I had a serious issue with her public speaking skills and she did neither inspired my attention nor my passion. She obviously did not have the knowledge necessary to answer all of the questions asked and she definately should have had other members of the project with her (specialists in the economy and politics etc...). On the other hand, while it is obvious her plan would never work due to the constraints of society she admits she ignores, I think it is interesting to see what we would have to do if we could do everything necessary to stop global warming right now. Its a good perspective to start with, and then come in and judge the system more practically, in that way, her topic was interesting.
On friday's class:
The discussion was awsome. I think that once we are allowed to take science where we want as a class (the political and economic sides of the issue) we think critically and broadly about the main issues presented in the class. We seem to have passion and a desired direction when we are allowed to discuss as we please, and although the direction is obviously not focused on science it is science based and augmented by what we learn in class.
Some notes:
Thermodynamics
I Heat and Temperature
- Heat- transfer of energy across the boundary of a system due to a temperature difference between the system and its surroundings
- Temperature- average thermal energy of particle
- Scales- Kelvin, Celsius, Fahrenheit
- Heat Capacity- C=Q/change in T
- Specific Heat- c=Q/(m x change in T)
Q- cm(change in T) - The amount of energy required to raise the temperature, c, indicates how much resistance to raising the temperature
- Exothermic- releasing heat energy
- Chemical action
- Mechanical-thermal= friction
- Different kinds of energy
- Acoustic
Mechanical
Nuclear
Electromagnetic
Electrostatic
All lead to thermal energy
II First law of Thermodynamics - Energy is conserved in a closed system
- Heat is energy
- Heat is not conserved; work energy is not conserved, only total internal energy is conserved
- E=heat + work= summation of Q+ summation of W
- Internal energy= kinetic energy of molecules, potential energy within and between molecules
- Friction causes heat
- Change in E= Q-W
- For constant E: Q=W
- Heat added or withdrawn balances work done on and by the system
I also looked up some cool Bill Nie videos on thermodynamics in case you want to use them in class:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=466uJSRuyrU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4jDlvniz4U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcxVIi0nErk
1 comment:
Good analysis of the high points of last week.
I agree with your points about the plenary, including the thought that laying out the ideal action plan gives a standard to measure our progress. I think she realizes that it's a challenge, not a realistic plan.
Yes, the discussion was great, including having people who never talk speak up passionately. We are moving into a phase of the class where we can do more of this, focused on an article, plenary, news item, etc. I'm glad for your point about the discussions being based on science and what is learned in class. This has been the goal.
Good summary of thermo. Thanks for the links.
Post a Comment