Showing posts with label earth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label earth. Show all posts

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Nuclear Fusion: Future or Fantasy?

As we use energy, we use resources. Eventually, resources such as coal and oil will run out.
What will we do then? 

Through fusion, we can create electricity. Fusion is safe, but very tricky to do. In nuclear fusion, two isotopes such as deuterium and tritium will combine to create Helium-5. Helium is not an element that likes to hang on to extra neutrons, so it gets rid of it almost immediately. The discharge of helium's extra neutron creates a massive amount of energy.
 (Click to view larger version...)
In about a decade, the most complex machine ever built will be turned on. This massive machine is known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER. We are going to bottle a star.
Three, two, one ... We have plasma! Inside the European JET Tokamak, both before and during operation. Photo: EFDA, JET. (Click to view larger version...)
ITER will be the hottest thing on the Earth's surface. The many particles whizzing around inside ITER will be contained by a sort of "magnetic bottle". Of course, ITER doesn't come cheap. The whole machine will take billions of dollars to create. It will become the most expensive scientific instrument.

(both images came from ITER - the way to new energy. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.iter.org/sci/whatisfusion)


Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Sodium and Water EXPLOSION!

Today in Honors Earth Science:
We put about a tablespoon of sodium into a bucket of water that was about one third of the way full. The result was quite explosive, along with some Hydrogen gas and some 2NaOH.

 This is 2NaOH. There are obviously more than 2 sodium atoms. The water doesn't actually turn pink right after the reaction. The coloring was caused by a universal indicator-type solution. It's still pretty awesome.