I need to be a master of science in 1 week

[Not Kuno]

Anyone have any link to basic resources to study for a Biological Science and Physical Science test? I'm CLEPing the crap out of science so I don't have to take a class on it and I know nothing about the subject. Help me BG I know some of you guys get turned on by electrions and shit.

[Mizango]

Neutrinos make my seminiferous tubules lactate.

[Not Kuno]

Baxter, you know I can't speak science.

Someone fire the woozie signal. D:

[Mizango]

You need beginner tests or are you looking for something more advanced? I ask because I don't want to *insult your intelligence by posting a 3rd grade test for you to review.


*Laugh at you publicly.

[Not Kuno]

Heres the description of my test. PS. I picked the one that sounded the easiest.

The Natural Sciences examination covers a wide range of topics frequently taught in introductory courses surveying both biological and physical sciences at the freshman or sophomore level. Such courses generally satisfy distribution or general education requirements in science that usually are not required of nor taken by science majors. The Natural Sciences exam is not intended for those specializing in science; it is intended to test the understanding of scientific concepts that an adult with a liberal arts education should have. It does not stress the retention of factual details; rather, it emphasizes the knowledge and application of the basic principles and concepts of science, the comprehension of scientific information, and the understanding of issues of science in contemporary society.

The examination contains approximately 120 questions to be answered in 90 minutes.

[Mizango]

Oh ok, that's cake. Let me see what I can find for you as far as tests and study materials. This thread is going to give me a boner, I can see it now.

[Rocl]

you talkin' ecological or molecular bio? i know the sat2 separated them, idk about the CLEP

[Rocl]

nevermind you posted that shit ):

[Not Kuno]

If you want super specific there is also this:

Biological Science (50%)

10%
Origin and evolution of life, classification of organisms

10%
Cell organization, cell division, chemical nature of the gene, bioenergetics, biosynthesis

20%
Structure, function, and development in organisms; patterns of heredity

10%
Concepts of population biology with emphasis on ecology

Physical Science (50%)

7%
Atomic and nuclear structure and properties, elementary particles, nuclear reactions

10%
Chemical elements, compounds and reactions, molecular structure and bonding

12%
Heat, thermodynamics, and states of matter; classical mechanics; relativity

4%
Electricity and magnetism, waves, light, and sound

7%
The universe: galaxies, stars, the solar system

10%
The Earth: atmosphere, hydrosphere, structure features, geologic processes, and history

[Mizango]

Just let me take it for you Kuno I took AP Science from 6th grade until I graduated, I'd do this with a smile on my face.

[Mizango]

But I am looking for you, stuck at work atm but I didn't forget.

[Not Kuno]

It's fine my test is next Sat in the morning. I just didn't want to ask like.. Friday night.

[Rocl]

yeah i don't remember shit about shit and i can't find the notes i took for the sat2 in M bio

[Ryko]

Make LSD

That makes you a scientist

[Mizango]

Make LSD

That makes you a scientist

Funny you should mention that, I took Biology 3 my senior year of HS and my professor got escorted out of the classroom for give us and actually showing us how to make LSD. Apparently he got snitched on by a stoner kid who failed his class, shit was all in the papers and he was eventually fired.

He was your typical hippie teacher, long ZZ Top beard, Hawaiian shirt, Khakis and Conformity type sandals. I remember someone brought in a neighborhood cat and he let us dissect it during lab. Still had a collar on and everything, but it was dead when they walked it into class.

Ah man, good times.

[Akanei]

I can help you. I've been studying chemistry and biology for 20 years.

[Shiroikage]

When they say adult with a liberal arts education, they probably mean that you don't need to know a single thing about science.

[Akanei]

When they say liberal arts, I'm pretty sure they don't expect you to really know anything, at all.

[Mizango]

lol

[Woozie]

I did some quick google searches to see what I could find. I have no clue what level you're on at the moment, so I'm just going to post really basic stuff. I'm not posting the kids websites to insult your intelligence or anything.

This website has a pretty simple overview of the solar system.

This is a kids site about astronomy.

This website talks a little bit about the structure of the atom and different types of bonds.

This is a very basic overview of different types of physics and what is studied. It goes over newtonion mechanics, heat, eletricity, etc. It's a very basic overview though, so I'm not sure how useful this would be. It's another kids site. According to your post, the material on the test is a lower level than the introductory class that a science major would take. That's why I'm posting sites with extremely basic information. I hope it's not too basic.

I didn't actually watch this video, but it seems relevant and has useful links on the side. It explains a little about atomic bonding. One of the links on the side is Nova's "Amazing Atoms", and another is "Atoms and the Periodic Table". I hope these have some sort of basic chemistry overview. If not, look up some video explaining the periodic table. You'll probably need to be able to look at the periodic table and know certain things about it. For example, you may need to know why noble gases tend not to be very reactive. You may need to be able to look at the periodic table and know which atoms would loose/gain molecules when forming a bond with another atom on the table.

There's a lot of videos on youtube about nuclear reactions too. Just look up "fusion" and "fission". If you're not already familiar with this, then you should watch some videos or read some websites, and then try to explain to me and Mizango what the difference between the two are. The best way to know if you really understand something is by trying to teach it to someone who already knows it. We'll be able to tell you if your explanation is satisfactory.

If you really want to test yourself, try to explain fusion and fission to Kryssan lol. If you can provide an explanation that he's satisfied with, then you're probably more advanced than I am.

Actually, I'll just give a brief (overly simplified) explanation of fusion and fission.

Electrons are the only particle of the three that is truly "elementary" (i.e. it's not made of other particles). Protons and neutrons are made of particles from the "quark" family. Have you ever wondered why protons can be "glued" together in the nucleus of an atom? They have the same charge, so they should repel. In fact, they do repel through the electromagnetic force. But they attract each other through a stronger force called "strong nuclear force". Quarks (and thus, protons and neutrons) are subject to this force, but leptons (and thus, electrons) are not.

Strong nuclear force is much stronger than electromagnetism (henceforth e&m). However, it's range is very limited. So if the nucleus of an atom gets too big, e&m (which has infinite range) can overpower strong nuclear force. This is similar to how the sun is pulling us all towards it, but we stick to the earth instead of flying into the sun. The sun is obviously much stronger than the earth overall. The earth's gravity is overpowering the sun's gravity because the sun is so far away (and gravity weakens with distance. Strong nuclear force actually strengthens with distance, but once the distance reaches a certain point, the strength of strong nuclear force falls to 0).

Once the atom is big enough so that the distance across the atom is comparable to the range of strong nuclear force, the repulsion due to e&m is dominant over the strong nuclear force, and thus the atom splits due to protons repelling each other. This is what we call radioactivity. So when you hear of something that's radioactive, it means the structure of the atoms in the material is unstable and will spontaneously split into smaller atoms.

Notice that we originally start out with one big atom and end up with two smaller atoms. Since the smaller atoms have a different number of protons, it goes by a different name (recall that we name atoms solely by the amount of protons it has). These type of reactions are called nuclear reactions. If we have an atom splitting into smaller atoms, we call it fission. If we have smaller atoms combining to make bigger atoms, we call it fusion. For example, the sun works by a process that starts out with hydrogen atoms and ends with helium atoms. So the sun is undergoing fusion. Some fusion reactions (like the sun or hydrogen bombs) let off energy. We call these reactions exothermic. Some fission reactions are also exothermic (like Little Boy, the bomb we dropped on Hiroshima).

Side notes:

Spoiler: show

Fusion bombs are typically stronger than fission bombs. However, fusion requires lots of energy to get started. So to start a fusion bomb, we usually combine it with a fission bomb. So it's almost as if we're using the bomb dropped on Hiroshima to detonate a much more powerful nuclear bomb.

The fact that fusion requires a lot of energy to get started is why some stars fail to ever get started. It's also the reason fusion reactors (nuclear power plants powered by fusion) are less practical

Fusion can occur for reasons other than spontaneous decay caused by an unstable structure. In fission bombs, the nuclear reactions are triggered by some initial reaction(s). The initial reactions emit neutrons. The neutrons hit other atoms and cause them to split. These other atoms split and emit more neutrons. These other neutrons hit more atoms causing them to split, which emits more neutrons, etc etc.

If you have a radioactive sample, it's impossible to predict precisely when a particular atom will decay. The best we can do is indicate probabilities. The half life is the amount of time it takes for half of the sample to decay. Carbon 14 has a half life of 5730 years (I think). Carbon dating works by measuring the amount of carbon 14 left in a material and mathematically inferring how long it must have been around.

By the way, what do we mean by carbon 14? A carbon atom normally has 6 protons and 6 neutrons. So we call it carbon 12. But if it has 6 protons and 8 neutrons, it's called carbon 14. So the number we give to it is simply the amount of protons plus the amount of neutrons. This gives us the approximate mass of the molecule since protons and neutrons are about the same mass and the mass of electrons are negligible (1/2000 of a proton iirc).

This should be pretty much all you need to know about nuclear physics and elementary particles (as well as some of the basics of chemistry). My explanation is way overly simplified and may have a few mistakes in it, as I'm sure Kryssan would point out. But it's adequate for your test.

Edit: By the way, some reactions actually take energy away from the environment instead of emitting energy into the environment. We call these reactions endothermic.

I'll post some more stuff later tonight or tomorrow.