PV Gap

Michael Said:

Can anybody else see how the solar system works?

We Answered:

Not sure how you want this question answered, but here goes:

The solar system consists of the Sun, the 10 planets, the asteroid belt, The Kuiper belt, and the Oort cloud. The Sun is a main sequence G2 star that contains 99.86% of the system's known mass. Its two largest orbiting bodies, Jupiter and Saturn, account for more than 90% of the remainder; the Oort Cloud might hold a substantial percentage, but as yet its existence is unconfirmed.

In broad terms, the charted regions of the solar system consist of the Sun and its planetary system: the eight bodies in relatively unique orbits commonly called planets or major planets and two belts of smaller objects, which can be called minor planets, planetoids, meteoroids, or planetesimals. Pluto, the ninth planet, is also considered a member of the outer belt, and its status is currently uncertain, particularly since the discovery of 2003 UB313 (see below). Most objects in orbit round the Sun all lie within the same shallow plane, called the ecliptic plane, and orbit in the same direction. Many are in turn orbited by moons, and the largest are encircled by planetary rings of dust and other particles.

The major planets are, in order, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Eight of the nine planets are named after or derived from gods and goddesses from Greco-Roman mythology.

Distances within the solar system are measured most often in astronomical units, or AU. One AU is the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun, or 149 598 000 kilometres. Other units in common use include the gigametre (Gm, one million kilometres) and the terametre (Tm, one billion/milliard kilometres). Pluto is roughly 38 AU (5.9 Tm) from the Sun, while Jupiter lies at roughly 5.2 AU (778 Gm).

Using radiometric dating, scientists can estimate that the solar system is 4.6 billion years old. The oldest rocks on Earth are approximately 3.9 billion years old. Rocks this old are rare, as the Earth's surface is constantly being reshaped by erosion, vulcanism and plate tectonics. To estimate the age of the solar system scientists must use meteorites, which were formed during the early condensation of the solar nebula. The oldest meteorites (such as the Canyon Diablo meteorite) are found to have an age of 4.6 billion years, hence the solar system must be at least 4.6 billion years old.

The current theory of solar system formation is the nebular hypothesis, first proposed in 1755 by Immanuel Kant and independently formulated by Pierre-Simon Laplace. The nebular theory has been refined over many years and now has a great deal of evidence supporting it.

To briefly summarize, the nebular theory holds that the solar system was formed from the gravitational collapse of a gaseous cloud called the solar nebula. It had a diameter of 100 AU and was 2-3 times the mass of the Sun. Over time a disturbance (possibly a nearby supernova) squeezed the nebula, pushing matter inward until gravitational forces overcame the internal gas pressure and it began to collapse. As the nebula collapsed it began to spin faster to conserve angular momentum, and became warmer. As the competing forces associated with gravity, gas pressure, magnetic fields, and rotation acted on it the contracting nebula began to flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disk with a gradually contracting protostar at the center.

Grains of dust (silicates and metals) and ice (hydrogen compounds) condensed from the gas, and began to accrete into larger and larger clumps, forming planetesimals. Inside the frost line, planetesimals were composed of rock and metal, because those are the only grains that can condense at those temperatures, and remained relatively small because they were only 0.6% the mass of the disk. The larger icy planetesimals beyond the frost line became massive enough to capture and hold onto helium and then hydrogen gases, which caused them to rapidly grow into jovian protoplanets.

After 100 million years, the pressure and density of hydrogen in the centre of the collapsing nebula became great enough for the protosun to begin thermonuclear fusion, which increased until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved. The young Sun's solar wind then cleared away all the gas and dust in the protoplanetary disk, blowing it into interstellar space, thus ending the growth of the planets.

Jesse Said:

Is solar heat to electricity totally non-air-polluting?

We Answered:

You have a lot of energy conversions and thus waist in your theory, but as long as the water is pure, yes it is non air polluting.

Neil Said:

Solar Power: Does anyone know how many watts the "average" air conditioner requires to operate?

We Answered:

The main consumer of energy in an A/C system is the compressor. All other components use far less energy than the compressor and can be considered as insignificant.

I like to use the following as an estimate for compressor energy consumption:
Most central A/C units run on 220V and use 20-30 amps. Wattage is calculated by Voltage x Current, so 220*20=44000 W or 4.4kW.

The second biggest energy draw is the fan, but it is less than 1kW. Note that the condenser coils do not utilize any electricity. It's just tubes into which the refrigerant expands and cools.

Try to determine the amperage requirements for your compressor. This will give you your best estimate.