for 7 to 11 Year Old Children, or others of similar heart and mind
What is electricity? Where does it come from?
Why use it? Why does it work?
Acknowledgements are due to Wikipedia for the use of their many pictures here presented, and to The IMechE for their reservoir suggestion for storing electricity, and thence producing hydroelectric power. This can be used for any excess power generation - like for wind turbines producing electricity at inconvenient times, but their cost is hugely increased as a result! The River Severn Lagoon's for tidal race electricity might be supplemented by pumped water from other sources too?
What is AC Electricity
It is dangerous at the plug socket, or when the plug or cable or appliance is wet with water.
Electricity pylons carry such big electricity, that they can easily kill you.
Lightning can make your hair stand on end.
Lightning is very very big DC electricity that comes from storms, and tropical storms are called hurricane's or typhoon's or tornado's.
A Lightning Storm in Europe (Very Big DC)
It is electrons that move along wires.
Electrons are parts of atoms that can jump along to other atoms, and when they travel in a line of atoms along a wire, they are electricity at the plug.
Without a plug, they stop, unless you are silly and burn or kill yourself at the socket by sticking things into it.
Kettle Heating Element Connected to 230v AC Plug
Electrical Power Stations 1
Electricity comes from power station generators, by making a long wire rotate (rotor windings - three windings for three phase electricity for example) inside fixed (static or often called stator) magnets, or something similar. These output AC. Anything which moves a magnet near a metal conductor will generate electricity. A wave machine will bob up and down almost continuously, a tidal race generator is driven by the kinetic energy of the water passing through a turbine at speed, four lengthy times a day, depending on the river or harbour inlet. At this time, I do not know which is more cost effective, but that is what design thinking is all about - conception to a first-off manufacture and trial, to full blown development of a few better trial versions, if any are good enough. Big magnets near aircraft will stop them flying properly, for all modern aircraft use electricity extensively, and therefore will be disturbed by that magnet. The Electricity must be connected in a Circuit to "work".
Magnets can pick up iron and steel, but not copper nor plastic without electrical current flow. There are both para- and dia-magnetic materials.
Consider a magnet. Some books will tell you how to use one (Engineering), others will tell you how they work (Science).
Electricity comes from the rotation of a magnet within (or without – you choose) a coil of wire or vice versa (Engineering), while other books will tell you that it is the forced ability of electrons to jump from one atom to another (Science).
The easy (or difficult) to make magnetic material can be selected from a list created by scientific investigation, but the electricity can be Engineered in whatever way you want, from a lightweight torch or bicycle dynamo, to a huge electrical power plant.
A DC Electrical Generator
AC has different connections
The rotating wires and magnet together, are called an electrical generator, but the output may be AC or DC, by design.
The generator turning force comes from burning fuel to heat water into steam, and the steam drives the generator by turning a steam wheel called a turbine.
The turbine force spins the generator, to produce AC electricity for the National Grid to distribute to us.
Dam water height may force spin a turbine directly, driven by the big water drop from very high up.
Dam Water Diagram
AC Electricity is brought into your home from the power station by high wires on pylons or some go underground.
Some power stations are very big, like coal or nuclear power, others can be very small, like watermills on small streams, or DC sunlight chips.
AC Electrical Power and Users
Large dams such as the Three Gorges Dam in China can provide large amounts of hydroelectric power; this one will have a 22.5 GW capability.
Waste will be a problem until (perhaps) Ariane lifts it into the Sun one day in say 30 or 50 years time, when it shows it has good and consistent reliability - from the same design, repeatably manufactured for a very long time.
In the mean time, nuclear waste is of many different radioactive materials, and only a small proportion are the highest danger – if you are exposed to it!!
Chernobyl has animals and plants growing quite happily and for many years now – it was the explosion and unknown which everybody took fright at, but we now know better.
Today, politicians seem to run scared of nuclear. In Great Britain they still monitor Scotland's grass and sheep for surely no reason at all.
Nuclear waste has been stored for 40 years already, safely, so what is everybody worrying about?
Other Power Plants
Wind turbines are no good really, until we have nothing else left, because they are very very expensive. 500 turbines cost about 1700 million € (ref: Wikipedia), producing about 300MW of electricity on average. A nuclear power station produces about 1200MW for only 2300 million € - 400% more electricity for only 35% more cost – nuclear very good, wind very poor.
Fusion power, long years to produce plentiful electricity.
Wave power, but still not good enough.
Solar Power (DC), but not for long winter nights.
Water Mills, for use on rivers and streams, which use water speed (my preference for the River Severn).
Small Petrol Generators from the local store.
Fusion Electricity
ITER at13115 Cadarache, France is to produce 500MW of heat, not electricity, for 6 minutes (it will not because its cryogenic system is a disaster). Billions spent to produce and test ITER. When the 6 minutes has been achieved, more billions will be required to construct their DEMO and produce prototype electricity. So, you pay billions twice, before you get electricity for any useful length of time.
I want BIGDEMO to produce 500MW successfully for hours, and thus as we achieve that 6 minutes, we can go on to 7, 8, 9,....... to 600 with the same kit. So you only need the one lot of billions not two lots! But there has to be some write-off of the ITER wasted design and manufacture. And not far off the same timescale as ITER plans, but which needs another couple of decades wasted, before you get to my BIGDEMO. 2025 to produce electricity, instead of 2035?
Thus my BIGDEMO is far more effective in both cost and timescale. Has this essential change happened yet, for I have been proposing this for a few years now. Is everybody burying their heads in the sand still?
Why Use Electricity
It is flexible, because it can be used anywhere - it can be brought into your house with a small wire, or stored in a small battery, or used in your car.
AC can heat kettles easily, or run a clock, or your computer, or your telephone.
AC can control your water heater, or computer scanner, by driving DC silicon chips inside them.
AC converts into DC easily, but is more difficult DC to AC.
A Typical Computer Desk
These are NOT electric:-
Oil or petrol heaters smell or are noisy, and would take up a lot of room in your kitchen, so they are put outside, and their heat is what comes into the house.
Gas is quieter, and often heats water in kitchens, for central heating, washing or bath showers.
Why Does It Work 1
AC or DC Electricity flows along wires as electrons, but it bumps into (and jumps across to) other atoms along the way, which slow it down and reduce its strength, which is measured in AMPS using an ammeter.
These other atoms resist the flow of electrons, and the resistance along a wire is measured in OHMS using an ohm-meter.
A DC Circuit Diagram
Showing how to calculate and what to measure
But it has to be pushed along the wire, or it will NOT come out of the plug end – this push is measured as VOLTS using a voltmeter.
The socket in EUROPE (including Britain, France, and Deutschland) has 230 VOLTS AC coming out of it, which is why it can be dangerous.
Concorde Used AC & DC Electricity - this is a photo of the last Concorde above the Bristol Suspension Bridge, on its last flight on 26 novembre 2003 into Bristol Filton aeroport, where it is currently stored, but out in the open because neither Government nor Lottery care for good engineering.
Tornado Uses AC & DC Electricity
For Combat, Control & Cockpit Systems
And electricity is used here in all its forms too. The signalman is the most important person on the railway, for he or she directs the rail line that each train uses, and the train driver often cannot stop in the distance he or she can see.
Dated 1996 £7.99
The Future of Transport
The Trolley Bus uses electricity from overhead wires which are high up and therefore safe. They do not use tracks in the road, so they can more easily change route if they want to.
We need Electricity, and lots of it – far more than just replacing our current power stations in the long term, because we need our vehicles to use it as far as possible too, in pressurising air for example, for quick refill, instead of hours charging a battery, or replacing a battery's very heavy self with a charged spare. See http://jim-quinn.blogspot.com/2011/07/air-motors-for-cars-and-trucks-7july11.html
Nuclear Fission and Coal electrical power essential NOW.
Fusion power MUST be Launched Properly too.
Save Oil and Gas, Launch Methane from bio-waste, use wave and tidal race for the ever lasting production of electricity, but wind is too variable and too expensive for now. Wait until we have blackouts for that.
We should save our OIL for its production peaks about NOW and we need it for our Aircraft : Hercules, Hawk, Boeing 747 orAirbus340, etc. Liquid Coal would help as it still does in SouthAfrica I heard, but you cannot use H2 in aircraft, for it is not energy dense - it takes a huge volume for not much energy output, but is good in space, for that wants a low mass to lift to orbit particularly (and more engineering : Specific Impulse is best with hydrogen).
GAS is essential for cooking in 100 years time, so we must save that too, and it (and methane from waste) is needed for Ships especially.
Electricity is no good for a farmer or soldier in wild countryside, without a huge battery! The man or woman on foot cannot carry it.
Power is Measured in Watts
AC or DC Electrical Power is Watts
Watts = Volts times Amps
= the amount of Power Available or Consumed
Energy is AC or DC Watts multiplied by Time, for example:
1000 Watts for 1 hour = 1 kWh.
A 40W bulb will consume 400 Wh in 10 hours .
A DC Circuit Diagram
Showing how to calculate and what to measure
Another system you hardly ever hear
about is our lymphatic system, which supplies a water based clear fluid
to our body cells everywhere. This fluid allows the transport of
potassium calcium and sodium across cell membranes, and thus ionises
(charges) voltage more positively or negatively as a result.
 |
| Myelin Sheath Cross Section, from ISBN 978-3540222866 |
How do neurons work? With electrical
current flow, and ions are the means by which this occurs - as if a cell
was a capacitor in electronic engineering, which also takes a few
moments to be charged or discharged.
The Myelin surrounding some axons (like tendrils) of a neuron, prevents leakage of ions except at the one micron (micrometre) length of the "Nodes of Ranvier" where an action potential (I presume the biologists mean "voltage") can thus be developed, as a result of ion flows in both directions across the cell membrane there. These ions do not escape when Myelin surrounds the axon, and so are available to be used at the Nodes. This increases the availability of ions at the Nodes, and thus the action potential seems to jump quickly from Node to Node, for ion density remains higher throughout the length of the axon.
Trolley Buses Need More Electrical Power Plant, for the Whole Country
The Reply to this letter from the Dept of Transport was ..... no interest, talk to local council!
Dear Prime Minster 22 nd February 2008
Electric Lorries
Logically, to avoid using batteries which do not last for many miles, we should use overhead electrical power cables, like Trains (and Trams or Trolley Buses used to) use, with a sprung arm which kept the power connection, by pushing firmly up against the overhead cable. The power supply permanently driving for as far as the route needs to take you.
I would suggest the Trolley Bus idea be reconsidered – Trams require rails laid into the street, and also need the overhead cable – trolley buses just had the overhead – so the new route much quicker and easier to implement, let alone cost reduced. The other benefit to the trolley bus idea for lorries, is that your fuel cost is the same whether you arrive from France or live here - just have the right power meter inside your cab and charge for it.
You might have some other ideas, but the long term is electric, and we need oil and its equivalents for air travel. The overhead wires cannot be applied to cars, because they are not tall enough.
The picture is from “trolley bus web ring” at http://www.trolleybus.co.uk
Note the sprung connectors and the just visible overhead cables.
Regards
B J A Quinn FIMechE
Heathrow Fuel Consumption
From: <how.k@exxonmobil.com>
To: <jimq648@.......
Cc: <janes.b@exxonmobil.com>
Subject: Heathrow
Date: 09 November 2004 11:03
Jim, Sorry for the delay in replying to you, but in answer to your questions, Heathrow uses Jet A-1 fuel and volume is approximately 7000 million litres a year.
Regards
Howard
Typical Science Books - these do not help the engineer, but the materials researcher.
Engineering?
Yes, and A level Physics (below) in 1960 was mostly engineering, but not in 2010, for it is mostly atomic physics now!
 |
| This book develops the Mechanics O level |
Yes, and A level Physics (below) in 1960 was mostly engineering, but not in 2010, for it is mostly atomic physics now!
The needs of engineering much forgotten, because the name of the book is/was wrong. I thus want Engineering taught from birth to16 years old please, not physics.Those who enjoy it will obviously want to do more. You should note that I passed O level Maths and Engineering (Physics as was) as essential core subjects, but ALSO enthusiastically passed O level Mechanics, Metalwork and Technical Drawing at the same time, in 1958, to give myself a good understanding of the real world. I also have O level Engish Language, and three 1960 A level passels : Applied Maths, Pure Maths and Engineering (Physics as it used to be called).
Old Engineering
Engineers MUST plan, predict resource needs, manage teams, and avoid over spend if possible.
These 5000 year old examples, show how reliable we are!!
More Recent Engineering - both Brunel and Faraday were practical men.
1980's Engineering
The brilliant Sinclair Spectrum 48k computer,
but Technology is poorly defined by britain's Government today, for it is by no means just electronics, which is merely the servant of other disciplines.
Science Book Contents
Initial Conclusions
Science has not changed much in 50 years between those two books, other than Quantum Mechanics and Atomic understanding has evolved, thus allowing the better definition of magnetic materials, including superconductors, for engineering applications.
The books identify what materials to best make, but not at all how to use them. Science provided the first insight into these materials, but then moves on. Patents the same – having invented the nut & bolt, it cannot be patented again, but engineers use them all the time – and their creative thinking skills in normal products which sell, are essential to all, financially.
To use or make materials of any sort in quantity, takes manufacturing engineering and skill – from food packaging to disposal of waste, from flight control to athletes footwear, and personal things like medicines.
Secondary Conclusions
Science can help in all sorts of ways, but how necessary is it now? Or after a while?
For example, the ITER Fusion facility being built in Cadarache in South East France, has so far been science based, but is not very good value for money, for it is merely evaluating atomic physics in a bigger facility than that already evaluated in the JET copper conducting facility at Culham in Oxfordshire, and in Torre Supra's super- conducting facility in Cadarache.
What we really need is to begin making a real electricity producing fusion power plant, since the atomic physics is mostly understood, in terms of sensors and actuators, which both contribute to the control system, and for which aircraft control systems are far more effective, contributed by Engineering – the plasma is static inside the Tokamak, and Harrier and LEM are/were static in hover, side wind compensation and deliberate "gently across the moon" control too.
Tertiary Conclusions
Aircraft control systems have been around ever since the Wright brothers flew in 1903, and have contributed to race and rally cars and motorbikes, as well as to the PC on your desk, for all of those are designed and produced by Engineers.
Some PC are very cheap, so they will not be as good computers as in cars trains or aircraft where human safety is essential, but it is surely obvious that there is a wealth of control and design engineering experience out there, which fusion electricity generation at Cadarache could use.
BJAQ
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