Tag: energy

The Reason Life Upon Earth Migrated From the Ocean Onto Land

Leave a comment

Billions of years ago when the first living organisms started harnessing the energy of the sun through photosynthesis, they began producing a waste product which was oxygen. When oxygen rises high up into the atmosphere, it transforms into ozone which is why the Earth has a thin protective layer of ozone which alongside the magnetic field, helps protect the Earth from the violent ultraviolet radiation spewed out by the sun. As plants, microbes, and fungi migrated from the water to land, even more oxygen was produced, extending the ozone layer to become much more formidable. This was the catalyst for life migrating onto dry land which occurred 450,000,000 – 500,000,000 (450 million – 500 million) years ago during the Paleozoic Era, specifically during the Ordovician and Silurian periods

The Condition of the Earth After the Chicxulub Asteroid Collision Which Caused the Extinction of Dinosaurs

Leave a comment

Immediately after the Chicxulub Asteroid collided with the Earth, heat from the fireball produced reached temperatures of 5500 degrees Celsius and produced a shockwave which broke the speed of sound, causing gale force winds equivalent to a hurricane. Everything within 965 kilometers was instantly decimated. Within 11 minutes of impact, the sky began to darken as debris which had been pushed up into the atmosphere started to settle back down. As these small spheres the size of a grain of sand descended back down to Earth, they heated up upon re-entry, identical to that of an asteroid, which provided the illusion of billions of simultaneous shooting stars. The energy produced during this re-entry barrage of heat was more intense than the sun for a brief period of time and made the sky glow red, as if it was comprised of liquid magma. This debris reflected heat back towards the Earth and effectively caused the Earth to act as an enormous radiator. To add to this damage, wildfires began sprouting up due to the intense temperature which caused heat and smoke to fill the atmosphere, compounding the damage already done. Strong winds helped perpetuate these fires and because so much of the Earth was affected, it only took a few hours to become globalized, engulfing the entire Earth in a mass fire which burned hotter than a regular fire due to the inability to dissipate heat sideways. In addition to this, gypsum which contains sulphur, blocked the sun and cooled the Earth over the long term. Gypsum had a seismic effect upon the world’s oceanic ecosystems as ocean acidification occurred due to sulphuric rain being produced by the gypsum within the atmosphere. The reflecting of the sun caused 75% of all plants to die as the Earth only received as much light during mid day as what is present during a cloudy, moonless night of the modern day

How Ocean Wind Turbines Produce Electrical Energy

2 Comments

Wind turbines run upon a simple engineering principle which is that of wind causing the blades to turn which rotates a shift within the turbine, with this shaft producing energy for the electrical generator. This electrical energy is pumped downward, 300’ below the water surface, and into cables buried below the seabed which connect to offshore substations which then connect to onshore power stations and finally residential homes and industrial and commercial buildings. Ocean wind turbines are typically 600’ high in altitude, with spinning fiberglass blades which are approximately 240’ long, with each blade weighing up to 30 tonnes. Because of this immense size, measurements (e.g. angle of blades etc.) are crucial during the construction phase to maximize efficiency and energy output. A single revolution of a wind turbine can generate enough electricity to power an entire family home for 24 hours

How Phosphorescence Works

Leave a comment

Glow in the dark products work because of a chemical additive which allows the product to absorb energy on one frequency, and reemit it as visible light which is a different frequency. Zinc sulphide and strontium aluminate are the most commonly used phosphors for photoluminescent products as they reemit energy over a considerably long period. When light is shone upon a glow in the dark object, incoming photons excite the phosphor molecules and these molecules then release that energy taken in by releasing photons and creating a dim light glow. Different phosphors release energy at different rates and thus, the slower a phosphor releases energy, the longer it will glow. The human eye is most sensitive to green light in the dark which is why night vision technology was traditionally created with a green tint

Henri Becquerel’s Discovery of the Glow of Radioactive Materials

Leave a comment

In 1896 French scientist Henri Becquerel was working with radioactive substances and found that under ultraviolet light, these elements began to glow. Becquerel left radioactive uranium salts overnight on a photographic plate which had never been exposed to light. The next day a dark shadow emerged which Becquerel realized was the markings of energy, radioactive energy and therefore discovered radioactivity

The Reason the Big Bang Theory is Nearly Proven

Leave a comment

The reason the Big Bang Theory is nearly proven is because it is well understood that energy is equivalent to mass multiplied by the speed of light squared which was discovered by Albert Einstein through his most famous equation, E=mc2. At very high temperatures, matter becomes energy and an almost infinite amount of energy can be crammed into an almost infinitely tiny space. This energy/matter however is not entirely stable and therefore it must eventually expand outwards. This principal of physics demonstrates that the entire universe could fit into something the size of a marble or less

The Vulnerability of Electrical Grids and Microgrid Backups

Leave a comment

All industrialized countries have power grids which are incredibly vulnerable to hacking as they are run by software which helps ensure load and demand is always balanced. Mitigation of this risk can be sought by creating micro grids which are smaller versions of the large scale grid currently in place. Microgrids, if attacked would not affect any microgrids surrounding it. Microgrids are often solar powered and store their energy in batteries. Microgrids can act as backups for power grids, namely for the most important institutions (e.g. hospitals, police precincts, and fire stations etc.)