Calvin

/22/2011
There are many different devices that need information and electronic signals provide the info. There are mainly 2 different types of signals: analog signals and digital signals. Analog signals that will provide information smoothly over a period of time while digital signals provide information in jumps, usually in numbers such as when a clock changes from 12:59 to 1:00. These signals provide information to devices but only the items inside the devices make them work. One item is the semiconductor. Semiconductors are usually worse than metals are conducting electricity but better than nonmetals. You might wonder how semiconductors are useful and one reason is that they have a special property that’s allows their electrical conductivity to vary by increasing or decreasing the amount of impurities are in the semiconductor. Adding impurities is called doping. There are 2 different types of semiconductors. They are p-type and n-type. P-type doesn’t conduct as well as n-type. N-type is created when atoms like arsenic are added to a siliconcrystal and p-type is created by adding atoms similar to gallium. Semiconductors provide the electrons for the following items: diodes, transistors and integrated circuits. A diode is a component that only allows current to flow in one direction. Transistors are some other components that amplify the electrical signal. These are helpful not only because they let current pass through it, it can block the current. Integrated circuits are just lots of circuits that are put on a piece of semiconductor.

Electrical devices in a space mission are especially helpful because without them, we wouldn’t be able to do most of the stuff we do know. Electrical devices such as computer wouldn’t let us track the progress of the machine that was supposed to travel. Cameras are important too because they let us see what is on Mars and possibly see life on Mars. Motors are definitely important because they are the building blocks of moving parts and wheels. Another important device would be a light, especially if it was dark and winter.

//Ms. Mc: Good overview of electronic components. Why are ICs helpful? I like your ideas for how we could use electronic devices on our mission to Mars. Please be sure to read through your entries before posting them for flow and grammar. Also, don't forget to include the entry # and a title with each entry. 8.5/10 //

3/29/2011

The first item that contributed to the invention of rockets was the Chinese, accidently-found gunpowder. This first gunpowder was made up of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal dust. To make the explosives explode, they filled bamboos with the substance. While some just exploded into flames, other flew out of the fire, which led to the first rocket. Later, the Chinese found out they could stick the explosives on arrows and launch them with bows. Soon, the Chinese found out the explosives didn’t need to be launched by bows; they just flew away by themselves. This bow and arrow plus the discovery that these arrows could fly without any help led to the simple invention of the first rocket. One story of the effectiveness and overall effect on the enemy was one war when the Chinese found the Mongols with these new inventions. These rockets were improved with higher accuracy by connecting it to a stick and aiming the stick. Not only did the Chinese win the war, it led to the Mongols wanting to create their own rockets. These Mongolian rockets may have contributed to the European boom in rocketry.



Picture 1: Chinese Fire Arrow

In the 20th century, Robert H. Goddard thought about making the rocket travel farther up into the sky. This led to different propellants for the rocket. The first propellant that Goddard made was solid. He later decided that liquid propellants would lead to better results, despite the fact that it was harder to accomplish. Eventually, on March 16, 1926, Goddard achieved his goal. His liquid propellant rocket traveled 12.5 meters into the air. This liquid propellant led to the invention of a flight control system and even parachutes for when the rocket landed.

Unfortunately, all good inventions have a bad side to them. In this case, Germany started to develop a rocket called V-2. This wasn’t used to experimental purposes; it was used to destroy cities. The V-2 burned liquid oxygen and alcohol to achieve a never before seen speed. Luckily for the French, the V-2 was never used in the war. The V-2 was the basis for using rockets in a military standpoint and also a more powerful rocket. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union unveiled a new rocket that would somehow be blasted into space. This new rocket, called the Sputnik 1, would orbit the earth. To make the trip even more exciting and amazing, the Soviet Union even sent up two dogs along with the satellite. Eventually, even spiders and humans were being sent up to Earth and here we are now. Now, we are trying to go to other planets and explore them. Picture 2: Sputnik, the First Rocket to go into space

In conclusion, the history of rockets hasn’t started very long ago. Our modern rockets were built of models made in 1926, only 84 years ago. 84 years isn't that long of a time. Overall, rockets had made a big impact to our lives. Not only do we see the galaxy in different ways, we now have different purposes for these rockets such as military. // Ms. Mc. Good summar of the history of rocketry. Your discussion of the first rockets was good but don't forget to include dates when you are discussing history. Sputnik I not only was a rocket but a satellite that remained in orbit around earth for several decades. I agree that we sure have come a long way in our understanding of rocketry in the last 84 years. Just think where we might be going 84 years from now? Good drawings too! Please refer to your pictures/drawings as Figure #__. 14.5/15 //

4/4/11
media type="custom" key="8956518"

Instructions: 1. Turn up your volume 2. Press the Green Flag 3. Enjoy

Rocket Analysis

4/12/2011
Figure 3: Picture of rocket There are many parts to a rocket. One of them is the nose cone. The nose cone guides the air around the rocket; making the rocket more aerodynamic. The b o dy tube is the main part of the rocket. It is basically like the foundation of a house. The recovery system is inside the body tube as is the recovery wadding, the rocket mount and the rocket motor. The recovery system is used for getting the rocket back for repeated use while the recovery wadding is used to make su r e the recovery system does not get burned from the hot gases that the rocket motor emits. The rocket mount secures the rocket motor. The rocket motor is the item that creates the thrust needed to make the rocket go upwards. The rocket motor is non-reusable and a new one is needed after every launch. The launch lug is needed to guide the rocket to were you want it to shoot and the fins stabilize the rocket so that it goes straight towards its target.

// Ms. Mc: Very good explanation of the functions of the rocket parts. Please include an entry # and a correct title. (-1) 19/20 //

Rocket Launch Analysis 4/16/11

The purpose of the experiment was to the find out if the mass of a rocket would affect the apogee of the rocket. There were man forces that affected the rocket as well. One force is gravity. Gravity is the force that attracts everything towards the center of the earth because the mass of the earth is greater than anything else around it. In other words, it makes the rocket “stick” to the ground. Another force that makes the rocket “fly” downwards and/or stop is air resistance. Air resistance goes opposite of the force that keeps an object moving. Both of these forces will make the rocket’s apogee be less. The force that makes the rocket go upwards is the force of the launch pad while the rocket is waiting to lift off and the thrust from the rocket. The force is the launch pad is going up and is equal to the force of gravity before lift off because of Newton’s third law “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. Thrust is the stronger force that makes the rocket fly upwards. During lift off, the thrust has to be greater than gravity and air resistance or else the rocket will not fly. During powered flight, it also has to be greater than gravity and air resistance. During coasting, the rocket has no thrust and is traveling because of the inertia gained during powered flight. Lastly, at apogee, there is no thrust, inertia or air resistance. There is no air resistance because the rocket should have stopped at the apogee. The last force that if left is gravity, which makes the rocket go downwards. It was hypothesized that overall, including the forces, the rocket with the least amount of mass would fly the highest because it would takes less amount of thrust to make the rocket fly upwards and thus, saving valuable fuel for the powered flight and an efficient ejection. Graph 1: The Masses and Apogees of the Rockets
 * INTRODUCTION**

Based on the results, it was concluded that the hypothesis was wrong. The results, as shown in graph 1, showed that the pattern was: the heavier the rocket was, the higher it flew. The range of the masses differed from 42.2 grams to 44.5 grams. The masses differed based on the amount of paint, glue and hot glue that was put on the rocket. The apogees of the rockets were from 53 meters to 81 meters. The overall relationship was a direct relationship because the rocket went higher when the rocket was more massive: The rocket that flew the highest had an apogee of 81 meters while it had a mass of 44.5 while the rocket that had the lowest apogee, 53 meters, had amass of 42.2. There was one outlier that almost had the second lowest apogee but had the second highest mass. The outlier didn't affect the overall relationship much. If this study was repeated, there could be many things that could be improved on. Firstly, the days that the rockets were launched had lots of wind. This could affect the rocket because it could have been hard for the angle gunners to aim and it would have also blown the rocket around, making the rocket go sideways instead of straight up. Another item that could have been improved was the accuracy of the angle gun measurements. The people who aimed gun should have all been the same people as different people's hands are not as steady as others and some people aim better than others. The last item that could be improved was the sample size. There were only 7 rockets and the data would have been more accurate with more rockets.
 * SUMMARY**

Quarks and the Moon
4/22/11

Quarks were discovered in the mid-20th century by scientists using high-energy collisions between different particles. The scientists then found out that protons and neutrons were no longer elementary particles; quarks were. The electron, on the other hand, is still an elementary particle. There are a total of 6 types of quarks. They are the up, down, top, bottom, charm, and strange. So far, 2 types of quarks have been found to have a fractional charge. The up quark has a charge of +2/3 while a down quark has a charge of -1/3 as seen in Figure 3 below. Figure 3: Quarks in a Neutron

Our moon came to revolve around the Earth when another planet the size of Mars crashed into Earth. The matter ejected from both the Earth and the other planet revolved around the Earth. Eventually, this matter stuck together to form our moon. For 1 millions years, the moon and the Earth were constantly bombarded to form the craters in the moon and Earth as seen in Figure 4 below.

Ms. Mc: Good answers and pictures. You fogot your caption for figure 2 (-1) though. 9/10

The History of Robotics
Robotics is a type of technology that has to do with the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The word robot was first used in the play "Rossum's Universal Robots." The play is mainly about robots being mistaken for real humans. Throughout the years, there has been little mentioning of robots. The few notable ones are in 1927, there was a movie called the Maschinenmensch, in 1942, Isaac Asimov made his Three Laws of Robotics and in 1948, Norbert Wiener formed the which we call cybernetics. Robotics hasn't played a large part in our society until recently.

The robots that we know of today appeared as late as the mid 20th century. The first operated and programmable robot was called the Unimate. It was installed in 1961. It's job was to lift hot pieces of metal from a machine and stack them. It seems that from that point forwards, the use of robots has increased at an exponential rate. Now we use robots for mainly manufacturing, especially mass production. We use robots in assembly lines to help build larger things such as cars and other electronics. Now, it seems as though we are relying on robots more than even ourselves.
 * Figure 1: A Robot Similar to Unimate**

Now, our robots are beginning to develop more and more into humans. Now, we have made robots that have senses. The sense of touch was first developed in 2009. It was called the Smarthand. It was a prosthetic hand that allowed the patient to write, play instruments, anything that needed a hand. Eventually, it jump-started into more and more human-like qualities. Robots can now see, thanks to the help of modernized computer and TVs. Robots now move and even walk. The most impressive robots are the ones with artificial intelligence. There was a robot that was made called the Kismet. The Kismet can sense facial expression, copy them, and even respond to them. A more recent example would be Watson.Watson is a robot that was made to play Jeopardy. Jeopardy is a game where you answer questions of different categories. Watson didn't have answers plugged into him; he used common sense, probability and learned from his mistakes.
 * Figure 2: Watson**

Possibly in the future, we would have robot waiters and servants. The bad thing is, we would become lazier and lazier. A more serious thought would be the fact that artificial intelligence of robots is increasing. We might have to defend ourselves against the robots some day, but that is another story.

//Ms. Mc: Informative and intersting summary. Don't forget to refer to your figures, graphs, tables, etc. in your text. +9 extra credit points.//

5/6/11
The purpose of the challenge was to somehow program our robot to maneuver and turn in a course. There was tape on the ground and we had to follow it, make a sound and display a picture. We had to use NXT software to program our robot. Block 1: This is a movement block. It is telling the robot to activate the C and B servomotors to move forwards for four rotations at 75% power then brake. This made the robot move forwards for about 60 cm. Block 2: This is a movement block. It is telling the robot to activate the B and C servomotors to turn right 180 degrees at 50% power then brake. This made the robot make a 90 degree turn to the right. Block 3: This is a movement block. It is telling the robot to activate the C and B servomotors to move forwards for 2 rotations at 75% power then brake. This made the robot go forwards for 30 cm. Block 4: This is a movement block. It is telling the robot to activate the C and B servomotors to turn left 180 degrees at 75% power then brake. This made the robot turn left 90 degrees to the left. Block 5: This is a movement block. It is telling the robot to activate the C and B servomotors to move backwards for 1.5 rotations at 75% power then brake. This made the robot move backwards for about 20 cm. Block 6: This is a movement block. It is telling the robot to activate the C and B servomotors to turn right 1440 degrees, which is equivalent to a 720 spin, at 75% power then brake. This made the robot turn completely around to the right twice. Block 7: This is a display block. It is telling the robot to change the NXT screen into one with a smiley faceuntil the next block then brake. This made the robot's screen show a smiley face. Block 8: This is a sound block. It is telling the robot to make a sound using an internal microphone. It will make the "Applause" sound, which is clapping at 75% volume then brake. This made the robot make a clapping sound.
 * Figure 1: The NXT program used to move the Robot**