The main purpose of our project is to determine whether there is enough energy stored in a fruit or a vegetable, specially is potato, lemon and apple, to power an LED light. The process to determine this is with the basic principles of electrochemical cells by using the juice of lemons, potatoes & an apple as the electrolyte placing small pieces of copper and steel into the fruits and vegetables. Tacking the alligators clips and connecting the fruits and vegetables with one another. Then measure the voltages that are produced and see if the voltages produced can light up an LED light.

Our results deduced that the more fruits and vegetables we had connected, the higher the voltage was when it was recorded; hence the LED lamp would shine brighter. Since each fruit/vegetable produced 1 voltage, a connected strand of each/all produced a higher level of energy, allowing the bulb to light up.

LabHandout

Presentation

Classroom Example –

We took the time in class to work together with another group in order to hare what we had learned in our experiment, and show these students first hand what we had done. This time we conducted the experiment with 2 lemons, 1 apple, and 3 potatoes. We first used a red LED light, which lit up, but was hard to see. This led us to switch to a blue LED light, which showed up much better. As with our previous time doing the experiment, we found that the more  fruits that were added to the circuit, the more light was generated. The other group were great participants and were definitely impressed that we did not need a battery pack, since in their experiment a battery pack as needed. Overall this was a fun experience and a great way to wrap up an interesting semester!

Doing the other group experiment-

As we had the opportunity to show another group our experiment, we were also able to learn about their experiment. Despite some technical difficulties involving spoiled play-dough, they were able to make some adjustments to their experiment and still follow through with conducting it. They used a battery pack, and lots of wires, in order to power an LED light, while measuring the voltage of the simple circuit. It was interesting to see the different voltages created through the 3 different resistors used. This group was a pleasure to work with and did an excellent job explaining their experiment, even with the last minute disruption of the spoiled play dough.

The Keystone XL Pipeline is a proposed 1,179-mile (1,897 km), 36-inch-diameter oil pipeline beginning in Hardisty, Alberta, and extending south to Steele City, Neb. This pipeline is a critical infrastructure project for the energy security of the United States and for strengthening the American economy.
The purpose of this project is to secure energy in the United States and strengthen the American economy. In addition to transporting crude oil from Canada, the  pipeline will also support the growth of crude oil production in the United States from producers in Montana and North Dakota
Along with transporting crude oil from Canada, the Keystone XL Pipeline will also support the significant growth of crude oil production in the United States by allowing American oil producers more access to the large refining markets found in the American Midwest and along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Pros:
-Keystone XL has the potential to reduce the amount of oil America imports from unstable regions of the world.
– It will create new jobs (9,000 skilled American workers) and economic benefits. – Environmentally Responsible : Pipelines are the safest and most efficient method of moving fossil fuels, and TransCanada has one of the best safety records in the industry.

Cons:
-Americans don’t want the Keystone XL on their backyard.
-Some believe is not necessary because we don’t need the oil.
-The economic benefits may not live up to what is believed.

In my opinion it would be a good and safe way to transport oil from one place to another and it should be done. It will solve many money problems and unemployment on around 9,000 homes and it will help the economy of the country – if it goes as they believe it will.

http://keystone-xl.com/
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Senate-debates-pros-and-cons-of-Keystone-XL-5316072.php

3 Pros, 3 Cons For TRP Stock & The Keystone XL Pipeline

Demand response is a new way to save energy and be able to supply the amount of energy necessary at all times. With demand response we all are able to have more stability by lowering our demand for energy. It is a way for users to gain money by providing more demand response capacity, this means by lowering their unnecessary consumptions specifically in peak times. There are new companies that work with this to make businesses and institutions reduce the unnecessary energy use without affecting their operations, comfort, etc. Demand response works even by turning off air conditioners, lightnings, and non essential equipment when they are not needed so they are not being supplied with energy that they are not using. With demand response not only are the companies saving money of their own pocket, but also helping the planet by wasting less energy which is less pollution.  After analyzing the benefits of demand response, I guess it is something that works effectively and for a great purpose, so it should be implemented all around the country and for a better earth it should be implemented worldwide.

In my opinion in Demand Response there is a huge energy sector that isn’t currently involved in demand response and energy efficiency programs. For Demand Response to be able to work there has to be consistant and effective communication between everyone that is involved in the process. Also whatever we do to reduce our energy use is going to be good for the environment. We should continue to use Demand Response help to do this  because it is effective.

https://www.saveonenergy.ca/Business/Program-Overviews/Demand-Response.aspx
http://www.pge.com/en/mybusiness/save/energymanagement/whatisdr/index.page
http://www.enernoc.com/our-resources/term-pages/what-is-demand-response

Trading Spouses is a program where moms and dads try out the ultimate life change: trading their families to take over a clan from another walk of life. For some, it’s a dream vacation; for others, an absolute nightmare. When the families are switched, they live with their host families for one whole week. When the mom or dads are finally reunited with their loved ones, they have to tell their families the twist: They decide how the other family will spend their $50,000 prize money.

In these kind of shows there are parts that are real and others that are fake to create drama to the show. In my opinion this drama is what captures and engages with the audience.  If there is no drama the show can be boring. In this episode with the Shatz and the Martin Family – staring our beautiful professor, I can try to find which parts are real and what are fake.

I feel that the part where Lisa suggests a tutor for Aaron came from real & sincere feelings, but I also feel it was taken to a different level and was a bit dramatic. If he feels that if someone recommends a tutor and he starts crying he is not ready for the real world, because I find nothing bad on this suggestion.

Religion took a huge part on this episode. The reason behind choosing these two families is because of the difference on religious believes and just the way of seeing life.  The whole show is based on this controversial subject and it does create a lot of drama. I believe that when Lisa firsts arrives to Kentucky it is possible that there is a place where they sell Kosher food, but they made it seem like there wasn’t to create drama and humor. In my opinion it was a bit fake the level of drama towards the religion.

Finally at the Shatz party I feel everything was a show. Because the  husband was so against it and then they do it. The “transformation” that Ayreh causes a huge sensation on the party and its not a big deal. I believe that the Rabbi was planned, he will not show up unannounced and then suddenly they cancel the party. It was dramatic.

In conclusion it was an entertaining show the hour passed really quickly. I laughed and learned a lot about the family of my professor and her religion. It was nice seeing how everyone learned about each others life and got along at the end, and most importantly have fun.

In our first group meeting on Monday, March 30 we discussed and searched for potential topics and experiments that we wish to do for our final team project. We looked at different links that were on our syllabus and looked at different ideas, until we encountered the “Lemon Juice” project. We al agreed that it was a nice idea to understand how a lemon can produce energy, we decided to give a twist to the project approach. We wanted to also explore the idea of the energy that a potato and an apple would also produce and if its possible to turn an LED light with its energy. We chose to do this project because it looks like a fun and interesting experiment.  The projects purpose is to determine whether there is enough energy stored in a fruit or a vegetable (lemon, apple and potato) to power an LED light.

After we all agreed in doing this experiment, we divided each role and responsibility between the group members. We started doing more research about the subject and watched some experiments already done on YouTube.  We talked about who has to bring what and how are we going to approach the next few weeks.

In the next group meeting we started working on the presentation, and the paper worksheet. For next week we expect to start doing the actual experiment to prove if these fruits and vegetables can produce enough energy to turn on an LED light.

Having Tom Veils a professor from the engineering department was a wonderful & unique experience. When he first started talking he said “People think everything that everything that is being invented are new things, but here are things that show that there are already invented”, which made a lot of sense after he showed us the experiments. He showed us a sterling engine which has two cups, one hot water and the other cold water which is a substitute for steam engine, it would run if you have a differentiation. The other machine he showed us was the Mendocino Motor from California. It is a solar-powered magnetically levitated electric motor. It floats due to its magnetic repulsion (5 magnets the middle one is a magnet field). You can’t actually use it for anything, it will keep spinning until the sun is out.

Another interesting experiment of Nikola Tesla- altering current – electro-science .  It wouldn’t work because of all the garbage, it would destroy anything. Tesla was an enigma.   Tesla inspired a medical group that believed that these current could heal different type of problems.He showed us how it worked by using a violet ray – that has argon gas. They thought it was doing something but it didn’t actually work. The professor also tried with a stick and put directly to the source and no volts transferred to him, because as he explained, electricity goes above the stick, instead of through the stick.  Coper magnetic, it takes more time to got through than next to it.

Professor Tom Veils also stated “We love energy, the easiest way to win the country is blowing up the power grid.”  Which is true, not only the United States, but almost the whole world depends on energy.

Solar panels are used to create and supply electricity as a component of a larger photovoltaic system in commercial and residential applications. The past week we had the opportunity to discover further how solar panels work. During this lab experiment we had small panels and flash light. We had to flash light to the sun panel to see how much energy this would generate. By doing different runs each at a different distance between the flash light and the sun panel we concluded that when the light was shinning closer to the sun panel higher was the voltage created. This conclusion was as we anticipated.

Later we did the same procedure using different color filters which the conclusions amazed us a little. My partner and I discovered that by using no filter at the same distance the voltage was higher, which we expected. But what shocked us was that if the filter was darker lower was the voltage. In the graph below we can see how the pink and orange had almost the same voltage and with the green it had a lower voltage, all four, including the non filter run, were done at a distance of 10m.

In class we have been learning about energy. We have learned that energy is not produced or created it can only be transformed. In a few classes we were able to experiment with how to generate electricity by shaking a different kind of flashlight. My partner and I did several tests. First, by not shaking at all, then shake it slow and then  slightly faster and so on, we did this five times. We noticed that by slower shakes, smaller will be the electric energy produced. We also noticed that by more shakes the higher the voltage produced.

These were the results we had during the experiment. During the first run we didn’t shake it at all and we opened the voltages in excel and then sumsq it. The second run was a slow and we did 17 shakes sumsq it and the results were as expected and the voltage was higher. In the third run we did 29 and as expected the voltage was even higher than the last two shakes. This happened in the other two runs 62 shakes and 110 shakes in in both they had bigger voltages. In the one of 62 shakes the voltage was 40V and in 110 shakes it was 242V.

It was not only a fun experiment it was a learning experience that helped me understand how electricity work. Here we proved Newton’s different Laws of motion and energy. Also all of our expectations were met.

Having the opportunity to visit the MIT Plasma Reactor is a unique experience that I’m never going to forget. The Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a research laboratory for the study of plasma physics and nuclear fusion. “It’s mission is to provide research and educational opportunities for expanding the scientific understanding of the physics of plasmas, the “fourth state of matter,” and to use that knowledge to develop useful applications. The central focus of PSFC activities has been to create a scientific and engineering base for the development of fusion power. Nevertheless, non-fusion applications involving plasmas at the PSFC are numerous and diverse. A recent example is the significant growth of programs in plasma-based technologies, including environmental remediation and hydrogen production. ” (http://www.psfc.mit.edu/about/index.html)

In this trip to MIT I learned that there is plasma everywhere and everywhere we see. Examples of plasma’s are planets, stars…

Why should we care about this fusion vs nuclear fusion?   Because there is a tremendous potential, there is no danger in it turning into a deadly weapon and fusion has no danger melt down. Why fusion vs most renewable? efficient land use and base load electricity production. Why fusion vs fossil fuels? Because it doesn’t emit green house gases. Disadvantages: Structural Materials become radioactive, It costs a lot of money and it doesn’t work YET.

Here are some images I took while in the Plasma Reactor at MIT.

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It was in 1969 that the first human walked on the moon. That was just 46 years ago, and now scientists are expecting to make the first commercial flight around the year 2026. This is “The next giant leap for mankind” as the Mars-One describes it in its web page. As we can se in NASA’s webpage “ Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and robotic and human exploration as we expand our presence into the solar system”. It has many earth-like similarities that could help in many ways learn more about the past.

But there are many things that still have to be worked on, needless to say the human body. We are not prepared to live in a different planet; our bodies could endure a few years or so but still not be prepared for life there. Just to start we have gravity, which holds us down to earth, in mars the gravity is much less than in earth which will make our bodies change intensely and not in a good way. As I found in one of my sources there are many long-term and short-term effects associated with traveling to space. To state a few we have blood circulation that comes back to gravity, since there is no gravity moving the blood efficiently in the body, there is possibilities that blood clots will occur. Also there are backaches, since there is basically nothing pulling them down humans will start to grow and muscles will stop working efficiently and this cause backaches. Fatigue is another issue, a day on mars is slightly longer than a day in earth, but that slight difference has huge effects on the humans, they stress out and fatigue due to the few hours of sleep and the bad quality of sleep. Taking it a step further now lets talk about long-term effects, the ones that will haunt you down the rest of your life. Bone loss, cellular organization, and radiation are a few. Just measuring the time it takes for an astronaut to part from earth and get to mars, the human bodies bones have lost the same density as it would loose in earth in a lifetime. Also the astronauts are exposed to some kind of radiation, due to galactic cosmic rays. These rays and solar flares may incentive different kind of diseases in the humans such as cancer, cataracts, heart disease, etc.

http://www.mars-one.com
http://www.racetomars.ca/mars/article_effects.jsp
http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars/#.VQ3ITEIp-c9