Power Required for Typical Objects

Light

In order to estimate this value, I looked at the light bulb in my bedside lamp, that has a 60 Watt bulb inside of it. I'm pretty sure that this is the standard Wattage of a bulb, so I just estimated that a light needs 60 Watts.

TV

For the TV estimation, I researched how HD TVs work. I did not look up how much energy they use. So when I looked up how they work, the website said that the perimeter of the TV has LED lights. I decided to use the LED lights that we used in my estimation, so with 3.2 V x 0.02 A for the power of each bulb x 1200 bulbs in a 2 x 3 ft tv screen = approximately 80 Watts.  

Computer

For the computer, I looked at the bottom of my laptop which shows the voltage and current of my laptop. It said 19.5 v and 3.2 A, so I multiplied those together to find the power, P=IV which turned out to be about 70 Watts.


Car

For the car, I thought of the average horsepower of a car and then looked up the conversion of horsepower to watts. I figured an average car has around 250 horsepower, and the conversion is 1 hp = 746 Watts, so I multiplied 250 hp x 746 to get about 90,000 Watts.

Motorcycle

Here, my process was the same, but I estimated the average motorcycle to use 50 hp x 746 to get about 40,000 Watts.

Fridge

My process for the fridge is a bit iffy, but it was the best I could think of. So, the specific heat of air is about 1, so I knew that it took 1 joule to heat 1 gram of air 1 degree Celsius, so I figured that it would take the same amount of energy to decrease temperature, which I'm not sure if that even works. But I figured that I could think of the amount of air in the fridge in liters to figure out the grams of air in the fridge. Also I figured the difference in energy is about 16 degrees Celsius, bringing the room temperature of 21 to 4.4. So I figured that there was about 50 liters of air in the fridge. 16 x 50 = 800 Watts.
 

Oven

I used the same kind of process, but this time 10 liters of air x 150 degrees Celsius which is approximately 2,000 Watts.

Radio

For the radio, I looked at the bottom of it. It said 9 Volts and 2.5 amps, so I multiplied those two and got about 20 Watts.

Water Challenge

           When we first learned what the Water Challenge was, I was a little bit confused by what lesson could be learned from obtaining water from outside of the dorm. My first thought was that this would not help conserve our water consumption; however, upon beginning the challenge, and after personally experiencing the labor in class of carrying water via different methods of transport, it became clear to me that this was a very meaningful assignment. I am not sure why I did not originally realize the intent of the assignment, but now I completely see why we were challenged with this task. It seems ridiculous to me that this challenged me so much because I think about how much more difficult it is for the children and women who have to walk on average 5.6 km a day to get clean drinking water. The nearest bathroom from my dorm is approximately 0.1 km away, yet on some nights I could not get myself to go that far when I really had to go to the bathroom, or if I was too busy or too tired to walk all the way over to the bathroom,

really only adding on five minutes to my daily schedule. As we discussed in class, when we grow up so accustomed to having water right at our fingertips, it becomes incredibly easy to be spoiled and lazy without even thinking about it. Looking back at the nights where I would opt out of walking to Caz to take a shower, I am a little bit ashamed of feeling like I didn't have enough time to go out of my way to do that. Even though I came back from cross country practice feeling exhausted and overwhelmed with my homework load, it does not come close to the hours that children and women in third world countries exhaust from their days from collecting water. If anything, this assignment has brought more prospective on how fortunate I am to have the time to go to school and be lucky enough to obtain water so quickly and easily, by simply twisting a faucet.

          In addition to realizing how lucky I am to have the time to go to school, this challenge made me realize how lucky I am that I don't have the physical burden of carrying water for a long distance. As I mentioned before, I come back some days from cross country completely worn out, and the last thing that I want to do is walk down three flights of stairs, walk across the Quad, and walk back,

only to come back up the same three flights of stairs. Also, coming back from the shower shivering with wet hair in the cold weather. Like I said before, looking back to my complaints or burdens seems completely insignificant compared to the problems that women and children face every day in third world countries. A 5.6 km walk is exhausting enough, especially without proper footwear and clothing to stay warm or cool enough depending on the surrounding environment, but then you can consider the weight of 3-5 gallons of water. After carrying the weight of the water in class on Tuesday, I personally experienced the struggle for hardly a full three minute walk. These women and children are malnourished, yet they do this every day without a complaint. I lift weights twice a week and compete in cross country on the college level, and I get more than enough to eat, and there I was on Tuesday, struggling and complaining about the weight of the water. Also, the only water that I carted around with me was a water bottle that I could fill up at any dining hall (aside from Pom) or any drinking fountain. This bulk of water really was not noticeable, and didn't put really any burden on me unless it was first thing in the morning, and I had run out of water and needed to take my morning vitamins, or if it was really late at night, and I had run out of water and needed to brush my teeth. During the challenge, I would put off taking my vitamins, but on the occasion that it was late, and I was out of water, I would use the faucet to brush my teeth. This also leads into the next major thing that I became more aware of and feel fortunate for.
     I am an extremely hygienic person, and for me, I really need to wash my hands regularly, brush my teeth twice a day, wash my face twice a day, wash my running clothes, and shower once a day because I'm always sweaty from XC practice. Washing my hands wasn't a big issue for the challenge since I could wash them in the bathroom of the dining hall before meals, and I opted not to use the bucket to flush the toilet, so I would just wash my hands in whatever bathroom I visited outside of my dorm. However, as I mentioned before, I cheated a few times brushing my teeth because I feel a strong need to brush my teeth before bed, and sometimes my water bottle would run out, and it was too late for me to mentally allow myself to walk the entire 0.1 km including the three flights of stairs to go to Caz to brush my teeth. Luckily, I had makeup

remover wipes that I could use to wash my face; however, the residue left on my face still felt sticky, and my face didn't feel fully clean... like I said, I'm weirdly hygienic. Washing my running clothes luckily is taken care of outside of my hands. One of the perks of running cross country is that the KSC does our laundry during the week. However, showering was a difficult thing for me to get used to. Lugging around all of my slippery shower supplies was more difficult than I imagined, while also trying to carry my dirty clothes (which I dropped on the ground a few times) became really annoying, especially when my wet hair made me extra cold and the three flights of stairs back at my dorm. I realize that I sound extremely spoiled, but it was a hard thing for me to do, and it led me to shower in my dorm a few times more than I am proud of. This really made me realize how my hygienic preferences have caused me to live an incredibly clean water- dependent and wasteful lifestyle. I definitely don't think I could cut out the showers, but I did begins to make my showers shorter out of guilt for using water from my dorm. I became curious and did some research to see how much water can be used per minute in the shower. I'm guessing that Beebe Hall's showers aren't incredibly efficient since the building is very old. Older shower heads use up to 5 gallons of water per minute! This made me feel really motivated to change my lifestyle a little bit, and take quick showers. Cutting down the shower time by 3-5 mins could save 15-25 gallons of water! This assignment made me think a lot about my usage and made me really realize just how lucky I am to have water so easily accessible.  

Water Backpack

After our activity in class on Monday when we personally experienced carrying water using different methods, it was very apparent that certain technologies are more efficient or simply put less strain on the person moving the water. Considering the challenge of designing methods to transport water, the WaterWear pack does a good job of carrying the water in a hygienic way that also may be used on any kind of terrain. It was developed by a partnership between Grief and Impact Economics. This product is an adjustable backpack made of a light weight yet durable material that has a protected spout and is easily able to be cleaned. The benefits of this backpack is that it may be worn two ways, either on the back or balanced on the head. A potential downside to the backpack is that it does not eliminate the burden as much as placing the weight on the head.  This pack is preferable to the traditional method of using any available container and placing it on the head because it may be fastened shut, unlike pots that do not have lids. Also, this option is very hygienic due to the fact that it is easy to clean, and it has a protected spout that cannot get dirt in it during the time that it is being transported. Furthermore, the design allows the person carrying it to walk across any kind of terrain, which is a major down set of the Hipporoller, which also would accumulate more dirt because it is dragged across the ground. I imagine that the specially woven material the the backpack is made of is not cheap'however, I imagine that it is more cost effective than the melting process that the Hipporoller requires. If I had $10,000 to spend to address water issues, I would possibly combine the idea of a backpack and the strap that rests on the top of the head to ease the strain of the load. That way, the back and shoulders would not experience the typical brunt of heavy weight of a backpack, which is another downside to this technology. 

Gravity Lamp

After reading about this gravity lamp, I am very excited to see that there is new technology that is so incredibly renewable and uses clean energy. This product appears to be incredibly viable, and I am very excited about this new type of renewable energy. The simple technology converts the potential energy of an object into useful energy that may be used for electricity. In order to approximate the weight needed to power the lamp for 30 minutes, I used the equation for potential energy, which may be seen in my work below.
            Energy= mass x gravity x height.
This formula was the basis of my approximation of the objects mass, and ultimately its weight. In order to use this equation, I had to approximate the energy needed to power the object for 30 minutes, or 1800 seconds. To do this, I considered power, because that is the energy needed over a period of time. I was able to calculate power using the formula P=IV, and I approximated the values of the voltage and current, which are listed below under the assumptions. After finding the energy needed in joules, I plugged it into the potential energy formula and approximated the height that the weight would descend from, which is also listed below in the assumptions. From my calculations, I found that the weight would be approximately 20 lbs.

Water Readings

  

     I was shocked after reading that clean water and access to sanitation has the potential to prevent 2 million deaths over the next decade. Ever since I was a child, access to water was never an issue. In fact, the ability to turn on a faucet at whim gave me the lasting impression that water was an never-ending source. Obviously, as I have grown older, I recognize the fortune that I have this access, yet I do not consciously acknowledge what this truly means. Learning the vast numbers of people without improved water sources was incredible to me. Improved encompasses three dimensions of water security: quality, proximity and quantity. I also never thought of the children missing out on education opportunities because they have to walk long distances to fetch water, or when they get sick from drinking tainted water.  There is a large disparity of opportunity for children worldwide, and I truly believe that equality of opportunity is a vital piece of human rights. Once provided with the basic means, children are closer to reaching a more full development  Going off of that, I found it troubling that the poor have to pay more for water than the rich do. For example, a person living in a slum pays more than somebody living in London.  Something as simple as clean water can save lives for those who are less fortunate. When we have water so easily accessible, it is very easy to forget just how crucial it is to life. The poor need to be provided with water for free, and this must be done with the help of public financing. Once clean water methods are set in place, there will be room for more improvement, and money will be saved in the long run. For example, something as simple as  reduced diarrhea would cause 3.2 billion working days to be gained for people ages 15–59. Furthermore,  universal access to water and sanitation would save health systems in developing countries about 1.6 billion US dollars a year. Those savings really add up. I think that prioritization of issues is key, and clean water and sanitation need to be at the top of the list. I was frankly a bit repulsed by the fact that the governments of the world spend 10 billion dollars on military hardware every eight days. This money could be used for something so much more important and rewarding. It seems selfish and immoral to me to use money that could be spend on saving lives for weapons that take lives. 

Sharps Container

To begin the design process to create a sharps container, our group brainstormed what material would work best considering the safety and environmental effect of our choice. We decided that cardboard was the best choice because it would be durable enough to prevent the sharps from poking through and cardboard is reasonably a better material to discard than a plastic or synthetic material because it would decompose better in the long run. After choosing cardboard, we began to diagram what the container should look like. Our first design had a smaller box suspended within a larger box, so that if the sharps did somehow poke through the first box, the outer shell would protect anyone or anything that came in contact with the container.

 


The picture to the left was a brainstorm for the support that the inner box would rest on. Although the inner box was in the original design, we decided that only one box was needed to safely contain the sharps.
After deciding that we only needed one box, we decided on the dimensions that would be big enough for the box. The box didn't need to be very large because the blades or sharps are very thin, and do not take up a lot of space. The dimensions of the box are 3.25 x 4 x 4 in. with a volume of the container is 52 in^3. We traced the outline of the box in a cross shape so that we could mostly fold the box and minimize the gluing, in order to make it more sturdy. Once it was cut out, we shaped it into a box and cut a slit on the top.

Once the box was totally glued together, we made a velcro cover for the slot so that none of the sharps could fall out.

The final product was painted and the velcro lid is on the container, so this is what it looks like.

Lantern Project

In order to begin the process, I looked for materials that I thought would be useful, and then upon gathering these materials, I moved forward with my designs. The key components of my original design were centered around building the frame out of two pieces of Styrofoam that I had found that created an arch when pressed together. Then after creating the four main beams with a roof, I would attach them to the base of the lantern, also made of Styrofoam. 

Here is a basic sketch of my design, and the earliest built frame of the lamp that the rest of my designing would be based on:

 

Once the skeleton was built, I decided to construct my circuit. My circuit was connected by using paperclips, fully straightened out and then attached at the ends by forming little loops with pliers that connected like a chain.  By using the calculations shown below, I identified the amount of ohms needed for the circuit. 

I also decided to put the light bulb in the center of the base of the structure. After that, I decided to design a switch. The switch that I used had two paper fasteners with a paper clip that can be taken on or off to turn off the light. 

It took me a few tries to connect the circuit inside of the frame and have everything work, but after re- positioning a few wires, I got it to work. Once the light was working on the inside of the frame, I reinforced the wires and the battery with some tape to bind them down and keep them from shifting. After that, I began to add foil to make the inside reflect the light of the small LED light to maximize it. There is foil on the base and the ceiling of the structure to maximize brightness. 

Once all these steps were done, my main priority was to make it look good, so I added some paper that I found in the recycling. Here are some pictures of the final product!