1) ALL – Besides science, how and where do you see examples of the metric system in the United States?
The metric system is used in construction where measurements are done and sizes noted. In education would be another example where mathematics is taught to students. Another example would be sales and retail where things are measured out according to the metric system.
A) What challenges would our country face if we were to convert entirely to the metric system?
However there is a difference to the metric system used in the U.S. to that used in the U.K or France. France was the country which originally came up with the metric system which was a standard for weights and measured and incorporated a decimal system. The basic distance unit the foot (slightly shorter than the traditional foot) into 10 inches. Each inch was divided into 10 lines, and each line into 10 points. For larger distances, 10 feet equalled a decade, 100 feet was a rood, 1000 feet a furlong, and there were 10 000 feet in a mile the basic volume unit was the cubic foot, which he proposed to call a bushel (it was about 3/4 the size of a traditional bushel). The basic weight unit was the ounce, defined so that a bushel of water weighed 1000 ounces. This is very similar to the metric system, in which a liter of water weighs 1000 grams. (Rowlett, R.2000)
It would mean that all the measurements and weights would change and values of these would change for example the cost of a pint of milk would be more but there would be the same value or if the cost wouldn’t change that would mean less money for the industry.
B) What would we gain if our country converted to the metric system?
It would be easier to trade and standardise across borders. It would create a universal measurement system that would lead to less confusion and easier to follow. It would also mean that initially it would take time to get used to but also with globalisation it would be easier when people travelled to our country to understand measurements.
2) Use specific and diverse examples to explain how the microscope allows scientist to learn more about organisms.
Microscopy allows the study of cells. Different ways of studying cells and organisms. The simplest is to prepare a slide by taking a thin section of tissue for example potatoes. By staining it with iodine the structure of potato cells can be seen.
Different types of staining techniques exist. Gram stain is used to identify certain types of bacteria and is based on differences in the structure of the cell wall .Under the microscope Gram positive bacteria appear dark blue or violet.
Haematoxylin and eosin staining is used in slides of human tissue as it stains the cell nucleus blue and the cytoplasm pink and can be used to see the structures of the tissues. Different tissues have different orientation and shapes of the cells for example muscles vs. fat tissue.
Microscopes are used not only to look at cells and micro organisms but have helped to solve crimes, study metals and minerals and in medicine.
3) Explain what the following results mean:
Samples were taken from the same water test tube on the first, third and seventh day of the testing period,
Samples were taken from the same unknown test tube on the first, third and seventh days of the testing period.
Water
Unknown
Iodine- Day 1
yellow
Blue-black
Iodine- Day 3
yellow
Blue-black
Iodine- Day 7
yellow
Blue-black
Benedict’s – Day 1
blue
blue
Benedict’s – Day 3
blue
yellow
Benedict’s – Day 7
blue
orange
Biuret- Day 1
blue
blue
Biuret- Day 3
blue
blue
Biuret- Day 7
blue
blue
The iodine test represents the presence of starch as it changes to a blue black colour in its presence. This shows that starch is present from day 1 to day 7. The Benedict’s test shows the presence of sugar. No sugar was present on day 1 as the colour didn’t change but later the colour changed to yellow and then on day 7 to orange showing that sugar is present. This would indicate that starch has been broken down to glucose.
The Biuret test shows the presence of protein but in this case there was no protein present.
The sample contained starch and maybe some enzyme which hydrolysed the starch to produce glucose.
Works Cited
Rowlett, R (2000) The Metric System in the United States .the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on the 16th of September 2008.http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/usmetric.