For this Lab we used different materials like ruler, colorful filters, a lighter, and a  NXT with a light sensor. The purpose of this lab was to observe the relationship between the light and the voltage. Fist we measured the voltage with no filter at a 20 cm distance, then at 23 and 30. the computer run the process  10 times. Then i did the same thing with the color filters, for this process i measured the voltage with 3 different colors those being Red, Blu, Magenta at the same  distance (20 cm).

After finishing this process i graphed the data, the first graph was voltage and distance, and the second graph was voltage vs Color filters.

From the results the red color had the highest intensity. To perform this project we used Data lab view in our classroom computers.

Solar Panels are a good source of energy because the produce energy by observing sun light, also is a non-pollution power, it can be build in remote areas.

Even though Solar panels can be very helpful the environment they are very expensive to be build, and also can work well when is sunny and day time, which doesn’t apply to the Massachusetts  New England  Weather.

Tom Vales came to our class to talk about electricity, first he used tesla coils. During his visit he talked about how our generation’s lives is connected with wireless. He also talked about Tesla and Edison who created the alternative and direct current. Edisons creation required power plants to be build. During his talk Vales demonstrated a Tesla coil and a neon cord, and produced light.

In this tour i was really happy to go, but things didn’t end up how i wanted to. We met the group and together took the train to MIT and walked to the nuclear reactor. First we went to one of the classes where one of the professors gave us a lecture about the nuclear power. Professor mentioned informations like the Power is controlled by 6 manual boron-stainless steel blade-type. After the lesson the group was going to take the tour which i couldn’t attend because i didn’t have an identification with me.

Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and United States. It runs from Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta, Canada to the Illinois and Texas refineries, also to oil tank farms and oil distribution center in Crushing, Oklahoma. This pipeline will allow Canadian and American oil producers to have more access to larger refined markets. This pipeline has a 36 inch diameter and a capacity of 830,000 barrels per day. Pipeline project is a huge project that first was introduced by the Canadians which created a lot of polemics within the United States government, New York Times wrote an article about this issue stating that Environmentalists oppose the project because it would create a conduit to market for petroleum extracted from the Alberta. The construction of the pipeline can have a positive impact for US because will give many people the opportunity to have a job, is estimated that there will be around 13,000 positions available. But then again when the pipeline is build these people will lose their job because is a temporary position. In 2011, the most the global economy emitted 32.6 billion metric tons of carbon pollution. The United States emitted around 5.5 billion United States. Electric power plants produced 2.8 billion tons of those greenhouse gases; vehicle emitted 1.9 billion tons. The Keystone pipeline would add 18.7 million more metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere. Like there are negative impacts by the build of the pipeline there are also positive impacts. By building this Pipeline there will be economic benefits, around 3billion dollars will go towards U.S GDP. This Pipeline provides secure access to domestic crude oil. I personally believe that building the Pipeline will help United States and Canada in many different aspects, those being economic and social.

Souces

http://keystone-xl.com/benefits-of-keystone-xl-oil-pipeline-us-jobs-economic-benefits-energy-security-environmental-responsibility-pipeline-safety-transcanada/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/us/politics/what-does-the-proposed-keystone-xl-pipeline-entail.html

http://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/5-reasons-why-the-keystone-pipeline-is-bad-for-the-economy/

This weeks blog is definitely one of my favorites and the easiest, this weeks blog is about our final group project. Last weeks Friday we explored different topics on what would our project would be and we couldn’t decide until the last 15 minutes of class. Last Friday we got together again and started to think how we could build our project, we got a fan a lighter with two magnets wires tape and the energy meter. Our main idea was hoe to make this fan produce energy through the lighter we the magnets inside. So we taped the lighter to fan but that didn’t work, then we took the magnets and tape them and that produced energy. When i was about to unplug the fan, one of the magnets flew out to the ceiling and then hit the ground, i didn’t see it just herd the sound. It was fun but dangerous.

Today’s experiment for me was very fun and easy. To complete this experiment

We used the following equipment’s

One generator

Voltage probe

One NXT adaptor

NXT

Labview VI

Excel sheet.

We had to perform the experiment 5 times but I only did 3, because my previous data’s on excel were lost.

Steps during the Experiment

Shake the tube at a particular rate.

Count the number of shakes in the data during a 30 seconds time)

Pass the data into excel

l Calculate  in Excel the sum of the squares of the voltages.

Conclusion: When i graphed the data, i saw that the higher the number of shakes the higher was the  sum square of voltage, i believe that this is because  while shaking the tube, faster your speed is more current is produced and the greater is the flux in the positive and negative magnetic inside the tube.

“Nuclear Industry is a death industry”. This are the words that movie opens up with. The first topic that the documentary touches is Fukushima. After the tsunami the city was ruined and also the land had radiation, that’s why the person who to visit the place  had to wear radiation cloths. After Fukushima situation, they talked about the  atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima and all the damage caused and all the damage caused by the radiation. In 1950 2000 nuclear weapons were tested, and two kinds of reactors were developed one called Britter and the other one light water. Britter brits plutonium and is recycled. Light water is mostly used for submarine but also produces a lot o waste. The first commercial power plant was build in Pennsylvania in 1956. In 1980 in east of Long Island, the word that a nuclear plant was going to be build and people try the best of them to stop that from happening. In the movie they talked about that radiation comes from everywhere like from food plants roads etc. While i was watching the documentary i was surprised when i saw the Brazil had a higher radiation than Chernobyl,Ukraine,  due to the explosion years ago and also that the fabric that was in there. It also said that most of the explosions had happened due to quick cooling. I believe that nuclear power is a good source of energy, nuclear power is reliable, and the waste is small in quantity comparing to fossil fuel waste, and is also a clean way to produce energy as it does not result in the emission of any of the poisonous gases like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide or nitrogen dioxide. But it can be very dangerous if is not well taken care. And big disasters can happen from an explosion of a  nuclear power plant .

In this weeks blogs i don’t have ,much to say. Last Friday when the class did the experiment and took the measures i was not present due to Health problems. On Thursday one of my classmates Juan  email me his data. On the data were to graphs which i made some changes, reducing the number of x-axis an and y-axis. Then in class i did two more graphs of was potential energy and battery discharge and the other one was power and power level. From the graphs i made a found a positive correlation meaning that as X values would increase the y values would also increase. 

The way i made this graphs was by using windows excel, and named each data for x and y also put the title. First i copied the data from the top then paced them in the bottom of the two previous graphs, then i made the scatter plot and insert for each data. then draw the linear trendline to help me better understand the relationship between x and y values.

Many countries in the world make a large consumption of energy. United states ranked in the second place for the largest energy used per Capita. When oil and other fossil fuels turn into energy they case pollution which leads into gasses being emitted to the atmosphere and rise of global warming. Many of us today take advantage of electrical energy used in at our homes, what i mean is that we are used to miss usage the energy, we leave the lights on most of the time even at day time which is unnecessary. I believe that Demand response will help us better use the energy. Sources:http://www.edfenergy.com/energyfuture/oil-generation . Source:https://www.google.com/search?q=energy+consumption+per+capita&biw=1366&bih=624&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=_5QxVK21DZSBygSPw4GoDg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=4EePLWgAShBMeM%253A%3Bdaqz2JAm0ZCGxM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.economicshelp.org%252Fblog%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F10%252Fenergy-per-capita.png%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.economicshelp.org%252Fblog%252F5988%252Feconomics%252Flist-of-countries-energy-use-per-capita%252F%3B853%3B574

Demand response is also known as the load response, are programs that are made to enable costumers to contribute to energy reduction. These programs also offer reasons to reduce the use of energy.Demand response give an opportunity for consumers to play a significant role in the running of the electric grid by reducing their electricity usage during peak times.  Electric System planers are using demand response programs as a way to balance supply. This type of programs can lower the price of electricity, and lead t lower retail rates. Source: http://energy.gov/oe/technology-development/smart-grid/demand-response

In 2013 President Obama announced new actions to reduce carbon pollution. At the United Nations on September 23, President Obama participated in the Climate Summit, (a meeting of world leaders to showcase climate action commitments from governments. The president talked about the actions that the United States is taking to reduce the pollution produced, president Obama announced new actions to strengthen global resilience to climate change and also participation with partnerships to cut carbon pollution. The Climate Action Plan is working very well, In 2012 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions went down  to the lowest level. When Obama took office the wind energy production has tripled, and solar energy has increased. Few actions were be taken in order to strengthen global resilience. Here are 3 of them.

1) Executive Order on Climate-Resilient International Development. (Agencies were required to factor climate-resilience into the U.S. government’s international development work.)

2)Releasing Powerful New Data to Enable Planning for Resilience.(To empower local authorities to make a better plan for the impacts of environmental changes.)

3)Developing New Outlooks for Extreme-Weather Risk. (To reduce harm from extreme-weather events occurring throughout the world.)

Source http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/23/fact-sheet-president-obama-announces-new-actions-strengthen-global-resil

What is the Environmental Protection Agency is doing in order to reduce the pollution? Going through their website i  read that Environmental  Protection Agency (EPA) is using its authority to issue regulations that address carbon pollution from power plants. In the website it also talked about reducing carbon pollution from power sectors.On September 20, 2013, EPA  proposed carbon pollution standards for power plants built in the future.On June 2, 2014, EPA, when President Obama’s Climate Action Plan came out it proposed a commonsense plan to cut carbon pollution from existing power plants. The clean power plan will maintain an affordable energy system, while cutting pollution and protecting peoples health  health and environment. Source: http://www2.epa.gov/carbon-pollution-standards/what-epa-doing. 

The clean power plan can help us in the long term making our lives better, some of us dont think about the long term consequences of our actions. The same thing happens with global warming many people don’t take it serious and that is why global warming is increasing due to the gasses being emitted to the atmosphere  But what are some of the benefits that we can get out of the new clean power plan. According to the EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy the clean power plan will

• Cutting carbon emission from the power sector by 30 percent nationwide below 2005 levels, which is equal to the emissions from powering more than half the homes in the United States for one year;
• Cutting particle pollution, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide by more than 25 percent as a co-benefit;
• Avoiding up to 6,600 premature deaths, up to 150,000 asthma attacks in children, and up to 490,000 missed work or school days—providing up to $93 billion in climate and public health benefits; and
• Shrink electricity bills roughly 8 percent by increasing energy efficiency and reducing demand in the electricity system.

Source:http://domesticfuel.com/2014/06/02/epa-officially-releases-clean-power-plan-proposal/