This passed week Tom Vales came to our class and talked about electricity and also showed us a tesla coil.  Vales talked about the differences between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. Tesla did a lot of work with just himself and one lab assistant, while Edison did the same amount of work, but had many lab assistants. Vales also told us we have tesla to thank for why we have alternating currents. The tesla coil he showed us consisted of a plastic bucket wrapped in wire and was attached to a motor.

Vales continued to show us neat things about the tesla coil by holding lights near it. Just by holding lights near the tesla coil they would light up.

Overall the whole talk was extremely interesting. I have read somethings on Tesla so it was nice to learn more about him and also see how one of his inventions worked.

Pandora’s Promise is a documentary that goes into the idea that nuclear power at first seemed to be bad for the environment, but could actually save it. Environmentalists began to explain why they thought nuclear power was something that was bad. They claimed that the nuclear industry caused a radiation wasteland.

What some protester learned and then talked about is that they were focusing on the negative because nuclear power was first shown to the world in bombs.

Overall the film shows both sides of the argument which helps show the pros and cons of nuclear power. In my opinion nuclear power is not a bad thing, but people are scared of it because they don’t know enough about it. This film proves this exact point with great examples and a lot of informant. The film is very informative and is something everyone should watch to learn why nuclear power could help clean up the environment by not using fossil fuels.

This week we split off into groups and made a pulley lift weights. We tested accelerate, potential energy, and power (related to force). The machine was made using the motor from the robot car, string and a pulley.

For the experiment we changed variables. At first we changed the mass by taking weights off but kept the power the same. After running  the pulley a few times we switched so that the mass of the weights stayed the same and we changed the power.

After the robot collected all our data we made four graphs as a way to better compare the data.

Although this experiment was pretty easy there were some errors because of the technology. At one point the robot controlling the motor wouldn’t stop and just kept running. Overall this was an awesome learning experiment.

The Sawyer Library is a very good recourse for any research project, paper or study group. The homepage for the library looks very similar to any other library website. This makes the website very easy to use and everything is clearly labeled.

On the homepage it is possible to look up books, journals, websites and much more. If you already know what you’re looking for this is a good place to start your research. The great thing about the website is if you are confused about how to start you’re research, but don’t have the time to go into the library the website has a section where you can ask a librarian for help.

Lastly the website has a place for students to book study rooms. This is a nice quite room in which group projects, studying and much more can occur. To book a group study room it is very easy and there are many times available.

Overall the Sawyer Library is similar to many other libraries but it is also very different.

On days where temperatures are at extreme highs or lows people use a lot of energy as they turn on heaters or ac units. In addition people have on all the other electrical appliances they usually have on such as computers, lights, televisions and many others. 

The Demand Response program is where electricity companies monitor the grid and make sure that the levels are not reaching capacity if it does then large commercial users are paid to cut back on power. This way there is enough power for everyone and the system isn’t overused so there are no brown outs are black outs.

With programs like demand response there is hope that the price of electricity might be able to go down because less power will need to be provided the less people use it.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/07/22/demand-response-takes-pressure-off-power-grid/b5gZ6ENPYjmr4KWq4LZpdN/story.html

http://energy.gov/oe/technology-development/smart-grid/demand-response

http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/demand-response.asp