My Science Experiments

[Garr]

Machines that I built for science experiments. I entered these machines into science fairs and won every single one.

Below is a Microbial Fuel Cell, this is a device that generates electricity using decomposing organic waste. It works by using the electrochemical reactions of the decomposing waste to discharge electrons. Bacteria with electrochemically active redox proteins such as cytochromes on their outer membrane transfer electrons directly to an electron donor called the anode which discharges the excess electrons to an electron acceptor called the cathode, generating a flow of electricity.

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A Water Jet, this is a propulsion system for water transport that works by using motor driven turbines to compress water into a nozzle in order to pressurize it and produce thrust. The 1st vehicles to use water jet propulsion are the Trafalgar Class Stealth Submarines used by the British Navy since 1983. Because the water is concentrated into a jet, the noise signature of the water jet is lower than a propeller and this makes the submarine harder to detect using sonar. The next vehicle to be propelled by water jets is the Sea Fighter used by the US Navy since 2003, the use of a Small Waterline Area Twin Hull design to reduce hydrodynamic drag along with the thrust produced by the water jets allows the Sea Fighter to reach a top speed of 102km/h.

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A Water Filter, it works by using stones and sediment to block dirt and other particulates from water in order to purify it.

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A Vertical Axis Wind Turbine, it works by letting the force of incoming wind push the turbine blades in order to rotate a permanent magnet DC generator. This type of generator works by using the input mechanical energy to turn a permanent magnet which induces an electrical current in an inductor surrounding the magnet by using the rotating magnetic field to attract the electrons in the inductor and force them to move around the coil, generating a flow of electricity.

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A front view of a step-up transformer, this is a device that steps-up the voltage of an alternating current. When current is alternating, the acceleration and decceleration of the electrons in the wire causes the photons surrounding the electrons to accelerate and deccelerate back and forth because of their attraction to the electrons and this becomes what is known as radiation. When the AC is run into an inductor, it causes the radiation of become focused because of the rotation of the electrons being aligned in the coiled wire, causing it to generate circulating lines of photons known as a magnetic field, and since the current is intermittent, the magnetic field oscillates, causing intense radiation to be emitted in all directions. The radiation is then absorbed by placing a second inductor in the presence of the primary inductor, causing the electrons in the secondary inductor to be attracted to the radiation and move in the same direction that the radiation moves. To amplify the voltage, the number of turns in the secondary inductors is increased to multiply the forces exerted by the moving electrons and add them up, causing the voltage to increase.

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A rear view of the same step-up transformer:

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A thermoelectric generator, it works by using a source of heat to induce an electrical current in junctions of dissimilar metals called thermocouples to absorb the heat and generate electricity. When the heat makes contact with the thermocouples, the heat causes the electrons in the thermocouples' atoms to move through the circuit with the positive junction containing an excess of electrons and emitting it and the negative junction containing a deficiency of electrons, enabling it to absorb the excess electrons from the positive junction, and when the negative junction gets full, it discharges the excess electrons to the adjacent positive junction of another thermocouple instead of sending it back to its own positive junction because its connection is facing the source of heat which repels the electrons to the connection with the adjacent thermocouple which is not facing the heat source, generating a flow of electrical current which is stopped only when the heat source is removed and the excess electrons have returned back to the positive junctions. In this configuration, the thermoelectric generator uses a gas burner as the heat source.

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In this other configuration, the thermoelectric generator uses solar radiation as the heat source, allowing it to function as a solar panel.

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The zinc terminal acts as the positive junction or cathode because it has an excess of electrons and discharges the electrons to the copper terminal which acts as the negative junction or anode because it has a deficiency of electrons, generating electricity.

The cathode is also referred to as the electron donor while the anode can also be referred to as the electron acceptor.

For the use of zinc and copper strips, in any solid state power generation system that uses various phenomenon such as chemical reactions, heat, radiation, radioactivity, and nuclear reactions to produce electricity, dissimilar pairs of materials are always used.

In semiconductor physics and quantum electrodynamics, one material which has an excess of electrons called the positive material, cathode, or the material with the electron pairs, is connected to the material with a deficiency of electrons, called the negative material, anode, or the material with the electron holes.

When the source of energy in the form of chemical reactions, heat, radiation, radioactivity, and nuclear reactions comes in contact with the cathode, the energy forces the electrons out of the cathode and into the anode which contains the electron holes. When the anode gets full, the electricity flows out into the ground or return circuit and back into the cathode, generating a flow of electricity.

The zinc is the cathode because it has the excess of electrons while the copper is the anode because it has the deficiency of electrons.

The cathode can also be referred to as the material with the electron pairs while the anode can also be referred to as the material with the electron holes.

When a source of energy such as chemical reactions excites the cathode, the excess electrons move through the connecting conductor and into the anode which has a deficiency of electrons.

Solar panels and even RTGs (radioisotope thermoelectric generators) operate on the same principle except that heat and radioactivity are used to excite the electrons of the cathode in order to eject those electrons into the anode.

In my thermoelectric generator, I used a combination of iron and nickel.

Iron has a thermoelectric coefficient of 19 microvolts per degree Celsius while nickel has a thermoelectric coefficient of -15 microvolts per degree Celsius which makes iron a cathode and nickel the anode.

Exposing this combination of iron and nickel to heat causes the excess electrons of the iron to move through the connecting conductor and into the anode which has a deficiency of electrons.

The formula for calculating the voltage of the device is:

V = ∆s∆Tn

Where:

V - is the voltage
∆s - is the difference in seebeck coefficients measured in microvolts per degree Celsius
∆T - is the difference in temperature
n - is the number of series electrical connections

The formula for calculating the current of the device is:

I = (Q/∏)n

Where:

I - is the current
Q - is the amount of heat absorbed by the material
∏ - is the peltier coefficient
n - is the number of parallel electrical connections

The formula for calculating the Peltier coefficient is:

∏ = ∆sT

Where:

∏ - is the peltier coefficient
∆s - is the difference in seebeck coefficients measured in microvolts per degree Celsius
T - is the absolute temperature in Kelvin

The formula for calculating the power output is:

P = IV

Where:

P - is the power
I - is the current
V - is the voltage

The core concept of oxidation reduction is the chemical reaction that was being referring to, but that reaction does not occur in solar and thermo-electric generators.

And the formulas I mentioned were in reference to the thermoelectric generator I built and not the microbial fuel cell.

I mentioned the concept of excess electrons moving from cathodes/materials with electron pairs to electron deficient anodes/materials with electrons holes because that is what happens in general.

The redox reactions are only applicable to fuel cells and microbial fuel cells because that involves reactants in a chemical reaction providing the energy to move the electrons.

If there are no chemicals to generate the reaction, the copper and zinc would not generate electricity because energy is needed to do that.

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An automatic ID scanning sentry, it works by using a barcode scanner to scan the IDs. When the laser light from the barcode scanner touches the barcode, the light bounces off the surface and into a receiver in the scanner that converts the light into electricity using photoelectric materials. The signal generated in the process is converted into a digital signal using an analog to digital converter before sending it to the microprocessor that is running an ID scanner program. The program compares the input data to a list of codes in a database and if the input code is found in the database, the program sends a signal to the sentry to open and if not, the sentry remains closed and an error message appears stating that the ID is invalid.




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The barcode ID scanner works by using an infrared laser to scan the barcode. When the laser strikes the barcode, it is reflected off the surface and into a sequential scanner that contains thermophotovoltaic materials that are switched on and off sequentially to produce the signal.

Just like in the thermoelectric generator, the thermophotovoltaic circuit contains series connected junctions of positive and negative materials, with the positive being the cathode and the negative being the anode. When the infrared radiation strikes the surface of the cathode, it transfers energy to the excess electrons to move the electrons into the anode which has a deficiency of electrons, generating electricity.

The electricity generated by the thermophotovoltaic materials is stored in a capacitor before being discharged by the sequential scanner.

The sequential scanner works by using sequential circuits of transistors where the output terminals are connected to feedback lines so that the initial input that goes into the circuit and is outputted goes into the feedback line to cause interference, causing the first set of transistors to be switched off so that the next input goes into the next set of transistors, and this cycle repeats itself until it returns to the first set of electronic switches. Each switch that discharges the capacitor is connected to a memory device that automatically generates a binary signal every time electricity goes into it so that the on and off switching of the array of memory devices generates a characteristic binary signal that is equivalent to what is printed on the barcode.

In the case of the barcode scanner, the memory devices are programmed to generate a value of '1' every time they are switched on.

When the infrared laser strikes a black surface, no radiation is reflected into the scanner so no output is generated and this is equivalent to a '0'.

And when the infrared laser strikes the white surface, radiation is reflected into the scanner so an output is generated and this is equivalent to a '1'.

The combination of 0s and 1s forms the binary signal that goes into the USB cable and into the processor of the built in CPU.

A program is automatically loaded from a flash memory chip on the circuit board and into the RAM and processor that checks the IDs when the machine is turned on.

The whole application is loaded into the RAM and the specific processes that are running at the moment are loaded into the processor's control unit and microcode control unit to adjust the electrical connections of the combinatorial and sequential circuits in the arithmetic logic unit to process the inputs according to the instructions in the program.

When the signal coming from the barcode scanner matches an ID found in a database that is stored in a hard drive or solid state drive, the program generates an instruction to load the information found in the database such as a photo of the person along with identifying information into the screen to indicate the person's identity along with a code that instructs the electronic lock to disengage and the motor to open the barrier.

The electronic lock uses a solenoid to pull the bar that stops the barrier from turning out of the way while the motor rotates the barrier.

The solenoids and motors are connected to code division multiple access circuits that uses combinatorial circuits to block unwanted signals so that only the correct code can pass through and switch on the solenoid and motor.

The signal going into the motor is only sent for enough time to rotate the motor 90 degrees and then it stops while the signal going into the solenoid is continuous so that the lock is pulled out of the way.

When the person passes through the barrier, a motion sensor sends a signal to the processor and an instruction in the program then tells the motor to rotate in the opposite direction by 90 degrees to close the barriers while another instruction terminates the signal going into the solenoid so that a return spring can push the lock back into place.

When the signal coming from the barcode scanner does not match an ID found in the database, the program generates an error message stating that the ID is invalid and no instruction is sent to disengage the lock and open the barrier.

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The anime that I am a fan of are the scientific and technologically oriented genres like Mecha, Cyberpunk, Biopunk, Dieselpunk, Steampunk, Magitek, Military Science Fiction, Military Fantasy, and Space Exploration and while most people like these genres for the action, drama, romance, and fan service from the physically attractive characters, my only interest is in the science and technology that is on display.

I also find the architecture of the buildings fascinating.

So I post scientific, technological, historical, and artistic articles because other people in this forum might find it interesting.