Jez's Blog

Rock is matter, water is matter, steam is matter.. Even you and I are matters as well! But what is matter?

Matter, is something that has volume (takes up space) and mass. Matter can be in 3 kinds of statements, which are solid, liquid and gas. There are loads of things that are considered as matters.. And now that you know how to manage whether or not a thing is matter, here's the question, IS AIR MATTER?

Air is in a state of gas, and according to the experiment Mrs.Smith has done during the class, which was blowing a balloon in a bottle with and with out a whole on the bottle. We proved that air does have volume (take up spaces). The balloon has gone bigger only when there was a whole on the bottle. Which means that the space in the bottle has already been taken by the air in the bottle, therefore, the balloon wasn't able to expend if there's no whole on the bottle to let the air in the bottle float out.


Okay, now that air has already fit in with 2 out of the 3 conditions of matter. The last condition is mass, does air has mass? According to the experiment, The balloon that is fulled with air is heaver than the balloon that is not fulled with air. Which has proven that air do have mass.









Therefore, as the result, is air matter?
The answer is, YES IT IS.


- http://wow.osu.edu/experiments/gases/airhasmass.html
[Picture of the experiment. Copied by Jez Lee. 23th of Sep. 2008]

The movie Schindler's List is basically about how Schindler's factory kept the Jews employed, or alive during WWII. While the Nazis invaded the Jewish culture in Germany.
Schindler was a German, he frequently used his wealthiness to build relationships between the others and himself. He usually behaved like he was an important person, a person who had a higher position in the society.

He started this new factories of making pots. And the workers that he had hired were all Jews. Well in the beginning, he opened this factory was just for his own profit. But then, the Germen started to take the Jews into concentration camp, which turned out to be a 'death camp'. And the only way to keep those Jews alive, was to keep them employed, in 'Schindler's place (factory)'.

Jews were saying that 'Schindler's place is an haven!' And also been saying that Schindler was a good person. But by listening to these 'compliment' from the Jews, Schindler somehow felt pressured. It's because that he knew it's dangerous for him to be this 'good person' during the time.

However, after loads of encorigement from his account, which was a incredibly smart person who helped Schindler to held his factory, and also trying to safe as many of Jews as he could. He was trying to safe the Jews from the concentration camp by persuading Schindler to hire them to work in his factory. And although Schindler wasn't really agree with him at the first. But then, the good inside of him has gradually come out.

I think this movie is quite meaningful because it sends the message of the reality of how people have changed their behaviors in such extremed situations. For example, because of the strong prejudice between Germen and the Jews, there was a little German girl yelling 'good-bye Jews' when the Jews were forced out off their houses. And for some of the Jews, they've given up the thought of standing up for themselves. And instead of taking this risk, they decided to just follow the orders. No matter how depressing they were.

The movie is really quite depressing. Watching people got killed for no reason? It was just so sad.. Couldn't belief the Germen were being so cruel to the Jews. Doesn't it just showed how deadly powerful is prejudice?


-http://www.schindlerslist.com/buy-schindlers-list.html
[Picture for Schindler's List. 30th of May. 2008, copied by Jez]