GROUP 4 PLEASE HELP ;(((

[asdghjkl]

My group's theme is on forrest fires and i have no idea on what to do for the subject physics ((

[Masoomali fatehkia]

There is one of the topics in physics which is called "energy, power and climate change".

I think you could some how link the forest fires to how they can contribute to global warming through the large amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted. Although I guess there would not be much to experiment on if you choose this topic but it is something you can consider.

This one is slightly more complex:

You could take some parameters in order to make some estimated calculations. You could estimate how much energy is released from a typical forest fire. For that you will need the average mass of tree that is burned and the average amount of energy that is released by burning a unit mass of wood.

For example, you can estimate what area of a forest normally burns before the fire is put out. Then in the forest you will be visiting for your group 4, measure how many trees you can find in a square meter (or use any other measurement that suits you). Then by multiplying the area that gets burned down by the number of trees you find in a unit area, you can get an idea about how many trees are burned down on average. Then you will need to estimate the total mass of the trees (of course you can't put a tree on a balance so you'll have to think of a way of measuring the mass).

What you also need to investigate is the amount of energy which is released from burning wood which you can find out using a calorimetry technique.

Put everything together and you have an estimate of the energy released. Then somehow link this to global warming or other areas of physics.....

Hope that helps and isn't too confusing. Have a fun group 4 project!!

[asdghjkl]

There is one of the topics in physics which is called "energy, power and climate change".

I think you could some how link the forest fires to how they can contribute to global warming through the large amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted. Although I guess there would not be much to experiment on if you choose this topic but it is something you can consider.

This one is slightly more complex:

You could take some parameters in order to make some estimated calculations. You could estimate how much energy is released from a typical forest fire. For that you will need the average mass of tree that is burned and the average amount of energy that is released by burning a unit mass of wood.

For example, you can estimate what area of a forest normally burns before the fire is put out. Then in the forest you will be visiting for your group 4, measure how many trees you can find in a square meter (or use any other measurement that suits you). Then by multiplying the area that gets burned down by the number of trees you find in a unit area, you can get an idea about how many trees are burned down on average. Then you will need to estimate the total mass of the trees (of course you can't put a tree on a balance so you'll have to think of a way of measuring the mass).

What you also need to investigate is the amount of energy which is released from burning wood which you can find out using a calorimetry technique.

Put everything together and you have an estimate of the energy released. Then somehow link this to global warming or other areas of physics.....

Hope that helps and isn't too confusing. Have a fun group 4 project!!

THANKS SO MUCH! Can I measure amount of energy released if I do friction by fire? Like, I make a bow drill?

Also, how do I measure amount of energy released using calorimetry?

[Masoomali fatehkia]

There is one of the topics in physics which is called "energy, power and climate change".

I think you could some how link the forest fires to how they can contribute to global warming through the large amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted. Although I guess there would not be much to experiment on if you choose this topic but it is something you can consider.

This one is slightly more complex:

You could take some parameters in order to make some estimated calculations. You could estimate how much energy is released from a typical forest fire. For that you will need the average mass of tree that is burned and the average amount of energy that is released by burning a unit mass of wood.

For example, you can estimate what area of a forest normally burns before the fire is put out. Then in the forest you will be visiting for your group 4, measure how many trees you can find in a square meter (or use any other measurement that suits you). Then by multiplying the area that gets burned down by the number of trees you find in a unit area, you can get an idea about how many trees are burned down on average. Then you will need to estimate the total mass of the trees (of course you can't put a tree on a balance so you'll have to think of a way of measuring the mass).

What you also need to investigate is the amount of energy which is released from burning wood which you can find out using a calorimetry technique.

Put everything together and you have an estimate of the energy released. Then somehow link this to global warming or other areas of physics.....

Hope that helps and isn't too confusing. Have a fun group 4 project!!

THANKS SO MUCH! Can I measure amount of energy released if I do friction by fire? Like, I make a bow drill?

Also, how do I measure amount of energy released using calorimetry?

For calorimetry, you need to take a known mass of wood (it is a good idea to shred the wood into small pieces as it burns better that way) and burn it under a beaker of water. You will need to measure the water temperature before and after. Knowing the mass, specific heat capacity and temperature change of the water you can calculate the energy released (Q=mc(delta T)). It is not a very efficient way, as most of the energy from the burning wood is released into the environment and hence the calculated energy would be lower than it should be. You could look for a way of improving this, or acknowledging the error in your experiment and the fact that this is just an estimate. After all this is a group 4 project and not some kind of high tech research, so I think it should be fine as long as you mention this as a source of error in the experiment. And then knowing how much energy a known mass of wood produces you can estimate how much energy is produced by a burning forest and relate this to global warming issues and other such stuff.

Edited November 27, 2013 by Masoomali fatehkia