Month: February 2016

Studies have shown the more time that continues to pass, the more contribution to global warming there is. There are many contributions to our world’s global warming, but certain groups, and/or individuals have came up with ideas. Ideas that are intended to decrease greenhouse emissions, which results in global warming. Solar energy has been a method, or source of energy that has been discovered by Alexandre Edmond Becquerel during the 1830’s. He discovered how sun can be transmitted into energy by using the Photovoltaic effect. Photons are the particles that come from light, including the sun. In the past due to the lack of research and experimenting, the use of solar energy was very limited. It is not until now that solar panels have been created and actually used. When solar panels were actually being used, the only buildings that you would see solar panels being used were either company buildings or very wealthy households. Solar panels were very expensive, even today it is not affordable for the middle class. We do see a lot more solar panels on the roofs of homes today than in the past.

During class, me and my partner were involved in a lab activity that consisted of us measuring the voltage that was transmitted on to a mini solar panel based on the distance of the light, and the change of color. We began the lab by receiving the materials from our professor. We began by putting the battery into the NXT with light sensor causing it to turn on. Next, we plugged the adapter from the NXT with light sensor, into port 1. Then we connected the solar panel to the adapter (red wire to red, and black wire to black). We continued by plugging the NXT robot into the computer by using a USB cable. We had to plug the NXT robot to the computer so that the data the robot receives, it is transmitted onto the program LabView.

We began the lab by conducting five trials. For each trial, we changed the distance between the flashlight and the solar panel. We started with a distance of 0 centimeters, followed by 2 centimeters, 4 centimeters, 6 centimeters, and finally 8 centimeters. As the distance increased, the voltage from the light decreased. This is because the farther the flashlight, the less power of light that is coming in contact with the solar panel. Our final conclusions were computed and graphed/plotted on a chart which I will demonstrate later.

For our second part of the lab, we were supposed to keep the distance of the flashlight constant which we decided to leave it at 4 centimeters. The difference throughout this part of the lab was that for each trial, we changed the color of lens that we held in between the flashlight and the solar panel. We used the colors orange, light blue, purple, and dark blue. Each color made a difference to the amount of voltage that was transmitted onto the solar panel. Orange ended up being the color that transmitting the most voltage. Light blue and purple finished with around the same amount of voltage.

 

Solar LAB1

SOLARlab2

Above i have include the results in which we turned it into a graph and a chart to show the final outcomes after making changes for each trial.

Due to this lab, i have learned how light can be used as energy. There are many ways of creating energy and turning it into electricity. In the case of the lab, it is a low voltage because the flashlight is not equipped to conduct high voltage but its a great demonstration.

 

Based on what i have read about Nikola Tesla, Tesla was a very intelligent man. He was a man filled with infinite ideas about electrical inventions allowing him to patent many ideas. He was very smart and convincing which gave him to the opportunity to have investors invest into his ideas. Big investors such as J.P Morgan, that is a huge deal especially in today’s age. Tesla started off as a partner of Thomas Edison but because of “conflicting” interests, they ended up separating and doing their own things. Tesla created, Tesla Coil, AC hydroelectric power plants, Electrical generators, and intended to build a wireless communication system.

Tesla’s coil was created for wireless technologies such as radios. Even in today’s day, we use the same technology for the radios whether for our vehicles, or regular radios. The way it works is that it produces high voltage, low current, and also high frequency that alternates current electricity. Tesla’s AC hydroelectric power plants used to power cities.  This is another one of Tesla’s powers transfer ideas which he thought it worked for the nation, but he not only wanted to transfer power within the nation but also around the world. This project began in the city of Niagra Falls, then he manage to power the city of Buffalo, New York. Thanks to his invention, his invention remains existing in today’s time.

Tesla thought of the idea of Dynamos was another form of transfer of power which is similar to batteries. He probably would have been able to patent that idea as well but another group beat him to that idea. Another idea of Tesla was the wireless energy. He managed to come up with inventions such as remote controllers which we definitely use in every day of our lives. He invented the technology of X-rays, radar technologies in which we use within the medical field.

Around Tesla’s late stages in life, he was hoping to build a global wireless communication system. Meaning with the large electrical towers, he would be able to receive information from the users of electricity. His intentions were to not only exchange information through those towers but also be able to distribute free energy. Eventually his idea was broken apart by his competitors which involved Edison.

This is a picture of one of the towers that was Tesla’s idea and was also funded by J.P. Morgan. This was one of the radio towers which functioned to transfer energy through wireless mechanism. It was blown apart because people suspected Germans were using the tower as form of spying.

 

Sources:

http://www.biography.com/people/nikola-tesla-9504443#wardenclyffe-project

http://www.teslasociety.com/teslacoil.htm

http://earlyradiohistory.us/1917tes.htm

Each human has their own capacity of energy. Each human is able to conduct an amount of energy that they can handle. In the human body, calories is a form of energy that helps us measure how much energy we may have. In the world there are many forms of energies that us humans actually rely on day to day bases. Nuclear energy, Gas energy, Coal energy, Oil energy, and others that are small contributions such as Biomass energy, hydro energy, solar and Geothermal energy. Our transportation consist mostly of energy made up of oil. All of these energies contribute to what is called Greenhouse Gas, which becomes a result of global warming.

Many scientists have argue and try to find methods that will help improve our natural environment. Whether it is the human population using less amounts of the energy that the human population currently relies on. Others have created technologies that with motion will create energy such as turbines. Turbines come in all sort of sizes. You may see turbines that are white, tall with 3 wings constantly turning. As those wings are turning at the same time, energy is being produced.

The technology of the turbines as previously mentioned is similar to what our class project consisted of. During class, me and my classmates were supposed to shake an object with a magnet inside of it. The magnet was in the object with room to move around so that when we shook it for about 60+ times, the magnet would bang on each end and every time it did that, it would transmit energy through to wires that the object was connected to our Lego robot. From our Lego robot, the activity my classmates and I produced, sent the information to our computer screen which showed the frequency of our shakes. The slower the shakes, and the lower amount of shakes produced the lower the frequency became. The higher the amount of shakes, and the faster the shakes the higher the frequency as well.

sci

If you click above (“sci”) you should be able to see a graph that was created based on the numbers that were generated based on the frequency of our shakes. For some reason, our data as shown in the graph is all over the graph. Meaning throughout the activity, something must have happened. I did realize as me and my peers did the activity, one of us shook the object a lot slower than the other two classmates. Our graph consists of the sum of scares which were computed 5 times. Three times were conducted by me, the other two were conducted between my other two peers. The horizontal side of the graph was the amount of shakes each trial was.

This is a picture of the materials we used throughout the experiment.

Gravity is an interesting topic and function that is in our daily lives. Without gravity, we would not be able to walk, stand, run, do any of the things we are able to do now on earth. Gravity is what allows us to stay on land without floating upwards or as i have been told “float upwards and end up in china”. There are different levels of gravitational force within our planet earth. Gravity and its laws were developed by a man named Newton. He discovered gravity and came up with laws that would help understand why and how it is that gravity and forces work. Newton’s first law is named inertia. Meaning an object that is at rest will remain at rest, and an object that is moving will continue to move unless it is disturbed by something. Newton’s second law consists of Force which is measured as the product of mass and acceleration (mass measured in kilograms, and acceleration is measured in Meters per seconds squared).

During class we were conducting an experiment, which exposed us to the laws of Newton. We were given a Lego robot, with a ruler measured in centimeters that had to be converted in meters, and weights that were measured in grams. The Lego robot had a tower that held a string with a whole where we can hook the weights. The computer system allowed us to adjust the power of our desire and also allowed us to adjust the mass. We did a total of 10 trials throughout the experiment. One set, we were instructed to remain the mass constant which made the acceleration change with the adjustment of power or (force).  During our second set, our power or (force)  remained constant, we had to adjust the mass for every trial and the acceleration was determined.

At the beginning of the experiment, we were supposed to measure the height of the bottom of the robot to the pully. The height of the robot measured 37 centimeters, (.37 meters).  With the product of height, acceleration gravity, and mass, we were able to figure out the potential energy for each trial.

The goal of this experiment is to study Newton’s second law. What i learned is that with the power decreasing,the acceleration also decreases. With the mass increasing, and power remaining constant, the acceleration increases as well.

Below i have inserted a picture of my calculations throughout the project with Legos. There is two sets of calculations: first calculations have a constant mass, and an adjusted power. The second set has a constant power of 75, and an adjusted mass for every trial. At the end, the potential energy (PE) was calculated with the height measurement.

 

Space X is a private company that uses research and technology in order to leave earth. With the technology and research SpaceX has developed, they have created different launches and spacecrafts. SpaceX started back in June 2002 by Elon Musk, him being the founder and CEO of the company. SpaceX goal was and is to allow people from earth to be able to not only visit other planets, but to also live at the planets. They do not use the idea of having people live in other planets for the simple fact that they do not know how to get humans back from going to other planets, because that is not the case. SpaceX and its technology has been able to send rockets out to space and return to earth. Making it the first and only private company to manage to accomplish that goal. SpaceX has come to an agreement with NASA for an amount of $440 million.

SpaceX have their actually ships that are designed and tested positive to launch and accomplish their goals. They also have test dummies called “pad Abort” which functions as an ejection seat that will detach from the actual dummy ship and release the “astronauts” in the “pad abort”.

When launching a rocket ship to space or another planet, SpaceX mentions a numerous of force that serve as a contribution to the departure and landing of their ships. Kinetic energy plays a huge role when it comes to landing and departing. Their ships are built with bases that are designed to help the ship land without burning from the fire or getting damaged due to the speed of the rocket after traveling. To make the their “Falcon 9”, to accelerate, they use a acceleration of 8,000 km/h because it has to pick up a “payload mass of 125 metric tons”. In order for SpaceX to make their ship depart from earth and land on another planet, they must use nitrogen attitude thrusters, which allow the ship to slow down and accomplish a U-turn so that the ship will land successfully.
Kinetic energy which in this case is measured in gigajoules, I believe joules is not enough for the amount spaceX needs in order to lift their ships.

This is the demonstration provided by SpaceX, which visually explains the method their ships take off from point and lands on point B. The picture above is not their actual ship, it is their test pad abort.

Of course, with gravity being a lot different out in space compared to what is used to on earth, SpaceX must be able to adjust to the  change of force. being able to steer in a gravity that is a lot higher is a lot easier to do so, but to steer in a area such as near the moon where gravity is a lot smaller, not 0 because it is false to say gravity ends. Gravity just becomes at such a low point that it will make you move a lot faster than being on earth with a higher gravitational force.

Sources:

http://www.spacex.com/about

http://www.spacex.com/news/2015/12/21/background-tonights-launch

http://www.spacex.com/news/2015/05/04/5-things-know-about-spacexs-pad-abort-test

Our nation is filled with electricity cables located everywhere, all it takes is for us to step out the building we are in and most likely we will see one. Our nation is equipped with a total of 450,000 miles worth of electricity cables. The United States also has 160,000 miles worth of overhead transmission lines. Difference between these two lines is that power lines distributes the electricity for different demands, and the overhead lines are bigger and distribute electricity to the power lines. The grid within the nation must be able to distribute enough electricity for the amount of demand that exist in the nation. The consumption of energy by the human population within the nation is so large that no one ever knows when a black out or burnout may occur. That can be a con especially if someone is in the middle of something important at home or where ever, it is possible for something to get damaged. Now in this situation there is a positive side to it, because electricity is used so much, electric companies have adapted to respond quick and know where, how to fix the issue of electricity. A smart grid can be used for many reason such as allowing electricity to come into a building but at the same time, information is being sent out from the building and into the power lines so that the utilities can keep in touch with the consumers. The United States electricity distribution is divided into three sections. The state of Texas has its own power plant due to in the passed wanting to be independent. The rest of the nation is divided into two parts the east and the west.

Link above is a quick video that explains not only the smart grid but also other smart technology created to help improve the use of electricity.

References :

http://energy.gov/articles/top-9-things-you-didnt-know-about-americas-power-grid

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/power.htm

http://www.whatissmartgrid.org/smart-grid-101/consumer-benefits

During the robot experiment, my partner and I were trying to figure out how accurate or even better, what was the percentage of error. By the end of the experiment we would have calculated the percentage of error by comparing the computer out puts to our actual calculations.
First we assembled the robot together so that it would turn on and plug the robot on to our computer. After plugging the robot to the computer, after every trial there would be an instant number that would be displayed on the computer. The computer would tell us how many times the wheels on the robot turned.
My partner and I were required to enter the amount of seconds the robot would travel for and choose how fast the robot should travel. We measured the diameter of the wheels in centimeters from the center of the wheel to the end of the wheel. The experiment was measured in meters so we had to convert the diameter from centimeters to meters. once we had our diameter calculated, we entered it into the computer program. At this point we have entered the speed, the time and the diameter.
From this point with the robot being connected to the computer every time we ran the experiment, the system would give us a feedback of the travel distance of the robot. We changed the speed of the Robot and the time it traveled three times. We did three trials for every set (it had its own time and speed for the robot) meaning there was a total of nine trials at the end of the experiment.

Once we had all the data gathered for each set, we had to use the formula:

% of error = ( |distance measured by ruler – distance calculated by computer |
divided by
(distance measured by ruler + distance calculated by computer)/2 ) Multiplied by 100 %
Conclusion: At the end of the experiment we realized that each set had a low percentage of error. I learned that despite how much humans rely on technology, there is always room for error. Humans should not only rely on what technology says and try to figure things out on our own. I also learned that despite our calculations, the percentage of error was so low that it is understandable why technology is relied on so much.

These are our calculations:

first set:

computer distance was 0.23855 m
ruler distance was 0.275 m

percentage of error = (|.275-.238| / ((.275+.238)/2) x 100% = 14% error

second set:

computer distance was .3227 m
ruler distance was .345 m

percentage of error = (|.345-.322| / ((.345+.322)/2) x 100% = 6.8% error

On our third set, me and my partner tried changing the time of travel from 1 second to two seconds. after the calculations we ended up getting a 58% error. It was not accurate, obviously we may have done something wrong

At a very early age of my life, I was introduced to a metal welder by my parents. At the age of five, I would visit my father at the auto body shop that he worked for. As i would cruise around the shop, I would notice the tiny blue sparks that quickly turned yellow before it disappeared mid air. I was taught to never look at the “blue sparks”. The purpose of a welder is to be able to join two metal pieces, turning into one piece. There are different kinds of welders for different kind of metals, such as iron, aluminum, steel. These are the three welders we have at the body shop that my father and I currently work for. When welding, you must figure out the size of welding sticks you need in order to get the job done. It all depends on the position of the job and the weight of the metals. Numbers on rods will look like “6011”.

“This one is a 6011. The 6-0 means 60,000 pounds worth of tensile strength. So, 60,000 pounds before that weld breaks. The 1, the first 1, means it’s good for all positions: flat, vertical, overhead. If it was a 2, a 6021, that would mean it’s good for flat or horizontal. If it was a 3, that would mean it was only good for flat welding”.

What happens is the welding rod serves as a bridge where energy is transferred through it and converted into high temperature heat where it will then melt the two metal pieces and rapidly become solid becoming one metal piece. In order to weld, you must use a one or two welding electrode clamps that will serve as a ground so that the electricity can transfer causing the rod to melt and bond the metal pieces. The molecules within the metal begin to heat and move a lot faster causing the metal to melt. As you continue to weld the two pieces of metal, you will see that the previous welds have become solid because the molecules have cooled down.

References :

http://www.kevincaron.com/video_detail.php?id=164

http://www.thefabricator.com/article/metalsmaterials/metallurgy-matters-the-science-of-welding-metallurgy

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5036385_welding-machines-work.html