scientific reasearch

I am now going to talk about how these rubber ducks have helped us in scientific research. The ducks have help oceanographers examine the ocean currents and see how long it takes to travell from place to place from where the ducks fell overboard. Scientists can study the currents in a diffrent way than any other as they have floaties to follow and because these ducks are made of durable plastic and are watertight they have survived extreme weather conditions. A retired oceanographer named Curtis Ebbesmeyer studied the journey they took from the night he heard they hit the ocean waters. Mr Ebbesmeyer saw how valuable the little toys would be to scientific research of the great ocean currents and the worlds climate change. Mr Ebbesmeyer said the toys will be easy for British beach board combers to spot because they have largely faded to white and have the words "The First Years" stamped upon them. It is said that they move a mile a day, they were so important that the American government offered $50.00 for each one someone finds.

Production of rubber ducks

Rubber got its name when an english scientist called Joseph Priestly figured out that rubber can "rub out" pencil marks. There are two types of rubber, natural rubber(NR) and Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR. I will now explain how each is made. Natural rubber:The biggest producers of natural rubber are Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. They make up 80% of the worlds rubber.Hevea brasiliensis is the tree of which sap is taken from and then used to make rubber. Each tree can make up to 30-35 grams of rubber per day given the amount of sap produced. Acetic acid is added to coagulate the sap. (Coagulation is when parts of liquid are made semi solid. The rubber is made into sheets and passed through a mill and then washed and dried. Natural rubber is said to have the most elasticity of all rubbers and is not damaging to the ozone layer. Natural rubber is mainly used for heavy duty purposes eg tyres. It also is made into rubber bands. SBR: This is the cheapest and most common ruibber in the world. This rubber is made from oil which is a fossil fuel. It is more harmful to the earths enviornment. Interesting facts om rubber: Christopher Columbus discovered natural rubber when the natives of Haiti were playing with a ball of sap taken from the trees.(1496 to 1492) Thomas Hancock invented a machine called "masticater" that allowed the rubber to be softened, mixed and shaped.(1820)

what happened to the ducks?

I will now explain what exactly happened to the ducks. This is a very interesting story to what, at the time may have seemed to be a disaster, is now a great source for scientific reasearch and curiosity. In 1992 a cargo ship set sail from hong kong to the U.S.A. Little did people know that those particular ducks would still be in in the ocean 20 years later. Scientists await there arrival at shore so they can analyse the ducks and learn about plastic pollution and ocean currents. Some of the ducks have arrived in places like Hawaii, South america, Australia and the north west pacific. Others have also been found frozen in the arctic sea. Still others have somehow made their way as far as Scotland and Newfoundland in the Atlantic. Scientists analyse and use scientific machines to study the changes to these ducks to help them understand our changing world. Personally I am curious of this particular event because I am eager to find out where they travelled to and from, how they got to their current locations and how they can be involved in scientific research.

introduction and history

Today im going to talk to you about a certain journey a group of ducks took around the world. 15 years ago 29,000 rubber ducks fell from a cargo ship to set sail for their journey around the world. These ducks took separate paths around the worlds seas. Some have travelled as far as 17,000 miles around the globe. Some have even floated over where the titanic sunk. You may be aware of this ship that sunk in 1912 after it hit and iceburg. Those rubber ducks then floated ashore Hawaii. Scientists follows the paths taken by the ducks to study the worlds currents, how long it takes for water to circulate around the world. The ducks set sail from hong kong to America but only some made it to America others went as far as Scotland! They are said to travel arounf 1 mile a day and have been on the waters for 15 years. People thought they would sink but their airtight plastic has kept them afloat for more than a decade.

my first post

Hello my name is Leah. This is my first ever blog. The topic i have chosen to do my blog on is rubber ducks and a journey a certain group of them took around the world. I chose this topic becausse i felt that it was very unique and i have a keen interest in the iccident that occured. I also wanted to learn about the scientific and geogrphical reasearch involved in this. I wanted to understand what scientist can learn from this. I also enjoy learning about geography and wanted to follow their paths that they took around the globe. In my blogs i talk about oceanography, scientific research, production of rubber, what happened to the ducks and the diffrent paths that they took around the world.