Science Sparks: energy

Monday, 28 September 2015

Carbon and Forests | #FutureGadgets

We're used to carbon dioxide related issues hitting the headlines and its detrimental effects carbon dioxide has on global warming. It's becoming such a problem that scientists all over the world are trying to come up with ways of reducing the carbon dioxide level in our atmosphere. To do this, they've carried out trials on the Jatropha plant which exchanges lots of carbon dioxide - now, scientists have taken advantage of this and come up with a processing method to 'harvest' the CO2 from a large area in Saudi Arabia to use elsewhere - energy which is vital for developing countries as it's not only cheap, but doesn't impact global warming.

The Jatropha Plant

Monday, 31 August 2015

COFFEE!! | #FutureGadgets

This is the first post in my #FutureGadgets series, this one is very surprising. Coffee is a staple for millions of people across the world, particularly in recent years with the rise of coffee shops - but what happens to the waste from the coffee making process? The answer is, it's currently just waste - but entrepreneurs worldwide are trying to find a use for it. A US entrepreneur thinks he's found the solution. The idea is, that with processing you could turn about 85% of the energy wasted into bio fuels for heating buildings or powering transport which could make a huge difference to the progress of global warming. Although it might not seem like it, we're talking a HUGE amount of energy, London's coffee industry could create around 200,000 tonnes of waste every year, the same amount produced by the UK's biggest supermarkets.

Sunday, 22 September 2013

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein pencil sketch
that I have drawn

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them"

~ Albert Einstein

The German born physicist Albert Einstein was born on March 14th 1879 in Württemberg, six weeks after his birth he moved to Munich, where he later on began his schooling at Luitpold Gymnasium. As a child he enjoyed classical music and even played the violin.

One story that Einstein enjoyed telling about his childhood was of a wonder that he saw when he was about four or five years old: a magnetic compass. Okay this may not seem much with today's technology but the compasses needle's northward swing, guided by an invisible force fascinated Einstein, this wonder could even have been what inspired him to bigger and better things in his adulthood.

In 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich where he trained as a teacher in physics and maths. Later, in 1901 he gained a diploma which went on to earn him a Swiss Citizenship. Unfortunately he was unable to find a teaching post so he accepted a position as a technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. This led him to work towards a doctor's degree in 1905.

During his time at the Swiss Patent office, and his spare time he produced a lot of his remarkable work including his famous equation. He also became 'Professor Extraordinary' at Zurich. In 1911 he became 'Professor of Theoretical Physics' at Prague. When he returned to Zurich he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and a Professor at the University of Berlin.

When anyone mentions Einstein, his famous equation - E= mc squared is probably one of the first things to jump into your head, but what does it mean?

This famous equation pops up everywhere, it even appears as the title of one of Mariah Carey's 2008 albums. For starters the 'E' part of the equation stands for energy and the "M" mass (which is a measurement of the quantity of matter inside something). The C squared part of the equation stands for the speed of light squared. The whole equation breaks down into this: Energy is equal to matter multiplied by the speed of light squared.

The speed of light is a colossal number, illustrating just how much energy there is in just a tiny amount of water. One common example that physicists use is just 1 gram of water (1 ml). If the entire mass of the water (1 gram) was converted into pure energy using Einstein's equation, then the water could contain as much energy as 20,000 tons of TNT (which is an explosive) exploding. This is why such a small amount of Uranium or Plutonium can create such disastrous effects, such as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster where one of four nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl power station exploded.

Einstein's equation does actually have relevance to twenty first century science. Einstein has provided, via his equation, a huge advancement in various fields of science including nuclear power. He has also allowed us to discover more about the inner workings of the Sun. This equation has shown us the relationship between Energy, matter and the speed of light like we have never before and this could well help us research into other areas of science in the future.

Total Pageviews