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Book Chapter
Waves are among the most common phenomena in nature. Waves breaking in the ocean, sound, light, microwaves, radio, or the motion of a guitar cord or a drum are all forms of waves. Such diversity makes finding common properties a challenge but, in ge...
Book Chapter
What are some of the ways you can make waves in water? Have you ever jumped into a pool or lake and done a “cannonball”? This makes waves. The largest water waves on Earth are found in the oceans, and most ocean waves are created by wind. The lar...
Book Chapter
Tanks a Lot—Activities for a Wave Tank (Teacher Demonstration)
Some concepts related to waves, though, are difficult to demonstrate in the classroom. They require observing water waves on a scale that is not ordinarily feasible for the classroom teacher because the necessary equipment is not available. The teach...
Book Chapter
Anyone who has been to the coast realizes there is a rhythm to the ocean. Waves crash onto the beach or rocks. The water they carried washes ashore, then retreats. Another wave crashes ashore. The pattern repeats. However, there is another rhythmic p...
Book Chapter
The Sun, Moon, and Earth are three extremely large objects separated by great distances. Despite the large distances between them, each object affects the others. Earth is kept in orbit around the Sun by the gravitational forces between them. The Moo...
Book Chapter
The Bulge on the Other Side of Earth
The bulge of water on the side of Earth that faces the Moon is easily explained. It is due to the gravitational attraction between the Moon and Earth, including the water on Earth. The difference on the horizontal component of gravity results in wat...
Book Chapter
Telephones, clothing, skis, antihistamines, ballpoint pens, music cassettes, toilet seats, antifreeze, and gasoline: What do these items have in common? All are often made from oil. The United States, like other industrialized nations, bases much of ...
Book Chapter
Hundreds of thousands of boats and ships and the materials and supplies on them have sunk to watery graves since humans first sailed the oceans. Even today, it is common practice for humans to throw their waste into the seas. In the past, much of tha...
Book Chapter
A substance’s molecular structure is responsible for its properties and governs how it interacts with other things on Earth. This Activity introduces and explores one specific property of liquid water. This sample chapter also includes the Table of...
Book Chapter
Water has many peculiar properties: high specific heat capacity, strong ability to act as a solvent, and the ability of the solid phase of water (ice) to float on its liquid phase. Many of the peculiar properties of water are directly related to the ...
Book Chapter
Water is one of the simplest chemical substances on Earth, and yet we must have it to live. In this Activity, you will learn how hydrogen and oxygen join and investigate some characteristics of the bond between them. Knowing the molecular structure o...
Book Chapter
The characteristics of the different parts of the ocean vary depending on the region. While the coastal ocean changes rapidly and presents the largest amount of biological activity, it also shows the largest exchanges with the continents through the ...
Book Chapter
Over and Under— Why Water’s Weird
Understanding water’s molecular structure helps explain some of its characteristics. Density is the mass of an object divided by its volume. In this Activity, you will look at how heating affects the density of different substances....
Book Chapter
The Tides: A Balance of Forces
The interaction between the gravitational forces of Earth, the Moon, and the Sun causes tides. The rhythmic movement of the water associated with the tides causes successive high and low waters in the coastal areas. ...
Book Chapter
Earth’s surface is mostly covered by water. Areas not covered by water—the continents—are surrounded by water. If land and water had the same specific heat, we would expect the land and surrounding water to heat up and cool down at the same rat...