Introduction

Last Friday, we learned several things from Tom Vales demo about some topics that we studied in class. Tom Vales showed us some different experiments with Tesla coil, stirling engine, mendocino motor, quack medical devices, etc. I already knew how the Tesla coil works when I did a research for a previous blog. However, it did not know about stirling engine or quack medical devices in the previous time. That is why I felt excited while learning for those new experiments. In this blog, I will discuss about  Tesla Coil, stirling engine, and quack medical devices.

 

Tesla Coil Experiment

First, Tom Vales set up a Tesla coil which has three prongs on the top to collect the energy. The coil is big and vertical. In this experiment, there are three glass tubes that were used to collect the electricity from the coil. The first glass tube is a general tube that we are using in our house for lighting. He did not put the tube directly on the coil, but it still lighted up as what you can see on the video below.

 

 

Second, he used a tube which has a bulb at the middle. Also, there is a prong on the top of it. At this time, he put the prong on the tube near the prong on the Tesla Coil. We could see a line of lightening went through the prong to the bulb and made it lighting up. Also, it created a noise between the lighting and prongs.

 

 

Next, he used a clear tube and put it close to the prongs on the coil. As you can see on the picture below, there was a line of bluish-white lightening that came down the tube and toward his hand. I could see clearly the white lightening through the clear glass.

 

 

Finally, he used a tube with different color inside. He used it to shows that how we can have a same gas in a whole tube. However, it is a smaller diameter on one part compared to the other part, the color will be changed. Again, he put it near the coil and it shows that the color turned pink on skinny side and blue on the thick side.

 

Stirling Engine

There are three kind of Stirling Engine, Alpha, Beta and Gamma. Last Friday, Tom Vales showed us the last kind of stirling engine, gamma. Gamma stirling engine as known as Low temperature differential engine that works by using a temperature difference between two mental plates. There are five main objects in this stirling engine, bottom plate (hot), displacer, top plate (cold), piston, and flywheel.

 

 

First, Tome Vales poured hot water into a cup, and put the stirling engine on the top of it. The bottom plat was heated by hot water while the top plate was still cold. There was a temperature difference exist between both plates. The displacer kept moving up and down between both plates and the piston also. Additionally, the flywheel began to run revolve at the same time.

 

Quack Medical Devices.

Quack Medical Devices used to produced electricity that traveled down various shaped wands. He said that we can use them to relieve the pain such as hurting or sore throat. The machine came with a set of attachments, and these attachments were suited to different parts of the body. The first one is look like a rake that he used to brush his hair. When he turned on the machine, the attachment become purple because of electricity inside. It also made a noise as what he did with Tesla Coin. It seems like we can use it to massage our head. The second attachment is skin electrode which has a flat part at the end to move around the skin (see video below).  The last attachment is look like a crescent moon which can fit your throat. He said that we can use it to relieve that pain from sore throat. Also, he said that they were only about $8.00 in the previous time and everyone could buy them at the store.

 

 

Conclusion

It was a great opportunity for us to see the real experiments which we only knew about by reading and writing blogs. I enjoyed when I saw different colors from the last tube in Tesla Coil experiment. Also, I learned more about stirling engine that I did not know anything about. I want to say thanks to Tome Vales for this wonderful lesson in my life.

 

Introduction

Last Friday, my classmates and I had a chance to visit Museum of Science in Boston, where we did not go any time in 5 years since I came here. It is big and wonderful place where you should bring your kids and lead them learn more about science. The design of museum is suitable for kids because it does not look fancy as any art museums. Even though I am a college student, I am still bewitched by everything at this place. The professor asked us to visit Energized!, Catching the Wind, Conserve@Home, and Investigate because those places are relate to what we have learned in class. I looked at all of this, but there were so many kids so I could not have experience with some technologies. Nevertheless, there are three interesting places as three topics that I want to discuss about in this blog.

 

Catching The Wind Exhibit

 

 

This exhibit focuses about wind energy and how it works. On the wall, there are so many information about power of the wind, turning wind into electricity or wind power in Massachusetts. Also, learned where the wind come from and how it measure by pictures and information on the wall. Wind id a form of solar energy when sunlight hitting the Earth heats the air unevenly. Moreover, wind power is measured in units called kilowatts (kW) which equal to one thousand watts, or in megawatts (mW) which equal to one million watts. It is measured by the total energy generated for one hour, as in a kilowatt-hour (kWh), or megawatts-hour (mWh). Also, I saw how a turbine is built a specific information and images. The picture below shows different parts of a turbine and their own job in producing wind power.

 

 

Make Choices About Energy Source

 

 

It takes a mix of energy sources to power our city, and each source has advantages and drawbacks. This place is where I could measure how much energy supplied and impact on environment. It is fun and easy experiment where I only need to mix any energy sources that I want and see how it can light up the skyline above. There are 4 steps:

• I place a puck down a slot to make an energy choice.
• Check the meters to see the effects of my choices.
• Experiment with different energy combinations
• Then, find an energy mix that makes the skyline above light up

Because I did not look at the guideline at the beginning so I only did a test on fossil fuels. I tool three bucks and the result was above the average. It means that fossil fuels has a high major contributor to air pollution and environmental impact. The picture below shows the similarities and differences of fossil fuels, hydropower, nuclear, solar, and wind which are based on 5 main factors: time to replenish, cost, amount of energy available, environment impacts, and limits. It is a great model for kids to learn how energy sources affect on environment, and know how to manage usage in their life.

 

 

Solar Collector

Solar collector is a model showing how we use solar to produce energy. As what you can see in a video above, I was testing to see how gears could run when a mirror getting a light. There is a light on the top and three mirrors on a table which I could use my hand to control them. Also, there is a small mirror on the top of a gear machine which is used to collect light from opposite mirrors. When I move the big mirror, a small light will appear. Then, I moved the big mirror until the light is on the small mirror. Finally, gear machine would start to run. When I moved the light away, it will stop. It is interesting that I could experience with what I learned in class to understand deeply how the energy is produced by solar.

 

 

Outside the Course

 

 

There is one thing that I was excited to see even though it does not relate to this course. It is dinosaur. Since I was born, I did not have any chance to see the real bonds of dinosaurs. Before the trip, I spent a little bit time to search about this museum, and I was really excited when I saw the bonds of dinosaurs in the review pictures. I learned about many different kind of dinosaurs such as Triceratops, Tyrannosaurs rex, or its footprint. Also, there is a picture that shows grouping of dinosaurs by shared traits. I am always curious about natural world and what happens around us. In some day, I will come back to Washington DC to visit the National Museum of Natural History.

 

 

Conclusion

I am thankful with my professor who gave me a chance to explore what I did not know in science field. It was a wonderful experience that I will never forget in my life. Even though I am not good at science at all, I still want to learn more about natural history and space. It will be easy to understand a lesson if you have a chance to experience with it in your real life. Hopefully, when my have kids, I can bring them there and tell them what I learned in the past.

 

Background

Pandora’s Promise is a 87 minutes documentary film about nuclear power debate,  directed by Robert Stone. The central argument is that nuclear power, an energy source which still faces historical opposition from environmentalists, is a relatively safe and clean source which can help mitigate the serious problem of anthropogenic global warming. This movie includes those peoples whom were  once vehemently opposed to nuclear power but who now speak in favor of it,  Stewart Brand, Gwyneth Cravens, Mark Lynas, Richard Rhodes and Michael Shellenberger. They talked about nuclear disasters in the past and how they changed their mind through this 87 minutes film. Also, the total money was raised to finance this movie is $1.2 million (US).

This video below is an official trailer of Pandora’s Promise movie which shows a general idea about what would happen in this movie.

 

 

Is nuclear power safe? 

The answer is yes. Base on the evidence over six decades shows that nuclear power is a safe means of generating electricity. The risk of accidents in nuclear power plants is low and declining. Moreover, the radiological effects on people of any radioactive releases can be avoided. According to Gwyneth Cravens’s speech in this film, she mentions that, “Physician and anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott…calling the nuclear industry a ‘death industry’ and claiming that facilities from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster were upward of 1 million people. But several others in film, put the number at only around 50, or if you count some sick people who haven’t yet died, in the low thousands.” It means, the radiation did not affect dangerously to human lives as what we had seen on the news. Because of social media, we created an antipathy to this energy source without understand clearly about how it works and impacts. Also, there has not been a single death from operation of commercial nuclear reactors in the United States.

Nuclear power is greener and safer than coal. According to the information in this film, coal can kill 13,000 people every year in the United States with a few add up all fossil fuel combination. Peoples keep using coal in producing while they avoid nuclear power just because of the exposing of three nuclear power plants. They do not know that it would kill people.

 

Conclusion

After watching this documentary film, there are too much information in this movie and it made me confuse a little bit, and I could not get the main point in the first seen. However, everything is good and organized. Also, I have learned that no energy sources can be replace by another such as solar and nuclear power. We cannot replace nuclear power by solar. They have their own job to provide energy for human lives. Solar is not nuclear. You cannot turn on Sun in the winter to heat up your house. Instead of avoiding and looking for the other safe energy source, we should learn how to deal with the danger around us. As you can see, the picture below shows that if we take away nuclear power, the our planet is going to lose its balance.

 

 

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Reference

http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/safety-of-nuclear-power-reactors.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora%27s_Promise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDw3ET3zqxk

Background

Pugedo Smart Recycling Box is a wonderful vending machine which take the bottles and give food for the stray dogs. In Istanbul, a city of Turkey, there are over 150,000 stray dogs on the streets. They do not have food to eat and place to live. That is why Pugedo, a company that created a great vending machine for stray dogs and cats. It is a brilliant idea when we do not need to spend money for stay animals. We can use whatever we have to create something for the them.

           

 

How does it work?

There are two trays in the machine where stray dogs and cats can come to eat. One of them is for the food, and another is for drink. Also, there are two holes for the people to put their bottles or pour water in. Whenever you put a bottle into this machine, the food and water will fall into the trays. Then the strays can come and it. Here is an video that show how this vending machine works.

 

Goal

The goal of this project is taking money from bottle recycling to giving food for the strays. It can help those strays to have a better life and reduce their hardship on the streets. Engin Girgin, an inventor of the machine, emphasized that, “My primary goal was to make people see that they don’t have to spend any money to help stray dogs. And I also wanted to show that people can do good deeds with things they would normally throw away.” (Finnis, DailyMail). We can help many of them from those thing that we used to throw away every day.

 

 

Conclusion

I hope that we can use our power to protect those animal. I believe that the success of this project can change the whole world economy. If this vending machine works successfully in Turkey, I hope that the US can imports or invent a similar machines that can help the strays get away from the hunger. I want to thanks Pugedon for creating a wonderful system that can take care all the dogs living on the streets easily.

 

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References

http://www.earthporm.com/vending-machine-takes-bottles-gives-food-stray-dogs-exchange/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ11f6urLVQ

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2730872/An-idea-s-dog-s-dinner-Company-creates-vending-machine-feeds-stray-animals-return-people-recycling-bottles.html