Monthly Archives: November 2013

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.