The Keystone XL Pipeline is an oil pipeline from Canada and runs into United States. The pipe is from Alberta, Canada and gets refined in Illinois and Texas. After that it gets distributed in Oklahoma. The first part of the pipes is 2,147 mi it was completed in June 2010.  The part is 300 mi and was completed in February 2011. The third part was completed in January 2014 and another part of it will be completed in 2015. The proposed is going to duplicate part 1 and 2. The pipe itself will carry crude oil from Alberta, Canada to Steele City, Nebraska. Currently only 40% of the pipe line is complete. This will be located right in middle of the United States. When completed the pipe line will move 830,000 barrels a day. That could supply so much oil to the US. Currently the environmental issue the pipe faces is a little greenhouse gas but other than that the pipes seem to be fine to the environment. The pipeline seems like a great idea for since we do import gas and this could save so much time and money on the American economy. As of now this plan has been approved by senate and will move forward. This pipeline will do some great things for the American economy and society. 

When the class was assigned a group project I felt like I was the only one that was going to do all work. But as of week 2 so far I was wrong. My group and I first scoured the websites that were given to us. After a half hour pasted we still hadn’t found anything that interested us so we decided to split up and look on our own for a little bit. After 10-15 minutes pasted we decided to perform the experiment of race day. Race day was to how much velocity a toy car had going down a ramp. We had finalized the idea but when we heard the group next to us was going to do the same experiment we decided to change it. On the second day only two members of the group were we decided on the experiment. The experiment we were going to demonstrate was a calorimetry. The calorimetry experiment we were going demonstrate involved burning food and when I asked Dr. Shatz if it was ok she responded by saying no she does not trust kids with fire since she had a bad experience with it in a past class. When that idea got shut down we decided to a lemon battery lab. The lemon battery lab was where you stick a nail in one end of a lemon and a penny in the other end. When you do that the nail becomes the negative end of a battery and the penny becomes the positive end of the battery. We had wanted to try and charge a cell phone with the lemons but that would require a lot of lemons. In the end we had to decide on the lemon battery definitely because the due date of the proposal was fast approaching. Even if we cannot charge a phone we would like to power a small led bulb or even a few of them.

Last week the class preformed the Generator Experiment. The generator experiment required a few things such as one generator which was an empty flash light with a part of it wrapped in copper wire with a magnet inside it. It also required a voltage probe, a NXT adapter, a NXT, and of course Excel. We first had to open up lab view and get the lab from the blog. After that was all set up we ten had to run lab view for 30 seconds while that ran we had to shake the generator as fast as we could and we had to count how many times we shacked. We then had to repeat that again but shake slower than the first time. But the first thing we had to do before anything was not even shake the generator what so ever. After we did that we opened excel and the data was imported in and we got the average. This lab was not that long at all my partner and I were done pretty quickly. The data we got I located below.

Last week the class had performed the Solar Cell Lab. Before we even started we had to get the supplies which consisted of One NXT adaptor, NXT with light sensor, Ruler, Colored film filters and a flashlight. We then started up lab view and started the lab. First we had to set up the flash light and the light sensor. The first run through was the light sensor had to be covered and no light had to be on it. After we set a colored film in front of the light sensor and set the flashlight a certain distance away which we did. When the light was running lab view was recording all the data so we could use it in Excel. We then later repeated that with two different color filters and at different distances. After we finished gathering the data we opened excel and imported the data. With the data we labeled the spreadsheet and made graphs out of them. Even though this may sound like we did the lab perfectly we did not perform the lab correctly at first. The thing we messed up on was when we had to get data from the sensor with no light. Lab view made us get data one by one. But before we started the one with the color filters we changed the lab view settings so it would get data like it was supposed to. This lab itself was very straight forward and if you do make a mistake you can mix it easily. 

Last week Tom Vales came to talk our class about electricity. When I heard that he coming I was not too excited about a guy coming and talking about electricity. But I was completely wrong. When he came started to talk about Nikola Tesla vs. Thomas Edison. That was not to interesting but it was interesting on how Tesla did so much work with just him and a lab assistant and how Edison did the same amount of work but with so much more lab assistants. Another interesting thing was thanks to tesla we have alternating currents. The most interesting part came when he took his toys. His toys consisted of a plastic bucket wrapped in copper, some light bulbs, and something else I don’t remember the name. When he turned on his black box nothing happened. When he started to put the light bulb closer it lit up. When he put his hand in middle of the bulb the one side closer to the black box stayed lit but the other side did not. After he did the same thing but with a multi colored bulb. Since Mr. Vales had an appointment in a half an hour he had hurry along the presentation but the things he showed us were really fascinating and I hoped he had stayed even more just to show us how the black box which I now think is an inverter. Overall having Mr. Vales come and present was a great time and very fascinating. I hope he does come back in a future class since his presentation was very interesting.

Pandora’s Promise is a documentary that was released in 2013. The movie is about the Nuclear energy debate. Some people who were pro nuclear energy were Stewart Brand, Gwyneth Cravens, Mark Lynas, Richard Rhodes and Michael Shellenberger. The group of people that were opposed to nuclear power was Helen Caldicott, and Harvey Wasserman. The director of the movie was Robert Stone. When I sat down to watch the movie I had no idea it was a documentary I assumed with the name Pandora’s Promise was going to be a portrayal of what will happen to world if nuclear energy goes wrong. Even when the title screen ended and we saw the father and son I thought oh it’s going to show an apocalyptic earth. But that never happened. The movie itself was just interview’s really not a good way to make a movie at all. The actors do talk about how nuclear energy can help the world survive longer while others say how nuclear energy will everyone in the world. That would have to be the most interesting thing they say in the entire movie. The movie overall I would have to give a grade of F. this movie does not interest the general audience. But only interest the few who are interested in the topic. The movie was nothing I imagined it would. It was just people talking about their interest in this topic. That why it only made $66 thousand at the box office. Even if the movie itself could have made I the topic much more interesting to the general audience it would be of been appreciated. The movie itself did cover the topic thoroughly but only to the people interested in the topic of nuclear energy. That’s why I change my grade from an F to an D-

A few weeks ago we performed a mass and pulley experiment. When we started the experiment we were given a set of small weights. The total of the weights were 250 grams. When we started we had to do the experiment with the same amount of weight and different amount of force. We repeated that about four times. Then we had imported the data into an already made Excel sheet. After we did that we had to close the Excel sheet so when we continue importing data. Then we had to keep the same force but change the amount of weight. We then opened Excel again and saw the data again.

We then had to label the data which was not that much work. After we had made the graph’s which we could have made them the way we wanted as long as the data was correct. After the graphs were made I had to edit al the titles, numbering the axis’s, and axis title. I then had to insert the line of best fit and the percent of how the line fit. Even though some groups had trouble with their data we did not have that much problem.

A couple of our lines did not fit the best but our data was still right. Since I was done last Thursday I had just redesigned the way my spread sheet and graphs looked. This was very interesting to do since I had never done a lab like this ever. The part that interested me the most was how much information the program gives you for just moving up and down. Some of the info given was the power, the weight, battery used, Etc. Even though the battery usage was apparently not correct it was still interesting knowing it could do that. Another thing I found intriguing was how the data I automatically imported to Excel and how it gets organized by itself and you don’t do anything. But the 0’s that get inserted should never be deleted since I did and it messed up my data but I undid all that so the data now is still correct. Overall this lab was very interesting to do and how intriguing how the data we collected was right.

Last week I attended the library tour with my class. The tour was not like anything I expected. When we arrived in the library we were greeted by a Librarian whose name I forgot right now. The class was brought into the computer lab in the second floor of the library or the third floor of 73 Tremont. When we got there the librarian showed us how to access the library website through the Suffolk website.

As you walk in the Library

After going through the website she showed us to access the online databases. The online databases were helpful in knowing they were there and are going to be useful in the future. Something about the library she didn’t show us but told us about the room they have for group study room and how they get booked fast when finals come around. The librarian also explained to us all the areas they have in the library. The first one she told us about the first floor of the library which contains the reference desk and some study areas. The second floor of the library contains more study areas, a computer lab, and the poetry room. The third floor of the library is actually on the 9^th floor of 73 Tremont. This floor has a somewhat of a lounge area. She described it as an area where you can study in peace or just watch some TV. Even though I haven’t been to the 9^th floor I think it would be nice to know they have a quiet place to study. The best thing she showed us was the online databases. The thing that was interesting was how many online databases Suffolk has access to. Knowing how much references we have to use on any assignments it’s good to know we have them. After that she explained to us all the things we can check out such as the biggest any class textbook which is great if you can’t but the book or you just forgot it that day. Some other items we can check out is a laptop which you have the choice of either mac or window which is great since some people only know how to use just one operating system while I can use both just fine. They even have phone chargers where you can checkout and use. One of the most impressive things they have is a collection of kindle readers for their eBook collection.

A part of the second floor library

If I heard right then when you check a kindle out you can buy one eBook for the library. In general the tour was nothing I expected. I expected to be an actual tour where we walk around the library and maybe at the end spend a few minutes in the computer lab. Overall it was very informative.

Demand response is a last resort use for customers reducing their electricity use in high demand time. That’s a definition of the word. This is also when electricity is made the consumption must balance that and that’s how the consumer must cut back their use. Back in 2004 the U.S government has tried to help demand response.

While trying to help a new commission was formed known as The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) they helped by regulating the orders affecting the transmission system. While this whole program was intended for consumers who use more than one million watts this also works for customers who use thousands of watts. Even with anyone who lowers their demand of electricity they can get a lower bill not once but every single month when they demand it. The most a consumers bill was lowered by 13 percent one month. This may not be the case for all since some loads can be lowered as much as the one consumer was. Some reasons why demand response is started are because the load would be too much for the generator if everyone used the most electricity at once.

If you still want save money then if you have a backup generator then some companies will pay you to use it when told to. When you do anything to help them then the payment you get would either be from a refund check or a discount off your bill itself. To be involved in the demand response program you have to reduce your load or you will be penalized for not. But some companies do not penalize you for not reducing. Overall demand response seems like a good way to save a few dollar’s every month only if you’re willing to lower your energy consumption which could be great for you and amount of greenhouse gas to emit every day.

http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.library.law.suffolk.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2014/04/29/greenbiz-101-what-do-you-need-know-about-demand-response
http://energy.gov/oe/technology-development/smart-grid/demand-response
http://www.facilitiesnet.com/facilitiesmanagement/article/The-Need-for-DemandResponse-Programs–9194?source=part

Lego Mindstorm is one the best things we did class so far. Lego Mindstorm is when we had to build a little car with Lego pieces and a NXT. The NXT is a small computer where you can program it tell the motors what to do and when to turn and stop. Assembling the car we had to use a Lego piece that’s where the Lego part in the name comes in. Building it was such a pain because we had to improvised since there were pieces missing. When you assemble you had to use Lego pieces to connect the motors to the NXT so the NXT can tell the motors when to go and stop. After we had assembled the car my partner Mohammed and I had to program the car to do a simple task such as goes in a circle with a radius of 10 inches.we did tat by connecting the car to the mac via USB and launching Lab View. Lab View is a program that can help us program the car. We could have programmed the car to do anything we wanted such as brake, only the left wheel turn, only the right wheel turns, Etc. After doing that we had to find out how many times that car moved to our calculations to what the computer said. After doing that we had to find the percent error and if we were under 10% percent then we would be all set.

The formula we used was
((|ruler reading-computer reading|)/(average of the two))*100= equals percent error

The first one we got was
((|1.26-.2751|)/(.2675))*100= 3.37
The percent error of that was 3.37%

The second one we got was
((|1.373-.377|)/(.375))*100= 1.066
The percent error was 1.066%

The third one we got was
((|.179-.16|)/(.1695))*100= 11.2
The percent error we got was 11.2% a little bit over

The last one we got was
((|.089-.073|)/(.081))*100= 19.75
The percent error on this one was 19.75% we were really over on this one.

In general this activity was really fun to do since it did include something interesting. The best thing we did would have to be building the NXT since that took the class quite a while to do. The calculations we had to do were somewhat right since two of ours were under 10% while the other two were not. If we did have more time with the program and the NXT we could of done so much more than what we had to. If had the chance to buy I would but the starter kit is too expensive for me. But I do want to buy it when I get the money to it would like a fun project to do when I want to see what it is capable of.
Resources
My notes and my memory

On June 2014 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a plan to cut carbon from the power plants across America. This was all under President Obama’s Climate action Plan or known as Clean Power Plan. The Clean Power Plan is said to maintain affordable, reliable energy while cutting pollution. The reason why all this is happening is because the average temperature has been rising since 1901. You may be wondering were Obama got this idea; he got the idea from George Bush. When he came into office in 2000 bush had tried to push this idea to the EPA but they did not go for it that much. When president Obama came into office in 2012 he wanted to continue this idea and he was determined to pass the bill. When president Obama wanted to make this bill happen he was ordered by the U.S Supreme Court to regulate the carbon pollution. What that means is that he has to control the output of carbon in the air. Even though this may be a good idea but the states that depend on coal won’t get a lower electricity bill but they will the same as us. Even though this may help the average temperature the carbon can still affect Children, the elderly and the poor. The new plan will cut about 30 percent of the carbon in the air. It is predicted that by 2030 the health benefits will be worth about 55 billion. With this plan each and every state has to submit their own plan on how they will comply with this issue by June 2016. The EPA has designed four approaches the states can take but the way they do it will be up to them. The best thing about all of this is the plan will not hurt the economy what so ever. This may be true or false but we will have to wait to find out. The cons of this plan are this will hurt the national GDP and employment. This won’t clean up much of the carbon it is projected to clean up only 1.8 percent. The whole cost of this plan is huge and the electricity will rise $289 billion. Some pros of this plan is that in 2012 extreme weather cost tax payer $100 billion in cleanup costs and they will decrease if the plan is effective. This will even make a new generation of clean up jobs which will help the unemployment rate.  This plan seems to be a good idea but it will have its draw backs as it goes on in the future.

Resources

http://www2.epa.gov/carbon-pollution-standards/clean-power-plan-proposed-rule

http://grist.org/climate-energy/the-nine-things-you-need-to-know-about-obamas-new-climate-rules/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/five-things-to-remember-a_b_5631967.html

With gas prices on the rise today the average consumer has to save on the budget as much as they can. Even the automobile industry is trying to help as much as they can. Now that the Obama administration has stepped in they have to help the consumer more than ever with a deadline of 2025 to raise their average fuel economy. But that is still eleven years away and no one wants to wait that long. For the impatient person car manufactures are doing something to help right now.

Back in 2011 President Obama announced that an agreement with thirteen major automakers increase the fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon. The automakers involved in that agreement were Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Toyota and more. With the agreement the automakers must have reached 54.5 mpg by the model year 2025. But the automakers are improving a little bit at a time with each new model year.

Current CAFE and Future CAFE

The Hybrid car, Yes I said the word hybrid even though they might not be the most appealing *cough* Toyota Prius *cough* they are the cars that get the most vehicle and they are on a rise since 2005 and with the Prius being number 1 in sales. But what is a hybrid you ask. A hybrid car when two energy sources are running the car. Today it would gasoline and electricity. With the average mileage of a hybrid sedan is around thirty miles a gallon combined of both city and highway which is quite impressive since non hybrids only get around twenty miles a gallon combined.

Now if you still don’t want to spend money on gasoline but still want a car check out any pure electric car. The electric car just works likes a regular car but instead of a gas tank they have a battery pack which in most cars is in the back of the car. The great side of electric cars is they can go around 80 miles a charge. When it comes to charging it may take about 72 hours to go from empty to full in the case of Tesla model S and that’s just from a regular household plug. The down side of electric cars is that they need to be charged by a regular household plug or a special charging station that can be found in most major cities or you can have one installed in your house.

What car manufactures could do right now is have auto stop and start already equipped in all there new models. Auto stop and start is a feature that was just in hybrids but is now moving to regular cars. But what is auto start and stop is when you’re at a standstill in your car the engine will turn off and when you accelerate the engine will start back up. This would save you some fuel economy but not much. Every little bit does help.

Cost of driving a Electric Car

In conclusion the auto industry is doing a lot to improve the mileage of their cars. They could do better if they have auto start and stop already installed in all their cars but that is an add-on in most of their cars. With the help of President Obama the automakers are getting to the 54.5 mpg standard.

Work Cited

Csere, Csaba. “How Automakers Will Meet 2016 CAFE Standards – Feature.” Car and Driver. N.p., May 2010. Web. 18 Sept. 2014. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-automakers-will-meet-2016-cafe-standards “

Herrera, Tilde. “How Automakers Can Meet the New 54.5 MPG Standards.” GreenBiz.com. N.p., 01 Aug. 2011. Web. 18 Sept. 2014 http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2011/08/01/how-automakers-can-meet-new-545-mpg-standards”

Berman, Brad. “Cars.” Detailed List of Electric and Plug-in Hybrids. N.p., 16 July 2014. Web. 18 Sept. 2014. ” http://www.plugincars.com/electric-cars”