November 15, 2014

Why do leaves change color and fall off trees?

This is a question I would always ask myself as fall came around, but I would never worry too much about the answer. As I was walking around my neighborhood this week all the leaves on the road got me thinking again of this old question. So I thought this time, why not find out the answer already! Before I actually got to the answer I observed a small bush close to my house that had exactly what I was looking for. This bush had a mixture of different colored leaves with some already fallen off.

       

                                                   

As you can see the leaves on this bush were originally green but the fall season slowly turned them yellow. So I made my own hypothesis, maybe the leaves were changing color because they were dying. I thought of this because, why would a strong leaf change color and fall off of its lifeline if it still has energy to hold on. The only reason it would fall and change color is because its weak and just wants to let go. Just like a human, we’re strong and try to hang on but when we get sick and weak our skin color doesn't change but it does get paler than usual.

After observing the bush and its leaves for five more minutes I finally looked up the answer to my question. Why do leaves change color and fall off trees?

-“When leaves appear green, it is because they contain an abundance of Chlorophyll. There is so much chlorophyll in an active leaf that the green masks other pigment colors. Light regulates chlorophyll production, so as autumn days grow shorter, less chlorophyll is produced. The decomposition rate of chlorophyll remains constant, so the green color starts to fade from leaves.”

-“When winter approaches, our part of Earth receives less sunlight, and the air grows colder. When these changes happen, trees prepare for winter. Trees that drop their leaves seal the spots where the leaves are attached. Then fluids cannot flow in and out of the leaves, which change color and fall off.”

So just like the leaves we can fall off of our lifeline at a certain point in our lives but we will always have a chance to come back and be ready for it to happen again because it's just "Human Nature".

Work cited: 

Helmestine, Anne Marie. "Why Do Leaves Change Color in the Fall?" About.com, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. <http://chemistry.about.com/od/howthingsworkfaqs/f/fallleafcolor.htm>.

"How and Why Do Leaves Fall off Trees?" Highlight Kids. Web. <http://www.highlightskids.com/science-questions/how-and-why-do-leaves-fall-trees>.

November 9, 2014

Does weather affect our mood?

I decided this week to observe what the weather makes myself and others feel like. Do our attitudes change when the weather changes without us realizing it? I will keep a close eye on how I and other people feel throughout the week. This experiment will be from Monday November 3rd to Friday November 7th.

Most days of the week in fall start off kind of cold being around 65 degrees. Cold weather to me makes me feel calm as long as I have some type of warmth that can make me feel secure. Without this warmth and security, I feel awake and full of energy like if someone dumped ice cold water on me. Afterwards, when I got to school I started to observe the people around me. Most of them were wearing jackets and sweaters, probably also looking for that warmth and security I like. A thing I noticed was that the people with some type of warmth were calm and still sleepy from waking up early and the people with only a t-shirt were moving a lot trying to keep warm.

In the afternoons, when the sun comes up during fall it still gets hot but not as hot as summer. By this time most people don't have their jackets or sweaters anymore and everyone looks more relaxed and outgoing. I also felt more outgoing, probably because that warmth was everywhere. If I compare the cold to the heat more people act like themselves when they feel like the weather is right, and that right weather is usually above 80 degrees. 

Now back to my question, does weather affect our mood? After doing my experiment, I don't feel like I know the answer because I only observed people in two different climates, hot and cold. As a result I went online and tried to find the answer. I came up on a certain website where they did a experiment on personality types and weather.

"The Impact of Weather May Depend On Your Weather Personality Type"

• "Summer lovers (17 percent) – Happier, less fearful, and less angry on days with more sunshine and higher temperatures. More hours of precipitation was associated with less happiness and more anxiety and anger.”
• "Summer haters (27 percent) – Less happy and more fearful and angry when the temperature and the percentage of sunshine were higher. With more hours of precipitation they tended to be happier and less fearful and angry.”
• "Rain haters (9 percent) – Angrier and less happy on days with more precipitation. By comparison, they were more happy and fearful, but less angry, on days with more sunshine and higher temperatures.”
• "Unaffected by weather (48 percent) – Largely unimpacted by changes in the weather."

As you can see, there are people who act differently in different weather and climate conditions. The majority doesn't really care about the weather, but for some people weather is a huge factor that controls your mood.

Work cited:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/08/29/can-weather-affect-your-mood/