Pīcekaen pemēh
High-hopes for Bioenergy and Sustainability
Scale and Earth’s Atmosphere
Resource adapted from Michigan State University’s Carbon Time instructional materials
Watch closely, and be prepared to give specific examples about:
- How the videographers change your perspective during the movie.
- How your thinking changes with the various perspective changes.
https://youtu.be/FVFvH8Sfj98
2
How can zooming in or zooming out on different scales effect
what questions we ask and what we can know?
3
For example, what can we know about
air if we zoom in to learn about it?
Is it empty?
OR
Is it full?
4
Zoom into Air
What image would you put here
to represent air at this large scale?
Large Scale
5
Zoom into Air
Large Scale
6
Zoom into Air
Thinking back to the Cosmic Voyage,
what image would you put here
to represent air at this
Macroscopic scale?
Macroscopic Scale
7
Zoom into Air
Macroscopic Scale
8
Zooming in further at the macro scale, air
contains rain drops
1 cm
Macro Scale
9
Air also contains water droplets
Macro Scale
10
Single cloud droplet
Micro Scale
Picekan pemeh: Scale &
11
When we zoom in even smaller….
H2O
…. we still see
water (H2O)!
Atomic-molecular Scale
Picekan pemeh: Scale &
12
Water molecule in air
Micro Scale
Picekan pemeh: Scale &
13
Other Molecules in Air
Oxygen
O2
Carbon dioxide
CO2
Water
H2O
Nitrogen
N2
Atomic-molecular Scale
Picekan pemeh: Scale &
14
What’s in our atmosphere’s air?
•
Which gases make up the largest and smallest
percentages of the air on Earth?
•
Record in your POSOH Notebook your ideas about
what air is made out of.
15
What’s in our atmosphere’s air?
Nitrogen (78%)
Oxygen (21%)
Argon (0.9%)
Carbon dioxide (0.03%)
Water (variable)
16
What is the difference between an atom and a molecule?
17
Atoms and Molecules in Air
• Oxygen molecules (O2) are made of 2 oxygen
atoms
• Nitrogen molecules (N2) are made of 2
nitrogen atoms
• Water molecules (H2O) are made of 2
hydrogen and 1 oxygen atom
• Carbon dioxide molecules (CO2) are made of
1 carbon and 2 oxygen atoms
18
19
Apply the
to air
Record your responses and why you think that
in your POSOH Notebook
a. Will the carbon atoms that exist today in CO2
still be carbon atoms in a million years?
b. Will the CO2 molecules that exist today still
be CO2 molecules in a million years?
20
Apply the
to air
Record your responses and why you think that
in your POSOH Notebook
a. Does air have mass?
21
Apply the
to air
Record your responses and why you think that
in your POSOH Notebook
a. What are some important atoms in air?
b. What are some important molecules in air?
22
Check Your Understanding
• Do you think that plants are made of atoms?
• Do the three facts about atoms apply to the atoms
that plants are made of?
• Do you think that people are made of atoms?
• Do the three facts about atoms apply to the atoms
that we are made of?
23
Summarizing Zooming in and out
ideas: Systems and Scale
• What do scientists mean when they talk about a
system?
• What does it mean to zoom in to see what we
can learn on a different scale?
24
Summarizing Zooming in and out
ideas: Systems and Scale
• What do scientists mean when they talk about a system?
Scientists imagine an artificial boundary between the system of interest and
everything else. Then they examine the system in detail and identify its
components, the relationships among its components, and inputs into and
outputs from the system to its surroundings
.
• What does it mean to zoom in to see what we can learn on a
different scale?
Patterns observable at one scale may not be observable or exist at other scales,
and some systems can only be studied indirectly as they are too small, too large,
too fast, or too slow to obsesrve directly. Orders of magnitude are used to
understand how a model at one scale relates to a model at another scale.
25