In the air there are little tiny drops of stuff, and we don't understand
how all the drops get there. Breathing in the drops is bad and we're
not sure if the drops make the world hotter or colder, which is
important. So for my big final college paper I tried to find out how
some of the drops are made.
We know some of the drops are made
when stuff from trees and stuff from cars come together in the air and
make new stuff that sticks together into drops. We have a pretty good
idea of the first part of what happens, so I made the first part happen
in a cup to make three middle things that could come from three kinds of
tree stuff. Then I looked to see what they did. Two of the middle
things broke down by themselves but the third one didn't do much. This
is the one that came from the kind of tree stuff that doesn't make a lot
of drops with car stuff. This makes sense because we think the middle
things are too small to stick together and make drops, but if they break
down they could make bigger stuff that does stick together.
Then
we want to know why the third kind of tree stuff makes a middle thing
that doesn't break down. There wasn't enough time to be really sure, but
we think it might have to do with where the different parts of the
middle thing point, so some parts can touch each other and make it break
down, and it's not as easy with the third kind. Other people should do
stuff to try to find out if that idea is right!
