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I haven’t gone on a field trip since my jr. year of highschool, so when I got wind that we were taking a feild trip in my science class you can imgine how excited I got!

We were going to Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nuclear Reactor Laboratory or  NRL, the MIT-NRL houses and operates a 5 megawatt (MW) nuclear reactor! pretty cool huh?

The nuclear reactor (MITR) runs at 50°C (the temperature of hot bath water). Currently the reactor is the second largest university reactor right behind the university of st. Louis, in the entire country. The MITR is “a light-water cooled and moderated, heavy-water reflected nuclear reactor that utilizes flat, plate-type finned, aluminum clad fuel elements.” The reactor is strictly used to generate any electricity but rather it produces neurons that scientists and researchers use in their studie and research. Even if it was used to generate electricity, after all of the power lost in transmission of energy, its 5 MW capacity would only be able to power a handful of light bulbs.

Starting of my trip to the MIT necular reactor lab they signed us in and gave us these things that mesured the rediation levels we were exposed to…kinda scary! What did I sign up for here

Solar energy, what exactly is it? I’m sure we’ve all heard of it but do we really know what its all about and who is works. Well thanks to my in class solar call lab I now have a better understanding of solar energy.

Solar energy is radiant energy emitted by the sun.  Its the energy received by the earth from the sun. This energy is in the form of solar radiation, which makes the production of solar electricity possible. Seems quite simple to understand right?

Our lab put solar energy to the test! Our goal for this lab was to find the relationship between light intensity and voltage and also between light’s wave length and voltage. To prove that greater distance results in a decrease of both light intensity and voltage.

Current-is a moving charge

Voltage- is the amount of energy per charge required to move charge around a circuit

The common denomenator between current and voltage is that it is seen in an electrical circuit, it is voltage that drives current. Go figure

photovoltaics (which are solar cells) I just wanted to use that word so I sounded smarter. These cells provide a direct current of constant electricity. The amount of voltage and current of them is dependent on wavelength of light which is the length of a single cycle of the wave. Higher intensity means greater current and voltage because of the increase in the amount of generated photons.

Stuff we used :

• One voltage probe
• One NXT adaptor
• NXT with light sensor
• One light source
• Labview VI
• Ruler
• Colored film filters (red, orange, purple, blue)
• Excel sheet & one solar cell

Instructions:

1. With no light
2. With light 0 cm away
3. Distance 1 (varied by student groups): 5 cm
4. Distance 2 (varied by student groups): 10 cm
5. Distance 3 (varied by student groups): 15 cm
Part II: Repeat with 4 colored filters – we used red, orange, purple, and blue
Part III: Graph Results – voltage vs. intensity (varies by distance)& voltage for 4 different filters

Ok so here comes the intering stuff, our results! yay!

our results with no filters

No Light                          0 cm                      5 cm                          10 cm                                      15 cm
-0.01469                           0.47285                  0.46002                  0.42153                      0.30606
-0.02752                           0.54983                  0.42153                    0.39587                     0.30606
-0.04035                           0.47285                  0.4087                     0.47285                      0.25474
-0.04035                          0.51134                    0.4087                     0.48568                      0.30606
0.06229                            0.51134                   0.46002                   0.42153                       0.24191
-0.01469                           0.47285                  0.4087                      0.38304                      0.37021
-0.02752                           0.537                       0.44719                    0.39587                      0.42153
-0.02752                           0.51134                   0.42153                    0.48568                      0.34455
-0.02752                           0.46002                 0.4087                      0.44719                       0.35738
0.01097                             0.49851                  0.39587                   0.39587                       0.44719
avg:-0.01469                    avg:0.499793     avg:0.424096        avg:0.430511

avg:0.335569 (15 cm)

The first column shows voltage with no light. You can see that results are mostly negative in number. This means that when no light is present, voltage is at its lowest because light is not as quckily detected.

The second column shows results when light is 0 cm away, we held the flashlight directly against the solar cell. Here, voltage, and  light strenth, is greatest. This is evidence that the closer/more direct light is to the cell, the greater voltage/light intensity will be. With the following three sequences, voltage/light intensity decreases with increased distance away from the solar cell. So this proves the theory that greater distance results in a decrease of both light intensity and voltage.

Here are our results when we used colored filters

Red                                   Orange                                   Purple                                        Blue
0.4087                                0.49851                                      0.34455                                         0.39587
0.39587                              0.47285                                      0.39587                                         0.37021
0.49851                              0.47285                                      0.31889                                         0.37021
0.51134                               0.48568                                     0.34455                                         0.35738
0.47285                              0.46002                                     0.2804                                           0.26757
0.48568                              0.42153                                      0.31889                                         0.25474
0.4087                                0.46002                                     0.35738                                         0.26757
0.39587                              0.47285                                      0.29323                                         0.2804
0.46002                             0.47285                                      0.30606                                         0.29323
0.39587                             0.48568                                      0.29323                                          0.29323
avg:0.443341                   avg:0.470284                            avg:0.325305                    avg:0.315041

Filters show voltage/light intensity from greatest to least: orange, red, purple, blue. From these results we found that the darker the color value of the filter, the less light it will let through. The solar cell let through most light from the orange and the least from the blue. This means that bright/lighter light is more easily detected when passing through lighter/brighter color values than through darker/deeper color values and that is why the voltage/light intensity was greater for orange and red than it was for purple and blue. Filters only transmits one wavelength of color to pass through when no filter allows all wavelengths to pass and that is why voltage/light intensity is greater with no filter versus with a filter regardless of color.

See you on the next lab post my fellow blogers!

Today we conducted the lego experiment, which consisted of us having to use the Lego Mindstorm motor to control a pull to lift weights. By doing so we would or suppose to be leraning about velocity, acceleration, force, and mass.

Formula Used:

Force = mass x acceleration

F=ma

Heres a few things to keep in mind

In experiment #1 we made force a constant

We plugged the number 10 (10 being the constant force) into the program so the motor would lift the weight to that amount of force for each trial. We know that accelaration is dependent on the change in velocity or the change in distance over time, we wanted to see how acceleration changes at different levels of mass. To do so we change the weight five times to calculate those differences. See below for our results

Force (N)          Mass (kg)         A (m/s^2)
10                       0.05                      200

10                       0.1                        100

10                      0.15                     66.66

10                       0.2                        50

10                      0.25                       40

acceleration is calculated by diving velocity OR diving meters per second by second .

Equation

Acceleration = meters / seconds squared

A=m/s²

the lesser the mass, the greater an object can travel in a shorter amount of time, our chart above proves just that. To put it in more “scientifically” acceleration is greater when mass is lesser. ( I sound smarter that way, huh)

Ok soooo moving on to experiment #2

For experiment #2 mass was kept constant at 0.25 kg at five different levels of force. We kept force the same as in  experiment 1. See our results below

Force (N)          Mass (kg)         A (m/s^2)
10                            0.25                      40

20                           0.25                      80

40                           0.25                     160

80                           0.25                     320

120                         0.25                     480

The concepts we leaned in this experminet can be easily applied to real life scenarios. We see these concepts in everyday life! Cool Stuff!

As always thanks for reading! catch you on the next post!

For todays in class experiment/lab we got to genorate our own energy! One might as how does one do so? Here are the steps,

First Shake the tube at your desired  rate/speed

Second Count the number of shakes in the data collecting interval

Third calculate in excel the sum of the squares of the voltages (SSVs)

The steps were pretty stright foward, Lets begin the experiment shall me!

 We had 30 seconds to shake the generator tube as many times as we could keeping track of the number of shakes as we shook. This part I found a but challenging becuase shaking and counting proved to be a bit diffcult  for both myself and my partner. Hey what can I can say multitasking has never been on of my strong suites. HA

This is what our tube genorator looked like——–)

As we were shaking the genorator tube It reminded us alot of the shake weight, you know that chessy “exsercise” device that claims to tone up your arms. Come on admit it we’ve all see the informercials on TV!

My partner and I conducted 6 test. Here are our results for each time we shook the genrator.

First time 83 shakes (most times )

Second time: 0 shakes ( we did on purpose to see what would happen)

Third time: 53 shakes

Fourth time: 46 shakes

Fifth time: 34 shakes

Sixith and finial time: 47 times

The sum of the squares of the voltages:
First: 73.26246
Second: 99.51914
Third: 45.79768
Fourth: 64.46607
Fifth: 24.7404
Sixth: 73.25632

This is were my opps comes in, I believe that some were along while we were conducting the experiment we did a mistake because what SHOULD have happened(but didnt) was the tests with the greatest number of shakes would have the greatest SSVs. But accoring to our results thats not what happended.

 Second: 0 shakes                     Fifth: 24.7404
Fifth: 34 shakes                        Third: 45.79768
Fourth: 46 shakes                    Fourth: 64.46607
Sixth: 47 shakes                       Sixth: 73.25632
Third: 53 shakes                      First: 73.26246
First: 83 shakes                       Second: 99.51914

We’re not sure exactly what went wrong but if we had to guess it was probably be that our first run bulit up so much electcity that  most of it still remained in the next few seconds when we didn’t shake the tube at all. But we dont know this for sure. -_____-

All in all this lab was fun! (& it even allowed me to get my daily work-out in) ok just kiding i dont work out.HAHAH.  Even though our results didnt reflect the correct or suppose out come we still learned about Faraday’s Law which states that electricity or currents and voltage are generated by changing magnetic fluxes through coiled wires. So it wasnt a COMPLETE fail….I guess!

As always thanks for reading I’ll catch you on the next post!

My reaction was much like yours when I heard the term Natural gas hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking, “huh” “what”. I’ve never heard of this beofre!

After looking it up and reading about it turns out that natural gas hydraulic fracturing is just the propagation of fractures in a rock layer, as a result of the action of a pressurized fluid. Hydrofracturing commonly known as fracking, is a technique used to release petroleum, natural gas which includes shale gas, tight gas and coal seam gas, or other substances for extraction.

Proponents of fracking point to the economic benefits from vast amounts of formerly inaccessible hydrocorbons the process can extract. Opponents point to potential enviromental impacts, including contamination of ground water, risks to air quality, the migration of gases and hydraulic fracturing chemicals to the surface, surface contamination from spills and flowback and the health effects these might have. For these reasons hydraulic fracturing has come under scrutiny internationally, with some countries suspending or even going as far as banning it compeletly.

According to an article writen in Sceintific American by David Biello researchers discovered methane in 51 of the 60 wells tested—that is not out of the ordinary. A small amount of methane from both deep and biological sources is present in most of the aquifers in this region of Pennsylvania and New York State. By measuring the ratio of radioactive carbon present in the methane contamination, however, the researchers determined that in drinking water wells near active natural gas wells, the methane was old and therefore fossil natural gas , rather than more freshly produced methane. This marks the first time that drinking water contamination has been definitively linked to fracking.

To add insult to injury fracking is specificlly exempted from much federal regulation, such as the Safe Drinking water Act of 1974.

It remains to be seen whether natural gas delivers environmental benefits—such as reduced emissions of carbon dioxide when burned.

Hydraulic Fracturing has been around for quite a while, since 1947, to be exact. Way before I was ever around! The first use of hydraulic fracturing was in 1947 but the modern fracking technique.

So we’ve established that Hydraulic Fracturing is nothing new, infact drilling for natural gas is a booming industry.

Hope this blog post has enlighten you about the topic of Hydraulic Fracturing or hydrofracturing!

Thanks for reading! Catch you later

Sources:

http://www.iehn.org/overview.naturalgashydraulicfracturing.php

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fracking-for-natural-gas-pollutes-water-wells

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/the-hard-facts-about-fracking

The automoible industry and gas mileage go hand and hand. The better the gas milage of a car the more appeling the car is to the consomer, especially in todays economy.

In orerder for vehicles to sell on the market you have to have a good and compeptive fuel economy>or gas per mile driven. Because of this auotmobile manufactures must think of ways to increase gas mileage. Auto companies have gotten a lot better at building popular small cars that are fuel efficien,t but they need to get even better by 2025, they are acquiescing without protest to an increase to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, from the current 27 miles per gallon, roughly double the mileage requirement of just five years ago. President Obama announced stricker rules then ever on millage requirements as a mater of fact the largest increase in mileage requirements since the government began regulating consumption of gasoline by cars in the 1970s.   Here somes in the problem, when the companies argued that consumers would not be willing to pay for the technology needed to meet higher mileage requirements. These proposed standards can be met using well-known technologies such as better engines, lower-cost hybrids and electric cars, argue enviromental groups. Some aruge But given the range of technologies that we either have currently or are developing, we will be in a position to meet them.

Examples we given at Encyclopedia.com that manufatures are developing new technologies and products, such as electronic fuel cells, navigational systems that manage congestion problems, and “telematics”(telecommunications capabilities)”, these are all prime examples of how car manufactures want/and will boost fuel economy.

Automakers have been rolling out new technology and other innovations that boost mileage, such as advanced powertrains and transmissions, lighter components, and even fix-a-flat canisters in lieu of a traditional jack and spare tire, to save weight. Since 2007, the average fuel economy of cars purchased has risen from 20.1 miles per gallon to 23.6 mpg, according to the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute.

Tough gas millage rules good for drivers and ALSO good for the auto industry.

Soruces:

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2012/08/27/tough-government-gas-mileage-rules-good-for-drivers-auto-industry

www.encylopidia.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/business/carmakers-back-strict-new-rules-for-gas-mileage.html?pagewanted=all

The U.S. energy grid is a complex net work of independently owned and operated power plants and transmission lines.

In the early days of commercial electric power, transmission of electric power at the same voltage as used by lighting and mechanical loads restricted the distance between generating plant and consumers. In 1882, generation was with direct current, which could not easily be increased in voltage for long-distance transmission. Different classes of loads (for example, lighting, fixed motors, and traction/railway systems) required different voltages, and so used different generators and circuits.

Due to this specialization of lines and because transmission was inefficient for low-voltage high-current circuits, generators needed to be near their loads.

Electrical Enegy, from generating power plants to electrical substations located near demand centers. This is distinct from the local wiring between high-voltage substations and customers, which is typically referred to as electric power distribution. Transmission lines, when interconnected with each other, become transmission networks. These are typically referred to as “power grids” or just “the grid”.

transmission and distribution lines were owned by the same company, but starting in the 1990s, many countries have made the regulation of the electricty market in ways that have led to the separation of the electricity transmission business from the distribution business. So basically the electical  system in our country has become a lucrative business.

Nuclear power has been growing only slowly, far behind the rate of natural gas-fired power. the average retail price of electricity during 2002 averaged 7.25 cents per Kwh, down slightly from 7.32 cents per Kwh in 2001. Electricity prices in the United States fell every year between 1993 and 1999, but this trend reversed in 2000 and 2001. As of 2001, U.S. total installed electric generating capacity was 813 gigawatts (GW). Of this total, 74% was thermal (mainly coal and natural gas), 12% nuclear, 12% hydro, and 2% “renewables” (geothermal, solar, wind). The amount and geographical distribution of capacity by energy source is a function of availability and price of fuels and/or regulations. Capacity by energy source generally shows a geographical pattern such as: significant nuclear capacity in New England, coal in the central U.S., hydroelectric in the Pacific West, and natural-gas-fired capacity in the Coastal South.

“Smart grid” generally refers to a class of technology people are using to bring utility electricity delivery systems into the 21st century, using computer-based remote control and automation. The “grid” amounts to the networks that carry electricity from the plants where it is generated to consumers. The grid includes wires, substations, transformers, switches and much more. Smart simply means that its computarized. It includes adding two-way digital communication technology to devices associated with the grid. Each device on the network can be given sensors to gather data (power meters, voltage sensors, fault detectors, etc.), plus two-way digital communication between the device in the field and the utility’s network operations center. A key feature of the smart grid is automation technology that lets the utility adjust and control each individual device or millions of devices from a central location. Pretty cool stuff huh? welp kids thats all for US enrgy and smart grids! Thanks for reading

Source:

http://energy.gov/oe/technology-development/smart-grid

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

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=110997398

In todays class we conducted a robotics activity. This activity allowed us to build our very own robots using Legos! Sounds cool doesnt it? It brought me back to my childhood, when I used to play Legos with my older brothers.Well is wasnt all fun and games the obejective of doing this activity was to study the motion of robots and merasurment of distance and power. Ok now I’m back to reality.

So heres the break down

We calculated our results using some formulas. The set of formulas my classmates and I used all built on top of eachother meaning if you miscalculated one thing the whole calculations would be wrong and you would have to start from scractch.

To begin the actual experiment, we cleared a pathway for the robot to travel without any obstructions (like its power cord which kept getting in the way) and adjusted the power so that the distance would not exceed the measurement of our ruler, 12 inches or 30.48 centimeters or 0.3048 meters.

We conducted a trial of one power level (75) and three sets of testing for increased accuracy. We found that our measurements of distance we never the same and always greater than those measured by the computer. This could be due to eyeballing exact distances when they fell between the marked lines of the ruler. I’ll list our measurements or distance (D) and velocity*(V) compared to those of the computer in addition to number of wheel turns (WT).

*Because in our tests we set time (seconds) = 1, velocity and distance are equivalent in number

Test 1

Students                                  Computer

D = 0.27305                            D = 0.227873

V = 0.27305                            V = 0.227873

WT = 1.42778

Test 2

Students                                  Computer

D = 0.2795                              D = 0.24605

V = 0.2795                              V = 0.24605

WT = 1.54167

Test 3

Students                                  Computer

D = 0.27432                            D = 0.246493

V = 0.27432                            V = 0.246493

WT = 1.54444

At the end of our trial set we  calculate our margin of error in order to measure how applicable our results were. A high margin of error means results are less accurate/applicable and a low margin of error means results are more accurate/applicable. To measure this we used this equation:

% Error = ( (Distance measured – Distance calculated by computer) / ((Distance measured + Distance calculated by computer) / (2) ) •100%

The margin of error for each test is detailed below.

Test 1

% Error =  ( (0.27305 – 0.227873) / ( (0.27305 + 0.227873) / 2) ) •100%

% Error =  ( (0.045177) / ( (0.0500923 / 2) )  • 100%

% Error = ( (0.045177) / (0.2504615) ) • 100%

% Error = 0.18037503 • 100% = 18.04%

Test 2

% Error = ( (0.2795 – 0.24605) / ( (0.2795 + 0.24605) / 2) )  • 100%

% Error = ( (0.03345) / ( (0.52555 / 2) ) • 100%

% Error = ( (0.03345) / (0.262775) )  •100%

% Error = 0.12729521 •100% = 12.73%

Test 3

% Error = ( (0.27432  – 0.246493) / ( (0.27432 + 0.246493) / 2) )  •100%

% Error = ( (0.027827) / ( (0.520813) / 2) ) • 100%

% Error = ( (0.027827) / (0.2604065) ) • 100%

% Error = 0.10685985 •100% = 10.69%

The average for the % error for all three tests is as follows:

Average % Error = (% Error Test 1 + % Error Test 2 + % Error Test 3) / (Total Number of Tests)

Average % Error = (18.04% + 12.73% + 10.69%) / 3

Average % Error = (41.46%) / 3 = 13.82%

I consider Our margin of error resonable taking into account our small sample size.

Over all this lego activity was really cool! It managed to combine fun and learning!

View our master picace  aka our robot below:

As of 2010 Germany has invested has invested 26 billion euros in its renewable energy sector. The share of elecricity produced from renewable energy in Germany has increased from 6.3 percent of the national total in 2000 to about 25 percent in the first half of 2012. According to Germanys offical figures, 370,000 people in the coutry were employed in the renewable energy sector in 2010, so the engery sector in germany is not only benefiting the enviroment but also creating jobs.

Renwable electric power produced in Germany in 2009 by Energy source.

Germany has sevreal sectors of reneable energy including wind power, solar power,biomass and biowaste, hydropower, and photovoltaic.

Solar power provided Germany 18  TW.h (billion kilowatt-hours) in 2011 which is 3% of the total electrcit demand for the country. Some market analyst expect the solar electricty share could reach 25% by the year 2050. As Solar power installations rise quickly, 5.3%  of the coutry’s total electricity demand was covred by solar power. On May 25, 2012 solor power reach a new high in Germany  feeding  22 GW , 20 nuclear power stations into the Germen grid, which made 50% of the nations electricty demand.

Also Germany has also commited to belending 6.25% biofules in petroleum by 2014 with Biofuls Quota.

Many say/argue that Germany has lost its lead in the transition to greener sources of energy, many say that Germnay must first show particular that public consensus about the urgency of combating climate change is just the first in delivering a renewable-enery system.

NO country has pushed for renweable energy harder than Germany has! Much of that effords come from one develpment, Disenchantment with nuclear energy, which supplies about a quarter of the country’s electrical needs.

Sources:

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

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/policy/germanys-green-energy-gap

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/problems-prompt-germany-to-rethink-

energy-revolution-a-852815.html

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