Energy Project Update

Over the past few months we have been doing experiments that will help to reduce our monthly energy bills. What I tried to do was not use the dishwasher and turn of lights when I leave the rooms. My energy bill did decrease but I dont know if it was a result of my experiment or as a result of other factors. In the future I plan to just attempt to reduce one thing so I can directly target the problem. If that  one reduction works then I will expand to reduce more things so I can reduce my electricity bill as much as possible.

Color Mixing

Color Mixing starts with the three primary colors: red, green and blue. When you mix all of the primary colors, you should get a white light. When you mix red and green, you get yellow. When you mix red and blue you get magenta, when you mix blue and green you get cyan. If you are wearing a red shirt and you shine a blue light on the shirt then the shirt would appear black. If you shine a red light on a red shirt then it would appear red. The thing that happens when you shine light on an opaque material is it absorbs all the colors except the color that it is. If the same color light shines on the the opaque material then it reflects that color.

Sound Waves and Doppler Effect

Sound is a longitudinal mechanical wave that can travel through almost any medium. Sound is a vibration in pressure. Sound waves consist of compressions and rarefractions. Compressions are a region of a increased pressure on a sound wave. Rarefractions are a region of decreased pressure on a sound wave.

The doppler effect is based on sound. As a vehicle with a siren moves closer the frequency increases and the pitch gets higher. As the vehicle passes you, the frequency decreases as a result, the pitch gets lower. The doppler affect can be true for other things like boats, bikes and balls.

Wave Superposition

The wave superposition principle is a principle that basically talks about the interference of two waves when the collide. The wave superposition principle says that when two waves interfere they just travel through each other and their speed and size are unaltered. If a wave is 3ft going through a 5ft wave at 20 m/s it will continue to move unaltered at 3ft at 20 m/s. The 5ft wave will also travel unaltered. At the point when they are interfering, they can have destructive interference or constructive interference but no matter what, they continue through unaltered.

Waves- What are they around us?

There are many different kinds of waves that happened around us everyday. Some examples of waves that we see every day are light waves, radio waves, waves breaking on the beach, sound waves. There are electromagnetic waves and mechanical waves. Electromagnetic waves include light waves and radio waves. Mechanical waves include sound waves or waves that we see on the surface of the water. Waves interact with each other in many ways, there is destructive interference and constructive interference. Destructive interference is when waves flatten each other out when they interact. Constructive interference is when the waves double in size when they interact with each eachother.

Energy Use and Plan

For my project where I am trying to save energy and ultimately reduce my families electric bill. I chose to not use the dishwasher for our dishes, but rather hand wash and dry them. I also am going to try to turn off lights when ever i leave a room and make sure that the rest of my family is doing the same. The idea of not using the dishwasher is not very hard as long as you keep up with it and don't let the dishes pile up. Also the idea of turning off the lights is a very easy idea. We are not too lazy to do that but we just forget sometimes. If we just focus on the little things, then we will be able to save a good amount of money very easily.

Multimeters

A multimeter is an instrument that is designed to measure electric current, voltage, and resistance. The values can range from around mili- to kilo-. If you are on a current setting that is measuring too high then it will beep and you can normally change it to another setting that will be able to handle the current. The beep is also saying that the wire would not be safe and it could possibly blow the circuit. Electricians use these multimeters to find live wires and dead wires, along with figuring out what the source of a problem is. We can use the multimeter as a more accurate way to measure wires rather than assuming that the labels on things are right and using math.