Shane

3/22/11 Electronics and Computers
==There are two major types of electrical signals: Analog, and Digital. Analog signals run smoothly, and don't just jump around. Things that use analog signals are analog clocks, microwaves, dial thermometers, etc. On the other hand, Digital signals bounce around quickly, going from place to place quickly, and not smoothly. Devices that use digital signals are things like CD players, digital clocks, which instead of slowly moving, just bounce to the next number, and some digital thermometers. Semiconductors are useful because when you dope it, or at an impurity atom, the conductivity can be controlled. Even adding one impurity atom to a million semiconductor atoms, you can still control the conductivity, making it useful in a variety of ways. This helps so people don't use to much current, but use enough to power the object.Diodes are used only for one way electricity flow. Diodes can also convert an alternating current to a direct current, something that is very useful for controlling electronic devices. Transistors are used to alternate signals in circuits. For example, they can amplify it, make it smaller, or completely shut it off. Integrated circuits are used to hold any transistors and diodes inside of them, and they are about 1mm wide on each side. Since transistors and diodes are big by themselves, an integrated circuit allows the millions of transistors needed for a PC to all fit in a nice tiny 1mm by 1mm box. Otherwise, computers would be much bigger, and not portable. ==

Electronics are essential to the Mission to Mars because the computers that run the whole program needed to use integrated circuits that contain transistors and diodes to run. Without these, the mission wouldn't be successful at all. Electronics tell you everything you need to know about the environment you're heading into, the temperature, how much oxygen you have and need. Electronics are absolutely essential to the mission because without them, the spaceship couldn't be made, the astronauts and ground team would be totally lost and unable to communicate with each other. Without this, the astronauts wouldn't know what to do with everything, if they even knew enough to get up in the air. Electronics are needed for the mission to Mars because without them, mostly everything we do wouldn't be possible.

//Ms. Mc - Good overview of electronics but you didn't do the second paragraph on how you might use electronic devices on a mission to search for life on Mars. Please include the entry # in your title. 5/10 May 4th - Added back paragraph that was accidentally deleted so 5 points added. New total = 10/10//

Rockets Through Time: A Brief History of Rockets

There have been many forms of rockets throughout history. Rockets have been in everything from exploration of space to military forces and war. The first rocket like objects were found in Greece by an inventor named Hero. This rocket used steam to lift it off. The Chinese were the first to really use the rocket, but the way the found it was an accident. The Chinese would put explosives in a thin bamboo stick and through it in a fire for religious festivals. When they noticed that the bamboo sticks were flying up, they realized that they could use it. They decided to use rockets and strap them to arrows. They went into a battle with the Mongols, and easily won because of the rockets. The psychological affect on the Mongols was devastating as well, but they soon innovated and made a crude version of their own. Since the Mongols were travelers, all these ideas quickly spread to Europe and soon the whole world had rockets. In the 15th century, rocket really was innovated. The French had the idea to gain more accurate flight by launching the rocket out of a tube. The English made better gunpowder to increase the rocket's range. Italians designed a rocket to set enemy ships on fire. Everyone in the world was suddenly adding on to the rocket. But all of the rockets up to this time were designed for warfare.



Figure 1. Fire Arrow made by the Chinese

Rocketry for innovation and space exploration first became an idea in 1898, when a Russian school teacher named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky realized that rockets could be used for space exploration. Until then, everybody thought rockets were only useful for warfare, but Tsiolkovsky changed that. In 1903, he proposed in a report that liquid propellant be used to power the rockets for a greater range. His extensive research helped future space technology develop. The first American to extensively test rocketry was Robert Goddard, who basically dedicated his life to rocketry. He conducted many tests on what was good to use in rockets, how they should fly, liquid vs. solid propellants, and many other ground-breaking discoveries. His rockets started out small, with tests similar to the Wright Brothers where the rocket was only airborne for a couple seconds. But eventually, his rockets got bigger and better to the point where he was priming the world for space exploration. For all of his dedicated work, he is called the "Father of Modern Rocketry." But even during this exploration period, the Germans were building a rocket to fire onto London in the midst of the second World War. Secret Rocket Societies were popping up all across the world, not just Germany. But when Germany was captured, the rockets were taken by the allies and many of the scientists split and fled into Russia or the U.S. The ones that came to the U.S. were very impressed with Goddard's work. The Russians saw an opportunity and seized it and started the "Race to Space". The Russians launched Sputnik, and the world was shocked. The U.S. matched and countered though, by sending people into space. Even after the competition, most everyone realizes that rockets have increased the world's knowledge of space.



//Ms. Mc: Good overall summary of the history of rocketry. I liked how you divided your discussion into earlier times and the 20th century to today. Please be sure to read over your entries and check them for spelling and grammar. Please fix the font in the caption for your first drawing as it is illegible//. 14/15

Entry 3 4/4/11 Rocket Simulation with Scratch

media type="custom" key="8964672" width="100" height="100"

When the widget is opened, press the green flag to play. Enjoy!

Entry 4

4/13/11

Rocket Parts Labeled

The nose cone makes the rocket more aerodynamic. The body tube is the main structural part of the rocket. The motor powers the rocket upwards, and the motor mount holds the motor in place. The heat from the motor is a lot, so the recovery wadding protects the recovery system from burning up. The launch lug guides the initial launch off the base and the fins guide it in the air.

//Ms. Mc: Good labels and definitions. Please add your recovery system definition to your text. 20/20//

Entry 5 4/18/11

The purpose of this experiment was to determine if the rocket's mass affects how high the rocket flies.. It was concluded that mass affected the rocket flight, but not greatly. The greater the mass on a certain object, the more force gravity exerts on it. When the rocket was on the launch pad, only two forces were acting on the rocket: The launch pad, which was pushing up, and gravity pushing down. These two forces were equal, so the rocket was at rest. Once at lift off, the rocket had more forces acting on it. Gravity and Air Resistance were acting against the rocket, and the thrust of the rocket was acting upwards. Since the thrust was greater, the rocket went upwards. Once the rocket reached the apogee, or the point where the inertia runs out, it fell, because there was no thrust so gravity forced it down. When the recovery system was deployed, the parachute used air resistance to actually counter-act gravity pulling the rocket downwards. The parachute was not meant to even the forces, but instead to make the force downwards less, allowing the rocket to land at a slower speed. Once the rocket was on the ground, the only forces acting on it were the ground and gravity. These forces are balanced, so at this point the rocket is not moving. It was hypothesized that a rocket with more mass will have a lower apogee because the forces acting against it are greater, so it will travel less. Because of the extra force added working against the rocket, it was hypothesized that it makes the rocket travel less high. The results of the experiment prove that the hypothesis was correct. The best-fit line that was made showed the graph was an inverse slope, meaning the bigger the x variable got, the y got smaller. In this case, the bigger the mass of the rocket (g), the lower the apogee. The rockets ranged in height from 41.5 g to 47 g. The rocket that was 41.5 g traveled the second lowest, even though it was contradictory to the other results. But the other rockets were perfectly in line with the hypothesis. As in Figure 1., the points in the center of the graph, where the outlier is excluded and the rocket masses are lower flew much higher than the rockets with greater masses. The rocket with the highest mass flew the lowest of all of the rockets.

Entry 6 4/25/11

What is a quark? What types of quarks are there? A quark is a tiny particle that makes up a lot of the matter the universe. There are four fundamental forces, but quarks are the things that do to others. Quarks are like the nouns, and the forces are like the verbs. Quarks combine with other quarks to build things like protons and neutrons. There are six different types of quarks, called: up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. Two ups and a down quark can combine to make a proton. Quarks can act like atoms and molecules, by combining different types of quarks to make something else, as seen in Figure 1. Quarks are the building blocks for each part of an atom, and they are even smaller than an electron, or proton, or neutron. Each quark is charged with fractions. For example, Ups are worth 2/3's of a charge, and downs are worth -1/3 a charge.

How did our moon come to revolve around the earth? Way back when our earth was in it's early stages, a planet the size of Mars crashed into the earth, as seen in Figure 2. Most of its' mass was absorbed, but some flew off and formed it's own little planet, which was in the gravitational pull of the earth already, so it started orbiting around the earth, and became the moon we know today.

// Ms. Mc: Good answers and I like your analogy of quarks/forces to nouns/verbs. You forgot a caption for Figure 2 (-1 point). Also, be sure to check your spelling; it's should be its (it's is the contraction of it is) (-1/2) 8.5/10. //

Entry 8 5/5/11

For this challenge, we were supposed to create a program that told the robot to follow a blue line without any sensors. At the end, the robot had to spin and display a face and a sound. This challenge was mostly about measuring distances and using movement blocks to make things move and turn.



Block 1- Block 1 is a movement block that is telling the wheels (servo motors) to move forwards at 75% power for 4 rotations of the wheels. Block 2- Block 2 is a movement block telling the servo motors to make a point turn right at 90 degrees. Block 3- Block 3 is a movement block that is telling the wheels to move straight forward at 75% power for two rotations of the wheel. Block 4- Block 4 is a movement block telling the servo motors to make a left point turn at 75% power for 90 degrees. Block 5- Block 5 is a movement block that is telling the wheels to move backwards for 1.5 rotations of the wheel at 75% power. Block 6- Block 6 is another movement block that tells the wheels to make a right point turn for 720 degrees at 75% power. Block 7- Block 7 is a Display Block that tells the robot to display a smiley face and then clear it. Block 8- Block 8 is another display block that tells the robot to make a sound, and it tells the robot to make an applauding sound.