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The U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a collaborative national center for fusion energy research. The Laboratory advances the coupled fields of fusion energy and plasma physics research, and is developing the scientific understanding and key innovations needed to realize fusion as an energy source. This program details how PPPL has gained extensive capabilities in a host of disciplines including advanced computational simulations, vacuum technology, mechanics, materials science, electronics, and more.
The battery has been in use since the early 1800s but it is the last twenty years that has seen the most incredible growth in portable energy storage technology. Today, batteries provide power and on-demand energy to much of our modern, high tech world from the small back-up battery in your computer to units large enough to power cars, trucks, and space stations. This program will emphasize lithium-ion technology, as well as innovations in the storage and transfer of energy.
With case studies from the US, the UK, China and India, this title asks how important coal, gas and nuclear will be in the future global energy mix. Find out what is being done to clean up coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. With the growth of fracking in the US improving energy security in the States, what are the potential benefits and environmental risks associated with it in the UK? And why is nuclear still considered to be an attractive option by some countries, despite the Fukushima disaster?
Although renewable energies are seen as "clean and green", their development can often be cause for conflict. Some forms of renewable energy are also limited by weather and climate. Examine the pros and cons of a variety of renewable energy sources with this title that draws examples from the UK, India and Europe. The de-carbonisation of energy is discussed, and Tidal, HEP, Wind, Solar, Biomass and Biogas are all considered.
Chemical changes occur around us, and inside us, all the time. When chemical reactions happen, one or more new substances are formed and energy is either given off or absorbed in the process. Spontaneous chemical reactions, those that occur naturally under favourable conditions release free energy, meaning they are exergonic. Endergonic reactions, by contrast, require net energy input to make the reaction happen. This excellent learning resource explores energy associated with chemical reactions, and cover areas such as activation energy and product formation, standard heats of reaction, thermochemical equations and Hess' Law, and specific heat capacity and calorimetry. It is essential viewing for any Chemistry student, providing clear explanations and easily understood visuals, including comprehensive chemical equations, about concepts that many students find challenging.
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Energy is never created nor destroyed - just transferred from one form to another. It's one of the most fundamental concepts in physics, but can be one that students find challenging when first introduced to it. This video production uses an engaging presenter and familiar objects and scenarios - including skateboarding, tennis, vehicles and plant growth to explore different forms of energy, their effects on objects and processes and conversion from one form to another. Sections include what is energy, kinetic energy (including electrical, radiant and sound), potential energy and energy transformations. Students of Science at lower to middle levels will find this resource ideal for consolidating their understanding of these important fundamental areas.
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The energy demands and rising cost of oil have encouraged scientists and engineers to develop renewable energy alternatives. Biofuels are renewable energy sources from organic materials such as plants or animals that are directly converted into liquid fuels. The two most common biofuels in use today are ethanol and biodiesel. Engineered biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel that are made from starches, sugars and cellulose are already in use as blending agents and additives that greatly reduce vehicle emissions. Algae as a bio-fuel has become more common because it is easy to harvest and these single celled photosynthetic organisms are known for their rapid growth and high energy content.
This program stresses the importance of caring for our environment and provides an overview of multiple energy sources such as biomass and solar energy. Documents how some states are trying to enact laws that require local power plants to increase their power provided by renewable energy. To preserve our planet's health, scientists explore green projects involving ecologically friendly architecture and sustainable communities with solar homes and green housing developments.
Learning to incorporate a variety of eco-friendly energy sources into our businesses and homes will make Earth a better place to live. This program explores photovoltaics, the design behind wind turbine technology and the creative processes behind vehicles in the American Solar Car Race. Zero energy houses of the future will use many of these technologies to produce more energy than they consume. Renewable energy technologies are important for the future of our planet. This program shows how people in different areas are doing their part to explore the potential of several promising renewable energy technologies.
In a gas turbine, the linear motion of gas causes rotors to spin, ultimately creating electricity. The forward rotating blades pump air under high pressure into the combustion chamber where natural gas ignites on contact with the air. At 1,500 degrees Celsius, the stream of gas rushes past the rear turbine blades, causing the entire rotor to spin. A generator transforms that rotational energy into electricity. This program shows the extreme precision required to build a turbine, how it works and how it's used.
Alternative energy sources are being researched and developed to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Fluctuating costs of oil, coal and natural gas, along with their possible negative effects on the environment, has made energy sources such as wind and solar more cost-competitive with fossil fuels. More energy strikes the Earth in an hour than humans need in a year. We are now hard at work developing a variety of technologies to convert its power into energy that we can use to heat, cool and light our homes and businesses. This program sheds some light on photovoltaic cells and concentrated solar power as well as how they are able to convert the suns energy into electricity.
Fossil fuels have long been the world's energy source, but it wasn't always that way. Ancient Eastern cultures developed the first known wind mills for drawing water and grinding grains into flour. The modern three-blade, computer-controlled Wind Turbine does what all wind turbines have always done - harness the energy from the earth's constant flow of air. This program explores wind power's alternative energy production in today's oil-dependent economy - how it works and the environmental factors that scientists are researching.
Relying on evidence from the past as well as the present, this program explains how energy availability relates to economic growth and human progress. Updated in 2007 it provides ideal introduction to energy issues of 21st century in secondary and college classrooms. This new DVD version includes guided questions and quizzes to help the teacher reinforce concepts recommended in the National Science Education Standards.
Part 1. A Brief History of Energy and Society. Traces the part played by energy throughout human history-muscle power to wind and water to fossil fuels to nuclear and solar energy and to large increases in efficiency today.
Part 2. Energy for Today and Tomorrow. Explains basic concepts in energy science and offers insights into energy production and use for today and tomorrow.
In Energy and Society the keys to scientific literacy include: acid rain, agricultural revolution, carbon dioxide, democracy, efficiency, energy, fission, foot-pounds, fossil fuels, fusion, global warming, greenhouse effect, horsepower, Industrial Revolution, kilowatt, laws of thermodynamics, nuclear energy, photosynthesis, power, renewable energy, solar energy, solar voltaic cells, Watt, watt.
As the Earth's fossil fuel reserves decline, what forms of energy will come next? After discussing the formation, uses, and consequences of burning coal, oil, and natural gas, this DVD explores the development of alternative resources that may someday completely replace them: nuclear power, solar energy, biomass, geothermal energy, hydroelectric power, and wind power. Benefits, costs, and environmental impacts are considered.
As the third millennium begins, earth relies ever more heavily on fossil fuel energy. This program helps students understand basic laws of energy flow, the importance of energy supplies for industrial civilizations, and the options for the new century. Stresses the importance of research into alternatives, including nuclear power, that do not add to global warming.
Review
"One of the BEST SCIENCE FILMS FROM THE PAST FIVE YEARS" - Science Books & Films, May/June 2004
Underpinning the whole of physics are the twin laws of conservation of energy and momentum. This program examines the many forms of energy, momentum and how they are related. The nature of action reaction is demonstrated by two students on skateboards pushing each other apart. The idea of a "closed system" is investigated with the example of sprinters pushing off starting blocks and collision between cars and stationary fixed walls. Students are taken through appropriate calculations and introduced to the various concepts relating to the conservation of energy and momentum.
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Renewable energy offers a long term solution to the problems caused by our use of fossil fuels, but if we want to make an immediate impact, the best place to start is energy conservation. Developed countries like Australia have relied on cheap energy to maintain high living standards, but this has produced a culture of wastefulness and inefficiency. This program takes the audience on a tour of an energy efficient house to show how the average home can cut energy use. And to make sure the audience identifies with the subject, we also visit an average Australian household and an average Australian secondary school, to see what they've done to conserve energy. Once people are educated about the way we use energy, they realise how easy it is to make the small changes that are needed to cut our energy use. This program shows that this results in big savings on our energy bills and makes a significant contribution to the health of our planet.
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Any ecosystem needs energy to sustain it, and the organisms within it. This energy comes in massive quantities from the Sun, although only a tiny fraction of the solar energy hitting the Earth goes towards sustaining life. The flow of energy through an ecosystem is complex, and vital to sustaining all life within it. This program explores energy flow through ecosystems, and how organisms at various levels in the food chain obtain their energy, use it, lose it, and store it. Number, biomass and energy pyramids are introduced, with a focus on the decreasing amounts of energy available to organisms at higher trophic levels. The concepts of niche, niche overlap, competition and limitations on organisms, are also introduced.
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This program profiles examples of technologies harnessing renewable energy - such as a wind farm, a bus running on ethanol, and a solar house - and uses these examples to examine the current state of renewable energy in Australia. Some sources of renewable energy, such as the wind industry, are amongst the fastest growing industries in the world! The program is an entertaining and informative guide to an extremely important issue for the future of our planet.
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Note : The above titles may have some territorial restrictions. Please feel free to send us an enquiry.
Energy and Society
Relying on evidence from the past as well as the present, this program explains how energy availability relates to economic growth and human progress.
Part 1. A Brief History of Energy and Society. Traces the part played by energy throughout human history-muscle power to wind and water to fossil fuels to nuclear and solar energy and to large increases in efficiency today.
Part 2. Energy for Today and Tomorrow. Explains basic concepts in energy science and offers insights into energy production and use for today and tomorrow.
Nuclear Power
Helps bring knowledge and perspective to an emotionally charged subject. Includes video footage from Los Alamos, Three Mile Island, Oak Ridge and other centers of nuclear research.
Part 1. The History of Nuclear Power. Tells the story of how nuclear power was developed in World War II and how it has come to be an important source of power and controversy today.
Part 2. Nuclear Power Today and Tomorrow. Helps the student understand the basic scientific principles involved in nuclear reactions. Includes pros and cons of nuclear energy in the future.
On Physical Science 2 DVD you can have easy access to keys to scientific literacy that include:
Low-energy society, high-energy society, agricultural revolution, industrial revolution, laws of thermodynamics, efficiency, power, fossil fuels, climate change, acid rain, Einstein at Princeton, Los Alamos, atomic theory, nuclear reactions, Oak Ridge, first nuclear bomb, hydrogen bomb, radioactivity, background radiation, chain reactions, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, energy from fusion, radiation dangers, nuclear wastes, comparing risks.
This industry quite literally goes whichever way the wind blows. Of all the renewable energy sources, moving air is the most volatile. Sometimes, the turbines have to make do with a gentle breeze and, at other times, fight against a raging gale. And wind energy scatters opinions like no other. Politicians, energy producers, environmentalists and ordinary citizens all have differing views. In Germany, wind energy was until recently of minor significance, while huge wind parks appeared in the U.S.A. and Denmark. But the climate changed abruptly with the passing of the electricity feed act. Within a few years, Germany had sailed into the lead as a wind-driven resource nation. But the industry quickly ran into a stiff headwind, both from initiatives of citizens who did not want to live near wind parks and from the major power suppliers who wanted to see the electricity feed act repealed. The wind energy business is now moving at a nice clip in many countries around the world. Much depends on the political and social conditions especially in the emerging economies. Whether by land or by sea, wind energy has a great deal of potential.
In 1945, American planes wiped Hiroshima and Nagasaki off the face of the earth with two atomic bombs, killing over 200,000 people literally in a flash. It was a traumatic awakening for the world.
German researchers had discovered nuclear fission in 1938, demonstrating to the world that untold quantities of energy were locked inside the atom. No other discovery in history has promised such blessings and yet been such a curse. Its potential was first tapped by the military, then, in the 1950s, by the civilian sector, as well. The new technology inspired high-flying visions as the worlds major powers jumped into its development and expansion in, among other things, nuclear power plants. The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 brought a rude awakening of another kind: it showed the world that the safety hazards inherent in this method of energy production had long been underestimated. Also the problems of safely disposing of nuclear waste are still far from being solved. Different views of the future of nuclear power are taken in different parts of the world.
The voracious appetite of the worlds six billion people for energy has given rise to a fast-food system of power supply and consumption. But there is only one source which can truly satisfy this hunger forever: the sun. Like many other visions of the future, the long-touted revolution of solar energy failed to materialize by the end of the millennium. But in the tradition of Prometheus, the pioneers are thinking ahead and, at the same time, blazing a trail for the world to follow, from the photo-voltaic roofers of Austria, to the cottage energy industry of Switzerland, to the architects of a solar village in Sweden; from the grass-roots solar revolutionaries of Germany to the energy entrepreneur with the competitive edge in the U.S.A. the spectrum runs from visionaries to pragmatists who have all put their faith in the only inexhaustible resource. But its only the beginning of a long, long road from shortsighted, fast-food energy consumption to a solar world energy order. The means and the end are a new technology of light.
The rise in the number and severity of weather phenomena and natural disasters over the past years furnishes ominous proof that the earths climate is changing. Yet at the same time, the global demand for energy is mushrooming - an increase of 300 percent has been predicted for the next fifty years. It is also predicted that fossil fuels the primary cause of the climate changes will have forfeited their status as the leading sources of energy production within a few decades. Earth-shaking visions and endeavors are needed to rethink, redefine and reshape the use of energy and its sources for the future. For inventors and economists both, the race is on to find the most efficient and sustainable exploitation of resources and energy. In addition to the opportunities for cutting costs, the real strength of alternative energy technologies lies in the great diversity of ideas and the flexibility of their application. The choice of an energy source - whether solar, wind, biomass, nuclear or hydroelectric energy is of prime importance. Crucial to the future of both energy systems and the world climate will be how quickly ways to capture and store the energy of the sun can be developed and refined. This is the ultimate source of all forms of commercially viable energy on earth and an inexhaustible one. It was the source of the gift of Prometheus the Titan - he who thinks ahead.
The three concepts below, each run 5 minutes , and clearly show with a excellent experiments and computer animation what is happening visibly during the experiments and invisibly at the molecular level.
Exothermic and Endothermic Reactions
Reaction Rates
Catalysts
All plant and animal life depends on obtaining energy from an external source in order to survive. The transfer of energy is examined here as a biochemical process that includes both photosynthesis and respiration in plants, and respiration in animals. The primary source of energy for almost all living things is the sun. Solar energy enters the food web through plants by photosynthesis, and then passes to animals, including humans. Students are asked to quantify the energy they consume and expend.
Review
Science Books & Films: "Recommended" for "life science, biology and general science", "also appropriate for environmental conservation or environmental studies."
The forms of potential energy are gravitational, elastic and chemical. Potential energy transfers to kinetic, or moving, energy. The states of matter (solid, liquid and gas) are explained in terms of the matter's average molecular kinetic energy. The potential chemical energy released in a controlled explosion is quantified at the molecular level when the recombination of atoms in a chemical reaction releases energy. The principles of thermodynamics and the law of the conservation of energy are demonstrated.
Review
Landers: "...By raising questions and providing diverse visuals, this video will stimulate curiosity and interest in the subject matter. Recommended."