• Tag Archives batteries
  • Flywheels as Batteries

    In the day of technology, it’s almost hard to remember a simpler time. Like cars, we are taking many strides to go electrical. In the case of renewable energy, we are doing this to sustain our life on Earth, because soon we will run out of coal/oil and when we do, we need to be ready with another source of energy to take over. Luckily, with electricity produced by wind, waves, and the sun, we can do this. Another great stride is the use of flywheels. We will discuss what they are, how they create energy, and the use of them as batteries.

    To start, flywheels are wheels that take much force to spin. They store a lot of kinetic energy, but think of it as a “mechanical battery” (Woodford). It can have a large or smaller diameter made from carbon-fiber and it needs a lot of force to start it spinning and a lot of force to stop it spinning, “but it’s storing energy in the form of movement (kinetic energy, in other words) rather than the energy stored in chemical form inside a traditional, electrical battery” (Woodford).

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  • The what, why, and how of Nuclear Batteries

    We use many electronics to power our day. Some use the regular AA or AAA batteries, but some items use nuclear power. Nuclear batteries to be specific. We will discuss what nuclear power/batteries are, what they are used for, and how they are important to our day to day lives.

    Nuclear power, or atomic power, “…uses the energy released by splitting the atoms of certain elements” (Nuclear Power). It’s fairly new, considering the advances we have made with it since it’s development. “…developed in the 1940s, and during the Second World War to 1945 research initially focused on producing bombs which released great energy by splitting the atoms of particular isotopes of either uranium or plutonium” (Nuclear Power). It sounds like it came out of a science fiction novel or film, but it’s actually very useful. However, it can be dangerous.

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