Month: February 2016

Solar energy is emitted energy released from the sun that is then captured by solar panels which have the capability to absorb this energy and generate electricity from it (Webster). The solar panels are made up of photovoltaic (PV) cells, which convert sunlight into direct current (DC) electricity throughout the day. The direct current is then converted into and alternating current (AC) within the panel. Once converted, the energy is sent to the electrical panel in the building or home. The panel or the breaker box, uses the AC electricity and uses it to power devices in the home such as lights (SolarCity).

In 2010, Germany was clearly the world leader, and has only continued the trend. In 2009 alone, Germany installed 3.8 GW of PV solar energy capacity, and the country has added at least 3.3 GW of new solar capacity per year, and more like 6 GW per year between 2010 and 2012. “The combination of a proven feed-in-tariff (FiT) scheme, good financing opportunities, a large availability of skilled PV companies, and a good public awareness of the PV technology, largely contributed to this success,” European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) reported (PureEnergies). The United States only places fifth in using solar energy, we fall short to China, Italy, and Japan all in that order. However on a positive note, from research I was able to find that the U.S. solar industry continued on its record-breaking trajectory in Q2 2015 with 1,393 megawatts (MW) of installed solar capacity, making this the largest Q2 in history. As has been the case over the last 18 months, the residential and utility-scale markets led the way, installed 463 and 729 MW, respectively. Through the first half of the year, the solar industry has supplied 40% of all new 2015 electric generating capacity – more than any other energy technology. With more than 5,000 MW of installed solar capacity projected over the second half of 2015, the U.S. solar industry is expected to reach nearly 8,000 MW for the year, and 28,000 MW in total (SEIA).

This is a big step for the us as a nation to start moving forward with more green ways to power our everyday lives and to prevent global warming. Solar energy is a great way for us to avoid burning more and more fossil fuels which would decrease the amount of green house gasses we have already polluted into the atmosphere. Solar is far more reliable then other greener methods as well because of how constant the sun is a part of our everyday lives.

 

Citations

“Solar Industry Facts and Figures.” SEIA. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.

“Top 10 Countries Using Solar Power – Pure Energies.” Pure Energies USA. N.p., 15 Sept. 2014. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.

“Get the Facts About Solar Energy – How Does Solar Energy Work?” Solar Energy Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.

Materials

Flash light, Colored Lenses, Ruler, Solar Panel and Lego Robot

Objective

The objective of lab was to test in trials how light intensity and light color act as variables in a solar cell’s efficiency of generating a voltage.

How we did it

The way this experiment works is simple. We would aim are our light source (the flashlight), at our solar panel which was attached to our lego robots. The solar panel would measure the length of the beams that the light gives of when illuminating. Before starting the experiment we tested our solar panel by put the flashlight at a distance of zero centimeters and started the program just to see if the device was able to measure the different fluctuations of the wavelengths. Once we had a successful run we then were assigned to run the test from three different distances without using any color filters over the light, and then after three tests from a controlled distance using three different colors. My partner and I chose the distances of 1, 3, and 5 cm for our distance tests. What you will see when looking at our graphs is how much longer the wavelengths would measure when aiming the light from a farther distance from the solar panel, and when closer to the panel the wave lengths would be shorter. Through these first three runs, we were able to solve that the relationship between wave length and distance, is the fact that the longer the light needs to travel, the longer the wavelengths need to be to travel.

0.537	0.409	0.422	0.524	0.486	0.524	0.486	0.46
0.537	0.422	0.422	0.473	0.46	0.473	0.511	0.537
0.588	0.434	0.486	0.486	0.46	0.524	0.473	0.486
0.588	0.409	0.499	0.486	0.434	0.447	0.486	0.55
0.575	0.46	0.46	0.447	0.524	0.447	0.524	0.46
0.499	0.499	0.396	0.434	0.447	0.537	0.499	0.537
0.499	0.409	0.409	0.46	0.486	0.524	0.537	0.537
0.55	0.473	0.434	0.473	0.447	0.434	0.447	0.46
0.486	0.511	0.473	0.473	0.434	0.46	0.473	0.524
0.563	0.46	0.499	0.499	0.524	0.537	0.447	0.499
0.524	0.499	0.486	0.447	0.499	0.524	0.537	0.447
0.601	0.473	0.383	0.434	0.524	0.46	0.511	0.46
0.537	0.434	0.409	0.486	0.422	0.511	0.55	0.55
0.588	0.409	0.383	0.499	0.486	0.537	0.499	0.499
0.499	0.486	0.473	0.409	0.422	0.447	0.55	0.46
0.588	0.486	0.383	0.396	0.511	0.486	0.46	0.486
0.563	0.486	0.409	0.434	0.524	0.422	0.499	0.46
0.575	0.409	0.447	0.383	0.434	0.524	0.434	0.537
0.588	0.473	0.46	0.396	0.499	0.447	0.46	0.486
0.55	0.486	0.383	0.499	0.473	0.486	0.486	0.537
0.563	0.499	0.422	0.396	0.537	0.473	0.499	0.46
0.499	0.434	0.396	0.422	0.537	0.524	0.55	0.511
0.575	0.473	0.37	0.473	0.46	0.499	0.499	0.511
0.499	0.486	0.396	0.434	0.447	0.473	0.447	0.537
0.511	0.473	0.473	0.409	0.46	0.524	0.486	0.55
0.575	0.499	0.383	0.409	0.473	0.537	0.434	0.46
0.537	0.473	0.396	0.396	0.473	0.422	0.46	0.473
0.486	0.422	0.409	0.409	0.511	0.524	0.563	0.537
0.537	0.486	0.473	0.46	0.473	0.434	0.46	0.499
0.511	0.396	0.396	0.434	0.447	0.422	0.46	0.55
0.526709677	0.396	0.409	0.434	0.4665	0.473	0.473	0.55
Control	1cm	3cm	5cm	Orange	Blue	Pink	Green

This is our data table for all the trials we did during our experiment. When you look at the table you will see all the different wavelengths measured by the solar panel from the three different distances, and the three different colors and how they effected the lights wave lengths.

After running our three distance trials with the control being the light source, we then focus attention on how the color of the light would effect the wavelengths from a controlled distance. The controlled distance for light that we chose was 0 cm. When you look at our data they all seem very close in comparison. When looking through the data closely however, you are able to see how the green and blue lights are more similar to each other and the same goes for the orange and pink lights. The blue and green colored lights had longer wave lengths when running the experiment. This brought us to the conclusion that the cooler colors (cooler as in temperature base not style), put off longer beams off light as apposed to warmer color such as the pink and the orange. This was a strange result because when looking up if the data was accurate, I read that warmer colors were suppose to have longer wavelengths as apposed to the cooler colors, Red being the longest wave lengths, and purple being the shortest. This was very disappointing to discover that the data was off in our test. The reason I think we were unable to see enough change in the data was because we used zero cm as our distance. If we were to do this experiment again, I would choose a further distance to allow the light to travel and see if the results would come out in a different manner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inventor Nikola Tesla was born in July of 1856, in what is now Croatia. He came to the United States in 1884 and briefly worked with Thomas Edison  before the two parted ways. He sold several patent rights, including those to his alternating-current machinery, to George Westinghouse. His 1891 invention, the “Tesla coil,” is still used in radio technology today. Tesla died in New York City on January 7, 1943 (Bio.com).

Tesla after working with Thomas Edison, found himself looking in AC (Alternating Current) Energy in the year 1887 at his company Tesla Electric Company. A year later, Tesla was successful and had created several different patents for his AC. He was in competition against Thomas Edison’s DC ( Direct Current) Which was set as the Nations standard electric for the time being. Until George Westinghouse got attracted to Teslas idea. Westinghouse was an engineer that was looking for a way to supply more energy to the country. Westinghouse and Tesla knocked out Edison’s DC power supply and AC became the power standard after the two were able to make several more patents including Tesla’s, Tesla Coil.

It is used to produce high-voltage, low-current high frequency alternating-current electricity. His coil is still used today to put out radio waves (Wikipedia).

“Nikola Tesla.” Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

Just as power plants are needed to conduct the energy to give off electricity to homes, the human body need to store energy. The way humans are able to store energy, is by eating foods and hydrating. Our bodies digest the food we eat by mixing it with fluids (acids and enzymes) in the stomach. When the stomach digests food, the carbohydrate (sugars and starches) in the food breaks down into another type of sugar, called glucose (McCulloch). Our bodies are only able to give off as much energy as we can store, and everyone bodies are different.

When talking about powering the globe, we have several different sources that we use. Theres nuclear, gas, oil, and coal energy which are our primary sources of energy which all contribute to what is known as the greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere. Greenhouse gasses contribute to the idea of global warming. That is why we are looking for more “green” ways to power our globe. For example in the United States we have built tall wind turbines to generate energy. Essentially how they work are there is energy in the wind that turns two or three propeller-like blades around a rotor. The rotor is connected to the main shaft, which spins a generator to create electricity. The only problem with the system is that it is inconsistent due to the fact that it is’t windy every day.

The wind turbine is similar to the experiment we did in class. For a lab we ran tests with a generator that is similar to the shake weight. The device was a clear tube that contained a magnet inside, when the device was shaken up and down the magnet would travel up and down through the tube. This device was connected to our Lego robot that was then connected to our mac computers that we have access to in class. When shaken the lego robot with the computer program would measure the amount of energy that we were producing during our trial runs. Unfortunately my group tried several lego robots but for some reason we were unable to get a connection causing us not to be able to complete the experiment. If the experiment did work however, you would have been able to see the different amounts of power that each individual is able to put out due to the differences in energy consumption and body build of my group members. It is truly unfortunate that we were unable to get a successful device to complete the experiment.

McCulloch, David. “How Our Bodies Turn Food Into Energy.” How Our Bodies Turn Food Into Energy. Group Health, 1 Mar. 2014. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

SpaceX is a privately owned company that was founded in the year 2002. The founder Elon Musk, took a dream and his millions and created an empire made out of rockets that raced ahead of their time.The company has a strong believe that being able to expand our race to live on other planets is another step in evolution that was meant to be. That is there overall goal, to be able to allow the human race to expand onto other planets.

Since being created the company has made the most extraordinary things happen. In the year 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to land a craft from low orbit in history with their rocket model known as the Dragon. The company is not only the most successful but also is the least expensive to transport cargo into space compared to the others that have the capability to do so. Even more recent in 2014, SpaceX and NASA made a deal for 2.6 Million dollar to allow the company to carry US astronauts into space. The deal was then increased when NASA gave SpaceX 440 million dollars to make the Dragon model rock crew ready.

The company only uses one type of engine called the pintle. The rocket is more efficient compared to rocket engines that competing companies use. Most rocket engines use droplets of fuel and oxidizer are sprayed into the combustion chamber through an injector plate resembling a shower head. However, the pintle uses a needle-like injector that’s more like the nozzle on a garden hose. The engine runs on Liquid Oxygen and RP1. The engine SpaceX has been able to create is far more efficient and has less of a chance of combustion during a launch.

The company has grown massively over the years. They have a workforce of 4000 current employees, all in which working hard with the intention of creating a second home for people of planet earth. What once was an idea has truly become a brilliant and booming business that has and will continue to expand and break through new barrier of success in outer space.

 

 

Resources

http://www.airspacemag.com/space/is-spacex-changing-the-rocket-equation-132285884/?page=2

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/02/spacex-prepares-ses-9-mission-dragons-return/

http://www.spacex.com/

This site brings you to a video of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Model Craft winning the best technological achievement award

On January 29 during class time we ran an experiment by using lego robots and a computer program that allowed us to change features of the robot; the time that the robot would move, and the amount of power that each engine that powered the robots wheels were given. The goal of our experiment was to see when changing the power setting but leaving the same amount of travel time; what the difference would be in velocity, and distance (meters).

Before actually driving the little robot around, we need to find the circumference of the robots wheel. By finding this measurement, we would be able to know how many rotations the wheel would go through during each of its travels. We found the the wheels circumference was .1758 meters. After finding this information we then used the computer program to input the amount of power given to each engine, the circumference of the wheel and the amount of time the robot would drive. Time was the constant variable in our experiment meaning it remained at 2 second throughout the entire trial run. The only variable we alternated was the power. We would do three runs for each power setting we would use in order to double check our data and make sure that each run was accurate. In total we went through nine trial runs and three different power settings for the engine (each engine would always have the same amount of power). When doing the runs it was very simple; we would enter the power setting, line up the bot evenly with the beginning of a ruler, and then we would simply hit a start button on the computer that would run the bots for the set time. After the bot finished rolling we would measure its progress write it down in our data table and repeat. The program actually did  the math for us and gave us the velocity of the bot and the distance. We would still compare the distance the computer got with the distance we could see using the naked eye to search for fault in the program.

In the end we were able to find all of the variables we were in need of. For example; when you run a bot for 2 seconds with a power in both engines of 50 watts. The bot will travel 32.9 cm which is then converted into meters which turns out to be 0.3297 m. Then you get a velocity of 0.1653 m/sec. The rest of our data is shown below in the table we created using a google spreadsheet.

Time	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Power	50	50	50	40	40	40	35	35	35
Circumference	0.1758	0.1758	0.1758	0.1758	0.1758	0.1758	0.1758	0.1758	0.1758
Distance(m)	0.3297	0.33067	0.33021	0.25448	0.25106	0.2512	0.2076	0.2115	0.2051
(cm)	32.9	33.07	32.8	25.4	24	24.1	20.5	21.2	20.3
Velocity	0.1653	0.1651	0.1651	0.12724	0.12553	0.12553	0.1037	0.10574	0.10257

In modern day life it is amazing how much we rely on electricity to power us through our days. We use electricity to power our lap tops, entertainment systems, for lights, heat, air conditioning and so much more. None of this however would be functional without the energy grid we have here in the United States.

The energy grid is a system of power lines that allow electricity to flow from the plants and into your homes. Power lines are everywhere when you look around because everyone need tons of power which is why these lines have to be able to pump out enough power to keep up with everyones needs. The energy grids power source is the burning of coal which is a negative feature of the grid because of the effects it has on our planet with global warming. We are however improving our grid by adding in the smart grid. The smart grid are those large wind turbines you will see the wind is able to generate renewable energy. Another method we implicated is solar powered generators.

We are still looking for better ways to power the planet but without having access to energy like we do, we would never be able to function as a society. We need energy like we need oxygen which is why the energy grid is not only fascinating, but a blessing for all human needs.