Kissimmee Homeschooling

Wind Generator

 

Wind energy is mechanical energy. We take mechanical energy from moving air and convert it to electric energy. The movement of the wind turns the turbine of the windmill and creates the electrical energy that helps power our research station.

 

Satellite Dish

 

Satellite dishes are an important part of the research station. They enable us to receive information from transmitters. This information could be sent by different frequency microwaves or different frequency radios waves. In order to understand these signals, the satellite uses a receiver to interpret and send the signal to a display for visual information or a speaker for audio information. We have a few different kinds and sizes of satellite dishes and receivers here. We rely on satellite communication a great deal!

 

Radio Tower

 

Our radio tower is used to send and receive signals in the AM frequency, and to receive FM radio signals. Radio waves are a low energy wave of the Electromagnetic Spectrum.

 

Solar Panels

 

Solar panels use radiant energy from the sun and transform it into electrical energy that we can use. The photons from the sun’s rays strike the solar panel. This excites the electrons in the material that the panel is made of. These excited particles cause the atoms in the material that the solar panel is made of to interact. These interactions create a flow of electricity.

 

Generator

 

Our generator is powered by propane. Gas generators are very reliable, but storing the gas can sometimes be a problem. The chemical energy stored in gas is ignited. This creates energy that turns turbines, which is mechanical energy. Mechanical energy is used to create the electrical energy to power the station.

 

Propane Tank

 

Propane is a fossil fuel and a nonrenewable resource.

 

Shortwave Radio

 

Radio waves are low energy waves and come in many different bands, depending on their frequency. Short wave radios are used for communications between individuals. Short wave radios are one example of how radio waves are used to directly communicate with a sender and receiver. Radio waves are not usually bounced from signal tower to signal tower; however, they can be bounced if needed to increase their travel distance.

 

AM/FM Radio

 

Radio transmission has been around for a long time. Radio waves are used to transmit information. The signals are sent from a transmitter, usually at a radio station from a radio tower, and received by a receiver in your radio that decodes the signal and plays the sound.

 

Cell Phone

 

Cell phones are a great way to keep in touch, but they are limited to the availability of a “signal”. These signals are really microwaves that are used to send digital information. Sometimes they can be sent from a receiver in one phone to a receiver in another. Most of the time they are sent to transmission towers or even satellites to relay the signal.

 

Artificial Lights

 

Artificial lights emit light within the visible light spectrum.

 

Florescent lights are energy saving lights and use less energy than standard bulbs. Florescent light takes electric current and passes it through a vapor. This creates ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet light comes in contact with a special coating on the lightbulb that converts it back to visible light.

 

Husky Dogs

 

Did you know that dogs can hear sounds at higher ranges than humans? This is why special whistles are used to call dogs. Elephants hear lower frequencies than humans. Elephants hear other elephants coming from about five miles away. It is not likely that we’ll see any elephants in Antarctica, but our Siberian Husky, Duke, sure loves it here in the cold!

 

Microwaves

 

Microwaves are used to heat food. These low energy waves are concentrated in food and cause the atoms to move and become excited. This creates heat.

 

AM/FM Radio

 

Radio transmission has been around for a long time. Radio waves are used to transmit information. The signals are sent from a transmitter, usually at a radio station from a radio tower, and received by a receiver in your radio that decodes the signal and plays the sound.

 

Ovens

 

We use ovens to cook food. Ovens use radiant energy to heat food.

 

Glass of Water with Straw

 

Light interacts with the surface of the water and bends. This is why the straw appears to be bent in the water.

 

Stovetop

 

Heat Transfer: Conduction, Convection, Radiation

 

Heat transfers throughout our environment all of the time. Wherever you are, you are aware of things that are warm or cool or are getting warmer or cooler. Dive into a swimming pool or walk on the sidewalk barefoot in the summer and you know about heat transfer. In our environment, hear transfer is always from the hotter object to the colder object. Heat transfers to and through some materials better than others.

 

Conduction is the transfer of heat between substances that are in direct contact with each other. The better the conductor, the more rapidly heat will transfer. (Image of a pot on a stove) What substances do you think would be good conductors or poor conductors?

 

Good conductors: copper, silver, iron, steel
Poor conductors (insulators): wood, Styrofoam, paper, air.

 

Convection is the up and down movement of gases and liquids caused by heat transfer. As a gas or a liquid is heated, it warms, expands, and rises because it is less dense. When the gas or liquid cools, it becomes denser, and falls. As the gas or liquid warms and rises, or cools and falls, it creates a convection current. Convection is the primary method by which heat moves through gases and liquids. (Image of a gas stove warming the air, and the warm air rising, and cool air falling) Can you think of other examples of convection?

 

• Warmer water at the surface of a lake or swimming pool

• Wind currents

• Hot air balloon

• Lower floors of a building being cooler than the top floor

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Radiation is when electromagnetic waves travel through space. When electromagnetic waves come in contact with an object, the waves transfer the heat to that object. Electromagnetic waves travel through empty space. The sun warms the earth through the radiation of electromagnetic waves. 

 

Treadmill

 

Running or walking on a treadmill is an example of an energy transformation. The chemical energy from food is transformed to mechanical energy. It is also transformed to thermal energy because you give off heat when you exercise.

 

Heart Monitor

 

There are all types of monitors. Some record signals like heart rate or location. Others may record weather. They often are linked to a central monitoring station where they transmit the information through microwaves or radio waves. When they transmit this information, it is called telemetry. Here in the station, we use monitors to track tagged animals. We then use telemetry to transmit the date back here for monitoring. We also use monitors to keep track of our researcher’s heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature when they are out in the field. These are all different types of monitors, but they all use telemetry to transmit the information that is gathered back here for monitoring.

 

Energy Bars

 

Energy is transformed in your body. The chemical energy in this food is transformed into mechanical energy when work is performed. An example of this type of energy transformation is running on the treadmill.

 

X-Rays

 

X-Rays are at the high end of the electromagnetic spectrum. We use x-rays to image bones and different parts of the body.

 

Hydrophone

 

A hydrophone records sounds in the water. The whale you see here is emitting sound as it travels through the water. (Image of a whale underwater and a boat on the surface, with sound waves traveling from the whale to the boat) Not all of the sound reaches the hydrophone. Some of the sound is reflected off smooth surfaces and some is scattered off rough surfaces. Some of the sound is absorbed in dense surfaces like the sea floor. Part of the sound wave reaches the hydrophone and allows us to record the location and depth of the whale.

 

Why do we have the hydrophone in the water and not just on the ship? Sound travels at different speeds in different media. The sound wave moves through the water, where it travels at one speed. It then enters the air, where it travels at another speed. The wave also bends as it passes from one medium to the other. We would not be able to accurately tell where the whale was if we did not have the hydrophone placed in the water.

 

Lightbulb

 

A lightbulb converse electrical energy to light energy.

 

Prism

 

When all the frequencies are mixed together as they are in sunlight, then we see them as white. A beam of light, we see as white, passes through a prism, but on the other side the color frequencies have been separated out and are now visible.

How do you think a prism does that?

 

For simplicity the whole range of visible color frequencies are presented there by symbols for just blue green and orange. The light before striking the prism appears white to us but is a mixture of all the visible color frequencies shown here as a mixture of the three symbols.

 

When light strikes glass at an angle its direction is changed, but the different frequencies which make up light are bent at slightly different angles causing them to separate. At the second service they separate even more; the various frequencies become visible as different colors.

 

Remote Control

 

Many remote controls use infrared waves to send signals. The receiver receives and decodes the signals sent from the remote control. This infrared light is not visible to the eye. Light travels in a straight line unless it interacts with something in the way. This is why your TV remote won’t work if someone is standing between it and the TV.

 

Television

 

We take our TV programs for granted. Down here, all we get is satellite TV. Satellite TV companies use higher frequency to transmit signals. These signals are compressed. Compressed means that the signals do not transmit any data that repeats itself. This is the reason why we not only have to have the satellite dish to receive signals, but we must also have a converter to change the signals back into ones our TV system understands.

 

Space Heater

 

Convection is the principle method for warming gases and liquids. We call these convection currents. Heat is transferred from a warmer object to adjacent air or water, causing it to expand and become lighter. The warm air or water then rises, and new, cooler air or water takes its place when it is warmed. When the air or water is warmed, it will expand and rise, starting the cycle over again.

 

Exercise Ball

 

Energy is transferred when a ball is tossed back and forth between two people. Energy can be transferred from one object or system to another, or converted from one form to another. The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created of destroyed.

 

 

Recall that electromagnetic energy travels in waves. Take a look at the wave below. There are two parts to the wave: the crest, or the highest point in the wave, and the trough, the lowest point in the wave. We measure waves by their length. A wavelength is the distance between two of the same points in a wave. We usually measure crest to crest, but we could measure trough to trough if we wanted to. Electromagnetic waves are all around us. Some electromagnetic waves are natural, while some are man made. Two examples of natural sources of electromagnetic waves are the sun and outer space. Many of the waves in the electromagnetic spectrum are high energy waves that are useful, but these waves may also be harmful. Scientists describe wave energy in relationship to the wave’s frequency. Frequency is the number of waves that pass a point in a given time. Most often, frequency is measured by the number of waves that pass a point in one second. The higher the frequency of a wave, the more energy that is carried by the wave.

 

Did you notice the waves with the highest energy (and frequency) also have the shortest wavelengths? The shorter the wavelength, the higher the frequency of the wave. The higher the frequency, the greater the energy of the wave. So gamma rays have the most energy, while radio waves have the least.