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Exploring the World Through Elevators: Fun Places to Visit With Elevators

Exploring the World Through Elevators: Fun Places to Visit With Elevators

Elevators are amazing machines that help us go up and down between floors of buildings. A long time ago, when people first invented elevators, they were just simple lifts, but now, they can be super-fast and can take us to the tops of really tall buildings in seconds. Elevators let us see cities from high up and also go deep underground. They can also be worth seeing all on their own. If you love exploring new places, knowing where to find cool elevators can make your adventures even more fun!

 

Skyscrapers With Unique Elevators

  • The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the tallest building in the world, and it has some of the fastest elevators in the world, too. Visitors can go up from the ground to the 124th floor at a speed of 10 meters per second. That’s more than 32 feet per second or 20 miles per hour!
  • Located in China, the Shanghai Tower has the tallest above-ground elevator in the world, rising 1,898 feet.
  • The Willis Tower is a 110-story skyscraper that was completed in 1973 in Chicago. It has double-decker elevators that can carry twice as many people at once.
  • Lotte World Tower is the tallest building in South Korea, and it offers amazing views of Seoul from its observation deck, which you can get to in the tallest double-decker elevator in the world.
  • The elevators at One World Trade Center in New York City have walls covered in video screens that show a visual display of the history of the city outside unfolding as you go up.

Museums and Galleries With Notable Elevators

  • The Louvre Abu Dhabi has a glass-enclosed elevator that gives you amazing views of the Arabian Gulf as it goes up.
  • The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City has four elevators that are immersive art installations, with interiors designed by Richard Artschwager.
  • Visitors to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., start their tour in a huge glass-walled elevator that transforms into a time machine, taking you into the past along a timeline that leads all the way back to the 1400s.
  • The Eiffel Tower was opened in 1889, and its current visitor elevators were installed in 1899. Everyone knows about this famous landmark in Paris, but not everyone knows that there’s a mini-museum exhibit at the top. Gustave Eiffel, the man who designed the tower, had an office built for himself at the top, and today, it’s been restored to look the same as it did back then.
  • A cutting-edge glass elevator at the Niguliste Museum in Estonia takes visitors up to the top of the building, where they can get an incredible view of Tallinn’s historic skyline.

Theme Parks and Attractions With Exciting Elevators

  • Universal Studios Singapore’s Transformers ride elevator is part of the ride, becoming a battle zone with motion, sound, and visual effects.
  • Walt Disney World’s Tower of Terror in Florida is famous for providing a thrilling ride through another dimension.
  • The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, have high-speed elevators that take visitors up to the Skybridge, a pedestrian bridge connecting the two towers.
  • The Shard in London was designed by architect Renzo Piano, who said it’s his favorite creation. It has super-fast glass elevators that give you great views of the city: On a clear day, you can see up to 40 miles!
  • The Tower of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas, has three high-speed elevators that can make the trip to the top in just 43 seconds while offering incredible views along the way.

Unconventional Elevators

  • The London Eye, a giant Ferris wheel, has glass-enclosed capsules that function as elevators, allowing visitors to ascend and descend gently while enjoying 360-degree views of London.
  • The Globen SkyView in Stockholm, Sweden, has glass gondolas that travel along the outer surface of a large globe.
  • The Bailong Elevator, located in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in China, is one of the world’s tallest and heaviest outdoor elevators.
  • The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, has a unique tram system that transports visitors to the top of the iconic 630-foot structure.
  • The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland is the world’s only rotating boat elevator, moving boats between two canals at different elevations.

In a lot of places, we can use elevators to get where we want to go, but as technology keeps improving, more people are making elevators that are almost worth visiting all by themselves. Taking a ride in these lifts can be a memorable adventure!

All About Gears: From Elevators to Farm Machinery and Everything in Between

Gears are important parts of many types of machines, from clocks to elevators to cars, trucks, and tractors. Understanding what gears are and how they work can give you a better appreciation for the world of mechanical devices all around us every day.

What Is a Gear?

A gear is a rotating component featuring cut teeth, or cogs, that mesh with the teeth of another gear to transfer rotational force, or torque. Gears can alter the speed, torque, and direction of motion. Two or more gears working together are called a gear train.

Parts of a Gear

Gears consist of a hub, the central part of the gear that connects to a shaft, and teeth, the protruding parts around the edge of a gear that interlock with the teeth of another gear. The size of a gear is typically measured as if it’s a circle; the pitch circle is a circle drawn through the teeth of the gear, and the pitch diameter can then be measured based on the pitch circle. These measurements can help people to calculate which gears will fit together properly.

Parts of Gear Teeth

Drawing a pitch circle through the teeth of a gear separates those teeth into two parts: the addendum, which extends out past the circle, and the dedendum, the part of each tooth that is inside the pitch circle. At the base of each tooth is the root, the bottom of the space in between teeth. At the top of each tooth is a flat surface called the top land.

How Gears Work

Gears work by meshing their teeth with the teeth of another gear or toothed component. When one gear rotates, it transfers motion and force to the other gear, causing it to rotate as well. This interaction can change the direction, speed, and torque of the movement, depending on the sizes and types of the gears involved. For instance, a larger gear turning a smaller gear will increase speed but decrease torque, while a smaller gear turning a larger gear will increase torque but decrease speed. Whenever two gears mesh, the direction of gear motion changes; a clockwise-turning gear will cause the gears it’s connected to to turn counterclockwise and vice versa.

Materials Used in Gears

Gears can be made from many different materials, from iron to plastic, but the most common material is steel, chosen because of its strength, durability, and resistance to wear. It’s often used in high-stress applications like automotive transmissions. Cast iron gears are commonly found in industrial machinery, as they’re strong and inexpensive to manufacture. Brass is also used to make gears, especially in situations where the gear will be exposed to corrosive materials, as it’s more resistant to corrosion. Advanced plastics can also be used to make gears; they’re not as strong as metal gears, but they are lighter in weight and don’t corrode.

Types of Gears

When most people hear the word “gears,” they think of spur gears, flat circles with teeth sticking straight out around the edge that mesh together. Spur gears are used in many places, like inside of clocks or home appliances. Helical gears have teeth cut at an angle to the gear axis. This design allows for smoother and quieter operation than spur gears. These gears are used in auto transmissions and other high-speed applications. Bevel gears have teeth that are cut on an angle, allowing them to intersect at different angles, typically 90 degrees. These are used in the differential drives of vehicles to allow the wheels to turn at different speeds during cornering. Worm gears are the ones you’ll find in a screw-drive elevator; the worm is a gear shaped like a screw, and it meshes with a worm wheel to provide high torque for devices like wheelchair lifts. Construction equipment, farm machinery, and automobiles may also contain planetary gears, parts of a complex gear train including a central sun gear, planet gears, and an outer ring gear. This system allows for high torque in a compact space and is commonly used in automatic transmissions.

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Electrical and Electronics Engineering Glossary

Electrical engineering is an increasingly important field that impacts many different industries and areas of life. It also offers a wide range of career opportunities, from designing the electronics that power elevators to creating more efficient distribution systems for power plants. But breaking into the field of electrical engineering begins with having a firm grasp of common terminology used in this industry.

AC/DC Converter: An electrical circuit capable of transforming an alternating current (AC) into a direct current (DC)

Alternating Current (AC): An electric current capable of periodically reversing its direction. AC is often used in the power supply systems found in homes, businesses, and industrial settings because it is a more efficient means of transmitting electricity over long distances.

Analog Signal: A continuous signal that varies over time. It is capable of having any value within a given range.

Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC): A type of circuit that is capable of converting analog signals into digital, computer-readable signals

Amplifier: A device that is capable of increasing the power of a signal. An amplified is commonly used in audio and communication systems.

Apparent Power (AP): The combination of real power and reactive power. It represents the total power supplied by a source to a circuit, including both the power used to perform work (real power) and the power stored and released by the circuit’s reactive components (reactive power). Apparent power is important because it represents the total capacity that must be provided by power sources, transformers, and distribution equipment.

Asynchronous Converter: A power converter that uses a one-way diode to control the flow of electricity in one direction

Bit: The basic unit of information in computing and digital communications, representing a binary value of either 0 or 1. When an analog-to-digital converter switches an analog signal to a digital number, it expresses this number in binary form using a sequence of bits.

Brushed DC Motor: A type of motor that uses brushes to make a spinning magnet change direction, which causes the motor shaft to turn

Capacitor: A device that is capable of storing electrical energy in an electric field, used to smooth electrical signals and provide power during brief outages

CCM/DCM Multi-Mode Control: A control technique used to keep input current smooth and efficient, reducing electrical noise and improving efficiency

Circuit Breaker: A protection circuit that is tripped, opening the circuit, when high current flows through it or a short circuit is created. Circuit breakers are essential for maintaining the safety, protection, and reliability of electrical systems.

Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM): A mode in which the current in an inductor stays above zero, supplying devices and systems with a medium to high demand for power

Controller: An electronic circuit that functions to control the switching devices of a power converter

Coupled Inductor: A device with two coils in which the current in one coil induces voltage in the other

Current: The flow of an electric charge. A current is measured in amperes (A).

Current Limit Threshold: The maximum current that can be used without damaging the converter

Diode: An electrical component that allows electrical current to flow only in one direction

Digital Signal: A signal that has discrete levels or values, often represented as binary data (0s and 1s)

Direct Current (DC): An electric current that flows consistently in one direction at a steady voltage level. It is commonly used in batteries, electronic devices, and some industrial applications.

Discontinuous Conduction Mode (DCM): A mode in which the inductor current drops to zero before the next cycle

Driver: A circuit or component designed specifically to control the voltage of another component

Dual-Phase Controller: A converter that uses two controllers working together to reduce ripple currents in the input and output

Electric Motor: A device capable of transforming electrical energy into mechanical energy

Electrical Isolation: When DC and unwanted AC are prevented from passing through a power converter, often using a transformer or a coupled inductor, in order to protect against high voltage

Feedback: A process in which a portion of the output signal of a system is returned to the input

Foldback Current Limit: A circuit that reduces the current when there’s an overload to protect the system

Forward Converter: A switching power supply that can create a DC output voltage different from the DC input voltage and provide electrical isolation

Frequency: The number of times a periodic signal repeats per second, measured in hertz (Hz)

Galvanic Isolation: An electrical isolation method used in systems to create different voltage levels

Henry (H): A measurable unit of induction

Hertz (Hz): A standard unit of frequency measurement, with 1 Hz equal to one cycle per second

High-Voltage DC/DC: A converter powered by high-voltage DC, usually above 400 V

Inductor: A passive component capable of storing energy in a magnetic field when electric current flows through it

Integrated Circuit (IC): A set of electronic circuits on a small chip of semiconductor material, used in electronic equipment

Inverter: An electrical circuit used to get an AC output from a DC voltage supply

Latency: In rotary angle sensors, latency is the time delay between when the sensor detects a position and when it reports that position

LED Driver: A electrical circuit that provides the power necessary for an LED or array of LEDs to operate safely and consistently

Linear Regulator: A device that keeps the output voltage steady using a transistor that adjusts smoothly, rather than switching on and off

Magnetic Encoder: A device that uses sensors to detect the position of a magnet and then reports this position

Magnetic Field: An invisible area of force surrounding a magnet or a moving electrical charge

Magnetization (M): A measure of the magnetic strength within a material

Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET): A widely used type of transistor used to amplify or switch electronic signals

Microcontroller: A compact integrated circuit designed to govern a specific operation in an embedded system. It contains a processor, memory, and input/output peripherals.

Ohm’s Law: A fundamental principle stating that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points, expressed as V = IR

Oscillator: A circuit that generates a periodic waveform, like those commonly found in clocks, radios, and computers

Overload: A condition that happens when a motor draws a current higher than it’s rated for and starts to generate heat. Damage and failure can occur if a system is kept in a prolonged state of overload.

Permanent Magnet: An object that can generate its own magnetic field

Power: The rate at which electrical energy is transferred in a circuit, measured in watts (W)

Power Converter: A device that changes electrical energy from one form to another

Power Factor (PF): A measure of how effectively electrical power is used by a system. It is the ratio of real power (measured in watts, W) that is used to perform work to the apparent power (measured in volt-amperes, VA) that is supplied to the circuit. Improving the power factor is important because it increases the efficiency of the power system, reduces losses, and can lower electricity costs.

Printed Circuit Board (PCB): A board used to mechanically support and electrically connect multiple electronic components through conductive pathways

Pulse Frequency Modulation (PFM): A technique in which the frequency is varied to control the power output

Real Power: The rate at which energy is transferred or converted into heat, light, motion, or other useful effects

Resistor: A component designed to resist the flow of electric current that’s used to control voltage and current in a circuit

Sensor: An electrical device that detects and responds to changes in the environment

Signal Processing: The analysis, interpretation, and manipulation of signals

Silicon Carbide (SiC): A material used in power semiconductors that can withstand higher voltages and operate faster than silicone

Single-Ended Primary-Inductor Converter (SEPIC): A type of DC/DC converter that can adjust the output voltage to be either higher or lower than the input voltage, keeping the output stable despite input changes

Volt-Amperes (VA): A unit of measurement for apparent power in an electrical circuit

Watts (W): A unit of measurement for real power, the actual power consumed or used by an electrical device to perform work

Additional Resources

Famous Buildings: Buckingham Palace

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Famous Buildings: Buckingham Palace

In downtown London, surrounded by two large parks, lies one of the most iconic buildings in all of England, Buckingham Palace. Long before it became the national symbol that it is today, the grounds were in use, first as a mulberry garden and then later as the Queen’s House. Today, thousands of people visit Buckingham Palace every year.

What’s in the Palace?

With more than 800,000 square feet of living space spread across five stories, Buckingham Palace is so large that it has its own postal code. The building has 775 rooms, including 78 bathrooms. Another 92 are offices, 52 are bedrooms for the royal family and their guests, 19 are state rooms, and 188 are staff bedrooms. Visitors can tour some of these rooms when the monarch isn’t in residence, most often during the summer. The tour includes the picture gallery, the throne room, the ballroom, the music room, some of the state rooms, and parts of the 39-acre garden. From outside of the palace, visitors can observe the changing of the guard and see the famous balcony. Other rooms include:

  • A movie theater
  • A jeweler’s workshop
  • Several drawing rooms, including the White Drawing Room, Centre Room, Yellow Drawing Room, and Blue Drawing Room
  • The Regency Room
  • A doctor’s office
  • A post office
  • The Audience Room, where meetings with the prime minister take place
  • A chapel
  • A dining room
  • A police station
  • A staff cafeteria
  • Nine elevators
  • A swimming pool
  • Underground tunnels

History of Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace is named after the man who had it built in 1703, John Sheffield, the duke of Buckingham. Then, it was called Buckingham House. King George III bought the house in 1761 as a retreat for Queen Charlotte. Fourteen of the queen’s 15 children were born there, and it became known as the Queen’s House.

  • King George IV had the building converted into a palace in the 1820s.
  • Architect John Nash went so far over budget on the palace that he was fired.
  • Queen Victoria was the first monarch to use the palace as a residence.
  • Queen Victoria hosted the first ball held in the palace, which celebrated the end of the Crimean War.
  • Only King Edward VII was born and died in the palace.
  • Bombs hit Buckingham Palace nine times during World War II. Despite this, the royal family refused to leave.
  • Queen Victoria started the tradition of making public appearances on the balcony.

What Happens in Buckingham Palace?

Buckingham Palace is the headquarters of the British monarchy. Some members of the royal family live at Buckingham Palace during most of the year, although they may stay in other homes on weekends and over the summer. Some staff also live at the palace to maintain it and help with events. Every week, the prime minister meets with the ruling monarch at the palace. In the summer, more staff fill the palace as they prepare for tourists to flood in.

Buckingham Palace Trivia

  • You can tell whether the monarch is in residence by looking at the flagpole. If the British flag is flying, the monarch is not there. If they are, their royal standard will be flying instead.
  • More than 50,000 people are invited to the palace each year for garden parties, banquets, and parties.
  • More than 40,000 light bulbs light the palace.
  • The palace was supposed to be renovated starting in 2020, but the start of the project was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Planned renovations include upgrading the lifts to provide reliable elevator access to every floor.
  • The palace garden has a helipad, which Queen Elizabeth II ordered built in 2000.

Additional Information

Building and Construction Games for Kids Online

 

Building and Construction Games for Kids Online

Building things is fun for everybody, whether you’re a little kid or a grownup. Kids might learn this for the first time as toddlers, when they begin figuring out how to stack blocks into towers (which most of them will then knock down again). Later, many kids develop a love for Lego bricks or Lincoln Logs, toys that help you learn about basic building principles and let you create full buildings that look almost like the real thing. Lots of kids also build things out of empty cardboard boxes, from boats to houses to whole cities! Building things is fun, and this kind of play can also teach kids a lot about engineering. In fact, these early experiences are often the first time a kid is involved in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) activity.

Constructing things with your hands is definitely a lot of fun, but you can also learn about building things while learning how to use technology. With computer games, you can build more complicated things that you can make with boxes or toy bricks. Construction games that you can find online range from really simple ones that are good for little kids, like games involving stacking blocks or building a simple set of train tracks, to more complicated ones that let you take on realistic challenges, like how to construct a bridge that can support weight or create an entire city filled with different types of buildings. Some of the games also let you learn about using heavy equipment, like how steamrollers can help to make flat surfaces for houses to be built on or how bulldozers can help to get rid of old buildings so new ones can be put up in their place. No matter what part of the process of construction is the most interesting to a kid, there’s probably a game online that will let them explore it while having fun!

  • Construct a Bridge: People take bridges for granted, but they are actually marvels of engineering. Play this game to learn about how bridges need to be built to support the weight of cars and trucks.
  • Building a New House: Demolish your old house, then go through all of the the steps to make a new one.
  • Construction Set: Lego sets are really fun to put together, and with this game, you won’t end up with bricks all over the floor that can get stepped on!
  • Cubic Castles: In this game, you start by gathering the resources you’ll need for your building project. Then, you can create the castle of your dreams.
  • Empire Island: Every empire starts with its first building.
  • Hamster Run: Practice your engineering skills with Ruff Ruffman by placing pieces to help the hamsters get up or down to where their treats are!
  • Industry Road Construction: Anyone who loves heavy machinery will love controlling it virtually in this game, in which players design and build roads.
  • Lego City Builder: The mayor is on vacation, so you’re in charge of the city. In this game, you can build all of the different parts of a city, from a skate park to a firehouse, and then connect them with roads and see what the little Lego people do next.
  • Make a House: Pick out all of the parts you like best to build your own house.
  • MasterCraft: Lots of kids like Minecraft, and this is sort of like a simpler, online take on that game.
  • Mooving In: Move the pieces around and stack them the right way to create shelters for different types of animals.
  • Roller Coaster Creator Express: Click and drag to add a roller coaster track that connects the two points and lets the riders collect the coins.
  • Space Arena: Build and Fight: Ready for a superhero-style adventure? Built and defend a space arena in this fun building game.
  • Super Mall: Mix building with math by creating a shopping mall that attracts customers and makes as much money as possible.
  • Tiny Landlord: Players can build and manage a city of their own design in this game.
  • Tower Builder: Can you drop the blocks at just the right moment to create a giant tower?
  • Train Track Engineer: Connect the train tracks to help Elmo get to his friend Grover!

All About Gravity

All About Gravity

What Is Gravity?

No matter how fast a pitched throws a baseball, it will always hit the ground. Have you ever wondered why? It’s the same reason we fall after jumping and why picking up heavy boxes is so hard. These things happen because of gravity. Science defines gravity as the force that makes a celestial body (like a planet or star) attract objects toward its center. The Earth’s gravity keeps people and animals rooted to the surface of the planet, and the gravity of the sun keeps the Earth in a steady orbit through space!

What Else Does Gravity Do?

Earth has its own force of gravity, but not everything on Earth interacts with gravity in the same way. It’s important to understand how mass works with gravity. Planets and objects with less mass have a weaker gravitational force. The mass in each person’s body also has a gravitational force and that force acts on Earth. Earth has a lot more mass than any one person, animal, or building so Earth’s gravity is stronger and always wins. That’s why things stick to the ground instead of floating through the air! Weight is determined by gravity. No kid on Earth can lift a whole car, but on a planet with less gravity, the car would weigh less and a human could lift it over their head!

Gravity in Our Universe

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Gravity is important all over the universe. Without gravity, Earth wouldn’t have a moon! The moon is held in Earth’s orbit through gravity. Losing the moon would create chaos because it’s the gravitational force of the moon that makes oceans and seas have tides! Gravity is also what keeps Earth, and all other planets, in orbit around the sun. Gravity literally holds the planets and stars together in a system.

Scientist Albert Einstein realized that gravity also affects light. Shine a light towards the sky, and the force of gravity makes the light slowly grow red! It’s not possible to see this change with the naked eye, but scientists can measure this effect using special tools.

Gravity can also cause problems. Sometimes the pull of gravity is so strong that light can’t escape the gravitational pull. This happens when a star dies and matter gets squished into a very small space. Black holes can’t be seen without special telescopes. They can also be as small as just one atom! However, that one atom weighs about as much as an entire city! It’s because black holes push so much mass into a tiny space. Larger black holes are known as stellars. Each stellar can have as much mass as twenty suns! Supermassives are the biggest black holes. A supermassive has the same amount of mass as one million suns! Scientists say that each galaxy is organized around a black hole. The black hole in the Milky Way, which is the galaxy where Earth is located, is named Sagittarius A. It’s large even for a Supermassive since it has as much mass as four million suns put together would have!

Gravity on Earth

Life would not survive on Earth if gravity didn’t exist. After all, without gravity, the Earth wouldn’t stay at the right distance from the sun to keep the planet at the correct temperature to allow life to thrive. Gravity even keeps air in the atmosphere so that all the people and animals who live on the planet can breathe. Not every place on Earth has the same amount of gravitational pull.

Why isn’t gravity equal all over Earth’s surface? It’s because places with higher amounts of mass underground have more gravity than places that don’t have as much mass beneath the surface. NASA ran a mission known as GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) to measure the amount of gravity all over Earth. Maps were created using this data. When looking at a GRACE map, areas in red have stronger gravitational pulls than areas colored blue. The GRACE mission discovered what areas had experienced changes in gravitational pull over time. Earthquakes sometimes cause these changes.

Additional Resources

 

Green Building Glossary

Green Building Glossary

Structures use a lot of resources both in their construction and in their continued maintenance. Building green is a way to use resources more effectively. A green building should be one that doesn’t consume as many resources to build, but also uses less energy in its day-to-day operations. Green buildings should also be healthy buildings that improve the lives of the humans who live or work inside of them. They also provide cost savings for the people who own and operate them. Green buildings also have their own vocabulary. Here are the most common phrases everyone should know:

Advanced Framing: This building method uses less wood than traditional methods, which results in fewer resources consumed and an overall decrease in the cost of materials.

Air Infiltration: Air that leaks through accidental cracks and other openings in walls, ceilings, and floors results in the air from outside getting into the building.

Building Envelope: The building’s shell consists of all exterior planes, including floors, roofs, ceilings, walls, and openings like windows.

Daylighting: Designers purposefully admit natural light into the space to make a pleasant environment that also lessens a building’s need to use electric lights.

Energy Modeling: Software produces an analysis of a building that projects the amount of energy a structure will use and can also produce a report about the cost-benefit position of upgrading the space for increased energy efficiency.

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC): The FSC evaluates how sustainable any product made from products harvested in a forest is according to their standards for things like labor conditions, fair trade, and forest management.

Graywater Re-use: Graywater is water that has been used for things like showering or washing clothes. Finding ways to re-use this water reduces a building’s load on the local sewer system and also reduces the demand for freshwater.

Green Roof: Growing plants on a rooftop helps reduce the amount of stormwater runoff a structure displaces, helps prevent heat islands in cities, provides green space for people, can help wildlife find a safe habitat, and helps insulate the building.

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ): People need to breathe healthy air, but some buildings produce bad air. Ventilation and types of building materials used during construction impact the overall quality of the air inside any structure.

Infill: Choosing to develop empty lots in urban environments helps prevent the use of undeveloped tracts of land and also combats the problem of urban sprawl.

Passive-Solar Homes: Houses that are specifically designed through the use of thermal mass and solar features to use the sun’s energy to heat the home.

Radon: Structures with basements in certain parts of the country often have this colorless, radioactive gas trapped inside. At high concentrations, that gas can cause health issues for people using the space.

Rainwater Catchment/Harvest: Rainwater is collected, stored, and used in safe ways (like for watering garden beds) to reduce the building’s demand on local freshwater reserves.

Rapidly Renewable Materials: Materials like bamboo complete the grow/harvest cycle in less than ten years, making it rapidly renewable.

Retrofit: An existing building, or the systems inside, are upgraded or improved so the building runs more efficiently, but keeps the bulk of the building in use and out of landfills.

Salvage: Instead of sending construction materials removed from existing buildings to a landfill, it’s re-used. Typical salvage items include doors, windows, floors, brick, and cabinetry.

Solar Electric Systems: Solar panels convert the energy in sunlight into electricity. Other parts of a system include an inverter and controller. Some systems have storage capabilities; other systems send the electricity back into the overall electrical grid of the local power utility.

Stormwater Management: Controlling stormwater runoff onsite by reducing the overall amount of impervious paved spaces combined with the use of things like rain gardens and protecting wetland space protects local rivers and the overall ecology of the area where the structure is located.

Straw-Bale Construction: An alternative building approach where bales of straw are used instead of more traditional construction supplies that have a bigger environmental footprint.

Structural Insulated Panel (SIP): These premade panels consist of engineered wood paneling with a layer of polystyrene sandwiched between them. The panels are highly efficient in terms of air infiltration and can be used on ceilings, roofs, floors, or walls.

Thermal Mass: Materials like concrete, tile, or brick are used to reduce the fluctuation of temperatures a building experiences by modulating quick changes in temperatures.

Universal Design: All people, no matter what their level of physical ability or age, should be able to use a building or product as it is designed with no or very few modifications.

Ventilation: Green buildings, and any space designed to maximize energy-efficiency must be airtight. However, the regular introduction of fresh air is needed to maintain good air quality.

WaterSense: The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, used the idea behind the successful Energy Star program to create the WaterSense program in its basic image. Look for the WaterSense label to see how efficient the product is at conserving water.

Xeriscaping: Choosing drought-tolerant or resistant plants and shrubs so that the garden or yard requires less water.

Additional Green Building Links

 

Simple Machines: Pulleys, Levers, and Wheels

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Humans have always had work to do, and they have always looked for ways to make their work easier. Some of the first and most important inventions that humans ever made were six simple machines. These inventions made it easier to do things like redirect the energy of a force, transfer the force from one location to another, increase the strength of the force, or increase the speed or distance of a force. Many of the more complicated tools that humans developed later in history are just combinations of the original six simple machines.

Wheel and Axle

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One of the most significant inventions happened around 3500 B.C.E. The invention of the wheel allowed people to move stuff over greater distances and do it much faster. The development of trade routes was made possible by the development of the wheel. Wheels work by reducing friction. For example, someone needing to move a bookcase might struggle to push it across the floor. Pushing a hand truck under the bookcase, which has two wheels connected by an axle, makes it much easier to move the heavy piece of furniture. The development of the axle made wheels more effective. The axle made it possible to build wagons and carts that could be pulled behind animals. The Sumerians are believed to have been the first civilization that developed the wheel and axle.

Lever

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If you’ve ever played on a seesaw, you’ve seen a lever work. Archimedes, a Greek philosopher and inventor who lived in the third century C.E., is believed to have said, “Give me a lever and a place to stand and I’ll move the world.” He may have been exaggerating a little, but the truth is that leverage makes moving anything much easier.

Picture that playground seesaw, which consists of a long beam on a pivot point. That’s how all levers are built. Levers were invented by people living in what today is known as the Middle East around the year 5000 B.C.E. They invented levers because they wanted to lift things off of the ground without having to use a lot of effort. For example, without a lever, moving a 50-pound object requires using about 50 pounds of force to lift it about two feet in the air. However, if you’re using a lever and fulcrum (the pivot point), only about 25 pounds of force are required to lift the object the same distance in the air.

Inclined Plane

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Imagine standing outside a grocery store with a full cart. Moving from the sidewalk to the parking lot requires getting the cart over the curb. You could just shove it over the curb, but it’s a lot easier if you find a ramp to push the cart down instead. Inclined planes are just ramps that make it possible to move objects without having to lift them. Inclined planes and ramps have been used for centuries by civilizations all over the planet.

Pulley

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Pulleys make it easier to lift objects, and they also make it possible for people to live and work in very tall buildings. Elevators are based on the simple pulley. These machines involve attaching a pulley to a fixed point above a heavy object, running a rope over the pulley, and attaching one end of the rope to the heavy object. Pulling on the free end of the rope can lift the object with much less energy than simply trying to pick it up. Using two or more pulleys makes it possible to lift objects with even less force. It appears that Egyptians developed the pulley around the year 1990 B.C.E. Pulleys made building the pyramids possible!

Screw

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Some historians believe that Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum developed the screw during the fifth century B.C.E. If he did, he invented one of the most useful things ever. After all, screws are everywhere! Tiny screws hold together smartphones, bigger screws are used in furniture, and even larger ones make things like bridges and skyscrapers possible. A screw is simply an inclined plane that’s wrapped around a cylinder. The result is something that lets you join two things together using much less force than a nail requires.

Wedge

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The wedge has been in use since the Stone Age. It was probably invented when someone needed to separate two boulders and found that pushing a wedge between them made it easier. The metal part of a knife is also a wedge that makes it easier to break things apart. It’s a lot easier to turn an apple into pieces with a knife than just with your hands!

A Kid’s Guide to Renewable Energy

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A Kid’s Guide to Renewable Energy

What is Renewable Energy?

Energy is the force that makes things work. Without it, people couldn’t cook food, drive their cars, or power their homes with electricity. If there were no more energy, imagine how different and how much harder life would be. That’s why other, more renewable, sources of energy are necessary. Renewable energy is energy that comes from things that are natural and will always be available. It’s important to know what these types of energy are and why they are needed.

The Importance of Renewable Resources

Most of the electricity that people use comes from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels come from deep in the earth. They are dead plants and very tiny organisms, or animals, that lived millions of years ago. Time, heat, and pressure turned the plants into coal and the organisms into natural gas and oil.

The world uses a lot of energy every day and that takes a lot of fossil fuels. The problem is, the Earth doesn’t have an endless supply of fossil fuels. If we use it up, there isn’t a way to make more. Digging them up also damages the Earth and using them pollutes the air with harmful gases that are bad for people, animals, and the planet.

Renewable energy is different and comes in many different forms. Most renewable energy sources are clean and won’t cause pollution or hurt the Earth. Naturally occurring and, in many cases, increasingly available, it’s so important that we harness, collect, and use this energy.

Solar Energy

The sun is a huge source of renewable energy. It provides Earth with its light and heat. Without it, plants could not grow and people could not live on the planet. Energy from the sun is called solar energy. Sometimes, people can use solar energy without the help of technology. This is known as passive solar energy. Sunlight shining through a window and heating up a room is an example of passive solar energy. When a mechanical device turns solar power into electricity, it is active solar energy. Solar cells are devices that make solar electricity. Some houses have solar cells, or solar panels, on the roof as a source of power.

Wind Energy

The movement of air is called wind. The energy of motion is called kinetic energy. Wind energy is kinetic energy. People have used kinetic energy from the wind to create power for thousands of years. Windmills, for example, used the wind to pump water or help turn grain into flour. Today, wind turbines can use wind energy to create electricity.

Wind turbines are very tall and have blades that turn in the wind. Several parts connect these blades to a generator. The energy from the wind causes the blades to turn. When the wind moves the blades, the generator turns. When the generator turns fast enough, it creates electricity.

Hydropower

Moving water also creates energy. This energy can be turned into electricity called hydroelectricity. Like the wind, water makes electricity with the help of turbines. These turbines, however, are called water turbines. To make electricity, water from a river or a dam hits the blades of the water turbine and makes it turn. The turning blades cause the turbine’s generator to spin. The spinning generator turns the energy from the moving water into electricity.

Geothermal Energy

The core, or center, of the Earth generates heat. Sometimes, that heat rises to the surface and can be a source of renewable energy called geothermal energy. Hot springs are an example of groundwater heated by geothermal energy that has risen to the surface of the earth. It also rises to the surface through geysers and volcanoes. There are also power plants that turn geothermal energy into electricity.

Biomass Fuels

Almost anything that comes from plants or animals can be used for fuel. That’s possible because living things absorb and store energy from the sun. When they are used as fuel, they are called biomass fuels. Garbage, corn, wood, and even poop are all biomass fuels. Burning wood, for example, produces energy that can cook or warm a room. It is the most commonly used type of biomass. Certain types of rotting and smelly garbage release renewable methane gas, or biogas, that’s good for transportation. Animal fat and vegetable oil are examples of biomass that turn into biodiesel that fuels cars, trucks, or buses.

Nuclear Energy

Everything on Earth, and in the universe, is made of tiny particles known as atoms. Nuclear energy is the energy at the center of each atom. Energy is released from these atoms when they are broken apart in a process called nuclear fission. Energy also releases when atoms combine. That’s called nuclear fusion. In nuclear power plants, energy is released from uranium atoms using nuclear fission. The heat caused by the fission spins a turbine that generates electricity. Nuclear energy is not renewable energy, but it is clean energy that does not release pollution into the air.

Utilizing Rainwater and Gravity: A Guide to Rain Gardens

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Utilizing Rainwater and Gravity: A Guide to Rain Gardens

Rainwater is an abundant source of hydration for plants and animals, and it requires little effort to use. Condensation and gravity do most of the work, so all we need to do is direct the water where it’s needed. A rain garden goes a step beyond simply collecting rainwater and funneling it toward our plants. The purpose of a rain garden is to collect rainwater, but that’s just the first step. Once water has collected, the garden should disperse it to plants and then allow it to drain back into the water table at an ideal rate. Besides permitting controlled absorption of rainwater, rain gardens can also filter harmful pollutants before letting the water pass back into the ground.

How Do Rain Gardens Work?

When rainwater strikes non-porous surfaces like roads, driveways, and roofs, it becomes runoff, which can pick up chemicals on the surface and erode sediment, then carry these substances into storm drains. But when more rainwater is directed toward a rain garden, the water is slowed down and can seep into the ground. Because (gravity) ensures that the water runs downhill, there’s no need for pumps or electric power: The rainwater runs into a depression in the ground, whether natural or artificial. Carefully selected plants make use of the water as it flows into a holding area or pond, where it gathers and slowly drains back into the soil.

Rain Garden Benefits

When rainwater runs off hard surfaces like roads and driveways, it picks up pollutants such as oil and fertilizer. These chemicals can be concentrated in runoff and make the water harmful to the animals that drink from nearby streams and ponds. Enough pollution can even affect the safety of the drinking water we access from the water table. To combat this problem, rain gardens filter water from rain and storms. The rate of absorption can be adjusted by altering the garden’s mix of sand, gravel, and compost. The rainwater gradually returns to the ground and to nearby bodies of water, ensuring a safer water supply for people and animals. This process, known as bioretention, can act as a water treatment plant right in your own backyard. Bringing this ecological balance to your garden can even encourage pollinator activity, welcoming in bees and butterflies.

Designing Your Own Rain Garden

Selecting the site for your rain garden is one of the most important considerations. You’ll want an area with high and low spots or an area where you can artificially assist gravity. You may need to dig a trench or adjust the slope of a hill to ensure proper flow. Avoid sites under large trees where roots could infiltrate your garden. Also keep your rain garden away from homes and septic systems to avoid contamination. With your spot selected, make sure to test your soil. Clay-heavy soils will need a larger rain garden, while sandy or loamy ground can have smaller pond areas. Finally, a percolation test will tell you how quickly water drains through your soil. This is a simple matter of filling a hole with water and timing how long it takes to drain. Before digging any deep holes for your pond area, contact your local utility service (or dial 811 in the United States) to avoid any buried cables.

Selecting and Placing Plants

Selecting the plants for a rain garden must be done carefully, but it can also be a lot of fun. Concentrate on plants native to your area to give your garden the best chance to thrive. On the inflow side of the garden, make sure your plants can tolerate low-moisture conditions. Since they’ll be positioned on a slope, they’ll get a bit of moisture from rainwater but won’t soak in it. Plants destined for the pond area should enjoy a variety of moisture conditions. This is because they’ll experience dry conditions when rain isn’t coming in but also wet days as rainwater seeps back into the ground. Otherwise, let your imagination run wild as you select a combination of ferns, grasses, woody shrubs, and perennials.

Maintenance

Fortunately, rain gardens don’t require complicated or grueling maintenance schedules. You will, however, want to keep an eye on the health of your garden to ensure that it continues to thrive. This includes observing the garden during periods of heavy rain to verify that the rate of water drainage is optimal. Any invasive weeds or non-native plant species should be removed. Plants should be pruned according to their seasonal demands. If you find any plants suffering from too little (or too much) water, consider transplanting them to another area of the rain garden or replacing them with a more agreeable species. With a bit of trimming and some loving care, your rain garden should continue to perform well for many seasons.