Solar Cookies
Can you use the power of the sun without using solar cells? You bet! We’re going to focus the incoming light down into a heat-absorbing box that will actually cook your food for you. Remeber from Unit 9 how we learned about photons (packets of light)? Sunlight at the Earth’s surface is mostly in the visible and near-infrared (IR) part of the spectrum, with a small part in the near-ultraviolet (UV). The UV light has more energy than... [Read More...]
Solar Car
Solar energy (power) refers to collecting this energy and storing it for another use, like driving a car. The sun blasts 174 x 1015 watts (which is 174,000,000,000,000,000 watts) of energy through radiation to the earth, but only 70% of that amount actually makes it to the surface. And since the surface of the earth is mostly water, both in ocean and cloud form, only a small fraction of the total amount makes it to land. A solar cell converts sunlight... [Read More...]
BEAM Robots
This project is for students grades 9-12.This is one of the coolest applications of renewable energy to come about in recent years. BEAM stands for Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, and Mechanics. It basically refers to a class of robots that instead of having complicated brains, rely on nervous-system type of sensors to interact with their world. Some BEAM robots skitter, dance, flash, jump, roll, or walk, and most are solar powered. The result... [Read More...]
BEAM Robot: Solar Roller
This project is for students grades 9-12.This is one of the coolest applications of renewable energy to come about in recent years. BEAM stands for Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, and Mechanics. It basically refers to a class of robots that instead of having complicated brains, rely on nervous-system type of sensors to interact with their world. Some BEAM robots skitter, dance, flash, jump, roll, or walk, and most are solar powered. The result... [Read More...]
BEAM Robot: Trimet
This project is for students grades 9-12.This is one of the coolest applications of renewable energy to come about in recent years. BEAM stands for Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, and Mechanics. It basically refers to a class of robots that instead of having complicated brains, rely on nervous-system type of sensors to interact with their world. Some BEAM robots skitter, dance, flash, jump, roll, or walk, and most are solar powered. The result... [Read More...]
Reading about Fuel Cells, BEAM Robots, and Solar Cookies
Click here for a printer-friendly version of this page. What is ‘Alternative Energy’? Solar cells, wind turbines, and hydroelectric power plants (like the Hoover dam) are all examples of alternative energy sources. Although lots of folks still argue about what’s considered ‘alternative’ or not, the general idea is that the sources produce the same energy at less cost, both money-wise and environmentally. Scientists... [Read More...]
Lesson 2: Advanced Alternative Energy Video
What’s all the hype about “Alternative Energy”? Are there really better ways of making the same energy for less? Absolutely! One of the biggest challenges we have right now is how to extract the energy that’s already around us. For example, the amount of energy in a gallon of water could power all of the USA for a year, if we only knew how to harness it safely. There are many different forms of energy floating around you right... [Read More...]
Solar Flares
This is a real video of the sun captured from the Solar Dynamics Observatory: And if you want to see an image of the sun right now, you can visit SOHO’s main page. Want to safely view the sun yourself? Here’s how to do it… Read More →
How to View the Sun Safely
You know you’re not supposed to look at the sun, so how can you study it safely? I’m going to show you how to observe the sun safely using a very inexpensive filter. I actually keep one of these in the glove box of my car so I can keep track of certain interesting sunspots during the week! The visible surface of the sun is called the photosphere, and is made mostly of plasma (remember the grape experiment?) that bubbles up hot and... [Read More...]
Solar Energy Project
This article has all the information you need to complete a Science Fair Project, including instructional step-by-step video, documentation, required forms, experimentation tips and tricks, and how to squeeze your great idea into the scientific method. Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content. Read More →