Energy #2

This week, we expanded on measuring various resistors in a complex circuit known to our period 4 as the “Inception Circuit.” It’s called this because it contains both a parallel and a series circuit, which sometimes gets very confusing because of the separation of various voltages and currents that flow through each resistor. We also learned how to distinguish between the two and learned how to calculate the voltage drops through each resistor as voltage, the current of the battery and its resistors in amps, the Req (total resistance), and the resistance of each resistor measured in ohms. Above is an example of an Inception Circuit.  

Electricity Conservation Challenge

In today’s new and upcoming age, technology has become a necessity of everyday life resulting in electric demands that have increased a great deal. Because of this, the real problem and solution is to conserve and not waste the energy that is available to us. Decreasing the price on our energy bill is a plus to the hard work that is put into this process. Ways to reduce our electricity consumption is simply:
1)Turn off the lights that are not in use; which is don’t most times in our house
2)Find out if we can turn off the heater during the day because our whole family isn’t at home
3)Turn off the sprinkler on rainy weeks

Conserving energy maybe a lot to think about but it is also very rewarding in the end.

It's Electrifying

This week we expanded on our electricity unit. We learned to calculate the current that travels through a circuit and how R (resistance), I (current), V (voltage) and P (power) contribute to electricity. So far we learned about two different types of circuits; parallel and series. A series circuit contains an electric source that travels in one path. A parallel circuit again contains an electric source (ex. battery) and resistors traveling in multiple paths. An example of this is the way our houses are wired. We learned that in a parallel circuit, if one resistor fails to allow electricity to flow, the other resistors wouldn’t be affected by the spoiled one. Unlike a series circuit this is very ideal. 

PE=V•q

Adding on to Unit 11, we learned how charge, voltage and potential energy relates to one another and learned how to use equations to solve them. In the equation PE=V·q, the voltage multiplied by the charge is used to find the potential energy. In this relation E.P.E is only dangerous if there is a lot of charge that builds up over a long period of time. When time increases the number of charge decreases making the outcome more dangerous when multiplied by the voltage to gather a stronger and much more dangerous PE. 

Electric Potential Energy vs. Electric Potential

This week’s class was about determining the difference between Electric Potential Energy and Electric Potential difference. Electric Potential Energy also referred to as PEq or stored energy of a charged object in an electric potential field. This energy has units of joules. Electric potential, also known as electric potential difference or voltage contains units of volts or joules/coulomb. It is important not to get these mistaken as the same thing because they’re not. Electric potential does not equal electric potential energy. Although, Joules/Coulomb (electric potential difference) = Joules/Charge (electric potential energy/charge).

Charging by Conduction and Induction

Last week we learned about charging by friction through our “Magic Tape Lab.” But this week we learned two new ways and how an object can get charged. Charging by conduction is the actual transfer of elections. An example of this is getting shocked by touching a metal door knob (a conductor of energy). The shock that you feel is your hand and the door knob trying to neutralize or stabilize itself because they’re two different charges. The last example of charging objects is by the process of induction. When a negatively charged object is near the neutralized net, all the charges create a positive and a negative net through polarization. Once the negatively charged object touches the net, they separate creating two different net systems. The balloon in the picture above will then be attracted to the board because of charging by induction.

Charging by Friction

This past week we learned about charges and away they interact with one another. In out tape lab, we got to witness the way like charges repel and unlike charges attract using tape. As the tape was removed from the table it either gained protons or electrons which explains why they repel and attract one another when brought together. This is also called, charging by friction. Again, it gained a charge while the tape was ripped off the table but became neutralized when excess charges were taken away or the process when our fingertips ran along the tape.