Physics_in_My_World

JOURNAL ENTRY 2- PHYSICS IN MY WORLD According to the Oxford Dictionary, Physics can be defined as the branch of science dealing with the properties and interactions of matter and energy. The science of physics plays an important part of everyday life in our world. It is the basis of our measurement system, the explanation to how things move (kinematics), the foundation for harnessing and producing electric currents and many more. For this research, I’ve chosen to focus on Benjamin Franklin’s introduction of electricity and how it is being used in today’s society. Benjamin Franklin is known worldwide for his unusual experiment of flying a kite joined with a key, during a thunderstorm in 1752. It was during this experiment that he discovered the linkage between lightning and electricity. Due to Benjamin Franklin’s discovery, the principles of electricity became better understood. In the 1800’s, electricity was taken to another level by harnessing its energy to control the light source. Here, the first electric light was invented by Humphrey Davy. The 1800 has held many improvements of the light bulb, ending with Thomas Edison’s bulb, which could glow for over 1500 hours. Also invented in the 1800’s was the electric battery by Alessandro Volta whom the “volt” is named after. There have also been many more inventions, which stemmed from the revelation of electricity, such as electric motors, hydroelectric stations, electric alternator, and steam turbine generators, the majority of which are used to harness electricity’s power. In 1826, the connection between power, voltage, current, and resistance was explained by Georg Ohm, which is now referred to as Ohms Law. In 1831, Michael Faraday led experiments, which proved that electricity could be induced by changes in an electromagnetic field, thus leading to an understanding of electrical transformers. In 1884, Nikola Tesla invented an electric alternator responsible for producing alternating current (AC). Today the main sources used to obtain electricity are; Natural Gas, Petroleum, Biomass, Wind and solar power, Nuclear, hydropower and even coals. Because electricity is neither a renewable nor a non-renewable resource, it is advised that one always try to conserve it. How would you survive without electricity' Everything from telephone and telecommunication systems to water and sewage treatment plants and even our transportation systems of ships, railroads, trucks and aircraft, to refineries, factories, food processing plants and high rise buildings will not work without electricity. There will no longer be any light, heat, TV, Internet, computers, and music. Today when you flick a switch, you expect a light to come on. What if we still had to use fires, wouldn’t that affect the forests and in turn our very lives' With everyone cutting trees to provide wood for fires just to keep warm, there’d be a lot more carbon dioxide poisoning the air that we breathe. Even the field of medicine would be drastically affected, as the majority of machines used to save lives are powered by electricity. Now you can see that through the many developments made in the field of electricity, we now have access to items such as the many appliances that make our everyday life easier. What would our everyday lives be like without access to microwaves, vehicles, light at the touch of a switch, the ever evolving music players and computers, even some stoves and the generators used to store the electricity. Without electricity, our world would be boring; no TVs or any entertainment besides the outdoors and a lot more lives would have been lost. [pic] [pic] BIBLIOGRAPHY Bellis, Â. (n.d.). Benjamin Franklin. Inventors. Retrieved October 3, 2011, from http://inventors.about.com/od/fstartinventions/a/Franklin.htm Lambert, N., dos Santos, N. L., & Samual, T. A. (2000). Physics for CxC. Great Britain: Scotprint. SparkNotes: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: Part One, first section. (n.d.). SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Retrieved October 3, 2011, from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/franklinautobio/section1.rhtml electricity - definition of electricity by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedia... (n.d.). Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary. Retrieved October 3, 2011, from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/electricity APA formatting by BibMe.org.