Month: November 2015

    In my assigned group, we went over several options that could be done to do for our project. We began by discussing the possibility of doing collisions but came into a road block when the realization hit that we could only do one experiment rather than the planned multiple stations that we had in mind. The stations we had in mind was a punching bag, toy car collisions, and Newton’s cradle to demonstrate different concepts that go into collisions. After going over that option we discussed EMFs and Faraday’s Law  and how we could demonstrate how electricity can be produced when a magnet changes the magnetic field of a coil. This could be done by a running different magnets through different coils to demonstrate how these variables affect the output of electricity. With these two in mind now one has to be chosen for our group to do but we have a rough idea of how each one could be done.

Photovoltaic cells harness the energy from photons by exciting electrons in a process which is both physical and chemical in nature. The process of creating electricity through taking in light happens as crystallized atoms becoming ionized in series creating a flow of electric current. To get a better understanding of how the process occurs and how different variables affect the output of electricity, the class conducted an experiment to get answers. The lab that was done involved students pointing a flashlight at a solar panel at different distances and then at the same distance but with different colored filters. Using the LEGO Mindstorm, a program took down multiple values at different intervals. From those values one was able to calculate an average for that very run. In my group we ran 3 different runs at different distances and for the filter portion of the lab we used 3 different colors. Using these values one graphed the values to find a line of best fit for the varied distances and the other portion was made into a bar graph to demonstrate the amount of energy produced by each color.

Iran for a very long time has been running a nuclear program but many countries suspected that its efforts have been going into creating nuclear weapons rather than making clean energy. Back in 1992 the CIA had been warned that Iran would be using its Nuclear sites in order to produce testing samples that could be used to create weapons of mass destruction. Considering the governments ties with terrorists groups, it was hard to overlook but the US insisted that they were purely using it for energy. It was later revealed that China had been secretly supplying Iran with uranium causing suspicion and by 2003 the CIA really began questioning their activity. Also in 2002, it was revealed that they had 2 secret plans those of which had the capability of enriching uranium and of producing weapons. The United Nations since then has created an agreement with Iran to limit its enrichment of Uranium to 5% as 20% is the kind that has dangerous potential and handover their stockpiles that could be used to make weapons. Over the years the International Atomic Energy Agency has been keeping a close eye on Iran to make sure it would follow through with the agreements produced with the UN.

“Iran’s Nuclear Program.” Iran’s Nuclear Program. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2015.

“Iran’s Nuclear Program – QuickTake.” BloombergView.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2015.

“Most Viewed:.” Iran Nuclear Program History. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2015.

Knowing Faraday’s Law, our class conducted a lab to demonstrate and observe the effects it has when conducting electricity. Faraday’s Law states that when a magnet passes through a coil, changing the magnetic flux, the coil will produce electricity. The greater the change in flux, the more electricity will be produced. One is able to visualize this law through the shake light that was given out. In the lab one observes how much electricity is produced using a voltmeter. To get our values, one shakes the light at different speeds, in theory the more vigorously shaken, the more voltage produced. Once the lab was completed, the values were plotted on the graph displayed above which proves the theory. The mindstorm took data numerous times as the light was shaken and at the end of each run one would average out all those values. After 5 runs, each average was plotted out. As hypothesized, it did produce more and more energy as the number of shakes increased. Now below there is another image which describes a bit more into detail how the law works and how the values change with each variable.