Physics Tips, Trivia and Experiments

20/11/19| Experimental physics•Experiments

One of the most popular content in Enem (Brazilians SAT’s), in the physics test, is electricity. More specifically, in the last 5 years, approximately 20% of the issues were somehow related to Ohm’s laws. This shows, considering that Enem charges a lot of everyday physics, the importance of this content not only for the classroom, […]

04/11/19| Uncategorized

The Physics of Levers One of the mechanics of content with greater application in our daily life is the study of levers. Coupled to this, the concept of torque is present from the operation of complex machines like cars, to the functioning of simple machines, as our jaw when chewing a food. Therefore, it is […]

22/10/19| How it works

About Generator The Van de Graaff generator is a physics experiments that visually is one of the most interesting that can be performed in the classroom, and the amount of concepts and phenomena that can be demonstrated with is simply absurd. Basically, the Van de Graaff generator uses frictional electrification to function, as shown below: […]

09/09/19| Curiosities•Energy•Uncategorized

They arrived! Electric cars are increasingly common on the world’s roads. In China alone it is estimated that more than 1.5 million electric cars in circulation. Formula E, which is the auto racing category with cars powered exclusively by electric power, is gaining ground. But thinking ahead, are electric cars the answer to all our […]

30/08/19| Curiosities•Uncategorized

The year 2019 will be remembered forever in history. It was this year that the historic photo of one of the most intriguing astronomical objects in the universe, the black hole, was published. The photo not only consolidates international collaboration as an extremely powerful point for the advancement of the science and evolution of the […]

21/08/19| Curiosities

“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”  You can’t start a text about the fifty years of man’s trip to the moon without remembering the phrase of Neil Armstrong, which was recorded in history. On July 20, 1969 at 20:17 EDT, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the […]

05/08/19| Energy

It was 1:23 am on April 26, 1986, when reactor four at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, formerly part of the Soviet Union, exploded. As the fire spread through building four and other adjacent buildings, radioactive debris from the reactor components was released into the air. Toxic smoke and dust scattered in the wind, carrying nuclear fission products with it.   This, which was considered the largest nuclear accident in human history, was the subject of the acclaimed HBO series Chernobyl. If you haven’t watched the show yet, don’t worry, there will be no spoilers in this text, but here’s the tip: you should watch it!   Chernobyl has five episodes, and was rated 9.7 on IMDB, the world’s largest site that catalogs film and series information, even surpassing the most acclaimed series like Game of Thrones . HBO masterfully uses the five-hour-thirty-four minutes to tell in detail this terrible nuclear accident and rekindle the discussion: Is nuclear power worth it? And are people living near plants like Angra 1 and Angra 2 in danger?  How Does a Nuclear Power Plant Work?  Approximately 11% of world energy “production” is made through 450 nuclear reactors around the world. Basically, just like hydroelectric, wind, thermoelectric, among other forms of “producing” energy, the ultimate goal is to move a turbine to make coils move relative to powerful magnets. At the hydroelectric plant the force of the water makes the turbines spin. Wind is responsible for wind, and thermoelectric, water vapor.   The nuclear power plant also uses water vapor as an agent to move turbines, but the process for vaporizing water is different from thermoelectric. While the thermoelectric plant burns coal, for example, the nuclear plant uses nuclear fission of chemical elements, such as uranium, for example. Fission is a process in which one bombs with a neutron, the nucleus of a radioactive element. This collision breaks the nucleus of the atom, forming two different chemical elements from the initial and releases a large amount of energy. In this process other neutrons are released by breaking other atomic nuclei, forming what is called a chain reaction.   The uranium reserve in Brazil is significant, which leads the country to occupy the seventh position in the world ranking. But in nature there is more isotope 238, which is more difficult to fission than isotope 235. So, before going to the reactor, is the enrichment process, in which uranium found in nature needs to be industrially treated so that the proportion of isotope 235 in a sample is at least 3.2% of the total amount of the sample.   Image: Uranium-235 nuclear fission. […]