Four Main Layers of the Earth
The planet earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago, after the collapse of the supermassive gaseous body. As time moved on, the earth cooled down and is still cooling, as of today. As a result of the cooling process, denser materials like iron and sulfur sank to the inside of the earth; whereas, lighter materials like silicates and water floated near the earth’s surface.
Four Layers of the Earth: Explained
Coming to the topic of our discussion, our planet earth comprises several layers. Starting from the surface, there are four main layers; namely, the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core. The pressure and temperature increase tremendously when one goes from the outer layers to the inner layers. Let’s take a look at each of them individually.
The Crust
The crust or the lithosphere is the outermost layer of the earth made up of silicate rock materials. It makes up only about one percent of the earth and is the thinnest layer in comparison to the remaining three layers. Most earthquakes occur in the crust, and the average recorded temperature is 870 °C. The thickness and the composition of the earth’s crust vary in the land and the ocean. For example; the continental crust is about 32 kilometers thick and composed of lighter materials like granite, quartz, and feldspar. Whereas, the oceanic crust measures about 10 kilometers and is mostly made up of basalt. Read the rest of this entry »
Difference Between Organic and Inorganic Chemistry
When taking up your first advanced courses in high school level science, you will find two separate courses named organic and inorganic chemistry listed in the course schedule. Till date, you might have taken up only a single course in basic chemistry and the bifurcation of this subject into two separate parts might baffle you. As a subject advances in its scope of applicability and complexity, it tends to get divided into sub-fields and chemistry is no exception to this. According to the kind of chemical reactions studied and the materials investigated, chemistry is divided into organic and inorganic chemistry. In this Buzzle article, I have elucidated the difference between organic and inorganic chemistry, for beginner students taking up advanced chemistry courses.
What is Organic Chemistry?
Organic chemistry, as the name itself suggests, deals with the study of all kinds of organic compounds. Earlier, the term – ‘Organic’ addressed compounds of biological origin but now it is broadly defined to apply to all carbon compounds and hydrocarbons (C-H compounds) in particular. These includes alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, aromatic compounds, aliphatic compounds, polymers and biomolecules. It involves the study of structure, properties, synthesis, reactions and applications of organic compounds. Like any other field of chemistry, there is considerable lab work involved in a typical organic chemistry course which focuses on studying characterization, identification and analysis of organic reactions. Advanced courses in organic chemistry study biological reaction mechanisms like cellular respiration, protein synthesis, DNA replication and other such phenomena in substantial detail. Read the rest of this entry »
What is Biology
have forever been fascinated by the field of biology. Biology contains the essence of every other field of science like chemistry, biochemistry, even a bit of physics. But, what is biology is a question asked by many students. Biology is the study of life and all other aspects related to life. Anything everything that is alive or dead is studied under biology. Let us go into the details of what is biology about.
What is Biology?
As mentioned above biology is the study of interactions of life. Biology covers a number of subjects under the sun like plants (botany), animals (zoology), marine animals and plants (marine biology), microorganisms (microbiology), genes (genetics), and many more. A biologists investigates the biological processes and phenomena that helps build a correlation between all living things. There are certain characteristics of life that are considered under biology. Let us see some of the characteristics of life that will lead to an answer for what is biology about.
Characteristics of Life
The first characteristics of life is the cell. A cell is the basic unit of life, be it for animals, plants or single-celled organism. All living organisms, single-celled and multicellular organisms are made up of cells. Cells make up tissues, that form organs and organs lead to organ system. An organ system is contained within the organism. Read the rest of this entry »