Thursday, November 20, 2008

Havana, Cuba (20N) to London, England (55N)

Travel time: 9 days
Direction traveling: NE, E
Were you successful? yes
How many attempts? 1
What winds did you take advantage of or compete with during your travel? I didn't compete against any winds. I basically used the northern blowing prevailing westerlies to get me there!

San, Francisco US (35N) to Sydney, Australia (35S)

Travel time: 13 days
Direction traveling: SW only
Were you successful? yes
How many attempts? 1
What winds did you take advantage of or compete with during your travel? I competed with the northern blowing prevailing westerlies and the northern blowing trade winds. I used the southern blowing prevailing westerlies and the southern blowing trade winds to my advantage.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Earth Compared to Other Planets

Since Earth has an atmosphere it does lots of things to protect us. One thing it does is keep big meteors from hitting the surface. The mososphere is the layer of the atmosphere that protects us from large meteors, because meteors burn up there. On other planets without atmospheres, meteors just hit the planet and create craters. The stratosphere protects us from ultra violet rays from the sun. The ozone layer is what protects us. On other planets rays shine directly onto the planets surface causing extreme temperatures. The atmosphere also keeps heat out and traps other heat in. On planets without atmospheres, sun rays only heat the lit side of the planet. The atmosphere also creates weather. Weather occurs in the troposphere. On other planets without atmospheres, weather can't occur, because clouds aren't present.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

London Type Smog



London type smog is the polluted air that once surrounded London about 100 years ago. The cause of this smog was the burning of coal. The particles in the smoke from the burning coal mixed with the moisture in the air and created "smog". The consequences of the smog were that the air was very black and people were getting sick from inhaling it. The main thing that people did and still do today is stop burning so much coal or not burn any at all.