PV Gap

Alex Said:

Definitions and descriptions of these typesof alternate energy: solar,geothermal, hydro,wind,hydrogen,biomass?

We Answered:

Solar energy is energy that comes directly from the sun. There's two basic forms of current solar, solar thermal and photovoltaic. Solar-thermal heats a liquid that causes pressure to build and that turns a turbine. (turbines spin in magnets creating electricity) Photovoltaic gets electricity from the sun directly. Silicon has the property that it sheds electrons when sunlight hits it. There's no fancy mechanical hookup or anything. The only trick is to have a wire that collects the spare electrons that are electricity.

Geothermal is heat from the earth, this would be geysers, volcanoes and other trapped heated pockets within the earth. This heat creates pressure, that's used to turn a turbine.

Hydro is water, dams mostly, where water is stored at a high level and released through a turbine that produces electricity.

Wind is the wind mills you see, that's directly hooked to a turbine creating electricity.

Hydrogen is a gas, and I don't think belongs on this list. It's a fuel and not a type of alternative energy. If she wants it in there I'd say that it's for direct burning through an internal combustion engine, or through fuel cells. Fuel cells take Hydrogen and run them through a membrane that strips electrons while mixing the Hydrogen with Oxygen. (H20)

Biomass is burning, or converting used plant material creating heat and turning a turbine to get energy. they can make a fuel from biomass that can be burned later.

Norman Said:

need help fast!! how do you answer this Q defining light energy plus reflcetion refraction and lens?

We Answered:

light energy is visible electromagnetic energy composed of photons.
Reflection is like a mirror
Refraction is like light in water
Lens is a device used to manipulate the direction, type, and/or intensity of light

Alma Said:

How can we define energy resources ?

We Answered:

Renewable energy resource: an energy resource that is replaced rapidly by natural processes. Some examples of renewable energy resources are sunlight, hydropower (water falling through a dam), and wood.

Bio- Mass is defined as is the mass per unit area of living plant material.

Hydro Power- Is the power that is derived from the weight or motion of water, used as a force to drive machinery.

Solar energy- is energy from the Sun in the form of radiated heat and light.

If you need more info check:
http://www.biotechtouch.blogspot.com/

Bob Said:

*HELP* steps that lead to the formation of the sun according to the solar nebula theory?

We Answered:

Within that "cool hydrogen cloud" there were regions more dense than others. Because of that, the gravitational attraction between hydrogen molecules was high enough to start clumps forming. The largest clump drew in more molecules than any of the others; it gradually formed into a very large sphere of mostly hydrogen gas. As it continued to grow, its central core became hotter and hotter because of all the material squeezing inward on it. After many millions of years this core reached a temperature high enough for nuclear fusion to begin and our sun was born. Nuclear fusion powers *all* the stars, including our sun, and happens when hydrogen is converted into helium. That process releases vast amounts of energy.

Bob Said:

solar question,about axial definitions of motion energy and mass?

We Answered:

Don't quit your day job yet.

"can any help me clarify my idea"

You don't have any idea. What you wrote is meaningless drivel.

Tara Said:

How Can Climate Decades into the Future be Predicted When Weather Forecasts Beyond 3 Days Are Unreliable?

We Answered:

It's an issue of short-term noise vs. long-term signal again.

In the short-term, the weather is extremely chaotic and very difficult to predict. But over the long-term, the short-term variations tend to average out. A good example is ENSO - we can barely predict what it's going to do over the next few months, but over the long-term the El Niños and La Niñas cancel eachother out, and they have no effect on the global temperature trend or climate changes.

The analogy I like to use is with gambling in a casino. There's no way to predict if you'll win a given bet, or come out ahead on a given day or a given week. But if you play long enough, it's a pretty safe prediction that you'll end up losing money. Or with the stock market - it can do anything on a given day or given week. But over the long-term, it's a safe bet that it will go up.

The long-term predictions are easier to make because the short-term noise becomes less prevalent the longer you look into the future.

What deniers like eric don't understand - because they don't want to understand it, because they need AGW to be wrong - is that climate models don't make projections over timespans of less than a decade. Over those short periods, short-term effects like ENSO, which are impossible to predict, dominate. The reason the planet hasn't warmed much over the last 8 years is that there have been mostly La Niña cycles over that period. No, climate models didn't predict that. Nor did they attempt to.

Herman Said:

What's the exact definition of a "solar energy flux?"?

We Answered:

You mean meaning. It's not a technical terms so much as three words, all of which have precise definitions. It means the total rate of energy emission (aka power) from the sun. The sun emits energy principally by radiation and high velocity particles. That's not per unit area, or just onto earth - the whole sun.