By: Adriana Alvarez, Grace Libby, and Saleena Son
For our group project, we focused on planetary albedo and the reflectivity of our Earth. In order to do this we used a small solar cell connected to a multimeter, a laser pointer, and objects to symbolize different parts of our planet like a brown bag for soil, a mirror, spinach for vegetation, ice, and aluminum foil.
In order to conduct our experiment, one would first have to gather the “initial” light of the laser pointer by shining it directly on the solar cell and recording it. Next, they would choose an object to gather reflectivity like the paper bag, for example. This person would then hold the laser pointer at a 90* angle shining on to the bag and then move the solar cell to catch the reflection. They would then record the number that showed up on the multimeter. To record the reflectivity, the person conducting the experiment would then divide the reflected light by the incident light. From there they would go on to calculate the percent error. To do that, the would subtract the theoretical amount of reflectivity of the object (which was listed on the lab handout) from the recorded reflectivity and divide that answer by the theoretical reflectivity. Once they got that answer, they would multiply it by 100 to get the percent error.
