Science Quiz

[say what]

Every week on the morning show that I listen too, a local scientist comes on and asks listeners a science question. I thought this week's question was neat- and I thought I would share to see what you all would say:

If you poach a peach, that is, slightly cook a peach in boiling water, you will find that when you remove the peach, it has lost all of it's sweatness. If you taste the water, you will find that it's sugar free. What happens to the sugar?

 

[Stu]

sugars don't evaporate, when they get to hot they crystallize...so I am going to go with fermentation. Somehow the rise in temp (slight cooking) activates a microbial fermentation (yeast or some other "critter")

 

[say what]

sugars don't evaporate, when they get to hot they crystallize...so I am going to go with fermentation. Somehow the rise in temp (slight cooking) activates a microbial fermentation (yeast or some other "critter")

Nice! So while the water might not taste sugary, it would have some kind of taste? More of a yeasty one?

 

[Stu]

it would be hot and dry from the alcohol

 

[Eventhorizon]

Does this not also depend on how much water you use. For instance boil a peach in the ocean and the water wont taste sweet etc...

 

[say what]

*steals all the answers and submits them to the radio*

seriously though...you guys are so smart....

 

[sprinkles]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmosis

Water is getting absorbed into the peach and diluting the sugar.

All that sweet juice inside the peach is made of solute liquid. Water is a solvent for sugar. When osmosis happens through a membrane, the solvent goes from the solvent side of the membrane into the solute side. When boiled slightly the water moves across the peach and gets sucked in via osmosis, lowering its detectable sweetness.

This is why poached fruits are often done with alcohol or another sweetened solution.

 

[Eventhorizon]

Googling is like cheating...

 

[say what]

Googling is like cheating...

Nah!!!

Only because I've tried googling the answers to these questions and have failed!!

You need to know more than nothing to actually google an answer!!

I'll see if I can find some of the old questions! They're super simple, but super hard! I don't have the knowledge/brain for it- but I'm always amazed when people are like "oh yeah, that's....." and then I'm like ..."that totally makes sense!"

 

[say what]

Ok, here are some old ones if you're interested in answering them

1. Will a discus go farther if it's thrown into a moderate wind, or against it?

2. Raindrops are much bigger than mosquitos, so why don't mosquitos get flattened and killed in the rain? (this one made me laugh...only because I pictured a terrified mosquitos being killed by a godzilla raindrop)

3. If you look at a decorative water fountain, you can see, hear and feel the vertical spout pulsing, even though the water flow into it is constant. Why does that happen?

4. Most weather sytems run West to East. Why do hurricans travel South to North?

5. True or False (and Why!) Runway lights are blue because that's the colour that can be seen at the farthest distance?




I'll make sure to post the one on this Wed's show!

 

[Stu]

1 against (more lift)
2 because they are so light they are pushed aside by the air wake afore the drops
3 acceleration due to gravity
4 Coriolis effect (the spin of the earth)
5 False

 

[Eventhorizon]

All done from my head, no google!

1. Will a discus go farther if it's thrown into a moderate wind, or against it?
Too many variances. Shape of object, is it spinning, direction of wind top to bottom. I say initially though that thrown in the same direction of the wind, it would go further. I know this from playing golf.

2. Raindrops are much bigger than mosquitos, so why don't mosquitos get flattened and killed in the rain? (this one made me laugh...only because I pictured a terrified mosquitos being killed by a godzilla raindrop)
Mosquitoes either don’t fly in the rain or are quick!

3. If you look at a decorative water fountain, you can see, hear and feel the vertical spout pulsing, even though the water flow into it is constant. Why does that happen?
Slowed down the water stream is not a stream but separate drops. The drops create an air disturbance that makes the sound.

4. Most weather sytems run West to East. Why do hurricanes travel South to North?
Why not? Isnt there spin counter the rotation of the earth which helps negate the effect. Kind of like a gyroscope…I should know this, I aced earth science all through high school.

5. True or False (and Why!) Runway lights are blue because that's the color that can be seen at the farthest distance? False. Arent the blue so that they cant be mistaken for street lights? In other words pilots know it’s a runway and not a street?

 

[sprinkles]

No google:

1. The discus will go further if you throw it with the wind. It might go higher if you throw it against the wind because of aerodynamic lift, but the drag of air moving over it is going to slow it down. Even powered airplanes have more trouble going into headwinds. A discus is unpowered so it would be completely at the mercy of the wind, and the air moving against it would rob it of lateral velocity. If the wind is strong enough it might even go backwards!

5. Runway lights are not blue, they're usually white or yellow. Taxiway lights are some times blue.

 

[sprinkles]

After google:

A discus goes further when thrown against the wind.

This normally goes against intuition because usual objects - even aerodynamic ones, do not do this. The shape and angle of attack allows the discus to just get around this idea because its lift vs drag works out just so.

This is why you look things up, check, and do not guess.

 

[Eventhorizon]

After google:

A discus goes further when thrown against the wind.

This normally goes against intuition because usual objects - even aerodynamic ones, do not do this. The shape and angle of attack allows the discus to just get around this idea because its lift vs drag works out just so.

This is why you look things up, check, and do not guess.

Hmmm...why do golf balls go further when hit with the wind? More surface area? And, my frisbess always go further when there's a wind behind, not in front....

 

[sprinkles]

Hmmm...why do golf balls go further when hit with the wind? More surface area? And, my frisbess always go further when there's a wind behind, not in front....

It's the lift and drag coefficient. The discus gets more lift efficiently than it loses speed by drag so a slight wind will help it loft enough to counteract the drag more than no wind or a tail wind.

Edit:
It's also spin stabilized so it keeps this angle of attack.

 

[Rift Zone]

Every week on the morning show that I listen too, a local scientist comes on and asks listeners a science question. I thought this week's question was neat- and I thought I would share to see what you all would say:

If you poach a peach, that is, slightly cook a peach in boiling water, you will find that when you remove the peach, it has lost all of it's sweatness. If you taste the water, you will find that it's sugar free. What happens to the sugar?

C[SUB]6[/SUB]H[SUB]12[/SUB]O[SUB]6 [/SUB]<--chemical composition of glucose. I do believe "decomposition" is the right answer.

 

[sprinkles]

[MENTION=8603]Eventhorizon[/MENTION]

Also note that it is the design of the discus and also the proper throw generating enough speed to get it to do this. It was really a tricky question - you'd have to know about discus throwing trajectories.

But it's true that most things glide better with a tailwind because it helps with speed and objects usually lose more speed than they can gain lift when attacking a headwind. Gliding is mainly about speed - specifically relative ground speed. Planes for example often take off into the wind and also land into the wind to reduce ground speed but increase relative airspeed, giving more lift over less ground. Or in the case of landing a gentle descent over less ground, or in other words making the runway requirement shorter. But when they want to fly or glide, a tailwind is preferred.

 

[Eventhorizon]

Also an btw, Im not claiming my answers are right, only my best guesses.

 

[Rift Zone]

[MENTION=10252]say what[/MENTION], was that close? What was the official answer?

C[SUB]6[/SUB]H[SUB]12[/SUB]O[SUB]6 [/SUB]<--chemical composition of glucose. I do believe "decomposition" is the right answer.

I was thinking enzymes or something... more energy in the system could give those [hypothetical] guys enough juice to shred sugar. Then again, it could also be more about chemical reaction and build different things rather than break them down; that would make me wrong about decomposition. Any word on that?