Answer the following questions in preparation for writing your group paper.  Then assign writing jobs to different people in the group.

• What could an average person do to reduce consumption of fossil fuels in this country?

• What would make the biggest impact on the average person’s life in terms of energy?

• What would you suggest the country do to reduce consumption of fossil fuels?  What alternative energy sources would make sense for these countries?

• How would this affect individuals in the country?

• How would this affect the country’s position in the global mission to reduce fossil fuel emissions into the atmosphere?

• What could other countries’ role be in this?

1.   List each of the four major types of change that will occur due to the Greenhouse Effect, and add an example for two of them.

2.  Describe two of the most interesting new ideas for alternate energy sources that are being researched here in the U.S. as mitigating strategies for our fossil fuel-based economy.

3.  What do the film makers suggest is the most important thing for communities to do “right now” in terms of adaptation?

With Al Gore and www.ClimateCrisis.net

Example Problems Done in Class

Example Q = mCDelta[T] Problems

1.  How high must a waterfall be if the temperature of the water is to rise 0.5 ^oC on impact?  C = 4180 J/kg^oC

2. Lead, with a specific heat of c = 130 J/ kg^oC, is made into a bullet which is fired at a target. How fast must the bullet be traveling so that it heats up on impact to330 ^oC?  The temperature when fired is 30 ^oC

3.  A baseball is hit straight up into the air.  If its peak height is 180 ft. above the earth and the fielder catches it 3.5 ft. off the ground, how much energy is converted into heat on impact?  Assume all KE goes to heat and baseball is 0.5 lb.

4.  A modern fossil-fuel power plant is 40% efficient.  If it delivers 300 MW of electricity, how much power is pumped into the plant and how much is lost to heat?

• How the greenhouse effect helps earth:  warmth, energy, sustains life
• Light -- from the sun -- Many different wavelengths.
• Short wavelengths scatter from particles in atmosphere (both sides -- coming in and leaving)
• Long wavelengths are more likely to pass on through
• E = hf     energy of light (E) is related to its frequency (f)
• c = lambda ( f )  where c is speed of light, lambda is wavelength, f is frequency<>
  

<><>The atmosphere gets overloaded iwth emissions of greenhouse gases due to human activity and this produces an increase in GLOBAL temperature.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/ggccebro/chapter1.html

• IPCC 2007 Report

• Scientific American Article, Sept. 2006 Issue:  "A Plan to Keep Carbon in Check."
• Scientific American Article, Sept. 2006 Issue: "The Rise of Renewable Energy."
• EDF (France -- EPR Nuclear Power Plant) Nuclear Power -- this website tells about the latest designs in power plants
• http://science.howstuffworks.com/global-warming.htm

• Energy Flow Diagram for the U.S. from Energy Information Administration
• Alternate Energy in the News
• Scientific American Article, Sept. 2006 Issue: "The Nuclear Option."

• IPCC 2007 Report

• National Geographic Articles, March 2006 Issue:  "The high cost of cheap coal."
• 
  

Phy101:  Thermal Energy Experiments

Mechanical Energy à Thermal Energy

Test 1:  Use a rubber band from the kit.   Put it on your top lip and feel how warm it is.  Stretch it 20 times.  Put it back on your lip. 

What has changed? 

Test 2:  If one were to use a hammer and nail and a board, and hammer a nail part way into the board and then pull it out.

Describe how the nail feel before/after and why.

Thermal Energy

Test 3:  Name 3 energy transfer mechanisms

Test 4:  Describe why a floor tile in the bathroom feels cold and why the fluffy rug feels warm – which heat transfer mechanism is responsible.

Test 5:  Check out the 3 objects in your bag:  cotton ball, wood, and metal cylinder.  What do you conclude about each and why?  

Test 6:  If you put your hand near your face (without touching it), what do you feel?  Why?  Which heat transfer mechanism is responsible?

Test 7:  Create TWO diagrams which, a)  depict what happens to the air during a hot day at the shore on the top one, b) depict what happens to the air during the night.  Mark temperature changes in words at various parts of the diagram and air flow with arrows.  Hint:  The earth is able to change temperature more easily than the water.

HomeworK: Thermal Energy Examples à Greenhouse Effect à Global Warming

Any calculations should include equations and show all work with units

1.  If you were building a road of steel reinforced concrete, what worries would you have about the effects of temperature variation with seasons?   If a(concrete) = 18 x 10^-6/C and a (steel) = 12 x  10^-6 /C, how different would the expansion be for a steel rod 16 m long versus a 16 m long length of concrete from winter at 10C to summer at 40C?

2.  In the winter, an Al metal signpost which is 30 m high will change its length by how much when the temperature drops 45C.  a (aluminum) = 24 x  10^-6/C

 3. If you shake sugar, it will get warmer.  How much work would you have to do to increase a 2Kg bag’s temperature by 3C if c(sugar) = 0.35 KJ/KgC?

4.  If you were to weight lift strenuously for 30 minutes, raising a 30 kg bar over a distance of 0.5m each minute, how much would your 75 kg body’s temperature increase? c(body) = 0.85 kJ/kgC

5.  Draw the earth and the atmosphere above it.  Then draw the sun.  Add the sun’s rays in such a way as to illustrate the Greenhouse Effect and describe in a few phrases.

Website Sources:

http://library.thinkquest.org/2745/data/ke.htm
http://jersey.uoregon.edu/vlab/PotentialEnergy/
http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/Class/energy/u5l1b.html

Main Ideas:

The unit of energy is the Joule, J, in the metric system.  A     J = (k² m²) / s².  Interestingly, this is also the unit of Work.

                                    KE = 1/2 m v²

Is energy due to motion of an object.  Any object in motion will exhibit KE.  It is a
scalar quantity NOT a vector quantity.

  Potential Energy

                                 PE = m g h

Conservation of Energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it
simply changes states (or types of energy).

Conservation of Mechanical Energy states that a system that is isolated can exhibit
conservation of mechanical energy. That is the total energy of the system comes from the sum of PE and KE and as the system

evolves:

Examples of Conservation of Energy:

 (1)  A 1 kg pendulum swings from a starting position of 50 cm above equilibrium. What is its speed at the bottom of its
swing?

(2)  The same pendulum swings to 15 cm above equilibrium.  What is its speed there?

 Motion & Newton's 2nd Law

What does each type of graph look like for the following
situations:

HOMEWORK:  Go To the following website and Hit "Run Now" button.  Use the man at the top of the 3 graphs to create a constant motion graph, a graph with a couple of constant positions, and then one where the motion changes.  Note how the 3 graphs look in each situation.  You will have other homework associated with this webstite.

Science -- an intro -- see websites listed below   AND  Motion

What does each type of graph look like for the following
situations:

        Constant Motion -- the distance increases with time (straight line with some slope, the steepness of the line is related to the speed), the speed stays the same regardless of time (straight horizontal line), the acceleration is zero

        Acceleration -- The distance increases or decreases with time but the slope changes (as you speed up the slope increases, as you slow down the slope of the curve decreases) thus you see a curved line on distance graph, the speed incresases of decreases with time in a linear fashion (straight line with some slope corresponding to acceleration), the acceleration is a constant at all times (straight horizontal line (non-zero, may be positive or negative))

        No Motion -- the distance remains the same regardles of time (straight horizontal liine), all other graphs are at zero (no speed and acceleration)

        Changing Acceleration -- all graphs are more complicated, distance changes with time in a curved fashion and so does speed, accelearation is changing with time (straight line at some angle)
 

• What is critical thinking?
• How do YOU form an opinion?
• What is an informed opinion?
• How does one effectively argue a point?

• What are the facts of the case?
• What are the issues brought out in the study?
• Who is affected by the problem (may or may not be persons directly mentioned in stories)?
• What are possible directions one could take from where the story left off?
• What would be the possible consequences of such actions?
• Ethical, social, economic, and political implications
•  Practical constraints

Please meet in your groups and answer the following questions.  

1. Define Physics
2.  Define Technology
3.  Describe News STories from Last Year involving Physics or Technology. 
Are they national? international? or Both?