Through this semester I feel that we have learned a lot about innovation and sustainability, and when it came to the final project each group clearly demonstrated that. I was fortunate enough to be placed with three hard working group members. Through the weeks we used the class time as well as our free time to put together a teaching plan that showed how light is absorbed and reflected by different elements, and we linked it to how it effects our everyday lifestyle. From clothing to building materials we showed the class how water, sand, dirt and different colored paper attract light. I think that our presentation simplified all that we learned this semester for these physics students.
Solar Energy & Colored Light
After working with oil and water we moved to working with solar panels. We were given solar panels and a lamplight and were experimenting with the differences of light, the closer and the further away from the solar panels, and how the solar panels reacted to this with either more or less energy. We assumed that the closer the light (meaning the brighter and more direct) the more energy would be produced, while the light further away and thus creating a darker light would produce less energy. Our results showed that our hypothesis was correct.
Heat
With vegetable oil and water in separate beakers we heated the two up separately on the hot plate. Using the temperature probes (but not allowing them to touch the beakers) we took the temperature of each trying to determine which absorbed heat quicker. I initially thought that the oil would have heated up faster but we were surprised to find the the water did. From this we calculated the energy and found that water also absorbed more energy.
MIT Nuclear Fusion Reactor
When we went to MIT we listened to an interesting lecture given by an MIT grad student. He talked about what nuclear fusion is, the process when two or more atomic nuclei combine or essentially “fuse” together to create a single larger nucleus, and how this reaction omits energy. He also talked about the differences between nuclear fusion and fission. Nuclear Fission is when the atom of a nucleus separates into smaller parts and creates free neutrons and photons. Nuclear fission produces energy for nuclear power, and essentially nuclear weapons.
I didn’t really know what to expect with the reactor, but I suppose it was a lot more than i imagined. He said that depending on the energy level of the community, somedays MIT wasn’t allowed to run it. But when they did it could only be run in two second time periods and only thirty times a day.
Faraday’s Law with Flashlights
Faraday’s Law states that “any change in the magnetic environment of a coil of wire will cause a voltage to be “induced” in the coil” and energy will be created.
In this lab we applied this to flashlights that are shaken to get power. Flashlights like this are built with magnets that shake when the flashlight goes up against a coiled wire and generate energy in the form of light. The quicker the flashlight is shaken, the quicker the light is created.
Professor Vae showed another form of Faraday’s idea which was the Tesla Coil. The Tesla Coil is a high frequency air-core transformer. It was created by Nikola Tesla to “produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity”. Tesla used his invention in experiments with electrical lighting, x-ray generation, and electrotherapy to name a few. The transformers are similar to the flashlight, but much more complex.
Sources:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/farlaw.html
http://www.teslasociety.com/teslacoil.htm
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Guest Speaker: Mr. Vale
Sustainability truly interests me, so when I saw this course offered it really grabbed my attention. What I found most interesting about Mr Vales presentation far back these different contraptions have gone. I had no idea that some of these engines were used as substitutes for steam engines. All of them, the Sterling Engine, the Hot Air Engine and the Pelpier device were all so cool and unique. I think that the Pelpier device was probably the coolest mainly because of the fact that it can generate electricity through it. But all in all it was cool to find out the history and how far technology has come.
Lab Exercise 1: Robots
Working with the robot’s was a fun and interesting first activity, working hands on within a group allowed us to get to know one another a little bit. For our group, the building was the easy part, it was a little more difficult to get out robot to actually follow the directions we gave it and once we did ours wouldn’t stop.
We were able to successfully program our robot do the first three tasks, drive in a circle first at a 1m radius one revolution, and drive in a circle 1m radius one revolution in the reversed direction. For us though it became a little bit harder at steps four and five, it took us a bit to produce sound but took even longer to come up with a funky trajectory. After some time and assistance we were successful! Overall I enjoyed the robots from building to end, they were a great way to start the class.
BP Oil Spill
On April 20, 2010, far into the Gulf of Mexico, BP’s Deepwater Horizon well exploded spreading 4.9 millions barrels of oil into the ocean. It’s been recorded as the nations worst oil spill and largest in the history of petroleum, however BP made headlines with two other major incidences in the past five years, including the Texas City Refinery Explosion and the Prudohoe Bay Oil Spill.
When the well exploded, it killed eleven men, injured another seventeen, and continued to destroy massive amounts of wildlife for the next three months. It’s reported that over 400 different species were killed, including the 464 sea turtles and 60 dolphins. The spill continued for three months, releasing about 53,000 barrels a day. And it wasn’t until July 15 that the well was capped. Besides killing fish and other wildlife, the oil wiped out many of endangered sea creatures, and completely halted fishermen and tourism operations.
The U.S. government declared BP as the cause, who later admitted they’d made past mistakes that eventually led to the spill and were held responsible for all clean up and damage costs BP spent a reported $41 billion to clean up, and provided skimmer boats, floating containment booms, anchored barriers, sand filled barricades and dispersants in an attempt to stop the oil from spreading to beaches and wetlands. But the problem that a lot of fishermen noticed is that there is still a lot of oil out there that can’t be seen by the naked eye, and scientists are saying that there’s still plumes of dissolved oil still somewhere between the oceans floor and surface.