Daniel Miranian
Period-7
Journal 4-4
I. After Edison lost the war of the currents he continued to work as an inventor. Also, his child, the DC is still an important part of our everyday lives. This is because anything that runs on a battery runs by DC. Edison also advocated the use of AC for the electric chair and for torture.
II. This past week in class we finished up our wind turbine labs. We white boarded our results and discussed what further steps we could have taken in the future to make our results more reliable. The biggest drawback of our experiment was that we did not have enough trials, so we could not tell if our results were typical or not. On Friday we started to talk about electrical circuits. We played around in groups testing different materials to see if they were conductors or insulators. We can to the conclusion that metals are conductors and non metals are insulators. A lot of the activities we did in class seemed very simple and elementary. I would have preferred to have done more engaging activities with electrical circuits and conductors.
III. For next week I would like to find out what the formula is for calculating standard deviation.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Electricity
Daniel Miranian
Period-7
Journal 4-3
I. I found out that one blade wind turbines typically run at higher tip ratios than two or three blade wind turbines. However, they are not as efficient as higher blade designs. Additionally, the noise that is produced by the spinning of the blades increases exponentially. Therefore, one blade wind turbine designs are not very popular, especially, they are located near people.
II. This past week in class we continued testing our wind turbines. It was cool to be able to use calculators to collect data from the instruments. I was surprised that our one and two blade designs produced the most power. We also watched a video about Nikola Telsa on Thursday. It highlighted his life accomplishments and explained his many setbacks. I was unaware that he helped design so many different machines that we still use today. Without his innovative ideas, our world would certainly be much different today.
III. I think that Tesla could be classified as a genius who went crazy. At the start of his work with electricity he led a rather normal life. However, after years of devoting his life to his work began to lose touch with the outside world. One way that Tesla could be called mad is that cut off all communication socially with the outside world. He holed himself up in his laboratory and for hours on end. However, he could also be called genius because he thought years ahead of his time. For example, he wondered if he could make a current alternate, when DC was the only available way to power things. He was even criticized by his professor in college for even proposing such an outlandish idea. However, he went on to successfully create AC along with numerous other ingenious inventions.
IV. Tesla was no doubt an incredible thinker and inventor. However, at times he seemed very socially immature. From watching the video he did not seem socially awkward in the sense that he just could not communicate with people. Instead he missed key subtle parts of conversation. For example, he took Thomas Edison literally when he said he would pay him $50,000 for improving his DC turbine. This failure led him to eventually start working on his own. If Tesla had not split from Edison when he did he may have become stunted with frustration. Also, Tesla’s desire to focus on science rather than interacting with others allowed him to concentrate at a much higher level than most. In conclusion, I would say sometimes you have to lead a miserable life filled with sacrifices to actually accomplish real change.
V. For next week I would like to find out more about what happened to Thomas Edison after he lost the war of the currents to Tesla.
Period-7
Journal 4-3
I. I found out that one blade wind turbines typically run at higher tip ratios than two or three blade wind turbines. However, they are not as efficient as higher blade designs. Additionally, the noise that is produced by the spinning of the blades increases exponentially. Therefore, one blade wind turbine designs are not very popular, especially, they are located near people.
II. This past week in class we continued testing our wind turbines. It was cool to be able to use calculators to collect data from the instruments. I was surprised that our one and two blade designs produced the most power. We also watched a video about Nikola Telsa on Thursday. It highlighted his life accomplishments and explained his many setbacks. I was unaware that he helped design so many different machines that we still use today. Without his innovative ideas, our world would certainly be much different today.
III. I think that Tesla could be classified as a genius who went crazy. At the start of his work with electricity he led a rather normal life. However, after years of devoting his life to his work began to lose touch with the outside world. One way that Tesla could be called mad is that cut off all communication socially with the outside world. He holed himself up in his laboratory and for hours on end. However, he could also be called genius because he thought years ahead of his time. For example, he wondered if he could make a current alternate, when DC was the only available way to power things. He was even criticized by his professor in college for even proposing such an outlandish idea. However, he went on to successfully create AC along with numerous other ingenious inventions.
IV. Tesla was no doubt an incredible thinker and inventor. However, at times he seemed very socially immature. From watching the video he did not seem socially awkward in the sense that he just could not communicate with people. Instead he missed key subtle parts of conversation. For example, he took Thomas Edison literally when he said he would pay him $50,000 for improving his DC turbine. This failure led him to eventually start working on his own. If Tesla had not split from Edison when he did he may have become stunted with frustration. Also, Tesla’s desire to focus on science rather than interacting with others allowed him to concentrate at a much higher level than most. In conclusion, I would say sometimes you have to lead a miserable life filled with sacrifices to actually accomplish real change.
V. For next week I would like to find out more about what happened to Thomas Edison after he lost the war of the currents to Tesla.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Wind Turbines
Daniel Miranian
Period-7
Journal 4-2
I. I found that ferromagnetism only has to do with objects that can remain magnetic even after they are removed from a magnetic field. Most objects that are ferromagnetic have iron in them. Paramagnetism on the other hand is a form of magnetism that occurs only when in the presence of another magnetic field. Only certain elements or compounds can be paramagnetic. It depends on the number of valence electrons that element has. An element that has 3 lone pair valence electrons will be more paramagnetic than an element with only 2 lone pair valence electrons.
II. This past week in class we started to build our wind turbines. We decided to use Styrofoam lunch trays to construct our blades because they are very lightweight and rather strong. When we actually tested our wind turbine I was surprised at how well ours actually worked. We originally designed it to work with only 3 blades. However, for our experiment we are going to use 1, 2, 3, and 4 blades to see which works the best. With 3 blades we were able to light up an LED. We could not get the LED to light up with our 4 blade design. We will continue to test our wind turbine next week. I think it will be interesting to see which number of blades actually produces the most power. I also think it will be cool to see how well one blade actually works.
III. For next week I would like to find out more information on wind turbines that only have one blade.
Period-7
Journal 4-2
I. I found that ferromagnetism only has to do with objects that can remain magnetic even after they are removed from a magnetic field. Most objects that are ferromagnetic have iron in them. Paramagnetism on the other hand is a form of magnetism that occurs only when in the presence of another magnetic field. Only certain elements or compounds can be paramagnetic. It depends on the number of valence electrons that element has. An element that has 3 lone pair valence electrons will be more paramagnetic than an element with only 2 lone pair valence electrons.
II. This past week in class we started to build our wind turbines. We decided to use Styrofoam lunch trays to construct our blades because they are very lightweight and rather strong. When we actually tested our wind turbine I was surprised at how well ours actually worked. We originally designed it to work with only 3 blades. However, for our experiment we are going to use 1, 2, 3, and 4 blades to see which works the best. With 3 blades we were able to light up an LED. We could not get the LED to light up with our 4 blade design. We will continue to test our wind turbine next week. I think it will be interesting to see which number of blades actually produces the most power. I also think it will be cool to see how well one blade actually works.
III. For next week I would like to find out more information on wind turbines that only have one blade.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Electricity and Magnetism
- Daniel Miranian
Period-2
Journal 4-1
I. I found out that we spend about $150 a year on hot water. This does not seem like that much money, but when you add up the cost of other appliances, powering your home can get fairly expensive.
II. This past week in class we finished up the Rube Goldberg devices. Then later on in the week we started talking about electricity and magnetism. The first day we just talked about what we already knew about this subject. We also researched wind turbines and how they work. The last day in class we talked about how generators work. I thought it was interesting to learn about the difference in the electromagnetic field of a DC and an AC. I had always known what the difference was between an AC and DC circuit but I had never really understood how an AC current worked.
III. For next week in class I would like to find out more about the difference between paramagnetism and ferromagnetism.
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