusion, he found that the crown had a bigger volume to make up for the mass lost, due to the smaller density in some of the metal used. He then reported to the kind that the crown was not 100% gold.