In correlation of learning about energy in class, we experimented with little robots and measured the energy efficiency while comparing our recorded results to those measured by the computer.  The robot was comprised of a small body, which records data, and three wheels, two big wheels on the side and a small one on the front.  During this experiment, we had to measure the distance the wheels traveled at three varying combinations of power and time.  The power determined how fast the motor would run and the time determined how long the motor would be running for.  We also recorded the number of wheel rotations and the time it took for the wheel to rotate.  In order for the computer to make those calculations we had to input the circumference of the rear wheels.

For the three different settings, my partner and I decided to run all three settings at a constant time of 1 second and increased the power by 25 each setting.  The first setting was ran at the power of 50, the second was at 75, and the third at 100.  With each setting we realized that increasing the power increased the distance the robot traveled.  When looking at the data collected from the experiment, strong connections between with number of wheel turns and distance traveled can also be seen.  As we raised the power and the robot traveled further, the wheels rotated more times.

When comparing our manually recorded distances to the computer’s calculations the results were similar but with varying error percentages.  It appears that the percentages grow steadily as the power was raised.  I believe the primary reason for the error percent was because of the short time we chose to run the different settings.  Accelerating quickly and then coming to a complete stop after one second didn’t make for the most constant results, especially on the power of 100.  The robot would accelerate rapidly for a moment and then didn’t come to a necessarily slow stop, causing the measurements to be inconsistent.  If we had chose to run the robot at lower powers for longer periods of time, I believe our measurements would have been more similar to the computers and there would be less error.

 

Setting 1:

Time: 1 second

Power: 50

Trial 1:

• Measured: .162 m                    Error =5.8%
• Wheel Rotations: 0.8388
• Distance: 0.1528 m
• Velocity: 0.1528 m/s

Trial 2:

• Measured: .167 m                    Error =3.87%
• Wheel Rotations: 0.95277
• Distance: 0.17359 m
• Velocity: 0.17359 m/s

Trial 3:

• Measured: .167 m                    Error = 3.24%
• Wheel Rotations: 0.9472
• Distance: 0.1725 m
• Velocity: 0.1725 m/s

Setting 2:

Time: 1 second

Power: 75

Trial 1:

• Measured: .319 m                    Error = 17.66%
• Wheel Rotations: 1.4667
• Distance: 0.26722 m
• Velocity: 0.26722 m/s

Trial 2:

• Measured: .26.2 m                    Error = 5.32%
• Wheel Rotations: 1.51667
• Distance: 0.27633 m
• Velocity: 0.27633 m/s

Trial 3:

• Measured: .257 m                    Error = 3.33
• Wheel Rotations: 1.45833
• Distance: 0.2657 m
• Velocity: 0.2657 m/s

Setting 3:

Time: 1 second

Power: 100

Trial 1:

• Measured: .358 m                    Error = 9.24%
• Wheel Rotations: 2.15556
• Distance: 0.3927 m
• Velocity: 0.3927 m/s

Trial 2:

• Measured: .365 m                    Error = 7.96%
• Wheel Rotations: 2.16944
• Distance: 0.39527 m
• Velocity: 0.39527 m/s

Trial 3:

• Measured: .369 m                    Error= 6.71%
• Wheel Rotations: 2.16389
• Distance: 0.3946 m
• Velocity: 0.3946 m/s

Hydraulic fracturing, or more commonly known as ‘fracking’, is a complex technique to retrieve natural gas and oil from the depths of the Earth’s shale rock.  This practice was started in the 1940s and has been very popular in the United States since many other forms of recovering natural gas and oil exhausted deposits closer to Earth’s crust.  After drilling down hundreds of meters into the Earth, fracking uses mixtures of high-pressured water, chemicals, sand, and pumps in the process of extraction.  The chemicals in the mix kill bacteria and dissolve minerals, making for an easier extraction of the resources, while the sand is used to fill the fractures and create canal like paths for the resources to reach the head of the well.  This mixture is injected into the rock at high pressure causing the layer of rock to fracture, releasing the natural gases and oil in the extraction area.  The mixture of fracking fluid and natural gases is then pumped out of the well to extract the resources, and once they have completed that they return the chemical-ridden fracking liquid back into the now exhausted well and cover it.

Fracking has allowed the US to flourish in domestic oil production.  The process of fracking allows energy firms to drill down to previously unreachable natural gas deposits and this has helped lower gas prices.  Using natural gas instead of coal to generate sources of energy, like electricity, outputs half the CO2 emissions and is helpful in the short run in shrinking the United States’ carbon footprint.

Since the practice of fracking began, it has been a very controversial topic.  Fracking is extensively used in the United States and it has helped the US in meeting our constantly growing energy demand.  The downside to fracking are the environmental concerns affiliated with the process.  The primary concern is water.  In one well, eight million liters of water is used in the fracking fluid.  Eight million liters of water could supply 65,000 people with a day’s worth of drinking water.  Although, less water is used in fracking than coal, nuclear, and oil extraction.  Surprisingly, these other resource extraction processes use approximately two, three, and ten times as much water than fracking.  During fracking, the water is then contaminated with 600 chemicals to make the fracking fluid.  These chemicals include numerous carcinogens and toxins such as lead, uranium, mercury, ethylene glycol, radium, methanol, hydrochloric acid, and formaldehyde.  Environmentalists are concerned that these harmful chemicals may escape the fracking well and contaminate underground water sources.  Pollution has resulted in fracking, but the industry pleas that these incidents occurred because of bad practice of fracking instead of using a risky technique.  There have been over 1,000 reported cases of water pollution so far.  Environmentalists believe the country’s focus on fracking is distracting energy firms from investing in renewable energy sources.

 

HOW FRACKING WORKS VIDEO:

The very first commercial power grid was developed by Thomas Edison and was launched in lower Manhattan in the early 1880s.  Today, America’s energy grid is a vast system covering the entire country consisting of thousands of electric generating units and hundreds of thousands of miles of transmission lines that provides homes and businesses with electrical power.  This complex ‘grid’ was developed over 100 years ago and has been continuously updated in result of technology advancements and a growing population with an ever-increasing energy demand.

Although energy is carried to all parts of the country, America doesn’t have a ‘national grid’.  Instead, the grid is comprised of three major interconnections located in western, eastern, and southern regions of America.  Electricity is generated at power stations through the use of fossil fuels or nuclear reaction.  Electric power generated by power plants is moved at an extremely high voltage, in order to travel long distances efficiently, through transmission lines to local substations.  From the substation, distribution lines and transformers are used to provide buildings with power.  Transformers lower the voltage before the electrical current enters buildings so it is safe to use as a power source in homes and offices.  Since electric power cannot be stored on a massive scale, power plants are constantly operating and adjusting their output of energy based on consumer needs.

The energy grid is viewed as an incredible infrastructure that has improved America and has helped it flourish as a nation, but we are stretching this interconnected web to its capacity and it is time to upgrade.  When it comes to energy use it is important to use it efficiently, which is why ideas around developing a ‘Smart Grid’ have been surfacing in debate.  This Smart Grid would be a engineering marvel of the 21st century.  With technology becoming more and more abundant in our everyday lives, the nation wants digital technology heavily integrated in the grid.  Such an advancement would allow for the electrical grid to respond instantly to consumer demand so only the necessary amount of electricity is being used, making energy use more efficient.  The Smart grid would incorporate renewable energy and massive batteries to store power.  Developing a Smart Grid would help shrink the United States’ carbon footprint making.

Numerous benefits accompany the installation of a Smart Grid.  To provide a few examples, benefits associated with the Smart Grid include; more efficient transmission of electricity, reduced operations and management costs for utilities, lower power costs for consumers, and increased integration of large-scale renewable energy systems.  Migrating to the Smart Grid would be a strong asset for America, but this massive project would take a lot of money and time.  This technological advancement would provide cleaner energy use and start America on the right path to more efficient and renewable energy.

 

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