generating electricity

When I went on a trip this last past spring vacation, my family went to this really neat place that was really cool and informative (even though at first all I wanted to do was sleep). In fact, I was probably the last one to leave out of my entire family (I spent too much time at each attraction because they were all so cool and so full of physics!). If I could bring up just one of the attractions, it would be the one that you could generate electricity. I thought it was really cool because you could pedal really hard to make a certain wattage and try power up a lightbulb, a radio, a fan, or whatever else there was. Unfortunately, I could not use the attraction very long because some other people wanted their turn, so I had to bid ado to the fun mechanism. oh, boo hoo. On the bright side, I would be happy to go because they're really cool and informative and full of physics. :)

Transformers

It's a little late for my blog, but I plan on doing it anyways. So, this is a picture of a transformer. A transformer uses magnets to change the voltage and current of a circuit. They also help change the voltage of a power plant to be compatible with the voltage of an ordinary house. The really cool thing about transformers is that the power in a transformer remains constant, but the voltage goes up when the current goes down and vice-versa. Another really cool thing about transformers is that they do not have direct current, like a battery. In fact, they have something called alternating current. In the transformer, there are at least two copper coils. Both have a different amount of coils. The one with more coils will have a higher voltage and a lower current and with less coils there will be a lower voltage and a higher current. This is caused by an electromagnetic induction. :) Isn't it cool?

house wiring

After my older brother was whisked off to the whimsical world of college, my parents have had a lot of free times on their hands (no more football games to attend, no more high school graduation to worry about for another year). So, with all that free time, they went out and bought a humongous amount of plants. Now that they spend so much time in the garden, my parents were in need to install a few lights here and there for seeing at nighttime. My dad, being a handy man and liking hands-on experiments, installed the lights by himself. He used parallel circuits, using Step by Step Guide Book on Home Wiring. That book has such great diagrams on how to do home wiring. So, using these diagrams, my dad used parallel circuits to make a few lights hang by the plants that he needs to take care of. It's a good thing, too, because if he used series circuit wiring, if one light went off, then all the lights would go off, and then it would be hard to find out which bulb was the one that is not working anymore. Parallel circuits really are great, but they use up more energy, unfortunately. Well, that's it. Signing off, in 5, 4, 3, 2 . . .