Class 7 Everyday Science

Contents
1.Weather

2.Heat and Current

3.Outdoors safety

4.Food Safety I

5.Ears and BMI

L-1 Weather

What is Hail ?

Hail is a type of rain in which balls of ice called hailstones fall form sky
but for the hail formation following condtitions are necessary firstly
there must be a thunderstorm cloud secondly the upper portion of the
cloud should be below freezing temperature. Thirdly the could shoud
have a great vertical height Forthly it should have high water content in
the cloud. Lastly , there must be strong up rising winds called updrafts.
Now according to a recent study hail begins to form when updrafts liftt
upwards the water droplets present in the bottom of the cloud . Now as
they ascend the freezing temperatures causes the droplets to turn into
tiny hailstones. Then as the updrafts push these hailstones even higher,
more droplets freeze onto them creating larger hailstones. Eventually
when these hailstones become too heavy for the updrafts to hold, they
fall causing hail.

How do Snowflakes form ?

A snowflake begins to form when a supercolled water droplet in the sky

freezes int o a dust particle or pollen forming a tiny ice crystal .However
when water freezes its molecules arrange themselves in a hexagonal
pattern thus giving the crystal a hexagonal shape. Now , as the the ice
crystal keeps falling , it comes in contact with more water . As a result
the water starts freezing on the six corners of the ice crystal causing
branches to grow on the corners and thus giving us a beautiful
snowflake also as the atmospheric conditions are the same on all sides
of the snowflake, the branches grow identically thus making the
sknowflake symmetrical. But since every snowflake follows a differnet
pattern to the ground it encounters different atmospheric conditions
hence it is said that no two snowflakes are the same they all tend to be
unique.
Why is snow white ?
Sunlight or white light is a combination of all visible colors of light .when
light falls on an object . it may absord some colors of light and reflect
the remaining colors. The colors reflected by an object makes up its
color. For example, when light falls on an apple it aborbs all other colors
except red . Apple reflects red color making it appear red . When light
falls on coal it absorbs all colors and does not reflect any color , hence
coal appears black to us. Now snow does not absord any colors of light
and reflects all of them equally. As the combination of all colors of light
is white light. snow appears white to us.

How can some people predict rain ?

There are two ways by which rain can be predicted. First case occurs
just before the beginning of heavy rainfall . Here lightning bolts split
nitrogen and oxygen molecules eventually producing ozone. Now strong
blowing winds will carry the ozone downward along with them. Ozone
is a sharp smelling gas. When a person smells thise ozone, it helps him
predict the rain.

Now the second case occurs when it is already raining somewhere

nearby. Usually surfaces of soild and leaves have aromatic particles of
dust and oil on them. When rain drops hits these surfaces, tiny air
bubbles cointaining these aromatic particles are created just like fizz
rushes upwards in a soda bottle. These air bubbles rush upwards and
burst out . Then wind carry them ahead of the rain helping us smell the
aromatic particles and predict rain.
How does blood rain occur ?

Blood rain has red colored water droplets. There are various reasongs
behind this.

Around Sahara desert , brownish dust and sand crried by storms mix
with water droplets in clouds giving rain its brownish red color.

In kerela, red spores of algae called Trentepohlia Annulata got carried

by wind and mixed with water droplets causing blood rain.

While, in Zamora, Haemotococcus Pluvialis algae got caught got in

rainclouds, got stressed and produces a red pigment called
astaxanthing, causing blood rain.

How are rainbows formed ?

We usually see rainbows, when it rains with the sun behind us . Sunlight
contains seven different colors. When sunlight hits a raindrop. Each
color bends differently, bounces off the inner surface and exits the drop
at a different angle.Observe that , here , violet is at the top. with red at
the bottom.But in a rainbow, the order is reversed, right ? This happens
because each color exits the droplet at a different angle.High up in the
sky, every color except red, exits at an angle above our line of sight.
Hence only red reaches our eyes. Whereas, a few degrees below,
every color except voilet, exits at an angle below our line of sight.
Hence only violet reaches our eyes. Similarly, colors in between red and
viloet exit in such a way that below red. We see orange then yellow ,
green, etc.
Why are Rainclouds dark ?

Clouds have water droplets or ice crystals. They scatter all colors of
sunlight equally.Thats why they look white.Now in a raincloud, water
droplets in the cloud's upper part scatter most of the sunlight. Lower
parts doesn't get enough light to scatter to our eyes.That's why
rainclouds look dark when we see from below.

Why doesrain smell ?

Rain is just water and water doesn't have any smell. The disticntive
smell which frequently accompanies the first rain after a dry weather is
scientifically called petrichor. It basically comes from plants and
bacteria called actinomycetes which live in the soil. Now during a long
dry spell, the plants release oils into the soil to block other seeds from
germinating. Thus reducing competition for water. Whereas, the
actinomycetes produce a chemical called geosmin. Now when rain hits
the ground, it brings up the oils and geosmin which then mix with air.
The combination of this geosmin along with the plant oils form the
smell which receive after the rain.

L-2 Heat and Current

How does a fan give us cool air ?

First of all a fan does not give cool air. Our body loses heat mainly in two
ways. Firstly our body heat gets transferred to the surrounding air
through a process of convection. Secondly, the sweat produced on our
skin absorbs our body heat and evaporates into air, thus allowing us to
lose heat.Now without a fan both of these above ways create a
stagnant layer of hot humid air around our skin, thus making it difficult
to continue the processes of convection and evaporatiom. However
when we switch on the fan , it blows away the stagnant layey of hot air
and replaces it with a relatively drier air allowing the processes to
continue and thus we lose more heat and cool down faster.

Why does hot air balloon float ?

It is because of density . Density is the measure of mass present per

unit volume . Lesser the density, lighter will be the object. Now , density
varies with temperature. When a hot air balloon is on ground , the air
inside and outside the balloon is of the same temperature and density,
however when we turn the on the burner of the balloon , the air inside
the balloon starts getting hot the molecules of air movefaster and
spread apart taking up more space . Hence the air inside the balloon
becomes less dense than the air outside. As less dense air is lighter the
hot air balloon rises and thus begins to float.

Why dont birds get electrocuted on power cables ?

Electricity is the flow of electrons through conductors. It always takes
the easiest route. That is, electricity always flows through a path of least
resistance.Now, power cables through which electricity flows are made
of copper. Copper offers least resistance and is a very good conductor of
electricity, however the bird's body offers greater resistance and is not a
good conductor of electricity, hence electricity ignoes the bird and flows
through the cables and birds do not get electrocuted. Besides this,
electricity flows from its highest potential to its lowest.Now, the power
cables usually run at different potentials. If bird's feet are on same
power cable , then they are at same potential. Thus , the bird does not
get electrocuted. However, when the bird touches, two cables with
different potentials at same time then electricity will flow through the
bird to go to other cable with lower potential and the bird will get
electrocuted.

L-3 Outdoors Safety

Why are airplane windows oval ?

When airplanes fly at higher altitudes , the air pressure inside the
airplane is more than the air pressure outside. Hence , the cabin slightly
expands. thus creating stress which flows through the cabin's
material.Now, when the windows were square or rectangular, the stress
caused tension to build up at the corners of the square windows. This
tension produces cracks in the cabin thus leading to crashes.Hence, this
design flaw was corrected by making windows oval.Oval windows
provide a smoother path for stress to flow due to which tension is not
produced and hence, airplanes are safe.

How do airbags work ?

Airbags save our lives during accident with the help of a decomposition
reaction.During an accident or collision , it just takes about 50
milliseconds for us to hit the steering wheel. So, there is very less time
within which the airbags must inflate. Hence, when there is a collision,
the sensors called accelerometers detect it and send electrical singal to
an ignitor. The ignitor ignites a chemical propellant called sodium azide
which decomposes. Producing sodium and a large volume of nitrogen
gas. This gas instantly inflates the airbag. Now , since the whole process
takes just about 30 to 40 milliseconds. The airbags blow before we hit
the steering wheel, helping save our lives.

L-4 Food Safety

Why can we smell hot food from a distance ?

When food gets cooked, it releases some aromatic gases into the air.
The molecules of these gases spread and mix with the air molecules.
When this air reaches our nose, we get the smell of food.This process of
spreading and mixing of a substance with another substance is called
diffusion. Cold food does not produce that smell. Why ? On heating
food, the molecules of its aromatic gases gain kinetic energy and start
vibrating faster. They spread and mix easily into air, leading to an
increased rate of diffusion.As the food gets cold, the temperature of the
aromatic gases decreases.The kinetic energy of molecules decreases
and they do not vibrate as much anymore.Thus, the rate of diffusion
secreases and we cannot smell the food from a distance.

Why does salt make food taste better ?

Salt which is basically sodium chloride makes almost everything taste

better.Whether it is french fries, certain fruits , curries or even
cookies.We like atleast a little salt in these foods.According to
researchers, we have evolved to like salt maybe because our bodies
need salt for survival. Sodium present in salt, maintains our blood
pressure, transmits nerve impulses, etc. Whereas, chloride is used to
produce hydrochloric acid in our stomach.Hence, to obtain salt, we
have gradually developed a taste for it. Thus, salt in food makes it
appealing and tasty.In addition to this, it is found that salt supresses
bitterness better than sugar. Researchers aren't sure how.Some
researchers suggest that salt neutralizies the bitter tongue
receptors.While some suggest that on adding salt, tthe brain interprets
the taste as less bitter.

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Is spicy food bad for you ?

`This is because spicy food generally contains chili peppers.Chili peppers

have a chemical called capsaicin.When capsaicin comes in contact with
our tongue.It activates the heat sensing receptors instead of our taste
buds.As a result, our brain thinks that our mouth is on fire. Capsaicin
present in spicy food is not necessarily bad for everybody.Only those
people who have a low tolerance level or don't have a habit of eating
spicy food can experience some problems like buring mouth, irritation
of the stomach lining, heart burn, etc.