Last week we started on our first experiment with Lego Mindstorm. The goal of this experiment was to assemble a car out of a set of Legos that as given to us, and to then make that car move in a multitude of directions and speeds. Looking at the original set that we were given, the challenge seemed daunting, especially given my extreme lack of mechanical experience. However, by the end of the assembly process we were running the system with a great amount of skill and enjoyment.

The car unit.

At the beginning of the process we were presented with a case of Legos. This case contained the standard Lego blocks, an engine with Ethernet ports, rubber wheels, and an assortment of cables. Luckily, to assemble the system there were step-by-step instructions available to us. Putting the hardware proved to be relatively easy, the only snag that we came across in that process was putting the small and dark-colored pieces together without losing them in the shaded obis of the carpet.

However, when it came to setting up the wires we had a few setbacks. There were Ethernet ports on either end of the engine, as well as on top of the wheel fixtures. With the instructions for assembly clearly laid out by or professor, we attached the cables to the ports on top of the wheel fixtures, and into ports 1 and 3 on the back and then ran a cable directly into the computer to run the program for the unit’s movement. Within the program we needed to create a controller for the actual unit, which was relatively easy. We needed to select the ports that would control the wheels in a drop down menu, but there was no option to control ports 1 and 3 in the menu. At first we were lost, but we noticed that there was an option for ports A and C that were on the other side of the engine. We then removed the wires from ports 1 and 3 and put them into A and C. We then went to our actual controller and attempted to power up the wheels, and the unit moved.

One end of the car.

When we got the program and unit up and running we got to play around with it a bit. In playing around with it we found out a lot about the functionality of the unit, such as if you power one wheel stronger than the other wheel you can make the unit turn. More interestingly, we found that if we put the same amount of energy into the wheels but made them go in opposite directions we could make the unit spin 360 degrees. However, when we were playing around with the system we would occasionally have our unit move by itself. This was due to the fact that we did not turn off the Bluetooth option on the engine and other groups were then able to control our unit from their computers. This led to the unit occasionally falling off of the table and for us to perform a quick repair on the car itself.

The other end of the car.

Overall this activity was challenging and fun. We put an actual car together and set up a program to make it move. This is something that I have not had a great deal of experience in and to finally do a hands on activity in this field was quite enjoyable.

Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of the United States on October 22, 2012. The storm killed 117 people in the United States alone, and displaced countless families during its nine-day rage from Jamaica to Canada. Many things stand out as unusual in the case of Hurricane Sandy, such as how late in the season it came and the path that it took. Many point to climate change is the primary reason for the strange traits of Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy destruction.

A major factor in why Hurricane Sandy was so destructive was a high-pressure system. This high-pressure system made the hurricane drive northward and stick over the land and leave a heavy path of destruction. Scientists say that normally during this time of year hurricanes have a hard time gathering strength due to the falling temperatures and low pressure systems. The change of the ocean’s temperature could have contributed to the storm’s intensity and longevity. According to LiveScience.com, the Atlantic Ocean’s surface temperature has gone up by 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century, which can account for the air above these storms to hold 4% more moisture and contributes to vast increases in storm magnitude.

Compared to 25 years ago there have been increasing numbers of category 3 storms to reach our shores (winds with 129 mph gusts). A huge contributing factor to this is the higher sea levels that we have today. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization speculates that today’s sea levels have gone up by 8 inches from where they were 25 years ago. With a higher perch for a hurricane to ride along it can gain much greater speeds than they once could.

A graph showing the change in sea level over time.

Dr. Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University points to something else that could have contributed to the path of the storm. She states that the lack of ice in the Arctic Ocean could have been a catylist in pushing the storm westward and hitting most of the east cost of the United States. She says in a New York Times interview, “While it’s impossible to say how this scenario might have unfolded if sea-ice had been as extensive as it was in the 1980s, the situation at hand is completely consistent with what I’d expect to see happen more often as a result of unabated warming and especially the amplification of that warming in the Arctic”.

But what contributed to the melting of this ice was a phenomenon called the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Mark Fischetti of scientificamerican.com points out the contributions of the NAO to Hurricane Sandy. The NAO is the type of pressure within the northern Atlantic Ocean, either positive or negative. In the case of Hurricane Sandy, the pressure changed from positive to negative only two weeks before the October 22 land strike of Sandy, which made the jet stream moving across the US to be more amplified. This amplification of the Jet Stream made the storm move in an unusual pattern.

Though not many are doubters of the climate change orgins of Hurricane Sandy, scientists are still cautious. It is clear from my research that no one wants to say that climate change was the one distinctive reason for the storm, but they do provide their hypothesis in establishing potential contributing factors such as the NAO and rising sea levels and temperatures.

Sources:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2012/oct/30/hurricane-sandy-supersized-climate-change

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/10/30/did-climate-change-cause-hurricane-sandy/

http://www.livescience.com/24377-weather-climate-hurricane-sandy.html

Our world today requires energy. Everything from charging your cell phone so you can text your friends to powering an entire hospital so patients can get the treatment that they need requires electricity, and in a lot of cases a large amount of electricity. But this electricity is not just picked out of the air, in fact there is a very laborious process that must take place in order for electricity to reach its destination. This is a process that has changed over time, as well as the dominant ways in which we power our lights, buildings, and homes.

Electricity and power is not something that naturally exists in our world, and it certainly is not delivered to our homes magically. The way that energy gets to businesses and our personal homes is through the nation’s energy grid, a system of over 450,000 high voltage power lines that criss-cross the entire country. The idea is to transmit electricity from the power creators (power plants) to consumers across the country (homes and businesses). Houses use relatively low voltages of electricity, but in order for power plants to send electricity to consumers, the electricity must be sent in high voltages so it can reach far away destinations. Power plants cannot produce energy at intensely high voltages so alternating current is needed to step the voltage up for transmission and then back down to lower voltages to be used in homes. The step up and step back down in voltage is completed by transformers. The power grid is the network of many miles of power lines that deliver electricity to homes across the country. In the US the grid is split into the Western Interconnection, Eastern Interconnection, and the Texas Interconnection and have control centers within them to regulate how much power is flowing at any given moment to match demand of electricity.

The national power grid is something of a modern marvel. A system that has the capability to deliver energy to everyone in the country and uses the technology of alternating currents to speed up and slow down the voltages that connect that power from the generators to the consumers requires years and years of research and development. The Global Energy Network Institute estimates that in 2002 the United States generated 3,836 billion kilowathours of electricity, which is an amazing feat.

However this network of wires can run into issues of reliability, safety, and efficiency. Much of this process happens above ground, which leaves all of the parts of the process of power delivery susceptible to the elements. This is why when there is a heavy thunderstorm or snowstorm power can occasionally be dropped, because one of the facets of the process has been compromised. On top of that, much of the hardware used to create the grid such as cables, poles, and transformers are on their last legs. The American Society of Civil Engineers predicts that if nothing is done about the aging grid, the whole system could break down as soon as the year 2020. As of now there are not many ways of simply storing the electricity that we produce, which puts more stress on the aging equipment. If we were to introduce some sort of energy storing battery system, the country could rely much more on renewable energy like wind and solar.

            Regardless of whether or not the US switches to a more renewable form of energy or if it stays with the current grid system, it is clear that changes need to be made. If the country waits until the end of 2020 to make serious improvements it could be too late. Luckily starting in 2010 there were many improvements made to modernize the grid and therefore lengthen its life substantially. However, we as consumers of energy must find a way to limit our use of electricity so that the life of the power grid will continue past its life expectancy.

Reverences

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

http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/library/national_energy_grid/united-states-of-america/index.shtml

http://www.scpr.org/news/2012/07/07/33154/gridlock-storms-blackouts-expose-power-problems/

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