This experiment was about how the generators produced electricy. Basically what we have was  a flashlight that creates electricity through the use of magnets. These magnets are surrounded by a copper coil that helps form a small amount of voltage in the coil when the flashlight is shaken. The more the flaslight was shakin more electricity will be generated to light up the bulb.

So we were curios about how this experiment works and we used  our professional tool  the NXT program to analyze the amount of voltage that were genereted with respect of the amount of shakes.

Last Tuesday we went to MIT nuclear plant. It is next to the MIT campus in Cambridge. This plant is used as a research facility for scientists, professors, and students attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Also it provides technical assistance for research projects for high school students, undergraduate and graduate students, university researchers and faculty members, and national laboratory users.

 

General description:

 

The MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory is a university laboratory that conducts interdisciplinary research in the areas of advanced fuel and materials for nuclear energy systems, nuclear science, nuclear medicine, and radiation science and technology.  . In the MIT nuclear reactor there are two tanks: an inner one for the light water coolant moderator, an outer one for the heavy water reflector. The fuel elements of uranium are positioned in a hexagonal core structure, 38 cm (15 inches) across, at the bottom of the core tank.

The Power is controlled by six shim blades and an automatic regulating rod. The pressure in the system is practically atmospheric, and the maximum temperature approximately 50 C (120 F). An exterior shield of dense concrete makes it possible for research workers and students to conduct experiments and training without radiation hazards.

There are more than forty ports which penetrate the concrete shield and graphite reflector. Below the reactor is a shielded medical room for the use of a neutron beam in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy.

 

This was the first time that I have been in a nuclear plant and thanks to this trip I learn how the nuclear energy can be used to provide benefits to our society.

 

 

In sustainbility class we did  an experiment with solar cells. Our objective was to measure the voltage produced by the solar panel at different distances and different filters.What we first did was used the device without light and recorded the data and then toke the data and found the average for no light. Then we did the same with the height we changed the height at least three or four times toke the average of each height.Later, we used different shades of color to cover it with the device then toke the data from the computer and toke the average of that. We did the same for the next four colors and found the average of each color.

The lab went pretty well. We ran into no problems. Our data is as follows.

 

 

 

Average Voltage and DistanceThe graph seems right to me because it is not all over the place but rather in a line. It kind of seems like it is slowly going down. Which I predict that the higher the inches is the lower it will go the average of voltage.

 

 

In conclusion, we see a difference in voltage with every variable. As the distance increased we saw a drop in voltage. This result was expected so it means our analysis was correct. Also when we changed the color filter we found a small, but significant, change in voltage. Yellow produced the highest voltage, while blue produced the less.

 

Tom vales came to our class to explain us the function and how works the the Peltier Device, Stirling Engine,  and the Mendocino Motor. Tom vales is an engineer that works with the electricity department of Suffolk University , He has become very popular because he know how to build this devices  and also he helps a lot of students with their science projects. In his presentation he taught us that these machines are able to produce an efficient amount of energy.  In this blog it will be explained how does this machines work.

 

The Peltier Device

In 1834, Jean Charles Athanase Peltier discovered that two unlike metals kept at a difference of temperature generates energy.

The Peltier effect has a lot of technological potential. It is very reliable, and since it has no moving parts, it rarely needs maintenance. Contrary to other types of cooling systems, the Peltier method is easily transportable. This is effect is used on refrigerators and air conditioners.

However, a Peltier element has a number of disadvantages besides inefficiency. It uses a lot of electricity and creates much more heat than it transports, which can easily lead to overheating if the extra heat isn’t compensated for. Condensation is another potential dangerous problem of using the Peltier effect, occurring if components are cooled too much.

The Tom Vales device runs by two dissimilar metals that go into cups of water. One cup is filled with hotwater and the other is filled with cold water. It transfers heat from one side of the device to the other side.

The Stirling Engine

The Stirling engine is a heat engine that is vastly different from the internal-combustion engine in your car. Invented by Robert Stirling in 1816, the Stirling engine has the potential to be much more efficient than a gasoline or diesel engine. But today, Stirling engines are used only in some very specialized applications, like in submarines or auxiliary power generators for yachts, where quiet operation is important. Although there hasn’t been a successful mass-market application for the Stirling engine, some very high-power inventors are working on it.

The Stirling Engine requires a temperature difference between two plates in order to run. In order to power the Stirling Engine,it has to be to one plate hotter than the other. This is easily achieved by placing the Stirling Engine on a cup of hot water.

The gap between the two plates is sealed, containing a fixed volume of air. As the bottom plate warms up, the air between the plates expands, pushing up the piston that seals a hole in the top plate. This piston is attached to the flywheel by a metal rod.

As the piston rises, the flywheel is turned. The movement of the flywheel in turn pushes down a second rod which is attached to a displacer sitting loosely between the plates. As the displacer moves downwards, it pushes air away from the hot bottom plate and up to the top plate, which is cooler. This causes the air to contract and the piston is pulled back down again, turning the flywheel further.

The turning flywheel raises the displacer again, pushing air back to the hot plate, and so the cycle continues while there is still a sufficient temperature difference between the two plates.

 

The Mendocino Motor

The Mendocino motor is a solar powered magnetically levitated motor this was the most impresive experiment that Tom showed us. The motor base consists of five sets of magnets. Four magnets in the base are levitation magnets which provides levitation force against the shaft magnets. The fifth magnet, is a field magnet which provides the magnetic field for the rotor.

The rotor consists of a shaft with a point on one end, magnets and rotor block. On the rotor block, there are four solar cells; one cell on each of the four sides and two sets of windings.

The rotor is levitated by the repelling force between the shaft magnets and the levitation magnets on the base. The levitation magnet also provides a forward thrust to keep the shaft point against the bearing plate. When the light strikes one of the solar cells, it generates an electric current thus energizing one of the rotor windings. This produce an electromagnetic field which interacts with the field magnets in the base, causing the rotor to turn. As the rotor rotates, the next solar cell comes in position, This cell now energizes the second winding. The process repeats again.

 

 

 

 

 

Based on Newton’s second law of motion we know that

F= m x a

• F: is the force exerted on an object
• a : acceleration
• m : mass.

And we can determine from this theory that

• a=F/m
• m= F/a

Our goal in this lab was to determine the relationship between the mass of an object and its acceleration. In order to make this experiment we use our Lego motor that was pulling a string where the mass was tied. Later, with the computer program we made some modifications to the power level.

Diferrent Masses

 

It  can be analyze from this  graph how the acceleration decrease in the increment of mass.

 

Diferentt Power

 

 

 

There is a Increment in acceleration when it was modified the power of the motor.Therefore , Acelleration and Power are proportional.

 

 

Analysis  Betwenn Power and MGH

 

 

It is notable with this graph that there is not a change between increment of power and MGH . Therefore it always it going to be the same MGH with any increment of Power

 

 

 

Comaparation between Mass and Discharge

 

 

 

If the mass increment the discharge would increment because the motor needs more power to work with more mass.In this case there are not proportional.

 

 

What is it?                     

A Pandemic occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in agiven human population, are spread through human populationsacross a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide.

We can say that a pandemic is a global epidemic.

Pandemics trough history

• Influenza
• Cholera                              
  
• Typhus
• Smallpox
• Measles
• Tuberculosis
• Leprosy
• Malaria
• Yellow fever

Influenza Pandemics? 

Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae (the influenza viruses), that affects birds and mammals. The most common symptoms of the disease are chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness/fatigue and general discomfort.

Typically, influenza is transmitted by:

• Through the air by coughs or sneezes, creating aerosol containing the virus.
• direct contact with bird droppings or nasal secretions.
• through contact with contaminated surfaces.

Airborne aerosols have been thought to cause most infections, although which means of transmission is most important is not absolutely clear.

 

Influenza pandemics have struck about three times every century since the 1500s, or roughly every 10-50 years. There was one in 1957-1958 and one in 1968-1969. The most infamous pandemic flu of the 20th century, however, was that of 1918-1919. An estimated 40 million people died in less than a year, and what made it so different from seasonal flu epidemics is that it killed primarily young people, those aged 20-45.(original link)

 

Who Should Plan for a Pandemic?

The U.S. government has placed a special emphasis on supporting pandemic influenza planning for public and private sector businesses deemed to be critical industries and key resources (CI/KR). Critical infrastructure are the thirteen sectors that provide the production of essential goods and services, interconnectedness and operability, public safety, and security that contribute to a strong national defense and thriving economy. With 85 percent of the nation’s critical infrastructure in the hands of the private sector, the business community plays a vital role in en-suring national pandemic preparedness and response.

 

 

Demand Response

• What is it?

Demand response is simply a temporary reduction or shift in electricity use.

It is a mechanisms to manage customer consumption of electricity in response to supply conditions. Demand response also is a component of smart energy demand, which also includes energy efficiency, home and building energy management, distributed renewable resource, and electric vehicle charging.(wikipedia).

• The Problem  

From day to day, electricity consumers use a predictable minimum amount of power, called the base load. Demand for electricity is typically highest in the afternoon and early evening, as well as during the summertime when air conditioners run day and night. When many people want to use their electrical appliances at the same time it’s called peak usage time.

Until your power is knocked out, you probably don’t pay much attention to how often you turn on a light or the television or what time of day you do it. When you flip on a light switch, electricity travels in an instant to your home and the bulb glows — that’s called demand.

When millions of electricity customers all turn on their air conditioners after work, it increases the demand load on the grid. Our demand for electricity is growing and the Energy Information Administration estimates that demand will rise at least 40 percent by 2030 [source:EEI].

Demand response it is a way to decrease this problems. In broad terms, demand response programs give us — residential, commercial and industrial consumers — the ability to voluntarily trim our electricity usage at specific times of the day (such as peak hours) during high electricity prices, or during emergencies (such as preventing a blackout). (How does it work)

 



 

• Why it is important?

When demand is high and supply is short, power interruptions can sometimes be the result. Building enough power plants to satisfy every possible supply and demand scenario is one possibility, but the cost and environmental impact of that would be tremendous.

Demand response programs are designed to be both fiscally and environmentally responsible ways to respond to occasional and temporary peak demand periods. (Original Link)

Without demand response, electricity would be less reliable and more expensive.

Get more from energy.

Demand Response with EnerNOC’s Network Operations Center

 

 

 

LEGO REPORT

On the class of 20th of September, it was analyzed and compared the actions of the Lego robot.  With the program of the lego robot  it was possible to modify some of the features such as battery power and the direction of going forward and backwards. Also,  it was measured the diameter of the wheel to determine a aproximation of rotation of the wheel.

 

Then , with the program it was unveiled the exact rotation of the wheel with different percentages of energy. Thus, it was used a formula in order to determine the uncertainty and the percent of error that was between  aproximation of the students and the program results. Below, the representation of the results on this lab.

 

 

Fukushima Nuclear Disaster.

The plant of Fukushima was damaged on march 11 of 2011 by a eartquake  of a magnitude of 9.0. The largest earthquake that has been in Japan. Also this earthquake generated a tsunami of 10m of high. This post is intended to be a show of important facts that caused the fukushima disaster.Then a series of links that will give a better understanding about this problem.

How Nuclear energy Works.

Fukushima Nuclear Reactor Explained

Nuclear plant Fukushima structure

Facts about Radiation from Fukushima.

 

“Located on the Eastern coast of Japan, the six nuclear power reactors at Daiichi are boiling water reactors (BWRs). A massive earthquake on 11 March disabled off-site power to the plant and triggered the automatic shutdown of the three operating reactors: Units 1, 2, and 3. The control rods in those units were successfully inserted into the reactor cores, ending the fission chain reaction. The remaining reactors — Units 4, 5, and 6 — had previously been shut down for routine maintenance purposes. Backup diesel generators, designed to start up after losing off-site power, began providing electricity to pumps circulating coolant to the six reactors.

Soon after the earthquake, a large tsunami washed over the reactor site, knocking out the backup generators. While some batteries remained operable, the entire site lost the ability to maintain normal reactor cooling and water circulation functions.”(Original Link)

 

The Japanese government asked the community in areas that were within 20 to 30 kilometers from the Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) Fukushima No. 1 broken away, the Cabinet Secretary said Yukio Edano on Friday (22/04 / 2011).

This is done because theradiation continues to increase, Yukio said, adding that residents in other regions outside a radius of 30 kilometers also must be ready to evacuate in an emergency.

The Japanese government evacuation instructions improved little by little because the workers are still trying to control the nuclear power plant damaged by the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan on March 11.

The Japanese government has been shut down since Thursday night in an area within a radius of 20 kilometers from the plant Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power to exclude people who do not have permission.(Original Link)