Sarah in Blog Form

So, last week our class went on a trip to the Museum of Science.  We went to learn more about the topic on our experiments.  Well, my group decided that we were going to do alternative energy in the form of pinwheels.  There really wasn’t much there, if anything at all, that I could find.  What I did see was a lot of what we learned earlier in the semester.

My classes dating back to middle school has always gone to the science museum on field trips.  I didn’t think this trip would be any different.  One of the exhibits that I always go to is the Electricity exhibit.  I didn’t think much of it when I first went in, but as soon as the presentation started, I realized that I had learned some of it in class this semester.  Not so much the electricity part, but how it is conducted.  The guy performing uses a Tessler Coil, for instance.

They are always switching up exhibits, but this time I didn’t really see anything that was relative to my group’s experiment.

Our group created a list of ideas and by now I’m pretty sure we’ve settled on one, if not two.  One idea that I thought was, not only very good, but also resourceful, was experimenting with Suffolk’s water and sustainability.  You test levels from water supplied from each of the main buildings used at Suffolk.  We’d have to provide the water for the other class, but I don’t really see a problem with that.  It would take maybe 10 minutes to collect if each of us collected from one building.  We’ll be discussing this more during the next class, but I’m pretty sure we’re going with something like this, considering this is where we ended the meeting last time.

The Indian Point nuclear plant has been in business since 1962 and has been a major source of power for New York City since then.  However, it has had its shares of accidents and mishaps.  Those events have caused it to become one of the nation’s worst nuclear power plants.  It is now being debated about whether or not to shut it down permanently.

To shut it down, would be a step forward in the direction to a better energy plan.  However, it would take a few years and a lot of money to replace the electricity in the plant.  The Indian Point plant actually provides 25% of the power for New York City and Westchester.

People are mostly worried about a disaster, like the Fukushima disaster, occurring while this plant is still open and running.  Their evacuation plan is much different than the one in Japan.  The Japanese in the surrounding areas of the Fukushima plant had to evacuate a 50 mile radius.  In Indian Point, the evacuation plant is a 10 mile radius.  If something were to happen like Fukushima, it would be much more costly than the $60 billion cleanup Japan had.

Replacing the plant with a clean energy resource would provide so much more energy.  By the time the Indian Point plant’s licensing is up in 2015, more cleaner energy sources will be made available.

As of three days ago, effects on the Hudson River were being brought up.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to reevaluate the aquatic life and the impact the Indian Point reactors effects them.  This study will decided whether or not new licenses will be granted.

Sources:

• http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/indian_point_nuclear_power_plant_ny/index.htm
• http://www.treehugger.com/energy-policy/new-york-close-indian-point-nuclear-plant-without-new-capacity-needed-2020.html
• http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120315/NEWS/120319819/-1/SITEMAP

So our class took a field trip to the MIT Plasma Fusion Center to learn more about the alternative energy source.  When we first got there, we went into a conference room, where a man named Christian gave a presentation.  A lot of the presentation, we had already learned in class, but it was a brief overview, basically.

We were in there for about 40 minutes or so and then a man named Kevin took us on a tour of the place.  Kevin was telling us about how much money and time was put into C-Mod, their most prize experiment, it would seem.  He told us that C-Mod was only one of 3 projects of its kind in the whole country.  We went into their control room for the project and saw that it was filled with computers and screens overlooking the machine.

The next room he took us into was a temperature control room of some sort.  We all had to put on hard hats, seeing as it was mandatory.  All the objects and pipes and stuff in the room helped to keep the temperature controlled for C-Mod.

The final room he took us into held C-Mod itself.  The only reason we could go in there on that day was because the machine wasn’t on that day and it was safe for us to go in.  Usually, the sound is so loud, it can damage hearing.

We concluded the tour back in the control room.  Kevin began telling us how the government actually wanted to cut back their funding, ending the program.  MIT is actually the only center, out of all three in the whole country, that researches this science.  To cut the program, over a hundred workers would be put out of  a job.  He gave us this website where, if we wanted to, we could sign a petition to help stop the cut back.

Tom Vales, who has worked at Suffolk for several years, came into class and gave a presentation on some of his personalized inventions based on the inventions of people from many years ago.  He brought in 4 small engines.

The first was called the Peltier junction.  It generates one side, while cooling the other and that gives it electricity.  Vales made sure to mention that this small engine isn’t very efficient.

The next engine was the Sterling Engine.  Vales mentioned that it was a substitute for steam engines.  Its used for submarines and things like that because the engine is quiet.  This engine is a portable, hot air generator.  Vales mentioned that this was efficient.  It reminded me of a windmill, except so much smaller.

The next object he showed was just your average barbeque lighter.  What ignites the spark is a small quartz crystal.  The effect the crystal has is known as the piezo effect.  The crystal is squeezed and that generates the spark.

The next motor Vales showed us is called the Immendosino motor.  Its a teaching tool, so there really isn’t any other use for it.  Basically the motor floats on a magnetic field and runs on light.  If there is no light, it simply doesn’t run.

The last object he showed us is known as the Tessler coil.  Nicola Tessler invented the power grid and the coil plays a huge part in that.  Its a power transmission without wires.  It generates electricity and when in contact with a light bulb, can light the bulb.  What Vales showed us was a smaller version of what I’ve seen when I used to go to the Museum of Science in grade school.  Below are some pictures:

As long as there has been talk about global warming, there has been controversy.  There have been people that believe it and there have been people that are in denial.  It is believed that humans are the reason global warming exist and that is probably why some people are in denial.

They argue that the climates have changed before, but informed scientists will say that the climate reacts to what forces it to change at the time and at this time, it is humans that are the dominant force.  We are the ones causing global warming.

The deniers will say that its “not that bad”.  The scientists will say that it is negatively effecting agriculture, health, and the overall environment more than it could positively.

The first link in the sources will take you to the page where there are 173 arguments about global warming.  There are arguments made by the deniers and there are arguments made by the science of global warming.

Global warming is a growing controversy.  The controversy is made bigger because of the media coverage.  You can find the coverage in the more popular media outlets than actual science literature.  In polls, you can see that about 84% of scientists will say that global warming is caused by humans, less than half of the public will agree.  Just two years ago the UK BBC conducted a poll and found that global warming skepticism is on the rise.

There are some people in pretty high positions that are in denial.  Some of the big names include Donald Trump, Ted Nugent, weather broadcasters, and even architects.

Sources:

• http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_controversy
• http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/photos/7-surprising-global-warming-deniers/nonbelievers

To understand natural gas hydraulic fracturing, you must first know that hydraulic fracturing is the propagation of fractures in a rock layer caused by the presence of a pressurized fluid.  It stimulates the production of natural gas and oil.  Veins and dikes are natural examples.  This process is used to increase or restore the rate at which fluids, like natural gas, can be produced from natural reservoirs.

Hydraulic fracturing is also called fracking.  Reports have shown that fracking uses hazardous chemicals and could threaten the quality of water.  Fluids are injected underground and a lot of those fluids remain there and are dangerous.  They contaminate water supplies by staying underground.  We could be drinking contaminated water and we wouldn’t know because there is a loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act, in which the drilling industry can continue to keep this a secret.  People are drinking this contaminated water every day.

Although this process is pretty contraversial, it has produced 7 billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas for the United States.

Here is a video that explains the process of the drilling:

Horizontal Shale Gas Video

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing
• http://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/hydraulic_fracturing
• http://www.api.org/policy-and-issues/policy-items/hf/drilling_video.aspx

In this lab, we took a flashlight that had a generator that we could shake back and forth inside a coil of wire.  The wire was attached to a voltage probe and that was attached to the NXT adaptor that would record all the shakes.

The computer would record 30 seconds worth and we did this 5 separate times.  Each of those times, we would shake the generator faster.  We would then compare the shakes with the average voltage.

The first time we did this, we didn’t shake it at all and the average voltage was at 0.144899.  The second time we did this, we shook it 15 times in the span 30 seconds.  The average voltage was 78.86568.  The next three times, we got in 30, 45, and 60 shakes with the average voltage being 62.82675, 103.8373, and 169.6192, respectfully.

We made a table at the end of the experiment to showcase the average voltage with the number of shakes.

Solyndra appeared to be a solar panel company that ended up going bankrupt and firing all its employees without any warning.  The White House supported Solyndra in what it was doing for the environment.  Obama continues to work for a cleaner environment and healthier planet.  In 2009, the government loaned Solyndra $535 million to support one of their projects that would support the construction of a manufacturing plant for the solar panels.  It also was supposed to be an opportunity to create jobs.

The company went bankrupt in 2011.  They fired all their employees, with no severance pay, and shut down all their operations.

President Obama is still being asked about Solyndra.  Obama still supports a healthier, cleaner environment policy.   As it turns out, the people involved in Solyndra backed Obama throughout his fundraising.  When Obama was elected, he made a push for the loan to be granted.

The price of clean energy subsidies in general have fallen over the years and that makes it possible to sell at more competitive prices.  People are more cautious over any big tax breaks now because of the Solyndra scandal.  These newer companies are saying the breaks they seek will only apply to the businesses and it will bring in new jobs in an economy that doesn’t have any.

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solyndra
• http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-09-18/news/ct-met-kass-0918-20110918_1_solyndra-loan-guarantee-obama-fundraisers-obama-white-house
• http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/01/28/1812184/clean-energy-subsidies-wane.html

Some of the ways the automobile industry is using to increase gas mileage are encouraging buyers to choose a more efficient vehicle, take good care of your car, carpool, and drive more efficiently.   Using good engine oil and keeping an eye on your speed can make a difference.

One of the latest things to do, is get a hybrid car.  A hybrid car uses both gasoline and electric power.  A gasoline-powered car injects the engine from a fuel tank, which in turn, turns a transmission and turns the wheels.  An electric car uses a set of batteries that give the engine power to turn a transmission, thus turning the wheels.  What a hybrid does is combine the two powers for optimum efficiency.  The engine is smaller than that in an average gas-powered car and can even turn off and switch over to the electric power at, let’s say, a stoplight in order to save energy.  Hybrids also use lighter material, making the car weigh less.

Sources:

• http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/drive.shtml
• http://www.mpgplus.com/
• http://www.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-car.htm