Solar Definition and 1000 Threads

Hi. I will be starting college this fall and I am interested in pursuing a career in Nanotechnology - particularly its application to Solar energy. I have not declared a major at this point and was wondering what would be the best major to help me go into this field. I hear EE and Chem eng are...

I have a very small solar cell that outputs 4 volts (open circuit) and 50 μA (short circuit). I'm trying to charge a 0.33 F capacitor that is rated for 5 volts. I'm looking to understand the charging relationship. 1. What equations govern the charging of this capacitor? I'm already aware of...

Hi, can anyone confirm or disconfirm that the information below accurate, in particular the text that I bolded? Much appreciated.

Hi, I want to continue my study in physics, but i have to find topics for research proposal, and I need your help. I hope you can give me the news about the newest research in solar cell? the material or new method? thanks for your help...:smile:

After reading this article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120802133653.htm I was wondering if the shock wave from the super nova could still be detected? If so, could we figure out what region the supernova came from?

On the Origin of Solar and Stellar Magnetic Fields There is recent evidence that the solar magnetic cycle has been interrupted. This is a link to Livingston and Penn’s paper that notes the magnetic field strength of newly formed sunspots is decreasingly linearly. Specifically, why the...

What affect does the temperature of a solar panel have on it's efficiency? I know they become less efficient at higher temperatures, but is this effect linear? Would decreasing the temperature sub-freezing temperatures do anything? On a related note, apparently they have invented a transparent...

I understand that our solar system was created from the ejected matter from a super nova. Is it possible to find the location of the black hole or neutron star that formed as a result of this super nova?

hi Guys, can anyone suggest me some software by which i can plot IV curve for solar panels by just feeding in open circuit voltage, short circuit current, max power, max current and voltage, efficiency.

I've recently gained an interest in solar cells and it's development. I know the basic working principle of solar cells, but other than that I'm quite clueless about the field. I was wondering, what is the process of increasing solar cell efficiency like? Are there analytical ways of...

If the moon was vapourised, would it first recondense or get blown away by solar wind?

Incident light on a PV cell generates both electricity and heat. That is because the incident light contains both visible and infrared light. If you can separate visible light and infrared light, and have only the visible light incident on the PV cell. Would the PV cell generate heat, when...

Hello, I want to build an electrical circuit powered by a temperature diffence between two unlike couple, such as copper and iron. I know a good thermocouple would be better, but I don't think I'll be able to get a hold of those materials as easily. My current plan is to use a solar oven to...

I'm trying to calculate the luminosity of the sun in the infrared (J, H and K filters). According to http://mips.as.arizona.edu/~cnaw/sun.html, the absolute magnitudes of the Sun in each of these filters are J: 3.64 H: 3.32 K: 3.28. The absolute bolometric magnitude of the Sun is about...

Lets say you make a huge laser , can i work on Solar Panels to convert it to electrical energy.

I want to write a 3500 - 4000 word research paper on the best angle to place a solar panel to optimize solar collection throughout the year. I was thinking of using planes in 3D and probability distribution for the cloud amount for different times of the year. There has to be a primary focus on...

At Earth orbit, above the atmosphere, the solar power flux is roughly 1400 watts per square metre. This corresponds to a a pressure of 4.7 \muN per square metre, or roughly one two thousandth of the weight of a paper clip at the Earth's surface. A perfectly reflecting material would feel double...

Einstein tells us time and space are linked, could redshift be caused by a change in time rather than space? Including uncertainties how close is the start of this period of universal expansion to the start of the solar system? Could the 2 coincide?

Per NASA's press release ( http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/voyager20120614.html ) of 14 June 2012, interstellar cosmic rays are striking the spacecraft at an increased rate. Voyager 1 has already encountered solar wind moving laterally with respect to the solar surface, and even in...

Hi all. This is my first post so please forgive me if I write anything wrong or post on wrong forum. In the attachment below I have a problem. I need to buy a water pump (PUMPA in img) that works on 12 or 24 volt DC current being powered with solar panels. This pump must be able to fill a...

I am interested in building a thermal solar collector. I'm mostly interested in using the heat directly but there's always a need for electricity. The trouble is converting heat into electricity is pretty inefficient no matter how you do it. Consider a peltier device. A typical one, depending...

If during a solar eclipse the moon tapers one moon diameter, wouldn't a lunar eclipse taper one Earth diameter?

Sorry I was unsure where to submit this thread. I am doing a school project on designing a solar system for my home and I was wondering how the efficiency of a cell is calculated. The way I calculated it, which i read of a website is... 1. calculate area of cell (in meters) 2. divide watt...

I've been thinking about this on and off for awhile now. It first started with the idea of a solar trap. Solar trap being something like having a solar collector focusing light on a container of water, having an infra red barrier around the container, and a black body at the centre. Incoming...

Hi everyone! Earlier today I was viewing the Venus transit with the astronomy club at my university and I decided to try to take photos of the event through my 8 megapixel camera phone through the telescope. Of course, the quality wasn't exactly great. The last photo I took of the event was the...

Hello physicists! I'm hoping you can help me with a question I'm pondering for a book. At what acceleration could a 4 km^2 solar sail move a 1 metric megaton starship? Assume we're using the solar radiation from the Sol system as our force and that the solar sail in questions is as low mass...

i doing the solar system design. seem like everything is on track now, but just the cable loss i not really know how to calculate, can anyone help me. i has formula on this (resistance on the cable (Ω/km)x length of the cable(L) x current of the solar panel(A)). for the equation above , is...

I'm doing the solar system design now . so far seem like everything is on track, but now i face a problem on the DC cable loss. is that has any formula to calculate the dc cable loss, i has using this formula is (losses of the cable (Ω/km)x length X current produce by the solar panel...

Wikipedia showed me the solar spectrum during the day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_Spectrum.png I imagine its very different at night, however is everything 0? Is there any residual black body infrared radiation?

Thanks again to all who participated in the Hand Grenade in Solar Orbit discussion. Here's a related question that was prompted in my mind from that discussion: Suppose we could magically insert a new nano-planet (we'll call it "Bob") into our existing solar system. Let's suppose that...

This is the description I'm reading: In comparison to solar energy, the hydrocarbon fuel costs are significantly lower without rebates, tax benefits nor the cost of carbon emissions. A two–Kilowatt (KW) solar energy system costs about $45,000 and covers roughly half of a typical American...

Hi, folks. I'm new here and came looking for some expert input on this odd question that came up as a friend and I were considering a hypothetical. Suppose a hand grenade were orbiting the sun---say, half way between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. And to make things easy, suppose that the...

So my brother had a birthday party the other day where this company that rents laser tag guns comes over and all his friends played a big game of laser tag outside. the guns worked surprisingly well, and there was even a "grenade" that would shoot lasers out in all directions once a pin was...

I was watching a show on the science channel called "Alien Encounters". Well in one of them they showed a ship that looked as if it was propelling itself by firing a laser at it's solar sail. Now I am pretty sure that from what I understand about physics, that would not be possible. Correct if...

Homework Statement Calculate the typical energy of nuclei in solar core. Calculate thermal energy required for a proton to overcome the Coulomb barrier and get within range of strong nuclear force (10^-15m) Homework Equations None given The Attempt at a Solution I have the core...

In oscillation experiments that use solar neutrinos, it seems that the mixing angle \theta_{12} and the mass squared difference \Delta m_{12}^2 can be determined from comparing measurements of the neutrino flux to theoretical models of what the Sun should be emitting. However, I am...

I am helping my son do a project. We would like to know how to increase the output voltage. For example we have three 6 volt 50ma cells and would like to make 18 volts

Hello again everyone, Physics Noob is back again. I had a question about solar formation that has me stumped. If you hadn't read my previous post, I am a newcomer and hobbist of physics so don't expect me to know everything or equations on physics. Again, I may come off sounding like an...

Hi, I'm looking for a general solar activity chart that covers as much history as possible (up to this month or even better today). In a nutshell, I am looking to validate if we are in fact in a period of increasing solar activity which would apparently keep increasing until next year ...

I'm currently doing a project on how the solar wind interacts with the Earth's magnetic field, but I'm having a hard time grasping the concept of the plasma emitted by the Sun and how it shapes the Earth's magnetic field. I read somewhere about a simple mirror dipole approximation (I'm guessing...

At what altitude does a solar panel see a noticeable increase in wattage/cubic meter if it is lifted into the air? I understand the maximum is a bit over 1 kilowatt/meter2 at sea level (not actually converted to usable energy, this is much less and depends on the technology) but that this...

Homework Statement I don't know if this is a physics problem per se but its from physics class. So we were supposed to pick out a solar panel and figure out what is the cost per unit of energy for this form of solar energy? I know where supposed to use the data sheet for the panel that we...

Dear Experts I like to check with you , if I have 3 solar panels : 3v polycrystaline, 0.5v monocrystaline and other types of solar panel at 12v, and I connect them in series. Any side effects? Is it not advisable? I am assuming that there will be no problem and all the voltages will just...

Hey guys, 1. basically I am using the silvaco athena and i got some code to make the solar cell simulation. and my project is basically about designing pn junction in terms of the solar cell. kinda clueless of what are things that i need to modify in the code to make sure that i have a good...

Homework Statement A)Calculate the magnitude of the angular momentum of the Earth in a circular orbit around the sun. B) Is it reasonable to model it as a particle? Yes, considering the size of the Earth in comparison of its orbit around the sun it is reasonable to model it is a particle...

I'm reading a paper on photovoltaic hydrogen production and the author claims that for reasonable solar efficiencies the band gap must be less than 2.0eV. This I understand. My question is how will it effect the photon absorption if the band gap is much smaller. Say the band gap energy is...

We are creating a solar device that locates the optimal position to gather sunlight, and then stores the light in an AGM battery that we have. We have a 6v battery and we ordered 4 6v solar cells. Unfortunately the 6v solar cells did not come in. There are 4v solar cells in one of the labs at...

I've been building a solar system integrator using C++, OpenGL for graphics, Qt for UI and I would like some info about the choice of integrator. The project is at a pretty advanced stage now and I'm currently adding all moons since graphically it's doing well, I can move about the whole system...

Hi, I am a student at Lehigh University. I don't know if this is a appropriated place to post this, but I kind of need some help on this. In one of my project courses, I am placed in a team with students of various majors to develop a solar collector (not solar panel, but a solar dish) for...

Hi there, im doing school project regarding Solar Food Dehydrator. Can tell me what is the formula to calculate the light intensity from the sunlight?