Solar History

This book examines the history of creative applications of photovoltaic (PV) solar power, including sound art, wearable technology, public art, industrial design, digital media, building integrated design, and many others. The growth in artists and designers incorporating solar power into their work reflects broader social, economic, and political events. As the cost of PV cells has come down, they have become more accessible and have found their way into a growing range of design applications and artistic practices. As climate change continues to transform our environment and becomes a greater public concern, the importance of integrating sustainable energy technologies into our culture grows as well. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, design history, design studies, environmental studies, environmental humanities, and sustainable energy design.

Proceedings of an ISSI Workshop, 14-18 January 2002, Bern, Switzerland

It may be counterintuitive: periods of high solar activity and high sunspot numbers - which are associated with a stable and more favorable climate - are also periods of increased mass excitability, war and genocide. In fact, throughout the last millennium, there were 4.6 times as many deaths from war, genocide and persecution during Grand Solar Maxima than there were in Grand Solar Minimum. In contrast, Grand Solar Minima - the 'bad-weather periods' - were times of relative peace, reason and of improvements of human rights.In the 1920s, the Russian scientist Alexander Tchijevsky discovered that social excitability, wars and rebellions unfolded primarily at the peaks of the 11-year solar cycles (Schwabe- cycles).I found that within the past 1000 years, what is true for the 11-years cycles, also applies to the non-periodical cycles of Grand Solar Minima and Maxima, recurring roughly every 200 or 400 years. Not only were most mass killings committed during these Grand Maxima, but the corresponding uprisings and rebellions mostly ended up in collectivist, totalitarian systems, that appealed to group ideologies, violent mob rule and imperialism. The narration of the history of this period is intended to illustrate this pattern and to warn of future repetitions. In addition to the multi decadal trends of wars and atrocities, we even find singular battles and mass hysteria in connection with the visible manifestations of high solar peaks, solar storms, visible sunspots and aurora. This book is about our future as much as it is about the past, as we are most likely entering the next Grand Solar Minimum within decades. If the trends of previous centuries continue, when the next Grand Solar Minimum begins, we can expect not only some inconvenient material adaptation processes, but ultimately also a social mood of increased reason, relative peace, rationality and the protection of human rights.This can give us a time window of between several decades and a hundred years to find out how we prevent the next round of mass killing and collectivist extremism in the future Solar Maximum. If we succeed, future generations may live in a world more peaceful than ever.

In this stellar activity book, kids delve into the rich history of space exploration, where telescopes, satellites, probes, landers, and human missions lead to amazing discoveries. Updated to include the recent discovery of Eris which, along with Pluto, has been newly classified as a &“dwarf planet&” by the International Astronomical Union, this cosmic adventure challenges kids to explore the planets and other celestial bodies for themselves through activities such as building a model of a comet using soil, molasses, dry ice, and window cleaner; or creating their own reentry vehicle to safely return an egg to Earth's surface. With biographies of more than 20 space pioneers, specific mission details, a 20-page field guide to the solar system, and plenty of suggestions for further research, this is the ultimate guidebook to exploring the solar system.

Based on an American Chemical Society Symposium organized by Professors Glenn Seaborg and Oliver Manuel, this volume provides a comprehensive record of different views on this important subject at the end of the 20th century. They have assembled a blend of highly respected experimentalists and theorists from astronomy, geology, meteoritics, planetology and nuclear chemistry and physics to discuss the origin of elements in the solar system. The intent was to include all points of view and let history judge their validity.

This book discusses how and why historical measurement units developed, and reviews useful methods for making conversions as well as situations in which dimensional analysis can be used. It starts from the history of length measurement, which is one of the oldest measures used by humans. It highlights the importance of area measurement, briefly discussing the methods for determining areas mathematically and by measurement. The book continues on to detail the development of measures for volume, mass, weight, time, temperature, angle, electrical units, amounts of substances, and light intensity. The seven SI/metric base units are highlighted, as well as a number of other units that have historically been used as base units. Providing a comprehensive reference for interconversion among the commonly measured quantities in the different measurement systems with engineering accuracy, it also examines the relationships among base units in fields such as mechanical/thermal, electromagnetic and physical flow rates and fluxes using diagrams.

This book contains the reasons why the author does not believe the accretion disk origin theory for our solar system. That theory might fit other system, but not ours. The author first shows reasons why the currently accepted theory doesn’t fit. He goes from one facet of the accretion disk theory to another discrediting each in turn. The author then describes his own theory. The author has made a good effort to define a sequence of events that resulted in our solar system. How well his theory is accepted remains to be seen, but he asks for a fair chance for its evaluation. He presents an interesting idea.

Today we see people going bonkers for not having electricity. Something as important as clothing and food, shelter, and other necessities, this too has its worth. What happens when you see a closed room with no source of ventilation? Obviously... you tend to lose the cool (metaphorically and literally). What did you do to make the environment better? Again, too obvious... open the windows and doors if any. But how about taking a situation in mind and figure out the source of hope. Just imagine that you are sitting in a room with AC on. Bruno, the only dog you are left with plays with a red balloon that flies from one corner to another. All of a sudden, power fails and there is no other source of generating electricity to combat a 45-degree Celsius temperature. How would you feel? What will you think of doing? Feeling, I would say wouldn’t be great, right? However, what will you do – depends on two solutions. The first one being forgetting the situation, sweating and whining, and waiting for the power to resume. The second might be something better – make sure you do not experience the same pitying situation ever again. Let's dig right into it!