Daniel Miranian
2/23/08
Journal 3-2

I. I saw a very interesting show in T.V. that talked about futuristic methods of space travel. One of the ways we could power space crafts was through anti-matter. Apparently anti-mater is extremely expensive to create. It would bankrupt the United States just to make one teaspoon of it. However, just a few teaspoons would provide enough energy to travel to the next closest star besides our sun which is several light years away. The reason such a small amount of fuel could transport something that far, is that anti-matter is 100% efficient. This would be very important in space travel since any extra weight you are carrying as fuel means you will need more fuel to move the added weight of the fuel.

II. This past week in class we did a lab on energy. In the lab we went through seven different stations to see the how energy is transferred. At each of the stations it was apparent some energy transferred from one object to another gets dissipated out into the surroundings. However, at some lab stations the energy dissipated was greater than at other stations. One of the most interesting lab stations was the last one involving the energy given off during a collision. By just slamming to balls together with a piece of paper in between the two you can see how much energy is actually given off as heat. Since the paper was thin enough the small amount of energy given off as heat was enough to burn it a small amount. It made me think about how much energy must be given off as heat during an actual car crash when the two cars are thousands of times more massive then the two metal balls.

III. For next week I would like to find out more about the efficiency of different types of light bulbs and how LED lights work.