[Q]: Two space explorers are flying around through an unknown galaxy when they discover two new planets. Given that these planets have no names, the explorers decide to name them after themselves. The planet of Sarahn is currently going through a large geographic shift. Many of the continents on the planet are currently breaking apart and moving. Timon, however, has been a stable planet with no continental moving for quite awhile now.  Which planet has a higher sea level?  Hint: At the end of the Proterozoic, the supercontinent Pannotia had broken apart into the smaller continents Laurentia, Baltica, Siberia and Gondwana. During periods when continents move apart, more oceanic crust is formed by volcanic activity. Because young volcanic crust is relatively hotter and less dense than old oceanic crust, the ocean floors rise during such periods. This causes the sea level to rise. Therefore, in the first half of the Paleozoic, large areas of the continents were below sea level.Early Paleozoic climates were warmer than today, but the end of the Ordovician saw a short ice age during which glaciers covered the south pole, where the huge continent Gondwana was situated. Traces of glaciation from this period are only found on former Gondwana. During the Late Ordovician ice age, a few mass extinctions took place, in which many brachiopods, trilobites, Bryozoa and corals disappeared. These marine species could probably not contend with the decreasing temperature of the sea water.The continents Laurentia and Baltica collided between 450 and 400 Ma, during the Caledonian Orogeny, to form Laurussia (also known as Euramerica). Traces of the mountain belt this collision caused can be found in Scandinavia, Scotland, and the northern Appalachians. In the Devonian period (416–359 Ma) Gondwana and Siberia began to move towards Laurussia. The collision of Siberia with Laurussia caused the Uralian Orogeny, the collision of Gondwana with Laurussia is called the Variscan or Hercynian Orogeny in Europe or the Alleghenian Orogeny in North America. The latter phase took place during the Carboniferous period (359–299 Ma) and resulted in the formation of the last supercontinent, Pangaea.By 180 Ma, Pangaea broke up into Laurasia and Gondwana.
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[A]: Sarahn


[Q]: Greg is an electrical engineer. He works for an engineering firm that builds houses. Yesterday, Greg was checking two of the houses. He noticed that one of the houses had short circuit. He labeled that as case A. But the other house didn't have short circuit. He labeled that as case B.  Would case A see less or more resistance cut out than case B?  Hint: In the wiring of a building, the wires carrying the current in and out are different and never touch directly. The charge passing through the circuit always passes through an appliance (which acts as a resistor) or through another resistor, which limits the amount of current that can flow through a circuit. Appliances are designed to keep current at a relatively low level for safety purposes. The appropriate voltage and resistance in a circuit keeps the current in control and keeps the circuit safe. It is possible, however, for something to happen that causes the wire bringing the current in to come into contact with either the wire carrying the current out or the ground wire, thus causing what is called a short circuit . In a short circuit, some or all of the resistance is cut out of the circuit allowing the voltage to push a huge current through the wires.
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[A]: more


[Q]: Greg is is a chef. Last night, he was in his kitchen preparing foods for the guests. First, he made some lemonade. In trial one he added some honey in it and stirred it, but in trial two he didn't stir it. Then he made some coffee. In trial three he added hot water in it, but in trial four he added cold water in it. Finally, he made some soup. In trial five he added fine grain salt in it, but in trial six he added coarse salt in it.  Would the soup be prepared faster or slower in trial five than in trial six?  Hint: When you add sugar to a cold drink, you may stir it to help the sugar dissolve. If you don’t stir, the sugar may eventually dissolve, but it will take much longer. Stirring is one of several factors that affect how fast a solute dissolves in a solvent. Temperature is another factor. A solid solute dissolves faster at a higher temperature. For example, sugar dissolves faster in hot tea than in ice tea. A third factor that affects the rate of dissolving is the surface area of the solute. For example, if you put granulated sugar in a glass of ice tea, it will dissolve more quickly than the same amount of sugar in a cube. That’s because granulated sugar has much more surface area than a cube of sugar. You can see videos of all three factors at these URLs
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[A]: faster


[Q]: Blimpton and Jarmel are two neighboring planets in the Harshlan galaxy. Aliens are currently studying the two planets to see if either of them are suitable for habitation. While studying the planets, they discover that both planets have the same type of atmosphere. However, there is one key difference. The difference is that the current species of animals on Blimpton emit much more chlorofluorocarbons than Jarmel's animals do. The aliens take note of this so they can report back to their bosses on what they have found.  Does more or less radiation get through Blimpton's stratosphere?  Hint: There is a large area of low ozone concentration or "ozone hole" over Antarctica. This hole covers almost the whole continent and was at its largest in September 2008, when the longest lasting hole on record remained until the end of December. The hole was detected by scientists in 1985 and has tended to increase over the years of observation. The ozone hole is attributed to the emission of chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs into the atmosphere, which decompose the ozone into other gases.Some scientific studies suggest that ozone depletion may have a dominant role in governing climatic change in Antarctica (and a wider area of the Southern Hemisphere). Ozone absorbs large amounts of ultraviolet radiation in the stratosphere. Ozone depletion over Antarctica can cause a cooling of around 6 °C in the local stratosphere. This cooling has the effect of intensifying the westerly winds which flow around the continent (the polar vortex) and thus prevents outflow of the cold air near the South Pole. As a result, the continental mass of the East Antarctic ice sheet is held at lower temperatures, and the peripheral areas of Antarctica, especially the Antarctic Peninsula, are subject to higher temperatures, which promote accelerated melting. Models also suggest that the ozone depletion/enhanced polar vortex effect also accounts for the recent increase in sea ice just offshore of the continent.
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[A]: