LEGO math fun

LEGO is great for teaching kids math concepts. I've used stacks of Duplo bricks to practice addition - i.e. 'put the stack of two bricks together with the stack of three bricks, and how tall is the tower?' And I've previously noted helping my daughter learn her 2x multiplication table. Here Erin from the So you call yourself a homeschooler blog is using stacks of bricks to teach fractions.

Apollo 13

CustomBricks has a look back at the Apollo 13 service module as the astronauts leave in the command module for their return to Earth.

Gear up

A gear is a simple machine, where two or more wheels have teeth, or cogs, that fit together so that when one turns, the teeth fit together so that the other turns as well. In this way, rotational torque is transferred from one axle to another. These axles can be parallel to each other, or, as in this case by Legohaulic, at an angle. If the gears have different diameters, they will rotate at different speeds.

Argon

Argon (here by the One and Only Mr R) is an element with the atomic number 18. It is a noble gas, which means it does not enter into reactions to form compounds with other elements (hence the name, derived from the Greek word for lazy). Argon is the third most abundant gas in the earth's atmosphere, after nitrogen and oxygen.

Breaking Barium

As a chemist I really like the show Breaking Bad, whose logo (here by Lego Junkie) involves the atomic symbols for Bromine and Barium. There are a little over a hundred different types of atoms, known as elements. What differentiates one element from another is the number of protons in the nucleus, and the arrangement of electrons and bonding properties are related to this. Bromine is an element with 35 protons in the nucleus. In the elemental form (that is, when it's just by itself and not combined with other elements to make compounds) it forms diatomic molecules - two bromines connected to each other. Br₂ is largely a liquid at room temperature. It reacts readily with other compounds in a number of ways, including both radical and ionic reactions. Barium has 56 protons in the nucleus and is a metal. It easily loses two electrons to become a positively charged species in various ionic compounds.

Greenhouse effect

TheBrickAvenger teaches us about the Greenhouse effect. Light energy from the sun (in yellow) hits the earth, warming it. The earth then radiates heat (red arrows), but rather than directly escaping into space, a good portion of this heat energy coming up from the earth is absorbed by gases such as CO2 in the atmosphere. These gases then radiate energy - some up into space, but other energy back down towards the earth.

Happy Pi Day

Man, I've got to turn in my geek card. I completely missed that today was Pi Day. In my defense, I never know what the date is. MCLegoboy built this pi. It'd be really cool if he used exactly 314 bricks.

Hydrogen

MOCathalon is an annual LEGO building contest with a series of categories. One of this year's categories is 'Just teach it!', and Finn Tegotash built a chemistry class.

Okay, class, we're going to continue with our examination of the periodic table.


Hydrogen is the simplest element, with only one proton and one electron. In molecular form it exists as H2.


Since it is the lightest element, and since gases take up the same volume of space regardless of their mass, the same volume of hydrogen is much lighter than the same volume of air (a mix of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and some other things). Therefore, a balloon filled with hydrogen floats.


Hydrogen reacts with oxygen to make water. This reaction gives off a lot of energy. It is an exothermic process. Boom!

Be relative, my Friend!

GoRiLLaWeR made this awesome Einstein.

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium

As you know if you've been to Google, today is the 540th anniversary of the birth of Nocolaus Copernicus. He was the Polish astronomer most responsible for the heliocentric view of the universe. That is, the idea that the earth and the planets orbit the sun rather than the sun and the planets orbiting the earth. This motion is demonstrated by an orrery, a mechanical model of the solar system that shows the relative motions of the celestial bodies. V&A Steamworks made a great LEGO Orrery, and you can even see it in action.

Pythagorean treehouse and the island of Cartesia

You simply have to watch this video on the Pythagorean LEGO trick.

Electron Transport Chain

ATP is the cell's currency of energy. To make ATP takes energy, though. In order to do this, energy is used either from sunlight in photosynthesis or from chemical reactions in respiration to move electrons across a membrane via an electron transport chain, here illustrated by Medieval Guy. When you move negatively charged electrons across the membrane, though, you create an imbalance of charges. In order to bring charges back into balance, positively charged protons flow from one side of the membrane through the other, and the movement of these is harnessed by ATP synthase to produce more ATP. BTW, I was at UCLA in 1997 when Paul Boyer was awarded the Nobel for his role in the elucidation of the ATPase mechanism. I was also there in 1995 when UCLA won the NCAA basketball championship. On one of these occasions there was a reception hosted by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. On the other occasion there was mini riot in Westwood Village of drunken college students. Can you guess which was which?

Reflection

Dave Shaddix made this mosaic based on a famous photo of Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 mission.

How big is space?

I ran across a fun feature on BBC-Future, called How Big is Space? It's essentially a huge graphic, that as you scroll down takes you further and further away from the Earth's surface. It actually reminds me a lot of the classic Powers of Ten video you may have seen in school (and if not, go watch). The reason to note this here is the entry that comes in at 24 km from the Earth's surface, noting the Canadian minifig space flight.

Genome sequencing

Your genome is the sequence of nucleic acids found in your DNA. This sequence is the template for your proteins, and basically makes the blueprint that makes you a human and not, say, a tree. Knowing the genomic sequence for an organism has many applications, from basic research to applied medicine. For instance, you could identify some bacteria by its sequence to diagnose a disease, or you could find out if a person has the markers for some inherited disease. A number of companies have developed laboratory instrumentation for genomic sequencing, such as the Life Technologies Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine. Torsten Seeman built a LEGO rendition for his son.

Advent calendar?

Johnmknight has made a series of over 20 "realspace" small models. I'm guessing he is going to propose this as a future advent calendar idea on Cuusoo, since he has proposed a few real space sets on Cuusoo before. Maybe not, though, since several of these have more pieces than the typical advent calendar builds. It'd be a very cool calendar, though - maybe include a few figs of astronauts - even make them individual like Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin, etc. Maybe Goddard and his rocket.

Microscope

Gilcélio Chagas built this great microscope. Rather than give my own explanation, I'll just quote his:

A microscope (from the Ancient Greek: μικρός, mikrós, "small" and σκοπεῖν, skopeîn, "to look" or "see") is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy. Microscopic means invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope. There are many types of microscopes, the most common and first to be invented is the optical microscope which uses light to image the sample. Other major types of microscopes are the electron microscope (both the transmission electron microscope and the scanning electron microscope) and the various types of scanning probe microscope. The first microscope to be developed was the optical microscope, although the original inventor is not easy to identify. An early microscope was made in 1590 in Middelburg, Netherlands.Two eyeglass makers are variously given credit: Hans Lippershey (who developed an early telescope) and Zacharias Janssen. Giovanni Faber coined the name microscope for Galileo Galilei's compound microscope in 1625 (Galileo had called it the "occhiolino" or "little eye").

Saturn V

Legonardo made this great Saturn V launch.

Book Review: LEGO Ideas Book - Unlock Your Imagination

Last in a series of book reviews. You've got two days left. Run out and buy your loved ones some LEGO books!

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LEGO Ideas Book - Unlock Your Imagination by Daniel Lipkowitz, 2011, Dorling Kindersley Books.



I'm very happy to end this run of LEGO book reviews with another extremely positive rating. This one's been out for a year, so you may already have it. If you were only going to buy one LEGO book last year, this was the one. If you didn't, you still have time to rectify the situation. As with the LEGO Adventure Book, this book seeks to inspire your building by simply showing you what you can do with the brick.



Author and editor Daniel Lipkowitz brings together an impressive array of AFOL contributors: Sebastian Arts (AlienCat), Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha), Deborah Higdon, Barney Main (SlyOwl), Duncan Titmarsh and Andrew Walker. These builders made a ton of models for this book. I didn't bother counting them, but there are 200 pages, and almost page has several different models, all beautifully photographed.



There are no real instructions in the book. Oh, in a few places they include exploded constructions so you can see how this or that detail was done, but the stated purpose of the book is: "The ideas in this book will inspire you to create many more models of your own." And the models are inspirational. Subjects include castles (lots of this - thanks AlienCat!), town buildings, brick built animals, space ships, robots, pirate fortresses, Viking longboats, etc. It's not all fig scale, either. There's quite a bit of microscale, mosaics, and also some sculptures that serve purposes like pen holders for your desktop. There are mini interviews with each of the builders, which is a nice touch. There is also text on each page giving little insights and highlighting details, but truth be told the text is unnecessary. The stars here are the photos. As with all of the various DK LEGO offerings, each page is packed with high quality color photos. I'd love to see more and more books like this (and the LEGO Adventure Book I reviewed previously) that celebrate all of the cool things that AFOLs build. I hope DK comes out with one of these every couple of years - just bring together some top quality builders and let them loose. I'd be happy to give them a list of names!



Again, this is one of those must-have books. Everyone from kids to expert builders will love flipping through the pages - whether they are seeking inspiration for their next MOC, they want to celebrate the community of builders, or just to enjoy all of the beautiful pictures.

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SciBricks-specific content - Nothing really, unless you count a model of Stephenson's Rocket, one of the first steam trains, as an example of inventions.

Book Review: Amazing ABC

Amazing ABC by Sean Kenney, 2012, Christy Ottaviano Books.



A quick little review of a book you are probably unlikely to have happened across. If you don't have a very young child, you probably don't browse the board book section of your local bookstore. I do, and one day a little while ago I happened across this charming book. I'm a fan of alphabet books, and of course when you're teaching a child their letters you see a lot of these. This book is pretty straight-forward. Each page has a letter (built of bricks) and a model to illustrate that letter. As you'd expect from Sean, the models are all great and the photos are perfect. Even if you don't have a little one crawling around your home, this is a great book to get (hey, it's only a few dollars) and have sitting out in your home. If you do have kids, you can justify this as educational even!

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Blog-specific material - There is none.