The periodic table

The periodic table of elements contain more information than you might think it does. Not only known as something that lists the elements, it can give you a myriad of knowledge of each of them if you look harder.

Atomic theory states that everything consists of trillions of inseparable particles, called atoms. Atoms have a core, consisting of neutrons and protons. The neutrons have a neutral charge, while protons have positive charge. Orbiting these neutrons and protons are electrons, and they have a negative charge. Each element has the same number of protons and electrons so that the system has a neutral charge.

If you didn't already know, each number corresponds to the elements' atomic number. For example, Hydrogen's atomic number is one. This means that it has one proton in its core and one electron orbiting around. The number of neutrons can vary. Giving an atom different amounts of neutrons will result in different ions of the element.

New elements like ununoctium are being discovered in the century and these are incredibly dense atoms that can only be created in labs.


There is also a special pattern that electrons orbit in.

As you can see, each ring is called shell. Electrons are placed in each shell starting from the innermost one and when it is full, they move onto the next. Elements on the rightmost side are called Noble Gases. They are special because they always have a completed electron shell.

Helium has two electrons, so its first shell is completed, with no leftovers.
Neon has ten electrons, so its first and second shell are completed, (2+8) with no leftovers.
And on and on.
These elements are chemically inert, which means that it is almost impossible for them to create chemical reactions or bonds.
 The column to the left is labelled halogens and they are also special, Unlike noble gases, they are missing just one electron to become inert. That is why they are highly reactive, because they just want that last electron.
The far left column excluding Hydrogen consists of the Alkali Metals. All of these are soft, highly reactive metals. Unlike Halogens, they have an electron and they just want to get rid of it ASAP. They usually form bonds with halogens because they have an extra electron and halogens need one electron. An example is NaCl, or table salt. Chlorine lends an electron to sodium so they can be chemically stable, and everyone is happy.

Some basic Linux shell script commands

All Linux operating systems have a terminal that users can type commands in. It is basically the equivalent of the cmd. of Windows OSes. It is much more useful in Linux though, as it provides a lot more functions than the Windows command terminal, which is why it is imperative for a Linux user to at least know the basic commands that can help troubleshoot, save time, or make it more convenient for the user.

man (command): Linux conveniently has a page that explains the function of every command. If you don't know what a command does, just type man(command) to open up the page that explains it.

sudo: Changes the user to the superuser or root user. Sudo is basically the Linux version of an administrator on Windows. It allows a user to view and edit other user's files and install packages, among many others.

ls: Probably the most simple command. It lists the contents of the current directory that you are in

cat (file): Stands for concatenate, it prints out the contents of a file into the shell so you do not have to actually open the file to view its contents

cd: Stands for current directory, it is used to navigate between directories. The command cd returns you to your home directory. The command cd .. returns you to the next higher directory than your previous directory. To move into a directory, simply type cd (directory name)

ping: pings a website address and prints the time it took for them to return. This is a convenient way to test if your internet or a website is down or not.

df: Prints out the device's current disk space usage

apt-get install (For Ubuntu) or yum install (for Fedora): Allows the user to choose from and install thousands of different packages and software. Requires superuser. For example, to install the command cowsay, which prints a cow saying something, you simply have to type sudo apt-get install cowsay and it will start downloading.

sl: Probably the most fun command, stands for steam locomotive. It cures one's bad habit of mistyping as many people accidentally press this when typing, the much more common command ls. It displays an animation of a train chugging from the right side of the screen to the left side of the screen. You have to install it by typing sudo apt-get install sl.

Soddy Circles

Soddy circles are named after Frederick Soddy, who in 1936. He proved that given three circles that are tangent to the other two, exactly two circles can be drawn that are tangent to all three; one very big circle, and one very small circle. I used Geogebra to draw these circles. The three red circles are all tangent to each other. The big, blue circle is tangent to all three at the points P, M, and O. It is called the outer Soddy circle and its centre, R, is called the outer Soddy centre. The smaller blue circle that is in the middle is called the inner Soddy circle, and its centre, S, is called the inner Soddy centre.

Drawing regular polygons with geometer's sketchpad #1

Geometer's sketchpad is an application that allows you to draw many different drawings using geometrical tools.

This is a regular triangle, created with geometer's sketchpad

Drawing regular polygons with geometer's sketchpad #3

This time, I drew a (you guessed it) pentagon.  This was harder to make but I managed to pull it off.

These drawing are starting to get complicated

Drawing regular polygons with geometer's sketchpad #2

The second polygon I made was a square.

The numbers on the side prove that this is a regular square

Drawing regular polygons with geometer's sketchpad #5

Since a regular heptagon is not constructible with a compass and a ruler, I skipped it and did an octagon instead.

It is extremely easy as all one has to do is bisect each side of a square

Drawing regular polygons with geometer's sketchpad #6

Since a regular nonagon can't be constructed with a compass and ruler, the next one is a Decagon.

The measurements are a bit off, but I don't know why as I did everything correctly

Drawing regular polygons with geometer's sketchpad #7

Since a hendecagon can't be constructed with a compass and straight-edge, I skipped it and constructed a regular dodecagon instead.

I bisected each of the Hexagon's 6 sides

Drawing regular polygons with geometer's sketchpad #4

Next up is the Hexagon.

It is basically constructing 6 regular triangles 

Drawing regular polygons with geometer's sketchpad #8

Since a tridecagon, a tetradecagon, and a pentadecagon all can't be constructed with a ruler and straight-edge, I will be skipping all of them and moving on to the 16 sided polygon, or Hexadecagon.

If you can actually tell what's happening, I applaud you

The 2017 total solar eclipse

One of the most important solar events is happening this summer. A total solar eclipse is when the moon is completely blocks the sun. It will like nighttime, and the only things that will be visible are the outer edges of the sun's corona.

On August 21, starting at 16:48:33 UTC, this is happening along a strip of land across the United States. The darkness will last around three minutes. This will include places from Oregon and South Dakota. In other places in the continental United States, northern Mexico, and southern Canada, you will only see a partial solar eclipse, but it will be epic nonetheless.

Most astronomers, professionals and amateurs alike, are marking this day as a vacation as this is a rare occurrence. On the day, people numbering in the tens of millions will be driving to the path of totality. Hotels are already filled, so anyone who wants to experience it will have to find an alternative.

The next total solar eclipse will happen in 2019.

Click here to see NASA's video


Remember to wear protective eyewear, as looking directly at the eclipse will still be harmful to your eyes!

Cities under the path of totality will no doubt host viewing stations so one might consider going there.

To any one who is chasing the three minutes of complete totality, good luck on your endeavors and to anyone who wants to view a partial eclipse, that is cool, too!

Ancient whales had average hearing

Yes, ancient whales' hearing was different from modern day whale hearing. Over the years, they developed an acute sense of hearing specializing in either high frequency sounds or low frequency sounds. A report published on June 8 claimed that their ancestors heard sounds that were somewhere in the middle of those two frequency ranges.

A CT scanner was used on two 45 million year old fossils of whales that were unearthed in Togo. It revealed that the inner ear bones were not as developed as modern whale ears, although they possessed some components of modern whale ears.


This new information debunked a controversial theory stating that ancient whales already had either high frequency or low frequency hearing. As it turns out, it is neither.

An ancient whale.

SpaceX successfully reused an old Falcon 9 booster

On March 30, 2017, SpaceX successfully launched a reused Falcon 9 booster.

The Falcon 9 is a two stage rocket, which means that the first stage detaches from the main body after launch. But instead of crashing back on Earth, it lands back at a specified destination.

I believe that this is definitely a big milestone in space travel as recycling old rockets saves both time and money. Since we live in a world where technology is rapidly advancing, these achievements are certainly big.

SpaceX plans to reuse an old Falcon 9 booster that was used in January in a June 17 launch.

A Falcon 9 rocket

The circumcenter of a triangle

The circumcenter of a triangle is point where the three perpendicular bisectors of each side intersect. A perpendicular bisector is a line drawn onto each side of the triangle so that it bisects and is perpendicular to that side. 
One interesting fact about the circumcenter of a triangle is that it is the center of the circumcircle, which is unique to every triangle. It has the three points of the triangle on it. 

The three perpendicular bisectors, the circumcenter, and the circumcircle of a triangle.