It took approximately two classes to decided on what project we were going to do. Last minute, we decided to do a experiment on wind turbine and how it generates electricity (voltage). The experiment was called “A Fan that Describes Faraday Law”. The household fan was a replacement of the wind turbine and magnets were duct taped to the fan’s blades. A copper coil was pointed towards the blades to create voltage.

The experiment my team did focused on Faraday’s Law of induction. An electric current is created when magnets are moved towards or away from the coil. There are three magnets and each of them is placed on the fan’s blades, which produce a change in magnetic field as the blade spins. When the coils are close to the spinning blades, the magnetic fields are much stronger and the constant spinning changes the magnetic field.  When the coils aren’t close to the spinning blades, the change of voltage is smaller. Based on the experiment, the medium speed compared to the low speed generated more voltage The faster the speed the more voltage will be generated; direct relationship. The distance is in an inverse relationship with the voltage. The greater the distance the smaller the voltage is generated. However, the experiment was interesting because the voltage will fluctuate from small number to big number. It was difficult to record the readings from the voltmeter.

How it related to Sustainability?

Wind energy does not use fossil fuels to generate electricity. It is an incredible resource to produce energy in remote areas. However, the wind strength can be low to support a wind farm or turbine. Places that are not windy need the power grid to transport electricity from the wind turbine. Wind energy is a renewable resource, which come from nuclear fusion that occurs in the sun. It teaches the concept of energy and sustainability and Faraday’s Law.

The difference my homemade fan compared to the actual wind turbine:

*Wind Moves the Blades

*Magnets are inside the generator, not on the blades.

*Coils are inside the generator, not in front of the blades.

What is Faraday’s Law?

A change from the magnetic field occurs when the magnet is moved or away from the coil or rotating the coil to the magnet.

The trip at the high school was different because I never did this before and my team members were ready to present. Most of them took charge than I did since I was extremely nervous. However, the kids were attentive and they actually focused on the power point. Again, the “wind turbine” more like the household fan gave my group and students hard time because it was difficult to generate voltage. I noticed I was around other metal objects like nails and other magnets. This could have affected the reading from the voltmeter. The solution for this was stop the fan from spinning and shake the coils near the magnets. This actually did work because the more the students shook the higher the voltage was generated. At least that problem was solved since I had to deal with this before. I probably do this again, but I prefer to do a chemistry related experiment like ACID RAIN!

LINKS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0wbEl7caTY

The link below explain how wind turbine work and what inside

A Canadian company, Trans Canada, wants to begin a project on an oil pipeline that goes from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas. However, the Keystone Pipeline carries tar sands oil. This is the dirtiest fuel in the world because it can destroy ecosystem, pollute water sources and put people’s health in danger. There’s a great possibility the pipeline could import dirty tar sands in United States and Gulf Coast’s refineries. Trees intake carbon dioxide from the air, and digging up tar sands oil from the ground can annihilate forests. When tar spills, it is hard and expensive to clean up because it doesn’t float. Tar sand is made from bitumen: mixture of clay, sand, water, and oil. Bitumen is extracted from the sand through mining or from heating in situ. Situ produces higher emissions of greenhouse gases.

There are two ways bitumen can be converted into oil. The first one is adding hydrogen to increase the ratio (hydrogen-carbon) by reacting the bitumen with hydrogen rich compound. The second technique is separating bitumen into carbon and hydrogen rich products. Both processes require the removal of sulfur and nitrogen to strengthen the synthetic crude oil. Refining tar sands oil is dirtier because it produces sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide; this can contribute to higher emissions. These toxic wastes cause smogs, acid rain, and respiratory problems like asthma. United States is already dealing with carbon dioxide rising and now this will create more problems. What is the purpose of this? The health of our people should matter more than this pipeline.

The project can give at least 20,000 new jobs to United States, but it needs permission from Obama to complete the construction. During Mid-April 2014, Obama administrations halt the Presidential Permit.It’ll go through 16 counties in North and East Texas and 6 states (Texas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, and Oklahoma). On March 2013, a pipeline carried at least 12,000 barrels of oil burst down residential streets. Although, there are controversy about the pipeline. There is a good benefit for United States. It can stop relying on oil from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria; increase supplies from Canada. In my opinion, this can create danger for the people in U.S.A especially with health issue. I thought it would be better to focus on how to decrease the usage of fossil fuels and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. I do not want to breath in more polluted air. My question is what’s U.S number one priority for its citizens?

References:

http://www.foe.org/projects/climate-and-energy/tar-sands/keystone-xl-pipeline

http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/keystone-xl-pipeline/

http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/11/the-keystone-xl-pipeline

My group members and I decided on an experiment, Exploring Wind Turbine, and we were excited to start the project. However, the wind turbine kit could have not been found. Literally, my group and Dr.Shatz had to think of new techniques to still use the fan to generate voltage. We went from one idea to another and basically tried to figure out how to tape the flashlight to blade of fan. I pushed the blade of the fan just to see the voltage energy on the voltmeter. I was determined not to look for a new experiment. Thanks to Bassam and his brains he figured out a great idea. We took three strong magnets and taped it to each of the fan’s blade. Then, I took the inside part of the flashlight where the coil is located and Dr.Shatz held it from the fan. One of group members  turned on the fan and the voltmeter showed it was generating voltage energy. I do like this experiment because it relates to Faraday’s law and wind turbine. From the fan, it is possible to change the speed and distance.  Overall, we will continue this experiment.

Faraday’s Law explains the change of magnetic field can create voltage and cause current to flow in wires. Basically, Faraday realized the change in magnetic field (magnetic flux) and size of the field relate to the current created. The generator experiment is based on this law to indicate the number of shakes will generate a higher voltage. In this lab, the NXT and lab view were used to retrieve the voltage within 30 secs. My lab partners and I had to count the number of shakes for each trial. After the shakes, the lab view showed list of voltages for every trial.  The sum of voltages was squared.  The highest voltage is 441.3 with 150 shakes. Based on my data, it shows the voltages increase as the shakes increase.

http://www.physics4kids.com/files/elec_faraday.html (reference)

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/farlaw.html (reference)

Shakes                                                  Sum of squared voltages

Couple weeks ago my freshman seminar class had a field trip to MIT nuclear reactor. There was a lecture about the reactor before we went inside. I learned from the power point the reactor operates 24/7 up to 6 MW thermal power and it has sixty-five percent of capacity factor. It is four and half in diameter and no more than two feet; it has 3,000 MW reactors. The MITR-2 uses heavy water for neutron reflection; the light water cools and moderates it using aluminum clad fuel elements. It contains safety channels with three power levels and three on reactor period. There are six boron stainless blades in the core that are positioned in hexagonal shape; any of the blades can shut down the reactor less than one second. I remembered Lin-Wen Hu explained there were 92 elements on the periodic table and anything greater than Uranium was man-made materials (unstable radioactivity). He talked about the Chernobyl and sand contains boron. Lin discussed the one-way chain reaction is intended to prevent atomic bombs and in every generation 2 of 3 neutrons are removed to control the nuclear reactor. The reactor is incapable of melting down and every power plant in United States has an atomic relieve valve of hydrogen. The tour around the reactor was extremely fun I was able to see the control room and it was fascinating to be inside the nuclear reactor. This trip makes me love MIT more and I am considering going there in the future.

http://web.mit.edu/nrl/www/index.html

Solar panels are created to convert light into electricity. Photovoltaic cells are made of semiconductor materials. As the sunlight hits the cells, electrons break away from their atoms. The electrons flow through their cells, which generates electricity. Solar thermal power plants uses the energy from the sun to create heat. One purpose of the lab was to determine the voltage of the light source’s distance. The other reason for the lab was to see the increase or decrease of voltages from different colors. A ruler was used to measure the distance of the light source from the solar panel. For every trial, the distance was increased by eight centimeters. The distances and voltages were plotted on a scatter graph; higher the distance indicates a lower voltage. The second part of the lab was to take color filters and place them on top of the solar panel. From the lab view, it showed the voltages for all four colors. Based on the graph, the yellow color had the highest voltage.

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/solar-power-profile/ (REFERENCE)

https://sites.suffolk.edu/sabbie17/?attachment_id=49

right click on this link and other tab will pop up. Then click on the blue (solar lab) and file will upload.

Tom Vales came to one of the classes last week  and he had some interesting facts to say about Tesla Coil and Thomas Edison. He explained most of the devices in our homes use infrared. Infrared is a heat or thermal radiation, which is produced by the movements of atoms and molecules. He later described Nikola Tesla came from Serbia and fixed a generator for Thomas Edison. However, they did not have a great friendship with each other. Tesla had over 7,000 patents for transmissions and applications of electric power. Nikola Tesla had encountered George Westinghouse because he was asked to create breaks for trains. Later on, George helped him licensed his patents for AC (alternating current) motor. Alternating current is more effective than direct current because it uses transformers to change the voltage. It is likely favored by companies because they can transmit power of high voltages over long distances. On the other hand, Thomas Edison created the direct current that are used today for solar cells, fuel cells, and batteries. It cannot send power in long distances.  Tom explained the Tesla Coil has 100,000,000 volts and it’s a wireless transmission of energy. It can light up fluorescent lights up to 50 feet away!  In my opinion, Tesla isn’t known that much as Thomas Edison since all his notes were destroyed in a fire, but his inventions helped the growth of electricity.

References:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/electricity8.htm

http://www.teslasociety.com/teslacoil.htm

http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/nikola-tesla

Before watching this movie, I was completely against nuclear power plants because I thought they were harmful and dangerous to society. After this movie, my entire perspectives of nuclear changed. Pandora’s Promise showed both views of people who were anti-nuclear and pro-nuclear. People that were anti-nuclear did not have background of science to explain why they thought nuclear wasn’t safe. The movie displays news reporters would state levels of radiation that meant nothing to folks who did not understand Iodine or units of microsieverts. People that were anti-nuclear had negative views about them because of the Three Miles Island power plant. However, pro nuclear understood nuclear was safer than coal due to the low mortality rate and how it was used to generate electricity. Gwyneth Cravens (pro nuclear) said many women’s group did not know coal killed at least 13,000 people in United States per year and  three million killed in the world per year. The movie basically stated nuclear can be used for the good of our people and it shouldn’t be banned from United States or even the world. For example, the French government used 80% of energy from nuclear and it had less fossil fuel combustion (5 tons) than Germany. Pandora’s Promise stated what happened to Chernobyl and how it was designed. Nuclear power plants in United States were not built the exact same as Chernobyl. This was what people against nuclear did not acknowledge in their protests. The entire film did the best job to describe the usage of nuclear power plants and actually considers the negative opinions about them.The negative views started because nuclear was used to create bombs, which some people today still believe. I am extremely happy I was able to watch this film because it changed what I once believed. I did not have facts to corroborate why I was against it at first. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone; it is educational and inspirational!

batterydischarge1b
The purpose of this experiment was to measure the velocity, acceleration, and potential energy of the mass. The Lego Mind storm motor was used to lift the weights by a pulley. The mass calculated in this experiment was 220 grams (.22kg). Lab view was used to change the power levels of the pulley to show the different accelerations. Newton’s 2nd Law was based on the first section of the lab. For the first three trials, the power levels had to stay the same as the masses changed.  Based on the acceleration vs mass (force) graph, the acceleration dropped as the mass increased. However, my data was incorrect due to the NXT had issues. Although, I tried a different NXT and continued to do more trials with same power levels. Then, I had kept the mass the same and changed the power level. From my acceleration vs power level (force) graph, the trend line showed the increase of acceleration.

Law of Conservation of energy was explored in the lab to calculate the height of the weights with the same power level. From the graph (battery discharge vs potential energy), the trend line decreased, but it was supposed to increase. It is very possible for the data to be different. To calculate potential energy: m*g*h. Power is calculated by potential energy/time. This activity helped me understand the relations with acceleration and mass. On excel, I have four graphs based on my data from the NXT. Clink on the link above, it brings you to another page, and then clink on the blue link. A file will come up and open the excel file.

Demand response has been important for electric system planning because it lowers the cost of electricity.  It has programs that are used by the electric system to balance supplies and demands. Time based are electricity rates paid from customers for different days, times of the day, and events. This guide companies to  cycle air conditioner and water heaters during periods of demands for lower electric bills.Demand response programs help providers to save money .The TOU (Time of Use) divides the day into blocks of hours and kilowatts prices vary between blocks. The another program from demand response is RTP (Real Time Pricing), which prices are hourly based on real time market price. Increasing the demands for electricity can cause voltage fluctuations. These programs reduce electricity demands for electric suppliers and grid operators. Demand response gives economics and environmental benefits for California. Utilities avoid building new power plants because of demand response. They want to increase the percentage of energy from renewable resources. The purpose of demand response is to expand grid modernization and development.

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References:

http://en.openei.org/wiki/Definition:Time-Based_Rate_Program

http://www.ecsgrid.com/demand-response-programs

http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/Demand+Response/

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