The Journey of the Monarch

The Monarch butterfly is a very amazing butterfly. Now I will tell you what happens when the Monarch go on their thousands-of-miles journey.

Now they start out forming their chrysalis as a small caterpillar.  They will stay in their chrysalis for about 10 days. When they come out, their wings look a little shriveled up. But give them another chance. They've got to hang upside down and let the blood flow to the wings. And then they start their journey.

The journey starts out easy. They start flying away.  Especially a thousand-mile journey needs to have a rest stop, of course. Monarch butterflies usually eat milkweed. And they have a built-in straw: their proboscis.

Now they take off again. But wait, one of them has found himself trapped in a spider web. For some reason, the spider cut his web and let the Monarch go. Well Monarchs are poisonous. Once a predator takes a bite of it, it won't eat another Monarch as long as it lives.

But what's this? It's another Monarch predator: the blue-tailed tree swallow. But the Monarch has a defense against predators like the blue-tailed tree swallow; they have the defense of flight-movements!

But now they have to cross a lot of water. But luckily the Monarch butterfly has a special feature. They can store fat in their abdomen. But unfortunately, butterflies are very light. But if a Monarch butterfly finds a boat they might be able to ride out the wind. Once the weather stops being windy, they can take off.

Finally, they've made it to their secret hideout in Mexico. But wait, what's going on? Aren't these Monarchs migrators? But for some reason, they're actually hibernating - to wait out the winter. After winter, they start laying some eggs. But unfortunately they are dying, but that's how nature goes.

Here's the whole thing in fast phase. First they come out of the egg and they start to eat the egg. And then they eat a lot. Then they go into chrysalis mode. And then they come out and let their wings get some blood, start the flight, go across a huge lake, hibernate at Mexico, wake up, lay eggs, and then die. And the babies are the ones who continue the journey.

(photo from learner.org)

(photo from wikipedia.com)

Tornado Categories

Tornadoes are some of the strongest forces of nature. Now some are weaker than others. There are different categories of power. Here are the categories that there are.

Here we are with the 2 weak tornadoes: F0 & F1. In an F0 wind speeds are 65mph to 80mph. So that's the wind speeds. Now here's what it'll be able to destroy: well, almost nothing. Just a couple roof tiles taken off and branches taken off trees. And then there's the F1, it's a different story. The EF1 wind speeds are 86mph - 110mph. Chimneys damaged, trees knocked over, and mobile homes destroyed.

Here are the 2 medium tornadoes: F2 and F3. The F2's wind speeds are 111mph - 135mph. Um, quite ok damage. I mean, whole roofs popped off. And well-built barns destroyed. And then there is the F3. F3 wind speeds are 136 mph to 165 mph. Some pretty mean damage. Some damage to walls and cars lifted off the ground and thrown a distance.

And there are the 2 strong tornadoes. These last tornadoes are hard to tell apart. They do quite identical damage, but still, one is stronger. The F4 and F5. F4 wind speeds are 166 mph to 200 mph. Some very, very bad damage. Trees lifted off the ground, and entire houses almost completely swept away. Well F3s can throw trees away too. And then there is the the F5 with wind speeds from 201 mph to, well, the highest wind speeds ever recorded was 300 mph so I'd have to say 300. Huge. Strong houses swept away. They can take the house off their foundations. Total destruction! And that's all.

Oh and did you know? There's a vehicle that can go inside a tornado - it's called TIV and the even better version, TIV2. TIV1 had 2-wheel drive. TIV2 had 6-wheel drive and it could intercept more winds than TIV1. It also carried more instruments.

Here's how a tornado is formed. Now we have a it of warm air rising up and some cold air coming down. Where this happens is called the cloud head. And then when they collide, they start to make some twisting. Sometimes it make a sort of funnel cloud sort of thing. If it drops onto the ground, then you got yourself a kind of tornado. But here is another thing, the funnel will start spinning faster and faster sucking up more warm air making it faster and also louder.

(photo of TIV1 from forum.i3d.net)

(photo from thorntonweather.com)

(photo from georgetowndemoc.wordpress.com)

The Science of Technology

You know, technology has gone very far. We have almost made it to time traveling, but it turns out that it isn't possible. We have made it to a car that can go inside tornadoes and the vehicle is called TIV, the Tornado Intercept Vehicle. And we also just about made it to the flying car. Unfortunately it is quite expensive. We have made it to jet packs that actually fly. And we have made it to phones that are a lot more like a computer. It is like an extra portable laptop. And we've almost made it to cars that can drive by themselves. Now the cars don't go very fast and they can't carry much fuel, but its gone far enough. We've made it to robots that can help us. I've always wanted to see one of those famous robots in action.