Learn Electronics Basics

I have known called Make for a while. Make also produces magazines, and the sight is headquarters for D.I.Y. people. Collin Cunningham created videos about different electronics components. If you are looking for basic electronics knowledge, check out the videos.

Makezine.com

learn about:

The Inductor

The Capacitor

The Transistor

The Diode

The LED
The Resistor

The Intergrated Circuit

Cunningham's Blog

Podcast For Environmental Chemist

I've recently created a podcast for a school assignment. this Podcast is about the career of the Environmental Chemist.

Environmental Chemist podcast

Spirit Calls Roadside Service

In 2003 two rovers were sent to our neighboring planet, Mars with the names Spirit and Opportunity. The two rovers were made for discoveries and they delivered. In fact, they out lived their life expectancy by many martian sols making much more discoveries. Now, as Opportunity makes his long two year journey to Endeavour crater, spirit is in trouble. The MER (Mars Exploration Rovers) rover Spirit has been caught under sand since April at a sight named "Troy". Troy is a crater about 26 feet wide filled with sulfate-bearing sands produced in hot water or a steam environment. The soil has layers each of different composition, and a crusty top covered the crater and it trapped Spirit much like a pile of leaves on top a dug hole would trap an unsespecting victim.

Researchers sent out the signal to attempt to free Spirit and the chances of making it out varies according to the tests done on the Earth. 

"This is going to be a lengthy process, and there's a high probability attempts to free Spirit will not be successful" says Doug McCuiston, director of MER at NASA headquarters. "After the first few weeks of attempts, we're not likely to know whether Spirit will be able to free itself." Efforts to free the troubled rover will last until early 2010. McCuiston says that lessons from freeing this rover will provide knowledge on Martian terran and help future mars rovers. Other benifits from this unfortunate draw back is that while being at troy there were signs indicating ancient martian hotsprings of steam vents, possible habitats for life. If the they do not manage to free the rover, its stationary location could result in new scientific findings.

My veiw on this unfortunate event is that even if the rover does not escape, it will still answer a lot of unknown questions in its unmovable location. Also, even if it does die, it has died heroic in a way, just like Hubble will some day. Hubble has given us photos of the deep unknown and has discovered many things that enhance our understanding. In analogy,  Spirit and Opportunity have Added to our knowledge about life on ancient Mars and about the possibility of life out there in general. Both of these rovers, I believe were worth the cost and the troubles, it has profited the people of Earth through a vast expanse of knowledge. I truly hope this rover can escape, it has done us so much, battling the martian winters, climbing the tall Columbia Hills, and bringing so much to the scientists back here. I will hope for the best that this beautiful tool will be salvaged.   

Learn more at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20091112.html

The People Of Sparks

I am currently reading a book called The People of Sparks, the second book of Ember. In this novel, Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow just made it out of a doomed underground city called Ember. After they make it out, they have to coexist with a village called Sparks and eventually colonize another area. They are to stay with Sparks for six months and learn the skills needed to start a village. During these six months, the Emberties and the people of Sparks encounter conflict. This plot line takes place far beyond our time, where the earth became cramped. Three plagues spread over the world. War broke out over the leftover food and scarce farmland. Some of the people who survived the three plagues and four wars or "The Disaster" founded sparks. They grew strong over the years. Now they must aid the Emberties.

This book is related to science because the scenario is closely related to our situation on the Earth. Eventually, we will run out of farmland and become overcrowded on this planet considering the conditions we live with today. This novel also uncovers "history" such as "ancient" books and the marvelous electricity that the Emberties had before they left their precious city. The people also talk about ruins of cities and they have ox pulled trucks. After the years, people referred to fuel as "gasleen" because it was so long lost. I suspect there are many other ways this book relates to science, I just hadn't finished reading it yet.

Density Of Liquids

A couple of weeks ago, our class did a lab on density. Our task was to make a density column. Reading the lab instruction sheet sparked a couple of thoughts into my head. One was the approach I was to take for this lab assignment. The other thought was: Is the word "density column" was it a widely used word? Or was it made up for this experiment. Also, looking at the picture quickly reminded me of the lava lamp I made with oil and salt water a long time ago. During the two days I worked on the lab, I managed to look up "density column" and forget about my lava lamp.

The lab was really fun, I could remember everything precisely. My lab partners and I developed a strategy. When we arrived at our table we could smell the strong aroma of vinegar (ketchup). The approach we took was to measure the density of each liquid using a triple beam balance. After that, we would calculate the densities and place them in order from greatest to least. Finally, we would take the cup and replace the numbers with the actual liquids. This procedure worked out well, we created the density column with great precision. The liquids we never revealed to us, they were only labeled A, B, C, D, and G. My best guess was that G was corn syrup, D was molasses, C was certainly ketchup, I was told A was Kool-Aid, and B was antifreeze.

If you recall, as I was doing the lab, I tried to look up "density column". It turns out that that word was not listed in the dictionary. When I Googled the word, there was no Wikipedia article on it, and Although Wikipedia can not be trusted, the website has articles on practically everything. What I did get from Googling is many lab sheets like the ones we did at school.

I believe the experiment was great. The purpose I think was to aid and improve our density calculations. I believe we met the purpose. I also enjoyed working with the pipettes, graduate cylinder, and mostly, the triple beam balance. In my opinion, I think the density column should get a little more credit, maybe I can start a Wiki article on it!

Elec-TREE-city

Have you heard the warning that you should not be under a tree during a thunder storm? Have you wondered why? Well, Washington University's Babak Parviz is putting the answer to your wonder to use. For a long time, scientists have known that plants could conduct electricity. This sounds great for the energy crisis we have right now right? No, a Maple tree only generates a measly few hundred millivolts worth of electricity, barely enough to power a small, simple circuit, such as to power a LED light. The scientists built a device to amplify the voltage. They built something sinilar to a capacitor. It collects the volts, some as little as 20 millivolts and builds it up to as much as 1.1 volts, enough to run small sensors. The rig used to collect the electricity from the trees is different from a battery, but the two electrodes (zinc and copper) are the same. What practical use does this have? This electricity can run sensors that detect forest fires, an event that is increasing in these warmer times.

I think this is an excellent idea, though it does not seem like a practical one. yes, it can run sensors that detect forest fires, and that is a good thing of course, but I believe this could only be kept there. This could maybe run sensors to detect illigal logging. Other than that, there isn't much potential.

This article can be found by clicking on the followig link: http://www.livescience.com/environment/090915-trees-electricity.html