The Adventures of Gold

The Adventures of Gold

Gold was inside his shop, making magic wands like he always did on sunday afternoons.

However, it was not a Sunday afternoon. It was Friday morning. Normally, he would be in some important government meeting, but not today. Today he got the day off. But why did Gold make wands to sell at his shop during free time? Surely not money! He was the richest and most famous dragon in Great Britain! He did it purely for fun. Suddenly the doorbell rang.

“Come in!” yelled Gold. The door creaked open. Suddenly, a young cat burst through the

doorway so fast, he broke one of Gold’s Ming vases into a million pieces.

“Gold! You’ve got to hear this!” he said.

“But my Ming vase!” Said Gold.

“Come on!” Said the cat. “Your Ming vases come from Squeaky-E-Mart and cost ten cents! This is more important!”

“But…” said Gold.

“Listen to me!” said the cat. “The candy factory shut down!”

Gold froze in place. Even though he was middle aged, his longing for candy was stronger

than ever.

“Why did the owners shut it down?” said Gold.

“They didn’t.” said the cat. “The Vipers did”

“Who are the vipers?” said Gold.

“The vipers?” said the cat. “The Vipers are a famous gang of bulldogs. They have done worse and worse things over the past few years. yesterday they blew up a bridge.”

“But how do you know that the Vipers shut down the factory?” said Gold.

“I got a ransom note.” said the cat.

“May the King help us!” said Gold.

“I am the King.” said the cat.

“Oh. Right. Sorry.” said Gold. “Your hair style mislead me.”

“So how do we get them?” said the King.

“A crystal ball!” said Gold. He pulled an apple sized ball out of a cupboard.

“How does it work?” said the King.

“You say something into it and it takes you there!” said Gold.

“What makes it cloud up like that?” said the King.

“Cloudy apple juice.” said Gold. “The crystal ball only has one charge, so we have to use it wisely.”

“Go ahead.” said the King.

“Take us to the Vipers!” said Gold. Suddenly, in a whirlwind of colors, they got transported 

to a dingy old room with four bulldogs huddled around a table.

“Hands up!” said Gold. A bulldog spun around.

“What do you want?” said the Bulldog.

“Fix the candy factory!” said gold.

“We never shut it down.” said the Bulldog. “The ransom note was a lie!”

The next day, Gold was helping the King put the Vipers in jail, as well as whining his head off.

“I wasted a crystal ball, a train ticket a boat ticket, lots of time, and most importantly my 

ming vase, only to find that nothing happend at all!” said Gold.

“Not really.” said the King.

“What do you mean, ‘not really’?” said Gold. The King pulled a trophy out of his bag.

“As your King, I give you this award for helping me capture the most troublesome gang in Great Britain.” said the King.

                                                        The End!

Hydrogen

 Hydrogen is the simplest and most abundant element on the periodic table. It consists of one proton and one electron. Its atomic number is 1 and its chemical symbol is H. Through this post I will write about its importance in the past, its fourth state of matter, and the inner beauty that it exhibits light-years away.

The Hindenburg disaster

Hydrogen was named after the two Greek words υδρο(hydro), meaning water, and γενης(genes), meaning creator, when it was discovered to create water when burned. In its pure state, hydrogen is a gas that is invisible and highly flammable. Because of its low density, hydrogen  is one of the two atomic elements that is lighter than air. this makes it able to float large objects. People took advantage of this fact by building blimps(zeppelins), aircraft that use the lifting power of hydrogen. They carried more than 35,000  passengers over the years from 1910 to 1914 without serious accident, but on 6 May 1937, the passenger airship Hindenburg mysteriously caught fire and crashed in New Jersey. From then on, hydrogen was considered far too flammable as a lifting gas.

As a gas, hydrogen is colourless, odourless and tasteless, yet we benefit from it every day. It is visible as a plasma in all stars, including our sun. The sun is mostly hydrogen that has been exposed to high temperatures or a strong electromagnetic field, converting it into plasma, the fourth state of matter. As a plasma, the hydrogen atoms are stripped of their electrons. This makes it possible to fuse hydrogen atoms together into helium, and to produce the intense amount of heat and light that is crucial for the Earth's ecosystem.

Hydrogen, like all other elements, has a dark side. The sun constantly emits positively and negatively charged hydrogen ions through interplanetary space. This is called solar wind. These particles can travel at up to one million miles per hour. Fortunately for us, Earth is protected by a magnetic field, which shields the planet from solar radiation. Were it not for this magnetic field, much of the Earth's atmosphere would have been stripped away by solar wind, rendering it lifeless.

The Ring nebula

Hydrogen was first created by the big bang, roughly 13.7 billion years ago. Ninety percent of the universe consists of Hydrogen, which is mostly in stars and nebulae. Nebulae are mostly ionised hydrogen which glows in hydrogen's spectral emission lines. When I lived in a place with less light pollution, me and my family went outside with a telescope to look at the stars. One object that is visible in the Australian night sky is the Orion nebula, which appears as the middle 'star' in Orion's sword. My favourite nebula is the Ring nebula, which lies in the constellation Lyra.