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The video above is a link that the girls who conducted the experiment showed the class. Solar Bottle Lamps are great ideas and I would have never thought about it. This Filipino man helped out many homes and gave them natural light.

(Once again pictures are not posting)

All you need is a plastic water bottle, bleach and water. Then you place half of the water bottle outside and then the rest of it inside the room. The light creates shine, like a water reflection but brighter because of the bleach. This is a great idea for us to use also.

Our final project in Contemporary Science & Innovation was a demonstration of the greenhouse effect.  Our experiment was conducted by placing three glass mason jars next to each other under a very strong light. The light was our sun.

One of the jar held nothing, which was our control. the other held water because of water vapor being the strongest greenhouse gas because it makes all the other gases stay longer. The third has vinegar and baking soda, which creates CO2.

3 thermometers were placed inside the jars and we covered the ops with plastic foil. When doing research on our project we found out that water vapor was supposed to have the highest temperature change, while air the lowest.

We recorded the temperature of the jars every 5 minutes for 5 minutes.

Data:

From our results we saw that air was the lowest, water was the highest and CO2 was the median. This is what we thought we would find out.

Pictures would be included but for some reason I am unable to upload them to the blog.

The reason for our experiment was to see how the greenhouse effect works.

Background:

The Greenhouse effect naturally occurs every day due to how we consume energy. As decades go by there are new sources of how we consume energy leading to this effect. Some ordinary reasons for greenhouse gases to emit into our earth are because of burning fossil fuels primarily gas and coal, electrical appliances, increase in automobiles, and population growth.

We chose to do this experiment for a few different reasons. Primarily because the greenhouse effect is so important in the aspect of how it is deteriorating our earth. What it does is trap the suns energy or radiation it omits thus causing further problems on our earth. A major problem it is causing is global warming. This means that sea level rises because of ice capsules at sea melting. Also more droughts, floods and fierce storms are occurring due to this. The reason for this is because due to the increases of the earth’s temperature, water evaporates from the ocean more rapidly than it ever has.  In this lab, we will be using a heat lamp which is representing the radiant given off by the sun. In each jar, we will have different greenhouse gases which are carbon dioxide, water vapor, and just air. We deemed it necessary to use water vapor because it is the most potent greenhouse gas emitting (36%-70%). Also Carbon dioxide is another major greenhouse gas giving off anywhere between (9%-26%).  What we are trying to gain from of our experiment is to show how different models representing carbon dioxide, air, and water vapor trap heat. These models although much more miniscule to the real atmosphere are supposed to represent how heat is trapped into the earth’s atmosphere due to existing variant greenhouse gases. We hypothesized that since water vapor is the most potent greenhouse gas, it will trap the most heat. Falling close behind would be carbon dioxide trapping the second most heat and lastly would be our control jar; which is air.

The Fukushima disaster that occurred in Japan was only the second time every the international nuclear event scale rated a nuclear disaster as a 7 on a scale from 1 to 7.  The disaster was caused on march 11^th 2011 by a 9.0 earthquake that hit Japan, followed by a tsunami.  When the earthquake hit it shut down the power to reactors 1, 2, and 3.  When nuclear reactors shut down they must be cooled for days after in order to make sure a meltdown does not occur, so alternative energy systems were used to keep the reactors cool.  About 50 minutes later, a tidal wave caused by the earthquake also hit the nuclear plant and caused the alternative energy sources to be flooded and stop working.  Because the reactors were not being kept cool, they began to melt down shortly after due to the excess of heat created when the reaction occurs.

The Japanese government immediately evacuated the area 10km away from the power plant, and told people between 10km and 30km to not go outside and to stay in their houses until further notice.  This caused widespread panic throughout the region.  Only hours later when the owners of the plant decided to let it flood with sea water was the meltdown stopped.  They did not do this immediately because they knew it would cause millions of dollars of damage to expensive equipment used.

Since the disaster, all but two of Japans nuclear reactors have been shut down due to safety issues.  This is a huge problem for the country of japan because they were almost completely energy independent due to their extensive nuclear power generation.  Now they need to import much of their energy from other countries because they do not have enough natural resources to harvest energy from to become independent another way.  The disaster in Japan caused an outcry in many other countries to slow down their own nuclear programs.  After the disaster public opinion in the United States about nuclear power shifted from about 50/50 to 40/60, making it less popular.  It also hit stock markets around the world hard for companies that relied on nuclear energy to conduct business.  Since then many new regulations have been proposed all over the world to make sure nuclear energy production is kept safer.

In Germany, the government is hoping to have 80% of its energy to be attained from renewable sources such as biomass, wind and solar by the year of 2050. As of right now they are contributing to 25% of the country’s electric supply. Germany is getting rid of their fossil fuel stations. Germany’s CO2 emissions dropped a total of 2.4% recently because they are trying to stay away from nuclear power. For now, they are very close to reaching their goal of having 35% renewal energy. They are at 25% currently.

38% of Renewable energy came from wind in Germany, and 16% came from solar energy.

While Germany is trying very hard to get renewable energy, the prices are rising. The people are not happy with hoe much it costs them to buy renewable energy. The reason fossil fuels are so popular.

But Germany is determined to be a change in the world.

*Updates to come soon!

source> http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/26/german-renewable-energy-emission-co2

With the help of a solar cell, a flashlight, a ruler and our computer we were taught how solar energy works and what effects its intensity. We gathered data that told us the light intensity and the voltage output of the solar cell. We were told to hold the flashlight to the solar cell at 0 cm, 8cm, 15 cm and 30 cm. With the help of lab view, we collected our data, then compared voltage and distance. Later we did the same thing with different colored filters.

The more distance we added, the less voltage was present. The different colored filters that were used were yellow, pink and blue. Yellow seemed to provide the highest voltage at 0cm; .501, blue at 0cm; .443 and pink at 0cm; .413

Without a filter, here are our results.

0cm no light: .013536

0cm with light: .484397

8cm with light: .477982

15 cm with light: .46002

30cm with light: .353531

In Class we conducted an experiment that will prove Faraday’s Law to us. Faraday’s Law says that any change in the magnetic environment of a coil of wire will cause a voltage to be transferred in the coil. We used a flashlight for our experiment that had a magnet inside, and when shaken would move through a coil of wires. Kinetic energy was created when we shook the flashlight. The computer measured how much energy was created. We shook the flashlight for thirty seconds and counted the number of shakes. Later we had to use Excel to get the sum of the squares of the voltages. Unfortunately, when we thought we had sent our data of collection to us, we thought wrong. Our data was not sent in the correct file format, therefor everything was lost.

Instead I would like to present to you guys a little bit of background information on Faraday’s Law.

August 29th, 1831 marks the day Faraday had his first experiment where he worked with electromagnetic induction by wrapping two wires around opposite sides of an iron ring. Faraday thought that when the current went into one wire, a wave would go through the ring and make an effect on the other side. One wire was plugged into the galvanometer, and the other wire to the battery. A wave of electricity traveled through one wire when he connected it, and to the other when the wire was disconnected. The reaction was because of a magnetic flux that took place when the wires were connected to the batter. This was his first revelation, and later he got more. He did what we did in class, slid a magnet in between wires of coil. And he also “rotated a copper disk near the bar magnet with a sliding electrical lead”.

The United States Energy Gris is vulnerable to anyone that has weapons and knows how it works. If a terrorist attack took place on the US power Grid, according to the National Academy of Science, the attack would cause more damage then Hurricane Sandy caused. The result would be blackouts that last for months. The blackouts could cause fear in the nation, panic and also destabilize them.

“We are talking about some 170,000 miles of voltage transmission line miles fed by 2,100 high-voltage transformers delivering power to 125 million households.” Jen Alic explaining how much space it covers. These equipments are not protected by anyone. Security is expensive. The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) does not have enough funding to increase the security. The grid covers a huge territory and has important equipment that are old and not guarded properly.

Our saved up energy if very important to us and has to be taken care of properly.

For a long time, workers had to go and gather data themselves to keep the grid running efficiently. Technology has no doubt evolved. With the use of computers we have figured out how to bring utility electricity delivery systems that are called Smart Grids. Two-way communication technology and computer processing enable us to use our electricity networks to transfer electricity to people’s homes from power plants and wind farms. It uses wires, substations, transformers, switches and many other technological devices. Therefor; improving our energy efficiency.

The “grid” amounts to the networks that carry electricity from the plants where it is generated to consumers. The grid includes wires, substations, transformers, switches and much more.

“Much in the way that a “smart” phone these days means a phone with a computer in it, smart grid means “computerizing” the electric utility grid. It includes adding two-way digital communication technology to devices associated with the grid. Each device on the network can be given sensors to gather data (power meters, voltage sensors, fault detectors, etc.), plus two-way digital communication between the device in the field and the utility’s network operations center. A key feature of the smart grid is automation technology that lets the utility adjust and control each individual device or millions of devices from a central location.” (energy.gov)

This field is growing day by dad. The benefits of a smart grid are many. It will enhance our security and efficiency to collect data. We handle our solar and wind electricity better because of the smart grid. The world is getting smarter day by day.

Source> http://www.arabnews.com/protecting-fragile-us-energy-grid-0

Source>http://energy.gov/oe/technology-development/smart-grid

Source>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid

Source> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_energy_storage

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!

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