The Ancient Near Eastern World - Unit 2

In Unit 2, "Religion and Myth," gods, government, and legends are the big ideas. Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia is explored through discussion of the genealogy of the Mesopotamian gods and the origins of humans. This is followed by exploration of the emergence of royalty in Mesopotamian city-states, and a study of the great "Epic of Gilgamesh."

Convection currents

Convection currents are made by heated gasses and liquids. We demonstrated this with an experiment (see video below). The right half of this dish is over a lit burner; the left half contains ice and food coloring. The ice cools the blue water, increasing the water's density. The cool water then flows under the warmer, less dense water, which flows up and back along the surface, until it reaches the cold side and the cycle starts again.

Convection currents also drive home heating, weather patterns, and plate tectonics.

Heat, Volume, and Density

In 1717, a man named Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit invented the thermometer. He discovered that he could use mercury, a fluid that would expand and contract based on temperature, inside a very thin glass tube to measure temperature. When the liquid in the tube is heated, the molecules get excited and the liquid goes up. When the liquid is cooled, the molecules aren't as active and the liquid goes down.

We made a home-made thermometer out of clear tubing, a glass bottle, blue water, some wire, and hot glue. Here is the video we made:



After we used the thermometer, we put it in a paper bag and froze it to see what would happen. The next day, when we opened the freezer, the bottle was cracked, and the ice was jutting out of the bottle!

Here's what it looked like:





So water expands when it's heated and when it's cold. How can this be? When the water in our bottle thermometer was heated, the water molecules became more energetic spread out, moving the water up the tube. When water cools, the molecules lose energy and move closer together. The water in the tube goes back down. When we put the bottle in the freezer, the water kept contracting until it reached 4 degrees celsius. Between 4 and zero degrees celsius, the water becomes solid, and the molecules expand into a more solid pattern. The ice expanded enough to break the glass bottle!

Hydrometer

A hydrometer is a tool for measuring the density of liquids. We made one by filling a water bottle with marbles and water, we made a hole in the cap and inserted a straw, securing it with hot glue. We had to adjust the water carefully, using an eye dropper, until the bottle floated beneath the surface, with the water level right at a mark on the straw. The total density of the bottle, straw, marbles, plus water and air in the bottle equaled 1 gram per cubic centimeter, the same as the water.

Then we added salt to the water in the cylinder, increasing the water's density, and the hydrometer floated higher. This why boats that travel from a fresh water river into a salty ocean float higher.

The Dead Sea is SO salty, and so dense, that you can even float in it sitting up!
















Watch carefully as we add salt to the fresh water:

The Ancient Near Eastern World - Unit 1

Unit 1 explores Mesopotamia more than 10,000 years ago - from the beginning of writing through early settlements in the Fertile Crescent. Examples of technology and innovation developed by ancient Near Eastern peoples, such as irrigation, wheeled carts and wagons, and Cuneiform writing are discussed.