02x13 - You Can Call Me Albedo / The Tide is High

[bunniefuu]

[Together] ready! Jet! Go!

- ♪ Jet propulsion ♪

♪ That's his name ♪

♪ Jet propulsion ♪

♪ He'll rocket to fame ♪

♪ When he arrived, he created a buzz ♪

♪ 'Cause there was no house ♪

♪ And then there was, he said ♪

- ♪ People of earth! You ain't seen nothing yet! ♪

♪ I'm from bortron , and my name is jet! ♪

- ♪ Jet propulsion ♪

♪ That's his name ♪

♪ He looks like us ♪

♪ But he isn't the same ♪

- ♪ I'm a space tripper and a galaxy crosser ♪

♪ My parents brought me here in a flying saucer ♪

- ♪ And just to prove it was a fact ♪

♪ He flew them out to space and back ♪

♪ Jet propulsion ♪

[Spaceship whirring]

- ♪ Jet propulsion ♪

[Together] ready! Jet! Go!

- ♪ He showed up, and now it's a blast ♪

♪ Looks like the future really got here fast ♪

- ♪ Nice to meet you, human race ♪

♪ Tell me all about the place ♪

- ♪ Jet propulsion! ♪

- ♪ Jet propulsion! ♪

- ♪ Jet propulsion! ♪

All: ready! Jet! Go!

- Come get us, mindy!

I'm gonna get you!

- I love flashlight tag!

[All laughing and shouting]

- Whoa, whoa!

- [Laughs]

♪ ♪

- [Giggles] whoa!

- Gotcha, mindy!

- No fair.

My legs are shorter than everyone else's.

Tag is harder for me!

- [Chatters]

- Okay, fine. Yours are shorter.

- You guys, I found 'em!

Not one, but two asteroids!

- Ooh. Very cool!

- I want to see!

[Gasps] wow.

I see 'em, I see 'em!

- Oof! [Crashing]

- What was that?

- [Grunts]

[Together] hi, mitchell.

- [Gasps]

Oh! Hello, neighbors.

I don't suppose you've seen cody around, have you?

- No, why?

Cody usually stays in your yard unless he's with you.

- Well, I put a new sweater on him,

And he immediately ran away.

I have no idea why.

- Sorry. Do you need us to help?

- Of course not.

I'll just use my detective skills,

Thank you very much.

This is exactly the kind of case

We detectives hope for.

Interviewing you was just my first step

In cracking this case wide open.

Hmm. I'll find you, cody...

Wherever you are.

- [Whines]

- [Chittering]

- [Sighs]

- Cool-some!

Did you guys notice that one of the asteroids

Is brighter and easier to see,

And the other is dimmer and harder to see?

- Hmm. They're the same distance

From the sun and the earth,

So I wonder why that is?

- I bet the bright one is made of glitter!

I always put glitter on my arts and crafts

To make 'em sparkly.

- Or maybe it's made of mirrors?

♪ ♪

Oh, oh, oh, maybe we should fly up there

And check out how my hair looks in zero gravity!

- Maybe giants from another solar system

Were mining diamonds, and they hit 'em so hard

That some flew into space

And into our asteroid belt!

- Ooh! Diamonds are really sparkly!

- Hey, hello?

Remember when we flew to the asteroid belt?

We know what asteroids are made of--

They're just big rocks floating in space.

- Well, I've never been to the asteroid belt.

And I've never seen a big rock that sparkles, either.

- Actually, mindy, some rocks do sparkle!

I'll go get my collection, hang on!

[Door opens]

♪ ♪

Check these out, you guys...

- [Shrieks]

- Aah, oof!

♪ ♪

Cody?

Sorry, I didn't see you there.

Hey, nice sweater.

- Oh, there you are, cody.

Mitchell's looking for you.

- [Chatters]

- Check these out, mindy.

- See? I told you.

It is glitter!

- Actually, it's just a regular ol' rock.

Here, look. - Huh?

It is just a rock.

A sparkly rock!

- Do you guys notice how one is easier to see

In the moonlight than the other?

- Oh! You're right, sydney!

Kind of like those asteroids we were just looking at!

- Why are some things easy to see in the dark,

And some things hard to see?

- Sounds like we have our own mystery to solve.

Whoo-hoo!

- Yeah! Let's investigate.

[Leaves rustling]

- Hey, mitchell! - Ahh!

- Cody was just here, but sunspot took him home.

- I highly doubt that.

I just came from there, and I didn't see him.

- Well, he's pretty hard to spot in the dark.

Especially with that black sweater.

- True. I guess the black color doesn't help.

I wish I had a better way to keep track of him at night.

Still, I do like a good challenge.

- In that case, mitchell, I challenge you to...

A dance-off!

[Bright music]

Hey-yah!

♪ ♪

Challenge!

- I have no time for your shenanigans, propulsion.

I'm going to keep looking for cody.

- You'll never get better unless you practice, mitchell!

- [Chirps]

Hey-yah!

[Scatting]

- So...

Back to these rocks.

- Oh, right! Rocks! Light!

Why is one easier to see?

- Let's pretend this flashlight's the sun

And see how these rocks look

When we shine the light on them.

- Hey, would ya look at that?

- You're right, sean!

Some rocks are easier to see in the dark!

- Yeah! You can barely see the dark rock,

But the lighter one looks really bright!

- Hey, hey, let's test some other stuff!

[Fanfare]

- Ooh, bright!

- Huh, you can hardly see it!

- Cody, what are you doing here?

You're supposed to be home.

- [Chatters]

- It seems like things

That are lighter colored are easier to see,

And things that are darker colored are harder to see.

- Funny, I never noticed that before.

Oh, earth, you beautiful planet.

What infinite surprises you hold!

- Huh?

- It means I think earth is cool.

- Oh. Me too.

- Me three! [Chuckles]

I see you're conducting an experiment

With the flashlights.

Notice anything interesting?

- Yup! We noticed that lighter objects

Are easier to see at night than darker ones.

- Great observation.

There's actually a name for what you're observing.

It's called albedo.

All: albedo?

- Albedo! "Albedo" right there!

[Laughter]

- It is kind of a funny word, isn't it?

Albedo is how reflective something is.

Reflective means that light bounces off an object.

- What do you mean, light bounces?

- Well, when light travels through space,

It hits an object and bounces back into our eyes,

And that's how we're able to see it.

- So...

Light bounces off things

Like a rubber ball bounces off a wall?

- Or like when I bounce in my birthday bounce house?

- [Chuckles] yes, like both of those, actually.

Hang on, let's try another experiment.

Would one of you kids like to take these

To the other side of the yard?

- [Chirping]

- Oh, uh, thank you, sunspot.

So, first you'll observe that both pieces of paper

Are the same distance away, right?

- Uh-huh! - Yup!

- Yeah, I think so.

- That's important, because it means

They're getting the same amount of light.

Here, mindy, shine your flashlight on the white paper.

- Okay. It looks really bright and easy to see.

- Exactly! Now shine it on the black paper.

- Oh, yeah!

You can barely see it in the dark.

- Yeah, the only reason you can see it at all

Is because she shined the light right at it.

- Great observation!

That's because lighter colored objects

Bounce more light back to your eyes.

Like that bouncy ball you mentioned earlier.

- [Chattering]

- But dark objects absorb more light,

Sort of like how a sponge soaks up water.

- Oh! I think I get it. - Great!

Well, I'm gonna go put some more marshmallows

In this hot cocoa.

All: thanks, dr. Rafferty!

- [Barking]

- [Chirps] all: cody?

- [Whining]

- Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

- That we should have asked my mom for hot cocoa?

- I think jet means...

We should go to space!

To look at the asteroids up close!

- You took the words right out of my mouth part!

- Um, it's kind of late

For a space trip, don't you think?

- But I want to see the asteroid belt!

- Sean, you're going to space.

- [Groans]

[Horn honks] - yoo-hoo!

Did I hear you say you wanted

To take a trip to the asteroid belt?

Oh, just kidding. I know you did!

And I have hot cocoa!

[All cheering]

- ♪ Five, four, three, two, one ♪

- Wait, stop!

Cody's here... - [Whines]

- Again.

- Cody, how do you keep doing that?

- [Groans]

- Go on, cody. Go home.

- All clear? All: all clear!

- Well, then... ♪ Five, four, three, two, one ♪

♪ Doors are shut, engines on ♪

♪ Everybody in their place ♪

♪ Let's go into outer space ♪

[Together] ready! Jet! Go!

[Sean shouting]

[Tires squealing]

[Adventurous music]

♪ ♪

- Wow, the asteroid belt.

♪ ♪

- What do you see, navigator sydney?

- I found the asteroids we saw from sean's backyard.

They're straight...thataway!

- Look! There they are!

♪ ♪

- [Gasps] this is so cool!

And glittery! And sparkly!

- That must be the brighter one we saw from earth!

All: ooh!

- Aw, nuts.

No mirrors.

- [Chirps]

- Ah, thanks, sunspot!

- Do you mind if we look at the other asteroid too,

Mrs. Propulsion?

- Oh! You read my brain!

♪ ♪

- Wow, look how dark that one is!

- Yeah, it's kind of hard to see.

- Hmm. I wish we could take samples from the asteroids.

- Excellent idea, scientist sean!

- On it! Robotic arm!

♪ ♪

Whoo-hoo!

- Is it glitter?

- Nope! But it's just as I suspected.

Each asteroid is made out of different kinds

Of rocky materials.

- And that explains why one

Reflects more light than the other!

- I am super proud of you kids!

You made an observation, conducted an investigation,

And figured out an explanation.

Great job!

[All cheering]

- Boo-yah! Science!

- Hey, I think I may have thought of a way

To help mitchell keep track of cody!

♪ ♪

- Heya, mitchell! Still looking for cody?

- I'm still on the case. I've almost solved it.

- Or have you?

- Okay, I'll admit it. I'm worried!

I can't find cody anywhere.

- This may help!

- [Gasps] cody!

I was really worried about you.

I looked everywhere. Twice!

Sorry about the sweater, cody.

If you don't like it, you don't have to wear it.

Hey, what's this?

[Together] surprise, mitchell!

- We made a reflective collar for cody!

- So you can see him in the dark!

- We used my glitter and shiny stickers

To give it a higher albedo! - Huh?

- We thought it would help you find him at night,

In case he ever gets lost again.

- Gee, thanks, you guys.

That was, um, really nice of you.

- No problem, mitchell.

That's what friends are for!

It's always a good idea

To have something reflective on your pet.

- [Chirps]

[Jazzy music]

- Of course, you can go too far.

♪ ♪

- Ooh! - Yeah!

[All cheering]

- [Barking]

♪ ♪

- I will never understand that pet.

[Laughter]

♪ ♪

- And now, here's my friend, astronomer amy mainzer!

- Thanks, jet.

One of my favorite things to do at the beach

Is build sandcastles.

That was fun!

Let's see what happens if we wait a while.

[Playful music]

Whoa! It looks like the sandcastle

Turned into a sand pile.

And look what happened to the beach.

I see a lot less sand and a whole lot more water.

What's happening here is caused by something we call the tide.

Our oceans have tides,

Which means the water moves up and down the shore every day.

But what force could possibly be powerful enough

To move that much water?

It's our old friend gravity that causes the tides.

Earth has gravity, and that's a pulling force

That keeps us stuck to the earth's surface.

But something else nearby

Has gravity too: our moon!

As the moon goes around the earth,

They pull on each other,

Kind of like a game of tug-of-w*r.

Some of the earth's surface is hard and rocky,

But most of it is covered with ocean,

And that's made of liquid water.

That means the ocean can slosh around

When the earth and the moon get into this game

Of gravity tug-of-w*r.

This makes the ocean bulge out a little bit,

So as the earth spins,

The ocean can cover more of the beach...

And ruin sandcastles.

So the next time you look up at the moon

And you think it's so far away, just remember,

It has a sand-tastic effect on earth's oceans.

[Upbeat music] - thanks, amy!

- [Laughs]

Your ball, jet!

- Oops! - That's out!

My point.

- Guess what, everyone!

My mom said she would take us all

To the beach this morning!

- Oh, thanks, sydney.

We just need to finish our four square really quick, and--

Hey, where's everyone going?

- Be right back with my swimsuit and towel!

- I'll go ask my mom if I can go!

Want to grab some beach toys?

- [Chirps]

- For the record, I was winning!

- [Chirps] - [laughs]

That really wasn't necessary. But thanks!

♪ ♪

- Ooh! What's that picture, sunspot?

- Sunspot's favorite surf spot.

Remember when we all went there last year?

- Great idea, sunspot!

We'll go back to the same beach,

And you can show us all how to surf.

Beach, here we come!

♪ ♪

[Laughter and cheering]

♪ ♪

Wait. Did someone move the ocean?

- It does seem farther back than before.

- But that can't be true, right?

Oceans don't move, do they?

- Then someone put a whole lot more sand on this beach.

Look at the picture from last summer!

- [Chattering]

- I look so young there!

Actually, the ocean looks a lot closer in that picture.

- I don't get it. - Me neither.

Dr. Sydney's mom! We have a beach mystery.

- I have a beach mystery too!

What's your mystery?

- Ours is...

Where'd the ocean go?

- Where did the ocean go? Oh!

Oh, I see what you mean...

You see, that's-- - wait, wait, wait!

Don't tell us. I want to figure it out!

- "The case of the shrinking ocean."

- Or "the case of the super sandy beach"!

- [Chuckles] you know what?

You kids sure do have a mystery.

And so do i.

In my mystery, they look for clues

To solve the case.

- Whoo-hoo!

Finding clues is fun.

- I agree! So I'm going to let you kids

Investigate your mystery while I finish reading mine.

That way you'll have the fun of solving it yourselves.

- That does sound fun.

- Yeah! - [Chirps]

- Wait, was that a clue?

- I think you'll know a clue when you find one!

- Wow, thanks, dr. Sydney's mom!

We are going to have fun solving this.

- Yeah, let's go be detectives!

♪ ♪

Okay. What do we know about the mystery so far?

- We've got some clues.

Show 'em, sunspot.

- [Chatters]

♪ ♪

[Chirps] - wow!

Look at all these clues!

- Uh, aren't those normal beach items?

- Yes. And we need to find things

That don't belong on the beach.

That would be a clue.

- Good idea, sydney!

Maybe if we walk toward the ocean?

- [Chirps]

♪ ♪

- Look! I found these little teeny mini-oceans!

- There's no such thing as a mini-ocean, jet.

Those are just puddles or something.

- I don't know, sean. Do puddles usually have this?

- Ooh, seaweed.

♪ ♪

- [Giggles]

Ooh, look! It's a tiny crab!

♪ ♪

- [Chirps]

♪ ♪

[Chatters]

♪ ♪

[Claws clicking]

♪ ♪

[Laughter]

- Yeah, sunspot, it does have a neat way of walking.

- I think that's a clue-- crabs live in the ocean.

So what was this one crab doing way out here?

- Yeah, crab, what are you doing here?

- And why was this seaweed all the way out here?

- I know!

Maybe a giant whale swallowed some of the ocean,

So the crab was left behind in this puddle.

- I like the way you're thinking, mindy.

The ocean water used to be here,

And when it moved, it left some water

And seaweed and this crab behind.

- Those sound like clues!

- Or it sounds like a giant thirsty whale.

- Let's keep looking for clues.

Mm... Oh!

This is sea glass. - I like the green color.

- It's a piece of glass that's polished smooth

By the ocean's salt water and by sand.

Both: ooh!

- That's all great, but let's gather

All these clues together.

Okay, sea glass, seaweed,

Couple of shells-- what do we got?

- Uh...

A fun day at the beach?

- Yes, but something more--

All of these things come from the ocean.

So if they were way out here,

That means the ocean was here before.

- You mean the ocean moved? - But how?

- A giant thirsty whale, anyone?

- I don't know how the ocean moved.

All I know is, we've got to get to the bottom of it.

- The ocean?

- No, the mystery.

- One question-- is the ocean still moving?

And is it getting closer? Or farther?

- That was three questions!

- Let's figure this out.

We should mark a place where it's dry now

And then see if the ocean gets closer to it, or farther away.

- Good idea, but, uh, how can we do that?

- [Chirps]

Both: sand castle!

[Cheerful chatter]

♪ ♪

- Ta-da! Our castle!

- One final touch...

Ta-da!

Our castle, with a flag.

- [Laughs] looks great!

And while we wait, I've got sandwiches!

♪ ♪

- [Chirps]

- What's wrong, jet?

- I don't have sandwiches.

I just remembered-- I left 'em in my refrigerator!

[All groan]

- Aw, jet.

- Don't worry, sunspot,

We can just run home and get 'em.

- [Chattering]

♪ ♪

[Laughter]

- Stop!

♪ ♪

- What? What happened to our sandcastle?

- Or our flags?

- Or sunspot's crab friend?

- [Sad chattering]

♪ ♪

[Chirps]

[Sunspot chattering in distress]

[Dramatic music]

- [Chirps] - mom!

What happened to all the sand?

- We've been trying to collect clues,

But we can't figure it out.

- Some mysteries need something more than clues to be solved.

- Popcorn?

- Ah, no...

I was going to say time.

You came here this morning, and the ocean was way out.

Now in the afternoon, it's close up.

- So if we came here tomorrow morning,

The ocean would be far away again?

- That's right.

- Close, far, close, far...

- Hey, are those clues?

- You know, they could be.

Maybe it's like a pattern.

- And maybe we can figure out what it means!

- I think that's a great idea!

- Yeah, let's come back tomorrow

And find out what happened to the ocean.

- [Chittering]

[Playful music]

♪ ♪

[Chatters]

♪ ♪

[Triumphant choral music]

♪ ♪

[Stirring music]

♪ ♪

[Chirps]

- I knew it!

It's morning, and the ocean has moved back.

- Sounds like a pattern to me.

But what other clues do we have?

♪ ♪

- Ah! Finished my book!

- Now can you help us with our mystery?

- Sure! Show me what you've got.

♪ ♪

Excellent investigation.

And I hope you had fun!

- You bet!

- What you've found is called the tide.

It's the movement of the ocean back and forth.

- We definitely observed that.

- So exactly what time does that happen?

Then we'll know when to come to the beach.

- That's the thing.

It doesn't happen at the same time every day.

- Wha...?

- It depends on the pulling

From the moon and earth's gravity.

That's what causes the movement.

- Whoa!

But the moon's all the way up there!

- Right, but it's the closest large object to earth,

And it has its own gravity.

- I don't know.

I don't feel anything,

And I'm standing right here.

- Yes, good observation, mindy.

You can't feel the moon's gravity,

But you've already observed what it does to the water.

Watch this.

Let's call this towel the ocean.

You can be earth, sean,

And, jet, you can be moon.

- I'm the moon! Hooray!

- Now, you each pull back and forth on the ocean.

- I'm earth, pulling the water in!

- And I'm the moon, pulling it...away!

[Both straining]

- So tides are kind of like a tug-of-w*r

Between the earth and the moon?

- Ooh, tug-of-w*r pulling the water back and forth?

Cool!

- That's exactly right!

- [Chirps]

♪ ♪

[Laughter]

- Now you understand tides

And what makes them go in and out.

- Thanks for helping us solve our mystery, dr. Skelley.

- We know about what tides are,

But I just wish we can know

When the high and low tides are going to happen.

- You can. - Wow!

We can? How?

- This is a tide table.

It lists the times that the water is going to change.

- Oh, so that people will know when to come to the beach?

- And also where and when it's best for sailing boats...

- Or building sand castles!

- Sure. - Or surfing!

- I agree!

- So without the earth and moon

Pulling on each other and the oceans,

We wouldn't have the tides at all?

- We're so lucky to have a moon!

- Thanks up there! Good job!

Hey, guys, now that we know all about the tides,

What do you say we hit the surf?

- Yeah! - [Chirping]

[Surf music]

[Chirps]

- Wait up, sunspot!

Here we come!

[All cheering]

- Great, thanks, bye. Hi, I'm astronomer amy mainzer,

And I've just taken a phone call on my cell phone.

Everybody does that.

But here in this special room,

We take phone calls from space.

I'm here with jim mcclure. Jim, what's going on

In this special room here?

- I'm the operations manager of the space flight

Operations facility, also known as mission control.

- They're talking to lots of spacecraft, aren't they?

- They are. From this room, we capture

All data from interplanetary space.

- These people here are actually driving our spacecraft?

- Hours a day, seven days a week since .

- That is amazing. It kind of looks like

A video game almost, doesn't it?

- It does, and I'm sure some of these people

Started that way. - What does it take

To talk to a spacecraft?

I'm guessing it's not a cell phone.

- You're right, we use these very large antenna

That we call the deep space network.

We have them located in three locations

Around the world. - Why do we need

Three locations around the world?

Isn't one good enough?

- The earth rotates. We need to see our spacecraft

As that happens. - So as the earth turns,

There's always an antenna that can find a spacecraft

Wherever it might be. - That's exactly right.

- How big of an antenna do we need to have

To talk to some of these? - Actually, we have

One -meter antenna at each of those three locations.

- Wow, meters? - Meters in diameter.

- That's almost the size of a football field.

- It is. - So what's with the peanuts

Going on in here? - Well, years ago,

We had some failures. After a great success,

The engineers looked around the room, saying,

"Well, what did we do different?"

What they determined is one of our engineers

Happened to be eating peanuts and sharing them

With the other engineers. - Well, as scientists

And engineers, you know we're not

Big on superstitions. - We call them lucky peanuts,

But I'm not gonna say we're superstitious.

We always eat the peanuts.

- It's good to have some traditions.

- ♪ Jet propulsion ♪

All: ready! Jet! Go!

♪ ♪

- Jet propulsion!

- Jet propulsion!

- Jet propulsion!

All: ready! Jet! Go!