Tag Archives: charts

ACT Question of the Day Explained – February 25, 2014 – Science

Who lives in a sediment under the…ocean?

Today’s ACT question of the day is a science question from the passage about sediment in the bottom of the ocean. This time, we need to find the depth that would be a good home for a creature that likes low concentrations of Fe2+, high concentrations of O2, and a neutral pH. Continue reading

ACT Question of the Day Explained – February 17, 2014 – Science

Today’s ACT question of the day comes from the same science passage we saw about a week ago.

We are given a table of sediment concentrations at various depths that’s something like this:

Depth
(cm)
Temperature
(oC)
pH Concentration in sediment (ppm)
SO42– S2– CO2 Fe3+ Fe2+ O2
 0  4 7.0 7.0 0.0 1.0 4.0 0.5 2.0
 5  5 6.5 5.0 2.0 1.5 3.0 1.5 1.0
10  7 6.0 3.5 3.5 2.0 2.0 2.0 0.0
15  9 5.5 3.3 3.8 3.0 0.8 3.8 0.0
20 10 5.0 3.0 4.0 1.0 0.5 4.0 0.0

The test maker would like us to tell them which ion and dissolved gas will not be helpful in determining whether a sample was taken from either 15 or 20cm. Continue reading

ACT Question of the Day Explained – February 9, 2014 – Science

Today’s ACT science question of the day is a data interpretation question.  (Basically, we have to read a data table.)

We are given a table of sediment concentrations at various depths that’s something like this:

Depth
(cm)
Temperature
(oC)
pH Concentration in sediment (ppm)
SO42– S2– CO2 Fe3+ Fe2+ O2
 0  4 7.0 7.0 0.0 1.0 4.0 0.5 2.0
 5  5 6.5 5.0 2.0 1.5 3.0 1.5 1.0
10  7 6.0 3.5 3.5 2.0 2.0 2.0 0.0
15  9 5.5 3.3 3.8 3.0 0.8 3.8 0.0
20 10 5.0 3.0 4.0 1.0 0.5 4.0 0.0

The test maker would like us to tell them which ion and dissolved gas has a constant concentration at depths of 10 cm or more. Continue reading

ACT Question of the Day Explained – January 20, 2014 – Science

Today’s ACT question of the day is a science question about reading charts.  We have a pretty cool chart this time, though it’s a bit unconventional:

ACT Tree diagram

Image copyright ACT

The question wants to know what we would find at year 80.  We can see that this chart is a sort of timeline, so we need to find where year 80 would fall and then see what trees would be growing. Continue reading

ACT Question of the Day Explained – January 16, 2014 – Science

Putting the "sigh" in scienceToday’s ACT question of the day is a science question about a bottom-dwelling organism.  (Now you have a new name to call your best friend when s/he makes you mad!  Not responsible if you try that on your parents.)

We have a table that describes the concentrations of certain ions in the sediment at the bottom of an ocean.  Does it matter, for the ACT, if you know what all of those symbols (Fe, O, CO, etc.) stand for?  Do you need to know what pH is?  Nope.  Just make sure you look at the right symbols when it comes time to answer the question.

Speaking of the question, our bottom-dwelling organism is a little picky and it wants a sediment depth that provides the following conditions:

  • a neutral pH (which, according to the given text, is 7)
  • low Fe2+
  • high concentrations of O2

Time to read the chart! Continue reading