sci184

This is a make up blog post to the robot lab because I was not able create a blog about it due to my surgery. What is geothermal energy? Geothermal energy is energy that is created and stored in the earth. 20% Earth’s geothermal energy originates from the original formation of the planet and 80% radioactive decay of minerals. There is always heat being generated from the earth’s core. The the difference in temperature between the core of the planet and its surface is called the geothermal gradient.

Examples of geothermal energy is hot springs that are naturally heated. These hot spring have been used to bathe in since Paleolithic times. However, now the energy is being used to create electricity. 10,715 megawatts are created worldwide by 24 countries using geothermal power. It is true that geothermal energy releases greenhouse gasses, however, these gasses are released deep inside the earth and much lower per energy unit than of fossil fuels.

The main reason for companies not pursuing geothermal energies with more effort is because there is not much profit to be made off of it. In theory, the Earth has more than enough energy to supply human’s needs. To get to this energy, it is very expensive and not many people want to invest in drilling. If someone comes up with a cheap way to get to this energy, it could change man kind’s energy problem.

Last class we met in our groups to discuss and figure out what experiment we wanted to create and present to the class. Right from the start we wanted to do an experiment using a generator of some sort. We wanted to copy the flashlight experiment to what it could power. However, that idea fell through because we did not know how to hook anything up to it.

Our next idea was to use the Stirling engine, the one we saw Mr. Vale use, to see what that could power. We wrote an email to him explains our lab. He wrote back saying that the Stirling engine was too small to power anything. So once again our lab was scrapped.

We finally decided to build our own crank generator and see what it can power. The next step was to create the paper work required for the lab. The object of the experiment is to use lab view to find out how much voltage can be created. Since it is a crank generator, the object of the lab is to see if the more you turn the crank, the more voltage that is created. A light bulb will be set up to the generator to see if the crank generator can light the light bulb. Below is the video that shows you how to create a generator.

Crank Generator

For the lab today in class, we did an experiment using solar cells. The equipment we used was a light, solar cell, different colored pieces of reflectors, and the robot to measure how much voltage was being collected by the solar cell. We also had to look at the relationship of how much light was being absorbed by the solar cell compared to the height of the light. The next relationship we had to look at was how much light got through to the solar cell while it was covered up by different colored reflectors or paper.

We used lab view to measure how much energy was being absorbed by the cell. Lab view took 30 readings, one every second. We raised and lowered the light to see the relationship between having the light closer to the solar cell or farther away. We found that more energy was absorbed when the light was closer than when it was farther away.

After we took the readings and created a line chart and bar graph. In the line chart, we inserted a trend line which clearly shows that the closer the light was the more voltage that was created. Next we placed different colored papers or reflectors over the solar cell to see how much effect they would have on the energy absorbed.  The bar graph shows that the red reflector or paper allows the most energy through to the solar cell, then blue, then green. Below is the graph that shows this.

Graphs

The head of the science department, Tom Vale, came into our class today and did a few demonstrations for our class. His demonstrations consisted of the Stirling engine, Deltier Effect, Peezol Electric effect, and the Tesla coil. All of these engines are environmentally friendly and some are still in existence today.

The Stirling engine was invented in 1816 by Robert Stirling. The man objective to Robert Stirling was to eliminate the usage of coal because the steam engines would explode. The engine is run by heat and is 60% efficient. Basically, Mr. Vale put the engine on a hot cup of  water and the engine was moved by the steam rising. Stirling engines are still used today in many items such as lawn mowers and snow blowers.

The next thing Tom Vale demonstrated was the Deltier Effect. The Deltier Effect is what happens when a person adds heat to one side and cold on the other side. This creates electricity that can run a motor. However, it is not very efficient, only 10%. The Deltier Effect is used today in cars with cup holders that can heat your drink or keep it cool for you.

The last demonstration that was shown was something called a Tesla coil. The Tesla coil was created by Nicola Tesla. Nicola Tesla wanted to create electricity without wires. He succeeded but it is very impractical and dangerous. There is a massive amount of open electricity that could easily electrocute someone. It is impractical because the Tesla Coil causes a massive amount of interference so anything like a cell phone, computer, or ipod will not work.

On Monday our class took a field trip to the MIT nuclear power plant. The purpose of the trip was to learn the basics about nuclear power. Our class was given a tour by one of the employees at the power plant. The tour did not last very long, only about an hour but it was extremely informational.

The first piece of information that was told to us was that the MIT nuclear power plant is mainly used for research purposes and not power. The power plant itself gives out 6 mega watts of power. Last year the power plant ran at 5 giga watts of power. The research that has been conducted at nuclear power plant have been mostly medical research for cancer more specifically brain cancer. The doctors created a beam that shot neutrons at the brain cancer. The neutrons forced the cancer cells to break down. The patients that had this procedure done only had a month to live. This procedure prolonged their life by 8 months on average. Cancer research is not being done anymore because the power plant does not have the funding to continue.

The tour guide gave us a very watered down version of how the power plant works. Boron rods are used to control the reaction. When the rods are raised, the more power that is produced, when the rods are lowered into the water the less power that is produced. The rods are designed to avoid boiling from the water. 2200 gallons of water flow naturally into the reactor per minute to help cool it. The city of Cambridge does not have to worry about an incident like Fukushima. The MIT mainframe is programmed to shut down when it senses an earthquake. If the mainframe even senses the smallest malfunction it shuts down the reactor. MIT has its own special workshop where they repair the parts that are broken and get the reactor back up and running in a quick and timely manner.

On Monday, we did a measurement lab in class. We used a pulley system to raise .25 kg. While raising this mass we looked at speed which was measured in rotations per minute, power setting, time which is measured in seconds, and acceleration which is measured in rotations per minute divided by seconds.

We compared batter discharge vs. mass. One would think that the more mass the pulley was lifting, the more battery discharge would happen. However, it was the exact opposite. The higher the mass, the less battery discharge that happened. The reason for this is because when there is less mass, the pulley is going faster which in turn creates more battery discharge.

The second relationship we looked at was the relationship between power and time. The more power that had to be expended, the more time it took the mass to be lifted to a certain height. This makes sense because the more power that has to be used the heavier the mass is which means the longer it will take for the mass to reach a certain height.

Another relationship that was graphed was the relationship between acceleration and power. The faster the mass accelerates, the more power that is used. The graph shows this exact relationship.

The last relationship that was looked at was the relationship between acceleration and mass. Common sense tells us that the faster the acceleration, the lower the mass being lifted. The graph shows this by having a downward slope from the highest acceleration coming from the lowest mass and the slowest acceleration coming from the highest mass.

The following link will show you the graphs and lab.

lab

What is a pandemic? A pandemic is a viral strain that is extremely contagious that most people do not have the immunity to. This enables the virus to be spread throughout the world with relative ease. Interestingly enough, many people do not know what a pandemic is, it is the seventh most looked up word in the online dictionary. The most popular type of pandemic is the flu. There are 6 phases of a pandemic:

• Phase 1 — No new influenza virus has been found in people or animals.
• Phase 2 — New virus has appeared in animals, but no human cases.
• Phase 3 — A new strain of animal influenza virus infects humans, but there have not been human-to-human infections.
• Phase 4 — The new virus passes from person to person, but transmission is limited and confined to a certain location.
• Phase 5 — There is frequent transmission of the virus between people in a particular place, but it hasn’t spread to the rest of the world.
• Phase 6 — Pandemic. The virus is widespread worldwide.

The most common pandemics may be the flu, but the top five most deadly pandemics have been, the  Peloponnesian War Pestilence, the Antonine Plague, the Plauge of Justinian, The Black Death, and the Spanish Flu.

At the height of a pandemic, as much as 40 percent of the workforce will be out with the disease. When a pandemic occurs, businesses  have to plan for it because it affects communications. If a business doesn’t plan well, they could see their sales and profit plummet. Simple solutions have been installed to stop the spread of pandemics such as the flu around businesses like washing your hands after touching something. Some businesses have even gone as far as making their employees where masks while they have a cold so no sicknesses spread around the office.

The most recent pandemic was the H1N1 virus in 2009. The virus was more commonly called the “swine flu.” The Swine Flu was detected in Mexico City June of 2009. By the end of the month, President Obama had declared the Swine Flu a pandemic. The symptoms of the swine flu were the same as the regular flu, fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue . The people who were most at risk were the extremely young and the old. Here is a video about the H1N1 virus:

Swine Flu Video

Sources: http://transition.fcc.gov/pshs/emergency-information/pandemics.html

http://www.neatorama.com/2009/04/27/5-deadliest-pandemics-in-history/

http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/what-are-epidemics-pandemics-outbreaks

http://patients.about.com/od/patientempowermentissues/a/swindflu2009.htm

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-04-24/health/swine.flu_1_swine-flu-mexico-city-jose-angel-cordova-villalobos?_s=PM:HEALTH

On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit with a tsunami that was cause by an earthquake off the coast of Japan. The earthquake was called a “megaquake” because it registered a 9.0 on the Richter scale. It is the most powerful earthquake known to have hit Japan. The Fukushima nuclear power plants were located on the eastern part o Japan. On the day of the tsunami and earthquake, reactors 5 and 6 were shut down for maintenance. Reactor 4 was being de-fuelled. Unfortunately, the reactors that experienced a full meltdown were reactors 1, 2, and 3 which were not shut down.

Nuclear fuel rods are put under a pool of water because the water acts like a barrier to the radiation and does not let it out. When the plants lost electricity they lost the ability to keep replenishing the cooling water used to keep the radiation in check. The pressure of hydrogen gas in reactor 1 and 3 caused an explosion which led to a meltdown. A nuclear meltdown is when molten fuel falls to the bottom of the reactor’s containment vessel. When reactor 2 exploded, the explosion damaged a pressure suppression system which led to a nuclear meltdown. Japan’s fix to get the fuel rods back underwater was to use salt water. However, the problem with salt water is that it corrodes the pipes that are meant for fresh water and it ruins the reactor.

Japan was highly upset with the Fukushima incident and issued an investigation headed by Yotaro Hatamura. Japanese residence who lived up to 30 km were ordered to evacuate the area due to the radiation levels. Japanese authorities admitted that the soft policies contributed to the nuclear disaster. Fukushima was the second largest nuclear meltdown only behind the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. Since the Fukushima disaster, countries such as America, Germany, and Spain have gone away from nuclear power plants.

Sources: http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13678627

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110910p2a00m0na008000c.html