What's The Difference? Science

 

What's The Difference?
SCIENCE

ANNUAL vs. PERENNIAL
ANNUAL plants bloom once each year
PERENNIAL plants bloom every three or more years

ASTEROID vs. METEOR vs. METEROID vs. METEORITE
ASTEROID - large rock that has no orbit and floats aimlessly around space
METEOROID - smaller asteroid
METEOR - meteoroid that has broken into Earth’s atmosphere but burns up or explodes shortly after
*what people call ‘shooting stars’ are meteors
METEORITE - meteoroid that hits Earth’s surface

ASTRONOMY vs. COSMOLOGY
ASTRONOMY - the study of objects in the universe, such as stars and planets, as well as forces like gravity and dark energy
COSMOLOGY (not cosmetology) - a branch of Astronomy that focuses on the universe as a whole, specifically its origin and potential future

ATOMIC BOMB vs. HYDROGEN BOMB
*nuclear weapons are named so because the reactions described take place in the nuclei of atoms
*nuclei is the plural form of nucleus
ATOMIC BOMB
*uses fission, which happens when a neutron smashes into an isotope (version of an atom with a different number of neutrons, such as uranium-235) and causes it to split into two smaller atoms
*when each new atom releases neutrons that crash into other atoms, a chain reaction is formed, unleashing a tremendous amount of energy
*the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War 2 (named ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’) were fission-based uranium and plutonium weapons, respectively
HYDROGEN BOMB (a.k.a. thermonuclear bomb)
*employs fusion, which happens when two or more atomic nuclei fuse together under immense heat to form the nucleus of a heavier element, resulting in a lot of energy
*Hydrogen bombs are several times more powerful than atomic bombs but one has never been used in war so its true destructive power is unknown
*the Sun is a gigantic nuclear fusion reactor, constantly creating helium out of lighter hydrogen atoms

CAT scan vs. PET scan vs. EKG vs. MRI vs. X-RAY
CAT SCAN (a.k.a. CT scan)
*Computed Axial Tomography
*provides full views of a person’s interior- bones, tissues, organs, muscles, any tumors that may be present
PET SCAN
*Positron Emission Tomography
*uses a small amount of radioactive material to show how tissues and organs work
*primarily done for cancer screenings or to monitor heart and brain functions
EKG (a.k.a. ECG)
*ElectroCardioGram
*displays a patient’s heart-beat via electrodes attached to the person’s chest
*EKG is the German abbreviation of the term, which was the primary scientific language used when it was discovered
MRI
*Magnetic Resonance Imaging
*magnetic fields paired with radio waves make images of bones and organs
X-RAY
*utilizes radioactive energy beams to produce images
*discovered by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, who did not know what it was and simply used the letter X to describe it

CYCLONE vs. TROPICAL STORM vs. HURRICANE/TYPHOON
CYCLONE – any storm system in which air pressure at its center is low, making the surrounding winds blow toward it
*turns counter-clockwise north of the Equator and clockwise south of it
TROPICAL STORM – formed at sea in tropical regions, this violent system is a huge spiral of smaller storms that can additionally cause tornadoes upon reaching land
*winds gust at less than 74 miles per hour
HURRICANE/TYPHOON – same as a tropical storm with winds reaching over 74 miles per hour
*called ‘hurricane’ around the Atlantic Ocean and ‘typhoon’ around the Pacific and Indian Oceans

EQUINOX vs. SOLSTICE
EQUINOX - at the Equator, Earth experiences 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of darkness within one calendar day
*in the northern hemisphere, the Vernal (Spring) equinox happens around March 21^st and the Autumnal equinox around September 23^rd; these are reversed in the southern hemisphere
SOLSTICE - the most and least sunlight received in one calendar day, providing the longest and shortest days of the year
*in the northern hemisphere, the Summer solstice (longest day) happens on June 20^th or 21^st and the Winter solstice (shortest day) is on December 21^st or 22^nd; again, reversed in the southern hemisphere

FAHRENHEIT vs. CELSIUS vs. KELVIN
FAHRENHEIT
*proposed by German physicist Daniel Fahrenheit in 1724
*water boils at 212°F and freezes at 32°F, though the temperature can go below 0°F
CELSIUS (a.k.a. Centigrade, meaning ‘100 degrees)
*developed by Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius in 1742
*water boils at 100°C and freezes at 0°C, but the temperature can go below 0°C
---
*the United States, Liberia, and some countries in the Caribbean Sea and Oceania (near Australia) use Fahrenheit while the rest of the world uses Celsius, though a few utilize both
*the formula for Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion is F – 32 x 5 / 9 = C
*the formula for Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion is C x 9 / 5 + 32 = F
*for everyday temperatures, doubling the degrees Celsius and adding 30 gets you close enough to accuracy in Fahrenheit
*for example, 5°C doubled is 10° plus 30 equals 40°F (41°F is the actual total)
KELVIN
*created by British mathematician William Thomson (a.k.a. Lord Kelvin) in 1848
*primarily used by scientists around the world and has no negative numbers, with Absolute Zero being the point at which everything freezes

LAKE vs. POND
*there is no scientific difference between these two
*what is commonly referred to as a lake is larger, with sunlight never reaching its bottom

MAGMA vs. LAVA
*liquefied hot rock
*the only difference is location- magma is underground while lava is what comes out of volcanoes

MASS vs. WEIGHT vs. VOLUME vs. DENSITY
MASS
*how much matter an object contains
*your bones, organs, and everything else in and on your body make up your mass
WEIGHT
*the measurement of gravity’s pull on an object
*higher or lower gravity affects your weight on other planets though your body’s mass stays the same
VOLUME
*the amount of three-dimensional space an object (solid, liquid, or gas) takes up
*described in cubic units like feet cubed, grams cubed, etc.
DENSITY
*how much mass an object has relative to its volume
*a shoebox containing 200 marbles has more density than the same shoebox with 50 marbles in it

METRIC SYSTEM vs. IMPERIAL SYSTEM
METRIC was developed by the French in the late-1700s because they had too many different units of measurement
*Napoleon abolished the system but it was brought back in 1840
*base number is 10 and its units of measurement include the gram, meter, and liter
*officially used by all countries on Earth except the three mentioned below
IMPERIAL originated in the British Empire in the 1800s
*basic units of measurement include the pound, foot, and gallon
*only officially used in the United States, Liberia, and Myanmar
*the United Kingdom began using metric units to make trade within Europe easier but still measures distance in feet and miles
---
*some examples of conversions: 1 mile = 1.6 kilometers; 1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds; 1 gallon = 3.78 liters

OCEAN vs. SEA vs. BAY vs. GULF
OCEAN
*the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern are all connected and make up one enormous body of saltwater called the World Ocean
*the salinity (saltiness) comes from minerals brought into the water by rivers and cracks in the ocean floor
*the boundaries of the smaller sections were likely designated by early cartographers (map-makers) and made official by the United Nations, though there are many disputed areas
SEA
*part of the ocean that touches land
*a notable exception is the Caspian Sea, which is surrounded by land on all sides but contains saltwater, not fresh; the same applies to the Black and Dead Seas
BAY and GULF are technically the same thing – a body of water surrounded by land except for an entryway
*though there are exceptions, a gulf tends to have a narrower entrance and is larger than a bay

POISON vs. VENOM
POISON - transferred by touch or being consumed
*Poison is also a rock band formed in 1983, fronted by Bret Michaels of reality TV fame, and has the hit song Every Rose Has Its Thorn
VENOM - poison stored in an animals’ fangs or stingers and injected into victims
*Venom is a heavy metal band formed in 1978, fronted by Cronos of being-in-a-heavy-metal-band-called-Venom fame, and has the non-hit song In League With Satan

RADAR vs. SONAR
*these systems’ waves are returned after hitting objects, giving observers vital information about them, such as location and speed
RADAR - RAdio Detection And Ranging
*first officially used in 1939
*emits electromagnetic waves, primarily on land and in air
SONAR - SOund Navigation And Ranging
*developed in the 1920s
*sends out acoustic sound waves, primarily in water

RNA vs. DNA
RNA - ribonucleic acid
*turns genetic information into proteins for various jobs
*stem cells are guided by RNA regarding what to become
DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid
*contains all the information an organism requires to exist, such as where certain proteins are needed
*can be used to identify criminals because it contains so much material

ROCKS
IGNEOUS
*cooled and hardened molten rock
*examples- basalt, granite
METAMORPHIC
*formed when existing rocks are changed by heat or pressure, such as tectonic plates colliding
*examples- slate, marble
SEDIMENTARY
*accumulate in layers from particles in air and/or precipitation
*examples- limestone, shale

SPECIAL RELATIVITY vs. GENERAL RELATIVITY
*scientific theories developed by German physicist Albert Einstein that continue to influence many branches of Science, particularly Astronomy
*scientific theories (such as relativity, gravity, and the big bang) are not set facts but widely accepted ideas that have overcome thorough scientific scrutiny; they are not testable because of factors like the enormity of space, inadequate equipment, and gigantic amounts of time required
SPECIAL RELATIVITY (1905)
*discusses the relationship between an event and its observer
*example: a person on a moving walkway going in the direction of the walkway would appear (to an observer) to be moving faster (due to the addition of the walkway’s speed) than a person going against the walkway, who would appear to be walking in place; in the walker’s reality, he or she would be walking at one speed regardless of direction
*the famous equation E = mc² comes from special relativity and means that Energy is equal to mass times the speed of light squared, describing how energy is created inside a celestial body
*the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) is abbreviated ‘c’ from the Latin word ‘celeritas’, meaning swiftness
GENERAL RELATIVITY (1915)
*involves space-time, which is the combination of the three dimensions of space plus the dimension of time
*example: meeting a friend at the Empire State Building. The building’s first two dimensions are its address, in this case the intersection of 34^th Street and 5^th Avenue in New York City. But does your friend want to meet in the lobby, on the top floor, or somewhere in between? That information is the third dimension. The date and time will provide you with the fourth dimension to make meeting your friend successful.
*the theory itself says the gravity of large objects (like black holes) is so powerful it can distort a light beam, which would otherwise move along in a perfect straight line
*general relativity also describes time dilation, which is the idea of time moving much slower (for the observer) closer to the center of a celestial object than one farther away

STALACTITE vs. STALAGMITE
*both are long, narrow formations in caves created by minerals in dripping water
STALACTITE - hangs from cave ceilings
STALAGMITE - accumulates and “grows” from cave floors
---
*to remember, stalacTites are on Top while stalagMites are on the bottoM
*both words come from the Greek word stalagmos, which means ‘drop’ or ‘trickle’

STREAM vs. BROOK vs. CREEK
STREAM
*scientifically, any flowing body of water, from a small one to raging river
CREEK
*small- to medium-sized stream; one would need a boat to cross it
BROOK
*narrower and shallower than a creek; can be waded (walked) across

TORNADO vs. MONSOON
*these are not very similar but worth noting anyway
TORNADO (a.k.a. twister) - huge, rotating funnel cloud stretching from Earth to the sky
*one can occur wherever weather conditions are right but happen most often in the southern United States
MONSOON - yearly season of heavy rain caused by shifts in temperature and wind, mostly in southern and eastern Asia

TREES
CONIFEROUS
*produce cones and have needles instead of leaves
*examples: spruce, fir, pine, redwood
*also referred to as ‘evergreen’ trees because their needles stay on all the time, therefore never losing color; however, some evergreens do not produce cones, so the terms are not true synonyms
DECIDUOUS
*produce hard wood and sprout leaves for some seasons then lose them to retain water in cold weather
*examples: maple, oak, apple, magnolia
*grow faster than coniferous trees but do not live as long

TSUNAMI vs. TIDAL WAVE
TSUNAMI – fast ocean wave (or series of waves) caused by an underwater earthquake, landslide, or volcano
*while small on the open ocean, the energy of a tsunami as it reaches a shallow coast forces water up into waves that are mostly under 10 feet tall but can reach over 100
*Japanese for ‘harbor wave’
TIDAL WAVE – caused by tides
*Earth’s gravitational interaction with the Sun and Moon creates tidal surges, which occur every day and are more like large water movements than destructive waves, though they can cause damage by flooding

UNUSUAL UNITS OF MEASUREMENT
ACRE
*43,560 square feet or ¹/₆₄₀ of a square mile; a bit smaller than an American football field
*an average house sits on about a quarter of an acre of land
CUBIT
*21 inches
*not an official unit of measurement, this is roughly the distance from a person’s elbow to the tip of the middle finger
*from the Latin word cubitum, meaning ‘elbow’
*in the Bible, Noah’s Ark was 300 cubits long, 50 wide, and 30 tall, measuring around 440 x 72 x 43 feet
FATHOM
*six feet
*from an Old English word meaning ‘outstretched arms’, because the unit described the distance between middle fingertips on a man whose arms were extended
FORTNIGHT
*two weeks
*from an Old English term meaning ‘fourteen nights’
FURLONG
*slightly more than 660 feet
*from Old English words meaning ‘furrow’ and ‘long’, depicting the length of one strip of irrigated farmland
HAND
*about four inches
*used primarily to measure the heights of horses
*since people were smaller, this unit was the average vertical distance of a human palm, from the top of the wrist to the base of the middle finger
HECTARE
*slightly more than 2.47 acres
*from Hekaton, the Greek word for ‘one hundred’
*in the metric system, a square hectare is exactly 100 meters on each side
KNOT
*speed (on water) of around 1 ³/₂₀ miles per hour, which is one nautical mile
LEAGUE
*around three miles
*nautical measurement describing the average distance a cannon could hit an off-shore ship
*the title of Jules Verne’s book 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea refers to distance traveled *in* the water, not depth
LIGHT YEAR
*almost six trillion miles
*light, the fastest known entity, travels around 186,000 miles per second
NAUTICAL MILE
*around 1 ­­³/₂₀ miles
*this measurement is equal to one minute of latitude or longitude; 60 minutes in one degree, 360 degrees around the world
*used for a ship’s navigation
PARSEC
*roughly 3.26 light years
*the reason this unit exists is complicated but the word is short for ‘parallax second’
SCORE
*20
*supposedly from counting livestock and marking a ‘score’ to signify 20 animals
*most know the word from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, which began, ‘Four score and seven years ago…’; he meant 87 years prior, referring to 1776

VACCINE vs. INOCULATION
VACCINE
*English doctor Edward Jenner used cowpox to prevent smallpox in humans
*the virus that caused cowpox was vaccinia, which gave us the word vaccination
*originally used solely relating to cowpox but has since described any method of injecting a person with a small amount of a disease so the body could learn how to fight against it
INOCULATION
*formerly used in reference to plants, specifically grafting them together for various reasons, hoping they would attach and grow as one
*the idea spread from the plant world to largely mean anything that is implanted, including medicine and putting an idea into someone’s brain
*when pus from smallpox blisters was first used to prevent the disease in healthy people, the process was called an ‘inoculation’

WEATHER vs. CLIMATE
WEATHER is happening outside right now and in the near future
*windy, sunny, and rainy are all weather terms
*meteorologists are often criticized but really are the best people in their field, showing just how unpredictable weather is
CLIMATE is the weather in a region (local to worldwide) over decades
*to know which clothes to pack for vacation, look at the place’s usual climate
*saying the 10 highest recorded worldwide temperatures have all occurred since 1998 means the climate has been warmer during that time than since accurate recordings began in 1850
*when James Inhofe brought a snowball into the Senate, he was trying to show that global warming (change in the climate) was not happening, but only proved that it had recently snowed (weather) in the Washington, D.C., area