Solar Water Heater
For this project we learned how the we could use the sun's rays to our advantage and heat up some water. We started out learning about conductors, insulators, and heat transfers. A conductor is a item that can transfer heat well, an insulator is an object that can keep an item warm. Like for example your house has a layer of insulation so it doesn't freeze. And the three heat transfers we learned were radiation, convection, and conduction. Convection is the transfer of heat through fluids. Conduction is the transfer of heat through a solid. And lastly radiation is the transfer of heat that is without or need a medium So what we did for this project we designed a box and we calculated the sun's position at the time of day and we found ad that helped us find the angle we needed to set up the box. From there we added a layer of foil to the box. We then go our two bottles and wrapped one of them in pool noodle (as an insulator). So then we attached a pipe to the bottle that we would feel it through and then we put caulk on it to stop leakage. Then we put the pipe through the box and put it to the receiving bottle. Then lastly we put a layer of saran wrap over the box to keep any heat inside trapped. Then we had about 200 ml to start and we were left with about 20 ml. We lost a lot of our water but we had a temperature change of about 5 degrees Celsius.
See Some Pictures
Solar Angles
For this project we learned the angles of the sun's ray's and the light that it shines. We did a lab on this were we shined a flashlight on to a piece of paper to see the different angles it showed. And the brightness it portrayed at different angles. We can use this in real life, for example the seasons. Since the earth's axis is on a tilt that's how we get seasons. So, when the southern hemisphere is facing the sun they get more direct rays from the sun while anything above the tropic of cancer get's minimal rays so that would be winter. And it flips when the earth revolves around the sun. Hers a picture of the diagram we looked at to help us get our infor for this lab and the lab before so when we tested it we would know where to place our model.
Client Needs Survey
So next we went we sent out a survey to see what the school wanted us to build. It had many choices and the responses were pretty interesting. So the most wanted seating style was amphitheater and groups. So we took that into consideration and most groups started to make plans around group style seating. You can look at the survey through the button down there.
Site selectionSo after we got the results we went hunting throughout the campus for the perfect site to build on. And after a couple days of data gathering we saw that our top rated site wasn't going to work because that was already set. But our second site we could use. So we went with that. You can look at the survey through the link right here.
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Materials Lab
This was a short lab. But basically what we did was find the materials we were thinking of using for our we put through a series of tests. We tested it against water by submerging it in a bucket for 10 minutes and then drying it for 30 minutes. All the data we took is in that lab down below.
Wind Turbine Lab
Next we had to decide if we wanted electricity, and we wanted to gain it efficiently. So we learned that there are two types of turbine's that can gather energy, HAWT and VAWT. HAWT stands for horizontal axis wind turbine. HAWT is the turbine that comes to mind when we say windmill. It spins on a horizontal axis. And VAWT stands for vertical axis wind turbine. Those spin on a vertical axis.
HAWT VAWT
So then we had the chance to build our own little turbines and build the blades to see how many volts we could by placing the turbine in front of a fan and starting on low then medium and then we brought in a recreational wind blower. And we found out that card board is a great material for gaining energy and keeping it at a steady rate. And metal is great for gaining the most energy possible.
Building design and Presentation
So after all the work we had to present our idea to a panel of judges and the highest rated group will get there design chosen to be built by the STEM community.
Concepts
Laws of thermodynamics:
0th: If two systems are in equilibrium with a third system then both are in equilibrium with each other.
1st: energy cannot be created or destroyed
2nd: entropy will always increase
3rd: nothing will ever reach absolute zero
Specific Heat: is the amount of heat per unit mass required to increase the temperature by one degree Celsius.
Conduction: is the transfer of heat through a solid
Convection: is the transfer of heat through fluids
Insulation: is an object that can keep an item warm
Radiation: is the transfer of heat that is without or needs a medium
0th: If two systems are in equilibrium with a third system then both are in equilibrium with each other.
1st: energy cannot be created or destroyed
2nd: entropy will always increase
3rd: nothing will ever reach absolute zero
Specific Heat: is the amount of heat per unit mass required to increase the temperature by one degree Celsius.
Conduction: is the transfer of heat through a solid
Convection: is the transfer of heat through fluids
Insulation: is an object that can keep an item warm
Radiation: is the transfer of heat that is without or needs a medium
Why we should use less electricity.
Then we built a google doc as a class about different energy types. My group and I got to cover nuclear energy which was very interesting. Like did you know that Nuclear power plants has not killed as many people as those who work in coal power plants, now i'm not saying that working at a nuclear power plant is not dangerous. But all the information we took and made as a class is down below.
Reflection
I feel as if this project wasn't the greatest for me. even though i did do work I felt as if I didn't do enough, or stay on task. I felt as if I was a constant bother to our group. But that's just how I felt. And when it was time to grade our group members I was preparing myself to set that bar really low. When we got our results back, they were nothing like I expected them to be, I had a total average of 95% (not including myself given grade) and this really helped me realize that i am not a bother to the group and from that point on I made sure i did some things throughout the day and stayed on task as much as I possibly could, because come on we are all humans. But overall i felt as if the this project n the start was not good but then it finished of strong.