Joshua M. Dion Blog

Josh Dion

Our project was the absorption of radiant energy.  The project as a whole was based off the fact that solar panels are black to absorb the most energy!  We found it to be true with the experiment we created.  White paper reflected light energy and black paper absorbed.  The project as a whole was a great experience.  I wish more people had come to the high schools to teach students about out project.  This was a great final because we made a project related to sustainable energy and technology.  It was good to work in groups and make a final project.

Thoughts on the Project – Khang

I’ve always known that dark material or clothes absorb more heat but this experiment confirms it. Although the temperature difference in the data isn’t as much as I expect it to be, but through this experiment we’ve proven that black material absorbs more heat than light material. I thought the lamps that we got from the lab were pretty cool because they’re not your normal household lamp. It was also really fun working in a group. By sharing ideas and opinions I felt like I’ve made some new friends. I hope we have another opportunity to work together again. Even though I could not make it to the high school trip, I was glad to hear that it went well. Thank you Josh for holding it down and thank you my group for the wonderful experience.

Suyash

The final project for Sustainability was fun. I liked everyone’s projects and presentations. Many people had tons of ideas and they were all great. My favorite part of the whole final project was going to the high schools and presenting out projects though. I liked it because in the High Schools that we went to, I learned lots of things from it and i also saw many things that i didn’t normally see during my time at my High School.

Sarah

the project was pretty easy and we didn’t encounter any problems with it. I wish I could’ve been there for the presentation but I couldn’t afford to miss calculus. We were able to complete the project fairly quickly and we weren’t confused about anything, so overall it was a success!

Absorption of Radiant Energy

Josh, Suyash, Sarah, Adam, Khang

Purpose

The purpose of this experiment is to see which color paper absorbs the most radiant energy.  The NXT Robots record temperature with 2 temperature probes.  This setup can determine the two separate temperatures at once.  With this test we can prove or disprove the theory of the amount of heat absorbed by white versus black material.

Background

Solar Energy, a renewable form of energy, has solar panels that use radiant energy to generate electricity. A solar panel has solar cells which uses a thermal collector that uses the color black to collects heat by absorbing sunlight. Solar Energy is used widely across the world for various purposes. Scientists use solar energy to provide heat, light, electricity, and even cooling for businesses, homes and industry. The good thing about producing solar energy is that during and after the process, it gives off no pollution. Furthermore, Solar energy produces electricity very quietly. Another pro for using solar energy is that humanity will gradually depends less and less on fossil fuels and reduce the emission of greenhouse gas. Although Solar energy is really efficient and dependable, the initial cost is extremely high due to the super high cost of the solar cell. But once installed, they produce a free source of electricity.

Procedure

– Let lamp heat up for 3-5 minutes

– Set up the temperature probes under each paper

– When lamp is heated start the NXT program provided which measures temperature.

– Hold lamp over papers for 5 minutes

– Record the result below.

Data

Probe 1     Probe 2

White        Black

Minimum temperature ______ °F ______ °F

Maximum temperature ______ °F ______ °F

Analysis

Calculate temp difference (∆t=tf–ti).

White ______ °F       Black______ °F

Which color had the largest temperature increase?

Solar collectors can be used to absorb the sun’s radiation and change it to heat. What color would work best for solar collectors? Explain.

Demand Response is defined as: “Changes in electric usage by end-use customers from their normal consumption patterns in response to changes in the price of electricity over time, or to incentive payments designed to induce lower electricity use at times of high wholesale market prices or when system reliability is jeopardized.” (Wiki) This basically means that a demand response can limit the amount of electricity. Demand response is useful in many ways, Demand response programs are designed to be both fiscally and environmentally responsible ways to respond to occasional and temporary peak demand periods. The demand response is useful in which it is environmentally helpful and good for sustainable energy, mostly large companies use this to use a reasonable amount of energy and keep save electricity. If demand is really high for electricity then businesses can be shut down for inspection or other things. Overall, demand resp­onse programs give us residential, commercial and industrial consumers, the abi­lity to voluntarily trim our electricity usage at specific times of the day.  This is good and I would sign into if I had a company. So I could help other in need and it’s always good to save electricity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_response

http://www.pge.com/en/mybusiness/save/energymanagement/whatisdr/index.page

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/demand-response.htm

Pros and cons of keystone XL pipeline

The keystone pipeline system is a pipeline system to transport synthetic oil from Canada and crude oil to the gulf coast.  This system can be useful in some way but harmful in others.  The keystone pipeline system uses hundreds of miles of pipe.

The keystone has the ability to transport oil from Canada to the United States gulf coast. That is a huge distance that oil can travel without using vehicles to transport it.  It’s good because it will create a few jobs.

Keystone Pipeline

The keystone XL has bad things about it is that we are not even using the oil we make we are selling to other people when we really need it. It’s a toxic process to transport it.  The transportation will give off the same co2 emissions as 34 million more cars. It will also cost lots of money but will create new jobs.  People that hate this are environmentalists that are one sided. It can cause pollution all over the United States.  The worst thing is that there will be no real economic growth from this.

Overall, from what I have researched I would say the cons outweigh the pros.  The only good thing about it is a new technology to transport oil.  There is not real economic growth with the amount of jobs the keystone XL would bring.  I think the keystone is my opinion is a neat idea but not really needed at this point in time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Pipeline

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9330295

image

http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/images/ktrk/cms_exf_2007/automation/images/9329213_600x338.jpg

http://www.abqjournal.com/227923/opinion/no-pros-only-cons-with-keystone.html

We brainstormed Ideas in the first two classes.  The second time we worked on who would do what.  The third class we got most of our handout completed and also got our material together.

Absorption of Radiant energy

Josh, Suyash, Sarah, Adam, Khang

Purpose

To see which color paper absorbs the most radiant energy.  The NXT Robot records temperature every 10 seconds with 2 temperature probes.  This data can determine two separate temperatures at once.  With this test we can put the myth of black vs white in the sun.

Background (make sure you relate your experiment to a sustainability concept)

Solar Energy, a renewable form of energy, has solar panels that use radiant energy to generate electricity.

Procedure

– Let lamp heat up for 3-5 mins

– Set up the temperature probes under each paper

– When lamp is heated start the NXT program provided which measures temperature.

– Record the result below.

Data

                                    Probe 1     Probe 2

                                    White        Black

Minimum temperature ______ °C ______ °C

Maximum temperature ______ °C ______ °C

Analysis

Calculate temp difference (∆t=tf–ti).

White ______ °C       Black______ °C

Which color had the largest temperature increase?

Solar collectors can be used to absorb the sun’s radiation and change it to heat. What color

would work best for solar collectors? Explain.

Excel file that shows data and graphs

Solar josh and jean

In this lab our objective was to find the relationship between light intensity and voltage output of a solar cell. The first experiment we did was different distanced a light source was held from a solar cell.  This gave us a Voltage reading in excel.  The average of each 4 distances was found and then we made a graph to show our data.  This data is a little strange because 10 cm should have generated more voltage than 20 cm. This is the only thing wrong with our data.  This shows that the further away the light the more voltage is generated.

The second part of this lab was to use different color filters to demonstrate what wavelengths pass through and create the most voltage. Obviously no filter will generate the most voltage because all waves of light are let through. We had an error with the dark blue strip.  This shows that blue light generates the most voltage but it should have been one of the least.  Other than that the Pink color filter compared to the teal green was the best way to show our data.  This means that red light waves are more powerful than blue or purple.  We learned in class which ones are more powerful and this makes sense.

Overall, our data may have been a little off but I learned the relationship between light intensity and voltage.  I also learned how different waves of light generate different amounts of voltage in a solar cell and have different wavelengths.

I was so excited to have to opportunity to go to the Museum of Science. The first thing I did there was go to the electricity show.  It was very neat to see these powerful machines in use see thing that tom vales had helped work on.  I had never seen that show before and I am glad I got to see the Tesla coils play music and the other demonstrations.

The main thing we went to the museum was to get idea for our experiment.  Being a group leader I felt I had to take action and get hands on with most of the experiments that have to do with wind and solar energy.  One thing that really caught my attention was the wind experiment.  It used coils and a iron core that spun around as a windmill does.  It compared the electricity generated by hand and then with more gears.  These gears made it take less force to spin the core.  This is how windmills generate energy.

Another thing that gave me inspiration was placement of solar panels on homes.  There were 4 sides and 1 would generate the most power.  This was interesting I found the one that generated the most was panel B which was at the most relevant angle to the sun.  Overall, I got to do everything required and got to see something at the museum I had never seen before.

The generator lab was really interesting.  I saw how electricity can be generated by moving a iron core through a copper coil.  I am learning about magnetism and energy generation in my intro to engineering class as well as this class.  The data I got from this lab was accurate.  The more I moved the generator the more voltage was created.  The reason I got very high numbers was because I moved the generator faster each time and more times. If we had done the same rate of shakes then it would have been easier to understand how the voltage increases as the number of shakes increase.  The graph’s line shows a positive increase which is correct.  If I had done this lab again I would have gotten better results. The short time we had, due to technical difficulties, led us to rush the lab so we could at least get something important from it.  What I learned from this lab is how Faraday’s law implements in creating voltage using magnetic force. Moving a magnet through a copper coil creates voltage and can be used to generate a small amount of voltage.  An example used in real life is a wind mill. It creates voltage with the force of wind acting on blades which moves the inside of the windmill which has a similar method but moving a magnet around a coil then creating voltage.

This is our excel file for the lab

josh n jean

It was a great opportunity to have tom come and talk to our class.  He showed us cool gadgets he has collected and made over the years that have to do with electricity.  One neat thing that I have never seen before is the Stirling engine. I have never seen this before and thought it was really cool how it worked.  It was powered by hot water and colder air.  If there is a 7* degrees difference in temperature then it will work. This works if one side is hot and the other is cold.  These are used to pump water. They are also very quiet motors.  They are over 200 years old now which is really cool.

Stirling motor engine

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/MM-7_Stirling_Engine.jpg

Another thing he showed us that I have never seen in real life was a tesla coil.  This was really neat and I want to make my own someday. I found it interesting that it could power a light bulb without even being plugged in.  He said it was called wireless back in the day.  When he put a spinner on top of it, it spun around when the electrons come off at the end.  He showed us what Saint Elmo’s fire was. This is when the bolt is about to strike it glows.

Tesla coil

Tom Vales Tesla

The violet ray was an example of medical equipment fraud.  This supposedly could fix everything wrong with a person like cancer, colds, and headaches. It’s weird how the government didn’t have regulations back then.  The violet rays does not actually do anything.

Violet ray

http://www.cayce.com/images/VioletRay.jpg

President Obama has made a climate action plan to help reduce CO2 emission and make better alternatives to coal and fossil fuel burning.  In his Climate Action Plan, he plans to deploy clean energy solutions to cut carbon pollution. As well as prepare for climate change and lead efforts to address global climate change around the world.

One of his most important initiatives is cutting carbon pollution from power plants.  Obama administration is making new rules to cut carbon pollution just like cutting other dangerous toxins like mercury and arsenic.  Power plants are the largest source of emissions in the U.S. Cutting carbon from power plants will be a huge step in reducing carbon emissions. Right now only state governments regulate energy, not the federal government.  The Environmental Protection Agency is working to help meet standards and to lower carbon emissions in the United States.

Another important goal is cutting energy waste in homes, factories, and businesses. This can be achieved by setting new energy efficiency standards.  Obama wants to double energy productivity by 2030.  He has made a new minimum for standards of house equipment to save millions of dollars around the states. Cutting energy waste in homes will help because then we won’t use as much energy in our homes.

One last goal is increasing fuel economy standards.  Heavy duty vehicles are the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.  Therefore they need to be more efficient and make less emissions. Obama administration made the first ever fuel economy standards for model year 2014-2018 for trucks, busses, and vans.  These new standards will reduce greenhouse emissions by 270 million metric tons and save 530 million barrels of oil.  He also has established the standards of passenger vehicles to have 54.5 miles per gallon minimum by 2025.  Which will save drivers around $8,000 in fuel cost.

These 3 initiative are the most important in reducing carbon emissions In the United States.  His climate action plan will help a little bit in reducing greenhouse emissions but, the overall goal is to reduce them all around the world.  Everyone needs to work together to reduce emissions not just our country alone.