February 2013 – VSARGSYAN

Natural Gas Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic Fracturing is the injection of water, particles and chemicals into the underground in order to make holes which gas can be collected from. Natural Gas Hyrdaulic Fracturing is supposed to increase up to 45% when we get to the year of 2030. “…60%-80% of natural gas wells drilled in the next decade will require hydraulic fracturing.” (Investor Environmental Health Network)

This act harms Mother Nature in a great way! the risk of toxic spills is ridiculously high! and it is polluting our air! What we breath, how can we let this happen? These operations include moving, placing, and getting rid of millions of gallons of water, and lots and lots of gallons of toxic chemicals. Spills are happening! how dangerous!

$fracking_1210-md$

Drilling and hydraulic fracturing can increase the stress of the water that is on the surface and ground water supplies because of how much water is being taken out. Our drinking water might be contaminated from the result of many difficulties. Greenhouse gases may cause the air to pollute. Even with all these risks, they are continuing to drill because it might end up being our people want all the gas that they can get! We just have to be extremely careful! The EPA is trying to regulate the process as best as they can.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/big-frack-attack-is-hydraulic-fracturing-safe

If you click to website above, it will have a little video that will show you what takes place when one if doing the Fracking.

Shale gas is being taken out from underground, and the department of energy says that almost 50% of our growth in gas will come from shale! we shouldn’t crack something that takes such hard work to crack, it means its not supposed to be cracked!

It is understandable that shale gas doesn’t add up to global warming as much as others, like coal and oil. A lot of people like this idea, but it can still be very hazardous to the environment and the community that they are fracking.

“The practice has sparked major environmental and public heath concerns near U.S. gas fields, from diesel fuel and unidentified chemicals in groundwater to methane seeping from sink faucets and even blowing up houses.” (Russel McLendon)

The way it works is drilling underground, and they blast it, opening new cracks and making the old cracks much wider. Sand is used to keep the hole open after water is taken out. They are using 2-5 million gallons of water, water pressure is a lot stronger, and the amount of fracturing is a lot more.

Two of the best shales out there in the United States are Barnett and Marcellus. More places have been showing up like in Arkansas, louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

While Hyrdaulic Fracturing is good for the economy, it can make a lot of damage. In my opinion it should not be done, we can live without gas especially with today’s technology. I hope in the future they realize they need to leave Mother Nature alone.

Source> http://iehn.org/overview.naturalgashydraulicfracturing.php

Source>http://www2.epa.gov/hydraulicfracturing#improving

Source> http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/big-frack-attack-is-hydraulic-fracturing-safe

The automobile industry is trying to increase their gas mileage!

Cars are everywhere. Cars are everything. But there has been a decline in car buyers, and an increase in bike buyers because people are trying to be more energy efficient. therefor the automobile industry is trying hard to increase their gas mileage, so people will want to buy their cars. They’re making cars more environmentally friendly. As we all know, Green is in!

In the last year, Barack Obama decided to increase the mileage requirements. They are trying to have an increase of 54.5 miles per gallon by the year of 2025. Currently the numbers are at 27 miles per gallon. They are trying to get the numbers to be double to what it is. Very Hard task, but hopefully doable. Obama wants to minimize how much fuel we are using, and make it more cost efficient for the public!

Small cars are cool now. They have created gas electric cars and an awesome battery. The people are loving it! The New York Times informed us that 6 out of 10 best selling cars in the United states are little cars. One of the most popular models is the Ford F-Series, which has a very high mileage, and an engine that is six cylinders!

There is a goal that Obama is trying to achieve, it is to help cars realize that they need to create cars with lower emissions, because our mother nature matters the most. It will be hard, but at the rate that our country is developing technology (and other countries, of course) we will be able to do so!

The Kia Rio 2013, has started to offer the start-stop engine which works in a way where the engine is shut down if it is not being used, thus decreasing fuel usage. It used to be just for Hybrid cars, but it is not for far more than Hybrids!

Variable valve timing is used to maximize your fuel efficiency and the performance of your car. Continuously Variable Transmissions, also known as CVT allow the engine to be working at the most fuel efficient RPM when dealing with a lot of different speeds. Some cars that are using CVTs, are the Infiniti JX, Nissan Altima and the Subaru Outback.

Shuttered Panels in the grille are also becoming quiet popular in cars, such as the Cadillac ATS, Dodge Dart and the Ford escape. This allows air to be regulated throughout the car in a more efficient way, according to the speed you are driving and the driving conditions on the road.

Some other ways to reduce fuel consumption while getting the utmost importance, is to buy a car that will shut down certain cylinders when it is moving. Putting the gas right to the combustion chamber at certain amounts is known as fuel injection, which has become popular also.Hybrids are also experiencing changes because they need to keep up with the competition. According the the Forbes website, the Ford Fusion, Honda Accord and Toyota Prius are now plug-in hybrids, and General Motors is trying to use smaller motors and battery packs.

Julia Pyper makes a great comment on other ways of making cars better! don’t only focus on the fuel, batteries, and other traditional parts. we should also focus on the steel side panels and the rooftop! Lightweight materials can make the efficiency also better. If the weight is decreased by 10%, the fuel economy will have a domino affect and will get better from 6%-8%. This can be very cost-effective.Instead of Steel, lets use aluminum! safety will not be jeopardized. Think about that.

>source http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/business/carmakers-back-strict-new-rules-for-gas-mileage.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2012/08/30/10-ways-automakers-are-helping-you-spend-less-on-gasoline/

http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2012/09/27/2

Newton’s Law!

The Objective of this class was to study Newton’s second law and energy. When we tried to do the project with the weights the computer was not responding to the technology.

So we were given numbers that already existed.

Speed(RPM)	Battery Discharge( rrMass(kg))	Power Level(%)	Time(s)	Acceleration(RPM/s)	height	Potential Energy
113.889	0.25	100	1.98	57.51964	0.275	0.67375
74.36472	0.25	80	2.23	33.34741	0.275	0.67375
45.89059	0.25	60	3.857	11.898	0.275	0.67375
14.798	0.25	40	12.558	1.178373	0.275	0.67375

21.50856	0.21	40	8.454	2.544187	0.275	0.56595
43.85536	0.17	40	4.093	10.71472	0.275	0.45815
47.20591	0.13	40	3.746	12.60168	0.275	0.35035
50.20959	0.09	40	3.658	13.72597	0.275	0.24255

Later we made graphs comparing mass and acceleration

And then power level and acceleration

And last but not least, Mass and Potential energy

(the graph’s are not showing up when i copy and paste them…)

It would have been more fun to do the actual project with the machine, but you can’t always rely on technology.

Until Next time,