Save Mother Earth

Recently in Physics class we discussed the topic of electricity and energy. In doing so, some assignments included calculating the resistance, voltage, and current in everyday items found in our household. I was able to observe that a lot of the larger devices or devices which created a lot of heat created the most electrical current. It was brought to our classes attention that the amount of electrical current, or killowatts, that each item uses somewhat determined how much money our parents spent on their electric bills.

The electric company used on Kauai is Kauai Island Utility Cooperative. 91% of their electric is from petroleum that is shipped to the islands with only 0.2% from solar energy. Hawaii is actually the highest electricity rate in the United States. With a growing rate of 25.13 cents per kWh, it becomes very critical that we try to save as much energy as possible.

It is encouraged greatly to switch all your light bulbs to fluorescent light bulbs but how much does it really save you? Does changing it make a big difference? These are questions I asked myself as I created this experiment.  The control will be the lamp. The independent variable is the watts/type of light bulb. The dependent variable is the thermometer or heat projected off the light bulbs. I will be measuring how much energy each light bulb uses by measuring the temperatures that each light bulb emits. Since it takes more energy to make things hot I can measure how much more heat one light bulb has to another light bulb. I will be doing 2 trials with 2 different types of lamps and measure it by recording the temperatures for each light bulb.

Lets get SERIEouS

Circuits (not circus) are important in keeping us happy. A blown circuit or circuit not put together correctly could result in problems with your tv or satellite connection and possibly a broken remote of some sort. To avoid these problems its good to know the basics of circuits and the two types to observe. A series circuit is a circuit in which resistors are arranged in a chain, so the current has only one path to take. The current is the same through each resistor. The total resistance and voltage of the circuit is found by simply adding the individual amounts. In comparison a parallel circuit is a circuit in which the resistors are arranged with their heads connected together, and their tails connected together. The current in a parallel circuit breaks up, with more than one current flow. The current flows in places where there is least resistance. The voltage across each resistor in parallel is the same. 

Ohmmm....Ω

We use power in everything we do these days and rely heavily on it for simple daily tasks. For example when you wake up from your ALARM in the morning you turn on your LIGHTS and head to the kitchen and open up your REFRIGERATOR and use your TOASTER to make food. As we need electricity in many of our activities many people dont know the dynamics of electricity.  A predominately used equation in physics is the Ohm's law equation which is V=I x R. In words, the electric potential difference between two points on a circuit (V) is equivalent to the product of the current between those two points (I) and the total resistance of all electrical devices present between those two points (R). So you can calculate the voltage required for many of these electrical devices if you really cared that much.