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Science Problem of the Week

The Science Problem of the Week will be kept on line for not less than 1 week. After 12 problems have been posted, the person with the most correct answers will win a fabulous prize!

Last Round's Winner: Scott Mokris

The 24th round of the Science Question of the Week Competition was won by Scott Mokris, who correctly answered 12 out of 12 questions, including a tough one on relativity! Congratulations, Scott!

Now, on to the current competition. The prize for this round is the winner's choice of the following:
Lazer Megabotz - RC cars that shoot lasers at each other Trebuchet and Catapult kit Light saber - You control the length of the light beam Programmable Robot
This is the NINTH problem that goes towards this prize.

Consider the drawing below:



Question:
How does the size of the blue circle on the left compare to the size of the blue circle on the right?

This question will be replaced on or about May 19th.




If you can answer this question, please use the reply form below. Once again, the Science Question of the Week is for students of age 13 - 18 years. Your E-MAIL address must be supplied in the reply form below, or your answer will not count!

Note:
Compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule prevents us from accepting entries from children under the age of thirteen. By pressing GO you acknowledge that you are age thirteen or older. We are sorry for this restriction.

EMail
Name
Answer

Last Week's Question:
One “home remedy” for ink stains in fabric is to soak the stained fabric in milk. This can often remove an ink stain that would not be removed with just soap and water.

Question:
Why can milk remove ink stains from fabric?

Answer: Ink stains are hard to get out of fabric because the pigments in the ink are purely covalent compounds. This means there are no net electrical charges on or in the molecules. Water is attracted to polar and ionic compounds, which have net electrical charges. As a result, water is not attracted to pigments, so it does not dissolve them well.

Milk is an emulsion of fats and other things, including water. Essentially, milk is composed of small droplets of fat suspended in a mixture of water, sugars, and proteins. Fats are usually purely covalent, so the purely covalent fat droplets easily dissolve the pigments in the ink. Since these drops are suspended in water, they can then be carried away by water when the clothes are washed or rinsed.

Last week's question was answered correctly by:
Wyatt Chapman, Hannah Sode, Jonathan Willing, Josh Newman, Amanda Cobucci, Joshua Carmichael, Richard Paul, Scott Mokris, Alex, Gavin Donley, Jed Nixon, Mike Weaver, and Grant Neemann.
Congratulations to all of you!