Heat Flow, and Heat Engines
Monday’s Class : We study the Flow of Heat
Before Class
- I added office hours to our main class website.
- I posted solutions for Big Exam #1 on the main class website. I took some time to outline what I’m looking for in an exam, so please take a look at it.
- Heat Flow: Please see this video (Heat Flow ) and follow with the slides (Heat Flow Slides)
- Please read 385-394
- Finish problem set #1 (on main class website)
- See the video of Calculating power of one student
- How about the power of one super athlete?
- Please see this video about Scaling
- Please read this NPR article about CO2 emissions.
- If you haven’t already, please go to the self intervention page (link on main website) and read about the intervention that should have started Friday (but I forgot to talk about it) but you can start now and continue it for a the coming week.
- Rising Consumption in Developing World
- I think I got PL up and running and posted our class’s website on it. Thanks for making your wishes known. I’m confident we can continue to learn through this process.
During Class
After Class
- Learn about heat engines (preparation for Wednesday’s class).
Wednesday: Heat Engines
Before Class
- After seeing the projects, please vote for your preferred projects here.
- Heat Engines Video and Slides
- Smarter Every Day Internal Combustion Engines amazing slow motion coverage of a transparent ICE (internal combustion engine).
- See this video of Jet Engines for Rocket Scientists.
- please check out the website: Animated Engines that relates to the problem set due Monday.
- Here’s something for you to ponder, but you don’t have to if you’re done. In a recent NPR story, they showcase the lovely options we have for boarder walls with Mexico. One of them is continuous solar panels! They state, “generating what it says would be approximately 2.0 megawatts of electricity per hour”. This raises two questions in my mind:
- What do you think they trying to say? Do you think the company actually reported that? What do you suppose they meant by that?
- Taking a look at the wall in the picture, what kind of power production might you estimate? We’ll revisit this second question sometime down the road.
- Read 375-379 about heat engines
- Check out PS#2, on main class website, as well as the solutions for PS#1
- I added office hours to our main class website.
- I hope your “don’t throw anything away” self intervention is going well. One student asked about the efficacy of recycling. NPR has this article about how plastic bags might be better for the environment than alternatives!
- Optional: Please read in NPR Carbon Capture vs. Renewable Energy?
During Class
- Check out Heat Engines
- Pick Projects
- Feedback
Friday:
Before Class
- I did it! I assigned project groups. Please find your group on the project page (link in main class website). I dropped the campus decarbonization project because I thought it was too vague, and the swimming pool group will be doing a similar project. I thought the solar ice project was still too early in the tech development stage (it’s my personal laboratory research). If you feel you need to change groups, switch groups with another person, or change the project your group is working on, I’m open to it as long as there are 3 or 4 people in your group, it’s interdisciplinary, and I approve the project. At present your name is on a public website. If you don’t like this, please let me know immediately and I’ll take down your name or just your last name.
- Please see Hans Rosling: Poverty Statistics video
- Combustion with Slides (from Heat Engines Video)
- Read China Axes 100 Coal Power Plant
- LA Lead Crime connection.png Also, please check out the graph at right from this article in the BBC connecting lead in fuel (and subsequently in air) with violent crime rates. Note that the x-axis is split with the violent crimes (red) coming 23 years later than the lead concentrations (blue).
- Note that it is “command and control” regulations from the government that ended leaded gasoline use. These are the kinds of regulations that Trump talks of ending because it encumbers business. Please read how NPR reports on the EPA is a victim of its own success.
- California is considering outlawing gasoline garden equipment. Please read the article on NPR. Note the last two sentences: They bring up environmental justice, and finances.
- Finish problem set #2
- ….Some thoughts about the class and how I’m changing it. This class is a combination of the basic technical, environmental, and societal concepts related to energy. Additionally, there has been a heavy use of computations via DH’s textbook. I’ve also introduced self interventions as well as a project with an outside party addressing a contemporary challenge. Together, it’s just too much work for 3 units! I’ve chosen to relax the rigorous calculations, so you’ll find the problem sets will not be as demanding computationally as in 2017 or 2015 (this material is accessible from the main class website). I think that if you need to dive deeper into computation, you’ll find a way to do this, and that the service learning projects will bring you closer to the real world of contemporary energy challenges and work with real people in the field. I’m writing this here, so you have a chance to think about this change… (essentially a change in focus from structured computation to projects involving outside collaborators/clients) and talk with your colleagues before class. I’ll ask for your input during class.
During Class
- Meet group mates and plan projects.
After Class
- Prepare for first assessment, Monday!: expect questions like the problem sets. Additionally, please know all the relevant heat engine cycles. Be able to draw pictures of them and explain how they work. It may be instrumental to look at MT#1 for past classes (see link on main class website), with an understanding that past MT#1 covered some material we haven’t done yet.
- Establish a group website, and send me the link for the website as well as a group spokesperson who will have their Email contact on the class website.