Energy In Earth Systems

(A) Solar energy is used for various things. Solar energy comes from the sun. Once a system is in place to convert the useful sun energy, the fuel is free and will never be subject to the ups and downs of energy markets. It represents a clean alternative to the fossil fuels that currently pollute our air and water, threaten our public health, and contribute to global warming. This resource is poised to play a prominent role on our energy future. Solar energy supports all life on Earth and is the basis for almost every form of energy we use. The amount of energy from the sun that falls on Earth's reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas is matched by the energy from just 20 days of sunshine. The sun's energy contains about 1,300 watts per square meter. About 1/3 of light is reflected back into space, and some is absorbed by the atmosphere. (1) Wind is a form of solar energy. Winds are caused by uneven heating of the atmosphere by the sun. Wind flow patterns are modified by the Earth's terrain, bodies of water, and vegitation. Humans use this wind flow, or motion energy, for many purposes: sailing, flying a kite, and even generating electricity. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in the wind into mechanical power. This mechanical power can be used for specific tasks, or a generator can convert this mechanical power into electricity.(2)  Hydropower is the renewable energy source that produces the most electricty in the United States. It accounted for 7% of total U.S electricty generation and 35% of generation from renewables in 2009. Hydropower relies on the water cycle. The amount of available energy in moving water is determined by its flow or fall. Fast flowing water in a big river, carries a great deal of energy in its flow. Water descending rapidly from a very high point, also has lots of energy in its flow.(3) Biomass is plant and animal waste. This is the oldest source of renewable energy. The most common way to capture the energy from biomass was to burn it to make heat. It can be converted into liquid fuels to produce combustible gases, which reduces various kinds of emissions from biomass combustion.(4) Fossil Fuels are bad for the environment. The Fossil fuels are a big concern contributing to global warming. These foreign ways of producing energy are hurting our environment.
(B)Energy changes form in many ways. Energy from the sun comes into the Earth's atmosphere. It mostley gets absorbed by the ground. People are making solar panals to catch the sun's power. The power from the sun gets absorbed by the solar panels and is made into electricity. For example, at my house we use a electric fencer for cattle that is powered by a solar panel.
(C) Conduction is the transfer of thermal energy between neighboring molecules in a substance due to a temperature gradient. Heat transfer always goes from a region of higher temperature to a region of lower temperature, and acts to equalize the temperature differences. Convection is the movement of molecules within fluids and "rheids". It cannot take place in solids, since neither bulk current flows nor significant diffusion can take place in solids. Radiation  describes a process in which energetic particles or waves travel through a medium or space. (5)

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(1) How Solar Energy Works, Clean Energy, http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_and_impacts/energy_technologies/how-solar-energy-works.html , December 16, 2009
(2)How Wind Turbines Work, Water Power Program, http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/wind_how.html , September 9, 2010
(3) Hydropower Basics, Energy Kids, http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=hydropower_home-basics , 2010
(4) Converting Biomass to Biopower, Clean Energy, http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_and_impacts/energy_technologies/how-biomass-energy-works.html#converting_biomass , October 29, 2010
(5) Convection, Conduction, Radiation, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation , November 23, 2010
(6) http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/files/2009/01/solar_panel.jpg
(7) http://apps.carleton.edu/reason_package/reason_4.0/www/images/60759.jpg?cb=1155925043
(8)http://www.solarenergyonline.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/biomass.jpg

Water Cycle (Final Exam)

(A)The sun drives the water cycle. It heats water in oceans and seas. The water evaporates as water vapor into the air. Ice and snow can go directly into water vapor. Air currents take vapor up into the atmosphere where cooler temperatures cause it to condense into clouds. Air currents move water vapor around the globe, cloud particles collide, grow, and fall out of the sky as precipitation. Precipitation may fall as snow or hail, and can accumilate as ice caps and glaciers, which can store frozen water for thousands of years. Most water falls back into the oceans or into land as rain, where the water flows over the ground as surface runoff. A portion of runoff enters rivers in valleys in the landscape, with streamflow moving water towards the oceans. Groundwater is stored as fresh water in lakes. Not all runoff flows into rivers, much of it soaks into the ground as infiltration. Transpiration is the release of water vapor from plants and soil into the air. Water vapor cannot be seen.(1)

(B) All land masses feed into a body of water. Water cannot travel uphill, all watersheds are determined by topography. Watersheds very greatly in size, depending on the highest points surrounding it. A watershed can be thousands of square miles, or can be a few acres draining into a pond. A watershed is more than just a piece of land that collects the rainwater and dumps it into the river. Anything that ends up in a watershed ends up in a body of water. (2)

(C) A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. A flood is defined as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water of land not normally covered by water. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake. These overflow or break levees with the result of water going outside the perimeter that it's normally within.  Rill erosion is the development of small "ephemeral" concentrated flow paths, which funtion as both sediment source and sediment delivery systems for erosion on hillslopes. Where water erosion rates on disturbed upland areas are greatest, rills are active. Fluids such as wind and water, as well as sediment flowing via gravity, transport previously eroded sediment which loses enough kinetic energy in the fluid, is deposited, building up layers of sediment. All of these are sometimes interuppted by construction. For example the Sycamore Creek in Holt Michigan, was moved by people to put in the new highway U.S 127.(3)

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(1) Discription, Wikipedia,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cycle , November 21, 2010

(2) How Watersheds Work, How Stuff Works, http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/conservation/issues/watershed.htm , Tiffany Connors, 1999-2010

(3)Deposition (geology), Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposition_(sediment) , November 5, 2010
(4)http://www.all-water.org/H2O_Images/Water_cycle.png
(5)http://pasc.met.psu.edu/PA_Climatologist/extreme/Floods/flood%20house%20pic.jpg
(6)http://whyfiles.org/091beach/images/erosiondia1.gif

Bad Astronomy

1. I believed that Mizar and Alcor were real stars.
2. This is true, Mizar is a very bright star in the kink of the big dipper handle
3. I thought that comets really were that color.
4. Comets are one of the darkest objects in the solor system
5. I didnt think that the one astronaut that got blinded by the sun would be that bad.
6. It wouldnt have been that bad if he was only exposed for a few seconds.
7. The comets wouldnt look like that being that close to impact
8. The comets would have been very bright and you couldnt see the other stars in the sky

• I beleived that we didnt actually go to the moon.
• We actually did go to the moon. Everybody thinks that it was a hoax but we actually did.
• I have always thought that stars are white because they look white so i just think they are white.
• Stars actually emit all colors of a rainbow
• I thought that if a sun falls into a blackhole that we wouldnt have light on earth anymore,
• If the sun collapsed into a blackhole we as an Earth would feel no difference gravity wise.