Today we did’t an usual class room day, instead today’s class was a tour around the Mildred F.  Sawyer Library. First i was lost because i didn’t know where i was suppose to go, i was addressed to the information desk by the on of the girls who worked at the check out section. At the information desk the our lady came and introduced her self to us. First thing we did a little tour around the second floor of the library, she told us how to use us how to print from the library computers using our student cards.Each paper printed is 5 cents, and our card has a found of 25 dollars available for us to use and is refunded every semester. Then we went to the third floor where you can find study closed areas, where groups of students work together, these small rooms are first come first serve. In the third floor you can also ask to borrow a laptop and work.After we went to the 4th floor in one of the computer labs. The tour instructor told us how to use the library main page and make a little research on a science topic. The website is http://www.suffolk.edu/sawlib/index.php first thing we had to do was to go under data base and chose science. After that a list of science related  showed up, first we had to click on general science and then another list of topics showed up. The topic i chose was Nature journals online and searched for ocean life. Then after i went through few articles, i chose one about ocean life and how is decreasing due to the amount of gasses on the ocean. After everyone made their presentation we got dismissed.

Through out the week of 9/9 and 9/16 i had to build a robot. When we were introduced to this project to build the robot we had to work in group of two, i worked in a group of three. Me and my group struggled on building the robot because our box had missing pieces. However we managed to finish the robot in time. We build the robot following 6 main steps:

1)Preparation.

First we attached double black peg connector  vertically on the top holes of the machine and a single black peg connector in the middle hole of the machine.

2)Attaching the motors

We attached the motors one on each side of the machine, by attaching it to the peg connectors on both side of the machine.

3)Support Motors

We took an 11-holed rounded beam and attach two short black connector pegs to the outside holes then we attached the pegs to the back of each motor.

4)Wheels

We build the wheel using axle wheel and a hub, attach them together to make the wheel.

5,6) Wheel base and Final Attachment

In order to make the wheel base we used 4 L beams, 3 of different sizes( small) and one large. On the large part of the beam we connect two connector pegs.In the hole between the two connector pegs on each beam we attached an extended black connector peg. Then we attached two small beams to the  pins below the other beams. Then we connect them together in order to finish the robot.

On the second day working on the project we worked on how to make the robot move. This part was very hard fro me because i was having trouble finding the right powers in order of the robot to pass around two rulers that would make 2 ft. first we had to connect the robot with the a computer through ans USB cord. this time the robot could move because also had a battery.i made the robot move though using the Lab view program. Lab view helps to control the robot power.   After many tries i didn’t find the right power in order to make to make the the robot go around two feet. Our task was also to get to get sound into to robot.

During the last class, we used the robots again. The first thing we did was measured the diameter the wheel, and find the circumference of the wheel in meters.  (circumference= p*diameter). The circumference is very helpful because indicates the the distance traveled. For example if the wheel turn was 3 cm and the car moved forward 3 turns then the distance traveled was 3 cm. we also had to calculate the percentage error. Using the program lab view we could control the robot input  data such the time power for both wheels and the computer would give us the number of wheels turned the velocity and the distance. In order to find the percentage error we would subtract the computer distance from our distance, dividing that by our distance plus the computer distance all over two, then multiply that by 100. (My distance was from measuring it with a paper ruler combined together. Overall my percentage error was not that big of a number. I believe that the percentage error might have been caused by my wrong measure of distance since it was a paper ruler.

According to Carsdirect.com Hybrid cars get better gas mileage. Hybrid cars are made of stiffer materials, and also the optimal air pressure on a hybrid tire is higher and conserves more energy and makes it more efficient. Hybrid cars are made of lighter materials which requires them to use less gas in order to power up. Hybrids are built with aerodynamics, that makes the car easy to move, and less fuel used in the process. Hybrid cars have smaller gas tanks using less fuel to work, having small gas tanks reduces the cars overall weight, increasing their fuel efficiency. Source: http://www.carsdirect.com/green-cars/do-hybrid-cars-get-better-gas-mileage

Another way to increase the gas mileage is by replacing the cars paper air filters with K&N air filters. According to Crutchfield (consumer electronics retailing company specializing in many consumer electronics items, including mobile audio and video equipment for the automobile and televisions), filters are on most important parts of the cars that can be replaced in order to improve the gas mileage. K&N Filters are highly recommended because they are made from high flow materials and are reusable. K&N filters are the most efficient air filters because increase MPG, and also improve performance in other areas of the car also. Source: http://drivesteady.com/6-ways-to-improve-mpg-with-after-market-parts

In 2012 the Obama administration passed the law to increase the average fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. This also will reduce the foil consumption. This move will  double the fuel efficiency of those vehicles compared to new vehicles currently on our roads.  this Initiative will help  fuel economy and also reducing  greenhouse gas emissions and also  will save consumers more than $1.7 trillion in gas. “Simply put, this groundbreaking program will result in vehicles that use less gas, travel farther, and provide more efficiency for consumers than ever before—all while protecting the air we breathe and giving automakers the regulatory certainty to build the cars of the future here in America,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.  Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/business/energy-environment/obama-unveils-tighter-fuel-efficiency-standards.html

As i read the article on Genetically Modified Crops which talks mostly about fruits in Hawaii that were trying to get modified in order to grow more and faster, made me question if  papaya fruits was trying to get modified how many other  fruits that we consume every day are modified or artificially grown?Forcing something to grow faster wont have good results, as for now United States got one of the highest rate of obesity and that is due to the unhealthy food people eat. Some fruits are marked as organic, but we don’t know that for sure. Reading the end of the article that the ban was approved is a good start, but we got much more to do.

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