WELCOME TO ENGINEERING AND PHYSICS 160! Spring Quarter, 2011 12:10-1:30 Pm, Tu-Th Wellman 125 Daniel L. Cox, Lecturer - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Spring Quarter, 2011

12:10-1:30 Pm, Tu-Th Wellman 125

Daniel L. Cox, Lecturer

Office: 407 Physics & Geology

Phone: (415)867-4992

Email: cox@physics.ucdavis.edu

Office Hours: W,Th 10-11

http://sexton.ucdavis.edu/engphy16011.html

Energy Basics —what is energy fundamentally, what are the laws of thermodynamics, why is energy and resource use an ethical issue (~2 lectures)
Fossil Fuels: 80+% of our economy and the chief culprit in Global Warming-a limited resource. How soon will we run out? (~1 lecture)
Global Warming: What is it, why does the scientific community think it is happening, what are the impacts of inaction or action (~6 lectures)
Alternatives: We will run out of fossil fuels, we need to change our ways or global warming will cause HUGE problems—why not move quickly to alternative energy sources? What is the state of the art? Do we need technological or scientific magic bullets? (~7 lectures)

Weak/Strong: Operate only below

10-15 m (one thousand billionth of a

Meter!)

History of forces is a history of the

Universe!

Basic MKS unit: 1 Joule = 1 J = 1 Newton-m = 1 kg-m2/sec2 (Work = force x distance)
KW-hour: electrical energy unit – 3.6 x 106 J
BTU-british thermal unit-1.055 J
Calorie = 103 cal = 4.184 x 103 J
1 bbl oil = 1 barrel oil = 42 gallons = 6.12 x 106 J

98 x 1015 Btu = 98 Quads (quadrillion)

= 1.03 x 1020 J  3.3 Terawatts (1 TW = 1012 W = 1012 J/sec)

Chemical energy: reformation of chemical bonds through chemical reactions. Scale per reaction ~ 1 eV = 1.6 x 10-19 J (Fossil fuel power plants, ``burning’’ of food in our bodies)
Nuclear energy: fusion of light nuclei or fission of heavy nuclei or radioactive decay– energy release of the order of 10-100 MeV per reaction. Energy source of sun, heating of earth’s interior
Solar energy: absorption of light quanta by earth, photovoltaics – visible light ~1.5-3 eV per photon. Primary energy source to earth’s atmosphere, earth’s food chain (via photosynthesis)