Geometry in Everyday Life Essay Example for Free

Geometry in Everyday Life Essay A solar water heater is the most competitive alternative to conventional water heating methods such as electric geysers and fuel-fed boilers. It makes an attractive and sustainable option, with its global distribution, pollution free nature, virtually inexhaustible supply and near-zero operational cost. Solar water heaters run on a free fuel (i. e. sunshine), thus saving on energy costs that help recover its initial cost in just 2-4 years. Hot water throughout the year: the system works all year round, though youll need to heat the water further with a boiler or immersion heater during the winter months. Cut your bills: sunlight is free, so once youve paid for the initial installation your hot water costs will be reduced. Cut your carbon footprint: solar hot water is a green, renewable heating system and can reduce your carbon dioxide emissions. Solar water heating systems use solar panels, called collectors, fitted to your roof. These collect heat from the sun and use it to heat up water which is stored in a hot water cylinder. A boiler or immersion heater can be used as a back up to heat the water further to reach the temperature you want. There are two types of solar water heating panels: evacuated tubes (as in the picture above) flat plate collectors, which can be fixed on the roof tiles or integrated into the roof. Larger solar panels can also be arranged to provide some contribution to heating your home as well. However, the amount of heat provided is generally very small and it is not normally considered worth while. Maintenance costs for solar water heating systems are generally very low. Most solar water heating systems come with a five-year or ten-year warranty and require little maintenance. Once fitted your installer should leave written details of any maintenance checks that you can carry out from time to time, ensuring everything is working properly. Perhaps the most important thing you can check for yourself from time to time is whether there are any leaks. If there are any leaks of anti-freeze (even if you can’t see any liquid) this will have a strong smell. If you notice this you should contact your installer. In general you should keep an eye on your system to check that it is doing what it has been designed to do. If you are not getting hot water or the solar pipework is cold (when the pump is running) on warm, sunny days then again you should contact your installer. For peace of mind some installation companies offer an annual service check. You should have your system checked more thoroughly by an accredited installer every 3-7 years, or as specified by your installer. It is likely that after this period of time the anti-freeze that is used to protect your system in the winter months will need to topped up or be replaced as it breaks down over time reducing the performance of your system. Anti-freeze lasts better if the solar water system is used throughout the year and not left unused during the warmest weeks of the year. This cost of replacing the anti-freezer is usually around ? 100. The other thing that your installer should check is the pump. In a well maintained system, pumps can last for ten years plus and usually cost around ? 90 to replace. Solar water heating systems can achieve savings on your energy bills. Based on the results of our recent field trial, typical savings from a well-installed and properly used system are ? 60 per year when replacing gas heating and ? 5 per year when replacing electric immersion heating; however, savings will vary from user to user. Typical carbon savings are around 230kgCO2/year when replacing gas and 500kgCO2/year when replacing electric immersion heating. Spherical reflector type cooker Spherical mirrors are the simplest type of concentrator and are easy to build and use. It is easy to focus sun rays, and if one opts for a moving vessel to meet the focus, cooking can also be done very easily. Such a design was suggested for the first time in the year 1961 by Stam (1961). He suggested a large reflector of 4. m diameter made of local material which could even include mud, and the reflector surface suitably smoothed with fine mud/cement and coated with aluminized polyester. An appropriate technology handbook describes a simple method of construction of the spherical mirror in the ground (a tall tripod with a long string to which a stone is attached at the tip, will act as a guide for excavating a hollow in the ground) and after finishing and stabilizing the interior, the reflector material could be stuck to make it into a spherical mirror. Such a mirror, of about 2. m in diameter, would do useful work for at least five to six hours a day. The cooking vessel could be hung from the tripod or a suitable stand and positioned to meet the focus. Dan Halacy (1974) suggests a similar design. He uses two full and several half cardboard ribs to fabricate the base and attaches mylar film as a reflector. This device was meant mainly for campers. Bamboo and/or other locally available materials could be used to fabricate such hemispherical baskets. Recently Prof. Quintone of the United Kingdom has taken up this design and is trying to popularize it in places likePeru. In his beautifully designed and illustrated site he presents detailed instructions on fabricating the design and using it. The cooker below is a simple steel bowl used for carrying sand, is coated with a reflector foil and a blackened cooking vessel is put in it. The entire assembly is covered over by a flat sheet glass. The design is very similar toSuryakund cited by Kuhnke et al in their book Solar Cookers in the third world. In Suryakund, the vessels are kept in a inverted glass jar. Like Suryakund, this cooker too would suffer from limitation of size. Unfortunately, this simple design has not attracted much attention, but on a very big scale, like in power generation (as in Marseilles, France), such a hemispherical mirror is being used (Jet Propulsion Laboratory 1981). Scientists ofAustralia (Anon. 1979) have presented a similar design. Margaret Koshoni developed the Cone Cooker to suit the needs of Nigerian women. Most people live in flats with balconies; the structure of the balconies will shade the CooKit and make a shadow. The Cone Cooker being placed on a stand has the advantage of elevation and the stand can be moved about without disturbing the cooking. Medved et al. , propose an interesting design (1996) called a SOLAR BALL. It is an inflatable plastic ball with lower part of reflective material. The cooking vessel is kept at the base. It is an interesting variation but there appears to be some serious limitations with reference to size of the ball as well as size and handling of the cooking vessel. Recently, the spherical geometry seems to have made a come back, and we see that at Auroville in India a 15 meter diameter mirror cooks food for over 1500 persons. A similar large solar bowl was built at the University of Mexico. photovoltaic solar cells PV cells are made from layers of semi-conducting material, usually silicon. When light shines on the cell it creates an electric field across the layers. The stronger the sunshine, the more electricity is produced. Groups of cells are mounted together in panels or modules that can be mounted on your roof. The power of a PV cell is measured in kilowatts peak (kWp). Thats the rate at which it generates energy at peak performance in full direct sunlight during the summer. PV cells come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Most PV systems are made up of panels that fit on top of an existing roof, but you can also fit solar tiles. Solar tiles and slates Solar tiles are designed to be used in place of ordinary roof tiles. A system made up of solar tiles will typically cost around twice as much as an equivalent panel system, although you will save the money you would have spent on roof tiles or slates. Solar tile systems are not normally as cost-effective as panel systems, and are usually only considered where panels are not considered appropriate for aesthetic or planning reasons. Solar PV needs little maintenance – youll just need to keep the panels relatively clean and make sure trees dont begin to overshadow them. In the UK panels that are tilted at 15Â ° or more have the additional benefit of being cleaned by rainfall to ensure optimal performance. Debris is more likely to accumulate if you have ground mounted panels. If dust, debris, snow or bird droppings are a problem they should be removed with warm water (and perhaps some washing-up liquid or something similar – your installer can advise) and a brush or a high pressure hose (or telescopic cleaning pole) if the panels are difficult to reach. Always be careful if you are working above the ground or near the top of a ladder. Alternatively, there are a number of specialist window cleaning companies who will clean solar PV panels for you at a cost (of around ? 30 based on our research in March 2012) depending on the size of your array and location. Many of these companies use a water fed pole system which does away with the need for a ladder. Once fitted, your installer should leave written details of any maintenance checks that you should carry out from time to time to ensure everything is working properly. This should include details of the main inverter fault signals and key trouble-shooting guidance. Ideally your installer should demonstrate this to you at the point of handover. Keeping a close eye on your system and the amount of electricity it’s generating (alongside the weather conditions) will familiarise you with what to expect and alert you to when something might be wrong. The panels should last 25 years or more, but the inverter is likely to need replacing some time during this period, at a current cost of around ? 1,000. Consult with your installer for exact maintenance requirements before you commit to installing a solar PV system. Photovoltaics is the direct conversion of light into electricity at the atomic level. Some materials exhibit a property known as the photoelectric effect that causes them to absorb photons of light and release electrons. When these free electrons are captured, an electric current results that can be used as electricity. The photoelectric effect was first noted by a French physicist, Edmund Bequerel, in 1839, who found that certain materials would produce small amounts of electric current when exposed to light. In 1905, Albert Einstein described the nature of light and the photoelectric effect on which photovoltaic technology is based, for which he later won a Nobel prize in physics. The first photovoltaic module was built by Bell Laboratories in 1954. It was billed as a solar battery and was mostly just a curiosity as it was too expensive to gain widespread use. In the 1960s, the space industry began to make the first serious use of the technology to provide power aboard spacecraft. Through the space programs, the technology advanced, its reliability was established, and the cost began to decline. During the energy crisis in the 1970s, photovoltaic technology gained recognition as a source of power for non-space applications. A number of solar cells electrically connected to each other and mounted in a support structure or frame is called a photovoltaic module. Modules are designed to supply electricity at a certain voltage, such as a common 12 volts system. The current produced is directly dependent on how much light strikes the module. Photovoltaic solar plants work like this: As light hits the solar panels, the solar radiation is converted into direct current electricity (DC). The direct current flows from the panels and is converted into alternating current (AC) used by local electric utilities. Finally, the electricity travels through transformers, and the voltage is boosted for delivery onto the transmission lines so local electric utilities can distribute the electricity to homes and businesses. Solar-Thermal plants work like this: Solar collectors capture and concentrate sunlight to heat a synthetic oil called therminol, which then heats water to create steam. The steam is piped to an onsite turbine-generator to produce electricity, which is then transmitted over power lines. On cloudy days, the plant has a supplementary natural gas boiler. The plant can burn natural gas to heat the water, creating steam to generate electricity. Solar power plants use the suns rays to produce electricity. Photovoltaic plants and solar thermal systems are the most commonly used solar technologies today. ` Solar cells such as these are used in photovoltaic solar technology There are two types of solar power plants. They are differentiated depending on how the energy from the sun is converted into electricity either via photovoltaic or solar cells, or via solar thermal power plants. Photovoltaic plants A photovoltaic cell, commonly called a solar cell or PV, is a technology used to convert solar energy directly into electricity. A photovoltaic cell is usually made from silicon alloys. Particles of solar energy, known as photons, strike the surface of a photovoltaic cell between two semiconductors. These semiconductors exhibit a property known as the photoelectric effect, which causes them to absorb the photons and release electrons. The electrons are captured in the form of an electric current in other words, electricity. Solar thermal power plants A solar thermal plant generates heat and electricity by concentrating the suns energy. That in turn builds steam that helps to feed a turbine and generator to produce electricity. There are three types of solar thermal power plants: 1) Parabolic troughs This is the most common type of solar thermal plant. A solar field usually contains many parallel rows of solar parabolic trough collectors. They use parabola-shaped reflectors to focus the sun at 30 to 100 times its normal intensity. The method is used to heat a special type of fluid, which is then collected at a central location to generate high-pressure, superheated steam. 2) Solar power tower This system uses hundreds to thousands of flat sun-tracking mirrors called heliostats to reflect and concentrate the suns energy onto a central receiver tower. The energy can be concentrated as much as 1,500 times that of the energy coming in from the sun. A test solar power tower exists in Juelich in the western German state of North-Rhine Westphalia. It is spread over 18,000 square meters (194,000 square feet) and uses more than 2,000 sun-tracking mirrors to reflect and concentrate the suns energy onto a 60-meter-high (200 foot high) central receiver tower. The concentrated solar energy is used to heat the air in the tower to up to 700 degrees Celsius (1,300 degrees Fahrenheit). The heat is captured in a boiler and is used to produce electricity with the help of a steam turbine. Solar thermal energy collectors work well even in adverse weather conditions. Theyre used in the Mojave Desert in California and have withstood hailstorms and sandstorms. 3) Solar pond This is a pool of saltwater which collects and stores solar thermal energy. It uses so-called salinity-gradient technology. Basically, the bottom layer of the pond is extremely hot up to 85 degrees Celsius and acts as a transparent insulator, permitting sunlight to be trapped from which heat may be withdrawn or stored for later use.

One Day at Work Essay -- Descriptive Writing Examples

One Day at Work Every day, I followed the same old routine. Get up, eat breakfast, find my work vest, get dressed, leave. White polo shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Little red PharMor vest. Every single day. No variation, no chance for change or creativity. When working somewhere as mundane as a grocery store, you almost pray that something exciting happens to you during the day. But never does a cashier hope to encounter a tremendously irascible customer, the way that one summer day turned out for me. I followed my humdrum routine, arriving for work on time, punching in, and returning to the front to begin my shift. The store was mostly calm, except for the constant beeping of the registers, the bickering of elderly couples, and the hum of activity swirling about the manager's desk. In other words, there was nothing out of the ordinary at all at good old PharMor. I was used to the noise, to the persnickety comments from customers, and to our sarcastic managers. Just when I thought I'd heard every possible complaint, seen every possible accident - it got worse. ...

Ethical Pursuations Essay

Each of the three different theoretical approaches proposed for public relation ethics has admirers and detractors as well. All the three theories require practical ways of incorporating them into public relation campaign, using the suggested pyramids (Barney & Black 1994:233-244). Virtue ethics involves fostering a strong internal moral compass to guide anyone in choosing the right action. It requires one to first develop ethical judgment by stimulating the moral imagination in order to recognize ethical issues. This can only be achieved in a campaign through ethics brainstorming sessions or ethical reflection time, and this is where individuals considered ethical implications and report back to the team or through discussion with an independent ethics consultant, who could then highlight potential ethical issues in the upcoming campaign and stimulate debate on appropriate approaches. This approach allows other virtue tests that accord with their values and enables them to set relevant virtue objectives to be revisited and tested at the end of the campaign. Virtue ethics becomes a formative step in public relations process, rather than a reactive process once a problem arise. However, it is flexible, by the fact that in the middle segment pyramid, each of the facts used can be assessed in the campaign using a virtue approach tactics. Virtue ethics clearly has benefits for practitioners who are seeking ethical guidance but many times it is be inadequate alone. For example tests using external virtue referents like a ‘significant other’, are ‘at odds with the idea of developing virtues by purchasing the internal goals of a practice’ (Baker & Martinson 2001: 148-275) Deontology involves following a prescribed set of duties or obligations for example, religious rules such as ‘Thou shall not lie’, and one of its common deontological positions in public relations is advocacy, and this is the belief that provides practitioners specific behaviors that are ethical against an agreed standard like a professional ethics code at the same time, they can easily promote clients self-interests above all other interests when compared to virtue ethics and consequatialisim; in addition deontological approaches are also useful in the campaigns communication phase and this enables them to assess ethics of messages and communication outputs when compared to virtue ethics, as well as consequantialism. Their approaches are useful because they clarify the limits of reasonable behavior by providing absolute prohibitions, and directives for specific acts, however at times, although occasional their inflexibility can be problematic (Baker 1997: pp. 197-210). Lastly but not least, consequantialism uses the approach of judging actions by their customers. One of the well-known techniques of consequentialism is ulitarianism; where an assessment is made of who has been affected, and determines in what ways, and consequently the right action that is supposed to be taken which creates maximum total benefit. Their main method of determining the outcome involves drawing a flow chart or a mind map which is cumbersome. Their only closest related test is the benefit or harm assessment, in which calculation is made about whether the benefits to stakeholders outweigh the harm (Baker 2002: 191-205). The approach is clearly a very crucial component of public relations, but on its own at many times it obscures the means used to obtain a desired outcome, for instance, a pure consequantialist can endorse a lie if it ultimately resulted in more happiness or a more wide-spread benefit than truth-telling (Barney & Black 1994:244-248). Conclusion The two approaches; virtues ethics and consequentialism to public relations have benefits but they have serious limitations. One can only manage these limitations by using deontological approaches, because it has a high persuasive power with respect to public relation practitioners.

Aspects Of Langston Hughes And The Harlem Renaissance

Although it was a time of great discrimination, the Harlem Renaissance was a time of emergence for African Americans artists. Several writers such as Langston Hughes emerged during this period. African American writers who emerged during the Harlem Renaissance were heroes to lower-class blacks living in Harlem. Langston Hughes was a household name amongst the lower-class during the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes’s poetry was strongly influenced by the Harlem Renaissance because of his love for the black masses. Hughes was determined to improve the lives of those living in Harlem. Through his works Hughes voiced the difficulties which African Americans faced (Dickinson). Hughes was heavily inspired by the Harlem Renaissance as it was a time of†¦show more content†¦Hughes drew inspirations from Harlem. The abundance of African American culture in Harlem supplied Hughes with various amounts of writing material and inspired him to write. Hughes’s poetry was also majorly impacted by the sounds of Harlem. Forms of Jazz and Blues were incorporated in his works because they were powerful representations of African American culture (DeSantis). Hughes used the Harlem vernacular so that the people living in Harlem would be able to understand his works. Just as people in Harlem used Jazz and Blues to express the hardships of African American life, Hughes incorporated rhythms of Jazz and Blues to deliver his messages to the world (Dickinson). Despite the weariness and pain depicted through Jazz and Blues, they also carry hope for the future. The optimism found throughout Jazz and Blues is evident in several of Hughes’s works including â€Å"The Weary Blues†. Other sounds of Harlem were also influential on Hughes as a poet. Harlem’s influence on Langston Hughes as a writer was so great that the moods of Harlem were reflected throughout his works (Dickinson). Through a mixture of jive talk, rhyme, a lliteration, sharp interjections, riffs, runs, and breaks, Hughes included the sounds of Blues, Jazz, and the everyday sounds of Harlem into his works. The intricate solos, broken melodies, and the mixed rhythms of bebop and jazz found throughout Hughes’s works created his own unique style (Dickinson). Hughes was notShow MoreRelatedLangston Hughes And The Harlem Renaissance1219 Words   |  5 PagesLangston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance The Harlem renaissance is an artistic revolutionary period that took place between 1917 and 1937. This was after the First World War. Harlem was a district in New York. The Harlem renaissance impacted the social, cultural as well as artistic aspects of the black community. Many black people were encouraged to flee the southern sides where the caste system continued to oppress the black people. At this period, racial inequalities as well as other social injusticesRead MoreThe Harlem Renaissance Essay1086 Words   |  5 Pages The Harlem Renaissance was a time of great commotion spanning the 1920s, also known as the â€Å"New Negro Movement.† One of the more well-known movers and shakers of the Harlem Renaissance is Langston Hughes. He amongst other artist brought new forms of black cultural expressions into urban areas that had been affected by The Great Migration. Harlem was the largest area affected by said Great Migration. Though the Harlem Renaissance was centered in H arlem the power and strength contained in theRead MoreReoccurring Themes in the Work of Langston Hughes Essay1649 Words   |  7 PagesLangston Hughes is an extremely successful and well known black writer who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance (â€Å"Langston Hughes† 792). He is recognized for his poetry and like many other writers from the Harlem Renaissance, lived most of his life outside of Harlem (â€Å"Langston Hughes† 792). His personal experiences and opinions inspire his writing intricately. Unlike other writers of his time, Hughes expresses his discontent with black oppression and focuses on the hardships of his people. Hughes’Read MoreEssay on The Poetry of Langston Hughes During the Harlem Renaissance1694 Words   |  7 PagesI. Introduction: The Harlem Renaissance The village of Harlem, New York was originally established by Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant in 1658. It was named after a Dutch city, â€Å"Nieuw Harlem. It sits on a 5.5 square mile area of Manhattan north of 96th Street. The 1830s saw the abandonment of Harlem due to the fact that the farmlands failed to produce. The economic recovery in Harlem began in 1837. It boasted prosperous, fashionable neighborhoods that offered a diverse, rich background providedRead MoreEssay on Langston Hughes a Harlem Renaissance Man1463 Words   |  6 Pagesdistrict of New York City called Harlem. The area known as Harlem matured into the hideaway of jazz and the blues where the African American artist emerged calling themselves the â€Å"New Negro.† The New Negro was the cornerstone for an era known today as the Harlem Renaissance (Barksdale 23). The Harlem Renaissance warranted the expression of the double consciousness of the African Americans, which was exposed by artists such as Lan gston Hughes. James Mercer Langston Hughes was an African American poetRead MoreLangston Hughes : A Modernist1222 Words   |  5 PagesSappington 13 Apr. 2017 Langston Hughes: A Modernist Credited as being the most recognizable figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes played a vital role in the Modernist literary movement and the movement to revitalize African American culture in the early 20th century. Hughes’s poems reflect his personal struggle and the collective struggle of African Americans during this cultural revival. Langston Hughes’s life contained key influences on his work. As a child, Hughes witnessed a divorceRead MoreLangston Hughes : The Face Of Harlem Literacy1147 Words   |  5 Pages The Face of Harlem Literacy James Mercer Hughes, most commonly known as Langston Hughes, was a notorious writer during the Harlem Renaissance period. The Harlem Renaissance is considered a cultural explosion of African American cultures during the 1920’s. Hughes was an important figure and supporter during the Harlem Renaissance era. Through Hughes literature and activism during the 1920’s he created a positive change within the black community. The Harlem Renaissance coincided with theRead MoreLangston Hughes : Jazz Poetry And Harlem Renaissance1212 Words   |  5 PagesLangston Hughes Jazz Poetry and Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes was an African American poet who was born on 01 February 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. His parents separated and later divorced during his childhood. Subsequently he was raised predominantly by his maternal grandmother. His grandparents were politically active and supporters of the abolition of slavery. They were activists in the movement for voting rights for African Americans. Through their active involvement in his upbringingRead MoreThe Harlem Renaissance : Langston Hughes1145 Words   |  5 Pagesplace called Harlem and this is where it all started. Harlem became the training ground for blues and jazz and gave birth to a young generation of Negro Artist, who referred to themselves as the New Negro. The New Negro was the base for an epoch called the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance allowed for the materialization of the double consciousness of the Negro race as demonstrated by artists such as Langston Hughes. During the peak of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes created poetryRead MoreThe Poetry Of Langston Hughes1727 Words   |  7 PagesLangston Hughes is arguably one of the best known American writers of the twentieth century. He played an important influential part in the Harlem Renaissance, his poetry and other literary works helped pave way to a new wave of African American culture and literature. Hughes had a wide variety of works, he was much more than just a poet; he was a short-story writer, novelist, and playwright (Brucker). He was also very involved in the Black Arts Movement, and had works published in â€Å"The Crisis† the