Category: Science

The media has a fascination with “alternative” and “renewable” energy, such as wind power. What if wind power is a bunch of hot air?

> …if we wanted to go totally green, we’d have to carpet the [United Kingdom] with more windmills than exist in the whole world.

Undoubtedly, we need more power plants in the future. Utilizing windmills here and there sounds okay, but I don’t want to see an entire countryside covered with them. I believe that nuclear power will be the most cost effective form of mass power, the cleanest and [the safest](http://www.google.com/search?q=nuclear+power+safest) in terms of the cost of human life — compared to coal and hydro electric.

This past weekend, our family visited [Hill Aerospace Museum](https://www.hill.af.mil/library/museum). While I was fascinated by the jets and both awed and disturbed by the cluster bombs and nukes, my children were most interested in the educational area where the flight simulators were located. They had building blocks, toy jets, flight suits, and hands-on experiments to demonstrate things like kinetic energy by smashing two [steel balls](http://www.grand-illusions.com/acatalog/Large_Ball_Bearings.html) together with a sheet of paper sandwiched in between to burn holes in it, [resonance](http://www.intuitor.com/resonance/index.php) demonstrated with a [notched stick propellor](http://home.frognet.net/~ejcov/geehaw.html), and the structural strength of honeycomb, which is used in the building of aircraft.

I realized that I’m a novice on every day physics. I’m sure I studied resonance in my electronics and physics classes, but I don’t remember it.

As for aircraft, I found it fascinating that faster is not always better — the [A-10 Thunderbolt II](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-10_Thunderbolt_II) was built to fly slowly so it can support ground troops effectively, and it can still fly with half a wing and half a tail missing. Technology from 1950 is still in use today in the form of the [B-52 Stratofortress](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-52_Stratofortress), and will be for the next 30 years or more. So newer isn’t necessarily better. I looked up the [B-2 stealth bomber](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-2_Spirit) and found out that it’s staggeringly expensive to build and operate. Coworkers mentioned the [F-22 Raptor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-22_Raptor), and I was amazed to learn of its high bandwidth communication abilities. Apparently, many military pilots eat breakfast in the morning with their families, and arrive home in time for dinner because they fly remote controlled [drone planes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle). When the pilot is removed from the cockpit, the plane can do things that would be impossible otherwise. It’s amazing how much technology, expertise and money goes into building jets.