During the month of April my family and I had another scare. I had passed out and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. They did not find anything abnormal at the hospital. I started to have stabbing pains in my heart and it also felt like someone was squeezing my heart very hard. My doctor suggested I see a cardiologist. After having a few tests, I was diagnosed with Precordial Catch Syndrome. This appears to happen more often in children than adults. There is no known cure, but the condition is not life threatening. My doctor said it can last up to a few months and should go away. The pain although not life threatening is severe.
I had planned on entering iPlay America's Science Fair presented by Amboy Bank in June. At first I thought having these pains was going to stop me from entering the Science Fair. After seeing the cardiologist I felt more at ease and managed to work extremely hard to finish my project. Today the chest pain has not yet subsided, but I manage to put the pain out of my mind knowing that I am lucky it is not a more serious condition.
My Science Fair project was to determine if increasing the number of loops in the coil of an electric motor increased the rotational speed of the motor. It turns out that increasing the number of loops does initially increase the rotational speed of the motor. However, friction from the heavier mass of the coils with more loops will slow the rotational speed down. Also as the number of loops increase, the resistance of the coil increases. Now because of Ohm's Law, increased resistance will now decrease current. Finally, back emf (electromotive force) from Faraday's Law of Magnetic induction, decreases the net emf available from the battery therefore decreasing current so the rotational speed decreases.
So today I get to write in my blog. I earned my first donation for Uncle Sonny's! After months of hard work, today was the iPlay America Science Fair. I was so honored to be awarded first place for grades 6 through 8. For first place I received a prize of $1,000.00 and also a $500 iPlay America gift card. I am honored and very excited to tell you that I am donating the $1,000.00 to Uncle Sonny's as my first official donation. I was so happy to win as it was my plan all along to donate the money.
I would like to thank iPlay America and their sponsor Amboy Bank for running the Science Fair. It allows students from all different schools to demonstrate their projects in a fun and educational way. It was so exciting to me, not only to do the research for the project, but also to explain my project to all the judges and visitors.