P310 Assignment Page

Last update: 11/26/07

Notes:

I will update this page weekly.
Do the assigned readings before class: Come prepared to answer questions about the readings and the assigned problems, this is a discussion/seminar class.
For the homework questions, try to write a half page (minimum) response (a full explanation in complete sentences with references). You can use the internet but always quote your sources! (i.e. the specific web pages you used).
If you miss a class you should still turn in the assignment (but you will not get points for class participation).
IU students can get the assigned reading by going to the Library's online for off campus services. (Log on, go to Academic Search Premier, choose Academic Search Premier again, click on the 'publications' button and look for the journal you want). If you can't get an article send me an email: kforinas @ ius.edu
PLEASE CHECK YOUR GRADES ON THE WEB PAGE TO MAKE SURE I HAVE EVERYTHING RECORDED CORRECTLY! I will update those grades at least once a week (probably Thursday afternoon).

Books and resources used in the course:

As a text we will use various articles from Wikipedia. Please read the articles before coming to class because we will discuss them in class. You may wish to look at links to other articles in Wikipedia. If you find an entry that is very useful, please let the instructor know (extra credit points). If you find an entry that where is says that something is needed (for example references) or missing, let the instructor know.
I am handing out a few pages from Introduction to Environmental Physics by N Mason and P. Hughes (Taylor and Francis, 2001) which is a good book, you probably can find it used on Amazon if you want to have a reference. The book by Hafemeister, Physics of Societal Issues is also excellent.
We will also read and discuss the articles listed below (some are on line, the rest you will have to get from the library).
The Reference page for this course has many of the overheads and graphs used and links to other useful information.

Dates: Assignments:

8/27-8/29: Read 'Human Population Grows Up' by J. E. Cohen in Scientific American, Sept. 2005 p49.

Homework (Assignment 1 due 9/5):

The Population assignment. Be sure to include a discussion of your findings.
Write a summary (bullet format) outlining the salient points of the 'Human Population Grows Up' article. Include enough information that a student who missed the class could still pass a test on the material.

9/3-9/5: Monday, 9/3, is a holiday (no class). For Wed. start reading the following entries in Wikipedia (be sure to type these key words exactly as written here): Laws of Thermodynamics, First Law of Thermodynamics, Second Law of Thermodynamics, Available useful work (thermodynamics). We will discuss these in class on Wed. Instructor notes.
- Homework (Assignment 2 due 9/10):
  - Explain, using the second law of thermodynamics, why electric motors and fuel cells can have efficiencies higher than 90% but internal combustion engines cannot.
  - A wet bathing suit spontaneously chills itself and its occupant. How can this happen without violating the second law of thermodynamics?
  - Using this table, find a high and low value for overall efficiency for the following combined processes.
    - large power plant boiler (coal) to large steam turbine to large electric generator
    - internal combustion engine to large electric generator
    - Why are power plants run by coal and not gasoline engines?
  - Problems (Handout).
9/10-9/12: Read the following Wikipedia entries: Timeline of motor and engine technology, Internal Combustion Engine, Electric Motor, Gas Turbine, fuel cell, battery (electric), energy storage.
- Homework (Assignment 3 due 9/19).
  - What are typical efficiencies of present day internal combustion engines? Why are diesels more efficient than gasoline engines?
  - What are typical efficiencies of present day electric motors? Fuel cells?
  - Given the following table, explain why, although electric engines are 90% efficient (compared to less than 25% for a gasoline engine) electric cars are not currently a viable means of transportation. What would have to happen to make electric cars a viable means of transportation?
  - Problems (Handout).
9/17-9/19: Read the following Wikipedia entries: Heat transfer, thermal radiation, heat conduction, convection, evaporation, low energy house.
- Homework (Assignment 4 due 9/24).
  - How is the heat transfer by evaporation fundamentally different than conduction, radiation and convection?
  - A thermos has two layers of glass with a vacuum in between, a silvered coating and a top. Explain, using the four means of heat transfer, how this construction minimizes heat loss.
  - Problems (Handout).
9/24-9/26: Read the following Wikipedia entries: World Energy Resources and Consumption, peak oil, fossil fuel, photo electric effect, photosynthesis.
- Homework (Assignment 5 due 10/3).
  - Explain how a photo cell works. What are some improvements that have been made in photo cell design?
  - Compare the relative efficiencies of photocells versus photosynthesis.
  - In about a page, explain the concept of peak oil (start with a bullet summary of the Wikipedia entry). Include arguments for and against the idea that oil production will peak within the next 10 years (include a link to a reasonably believable anti-peak web site). Discuss the possible outcome of a peak in oil production (worst case/best case scenarios). In your (now) expert opinion, what do you think is going to happen?
  - Hubbert peak type models have been applied to other resources besides petroleum production. Try to find a couple of examples on the web from legitimate sources.
10/1-10/3: Read the following Wikipedia entries: biomass, biofuel, wind power, solar power, photovoltaics, hydroelectricity, geothermal power, tidal power, wave power, nuclear power, hydrogen economy.
- Homework (Assignment 6 due 10/10).
  - Make a list of pros and cons for nuclear power as a future energy source.
  - Plants are typically less than 5% efficient in changing solar energy to plant oil whereas common, off the shelf solar electric cells are around 25%. After accounting for various conversion processes, this means that solar cells can provide about 17 Quadrillion BTU (Quad) of energy per 10,000km² where as corn provides 0.06 Quad, soybeans 0.16 Quad and sugar cane 0.4 Quad. Total US transportation consumption in 2004 was 27.8 Quad. What fraction of the US land surface would have to be planted in sugarcane to supply all the transportation energy needs for 2004? Find (Google) the total arable land in the US. Is there enough arable land to supply all our transportation energy needs by planting sugar cane?
  - In the material handed out in class Vaclav Smil gives a sample calculation of the available hydroelectric energy resource in the world based on the available fresh water run-off in the world. See if you can find a similar calculation for the other renewable sources (wind, biomass, geothermal, tidal and solar). In other words, when someone says there is 4 TW of wind or tidal energy available, how do they arrive at that number?
  - Problems (Handout).
10/8-10/17: Find and read the following articles (some are on line or in our library). We will discuss them in order. Don't worry about getting bogged down in the technical parts- just skim those parts and we'll talk about the interesting stuff.

Special Issue: 'The Energy Challenge' Physics Today vol. 55 No. 4 April (2002). Note there are 6 articles (including the short 2 page introduction) in this issue. We will read the first two which are online.
Basic choices and Constraints on Long-Term Energy Supplies, P. Weisz; Physics Today vol. No. 7 July (2004) p47.
Special Issue: 'Energies Future Beyond Carbon' Scientific American (Sept. 2006). We will read several articles in this issue:
- 'The Nuclear Option' J. M. Deutch and E. J. Moniz Scientific American (Sept. 2006) p76.
- 'An Efficient Solution' E. K. Jochem Scientific American (Sept. 2006) p64.
- 'The Rise of Renewable Energy' D. M. Kammen Scientific American (Sept. 2006) p84.
The Hydrogen economy. G. Crabtree, M. Dresselhaus, M. Buchanan; Physics Today vol. No. 12 December (2004) p39.
'The Mirage of the H₂ Economy', Shinnar, R., Clean Techn. Environ. Policy, 6, (2004) pp223-226.
'Environmental, economic and energetic costs and benefits of biodiesel and ethanol biofuels' J. Hill, E. Nelson, D. Tilman, S. Polasky, D. Tiffany, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Vol. 103 No. 30 (July 2006) p11206.
Homework (Assignment 7&8 (counts as two) due 10/22): Write a summary (bullet format) outlining the salient points of each of the 8 articles. Include enough information that a student who missed the class could still pass a test on the material.

10/22-10/24: Read the following Wikipedia entries: Coriolis Effect, Hadley Cells, blackbody radiation, solar variation, electromagnetic spectrum, greenhouse effect.
- Homework: (Assignment 9 due 10/29):
  - Explain (with diagrams if necessary) why the prevailing winds on the surface of the earth blow from the southwest in the northern hemisphere and from the northwest in the southern hemisphere. Include a discussion of the Coriolis effect, Hadley Cells, convergence zone, jet stream. What effect did these prevailing winds have on early sailing trade patterns?
  - What are the Milankovich cycles? Are fluctuations of solar intensity likely to be the cause of the current global warming?
  - Explain the link between blackbody radiation and the greenhouse effect. Start with a discussion of the Stephan Bolzman law.
  - Carbon dioxide is 1000 times weaker than methane as a greenhouse gas and exists in very small amounts in the atmosphere (1 part in 1000). Explain, then, why the focus of greenhouse warming is on carbon dioxide.
  - What role does ocean circulation play in global warming?
  - Problems (Handout).
10/29-11/7: Read the following articles.
- Homework. Everyone will read the IPCC 'Global Warming: The Scientific Basis' executive summary. This report is a summary of the full document. We will discuss this in class. You should also look at the How to Reply to Climate Skeptics web page.
- Homework (Assignment 10 due 11/12) We will split the IPCC tecnical summary into parts, each student will present a summary of their part to the class. One other very short review of the IPCC report is also interesting.
11/12-11/26: Read the following articles. We will discuss each one in order. We may get started on this before 11/12.

'Satellite-Observed Changes in the Artic', Comiso and Parkinson, Physics Today, vo1. 57 no. 8 August (2004) p38.
'Rapid Climate Change' by K. Taylor American Scientist vol. 87 No. 4 July-August (1999) p320.
'Climate Shock: Abrupt Changes over Millennial Time Scales' E. Bard, Physics Today vol. 55 No. 12 December (2002) p32.
'Abrupt Climate Change' R. B. Alley et. al. Science vol. 299 March (2003) p2005.
'Technologies to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Next Decade' by A.H. Rosenfeld, T.M. Kaarsberg, J. Romm Physics Today vol. 53 No. 11 November (2000) p29.
'Drowning in New Orleans' Scientific American, October 2001, Mark Fischetti.
'A Plan to Keep Carbon in Check' Scientific American (Sept. 2006) p 50, R. H. Socolow, S. W. Pacala.
Homework (Assignment 11&12 due 11/14): Write a summary (bullet format) outlining the salient points of each of the 7 articles. Include enough information that a student who missed the class could still pass a test on the material.
Homework (Assignment 13 due 11/26) Send me via email, an anti-global warming web site (Google Climate Hoax or something like that). After we discuss them in class (on 11/26), write a critique of each of the sites we have found to turn in (due 11/28).
Start working on the final project for this class. Send a proposal to me of what you want to do by 11/14.

11/26: We will discuss the anti-global warming web sites you have found. I will put a link to those sites here when I have them.
11/28-12/5: Read the following articles, come prepared to discuss them in class.

'Traffic Crashes' Leonard Evans, American Scientist vol. 90 No. 3 May-June (2002) p244.
'Impacts on the Earth by asteroids and comets: assessing the hazard', C. R. Chapman and D. Morrison, Nature vol. 367, Jan. (1994) p33.
Summaries of the Risk web page.
This is not an assignment but if you want to see NASA's evaluation of which asteroids are potentially dangerous try the Near Earth Orbit web site and the Workshop Report. Also, here is the latest on an asteroid which orginally was thought to be going to hit the earth in 2029: 2004MN4
Homework: (Assignment 14 due 12/10):
- Exercises on the Risk web page and a bullet summary of the two articles. Send it by email if you aren't on campus.
- Find a credible site on the web that discusses electrical transmission lines and human health. Summarize the conclusions of the site (be sure to include the URL and tell why you know it is a credible site).
- Find on the web a report about radon levels in Southern Indiana. Argue either for or against radon detection for houses in your neighborhood.
Take Home Final project is due by 5PM on Dec. 12.

Go To: IUS Physics Top Page.
Contact Dr. K. Forinash, for comments/suggestions/corrections.