Solar Definition and 1000 Threads

Hi. I'm doing research relating to solar cells and came about the topic related to effective masses. The wiki article stated how effective mass (solid state materials) influences the efficiency of solar cells, but doing more research I couldn't find any solid examples of an effective mass vs...

Hi everyone,can anyone show me how the circuit looks like to generate 12VDC using solar panel from around 3 - 5V?

If I had a black liquid that was thin, and I had a transparent liquid that was just lighter than the black liquid but didn't mix with the black liquid, and I put them in a dish out in the sun would the black liquid absorb the photons causing it to heat up and rise during the day, and cool down...

I can't find authorative sources on whether the magnus effect works on the solar wind. I thought the solar wind was mostly particles, not a fluid medium, and therefore it would not. I thought this was the reason for the flat nature of solar sails. If the solar wind acted like a fluid medium...

So today my brother and I were playing with a mini solar cell that I just got, watching the voltage change with a multimeter, and seeing how even an LED would produce about .5 V in the cell, when he posed a question: If you were to take a solar cell (i.e. photodiode) capable of producing...

The fall semester just started and my team and I have to come up with a senior design project. Faculty projects and industry funded projects are very slim this year and it’s looking like our best bet will be to come up with (and fund) our own design. At this time I am torn between two ideas...

In our solar system, the more massive planets orbit the Sun in between less massive planets. I was wondering if it was by coincidence or if it's dictated by some universal law in all planetary systems. One would think more massive planets would be closer to the sun but I'm clearly missing...

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...

Hi ALL, I'm glad I found this Forum. I'm an engineer, rusty with my math, building a practical prototype sensor that will characterize energy from 8 directions at shallow angle, upon a solar array. I need help with expression showing the summation of each of the 9 sensors (with the...

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...

Hi, I'm building a solar system simulator, designing it to be as accurate as possible. Visualization is done through OpenGL (although I may be forced to use a software renderer for higher precision). I have set up all the planets and their orbits, tilts, and made them update according to 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...

This is for a physics finals project. So it's not really a homework question. But I didn't know where else to post it and I need immediate help. I have made a passive solar heater out of pop cans and I need to find out how much energy (thermal) is produced. I know the equation for thermal...

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 If, (average solar wind properties at Earth's orbit) Proton density = 7 cm^-3 flow speed=400km/s almost radial electron density=7.5 cm^-3, proton temp=2*10^5 Kelvin He^2+ density= .25 cm^-3 electron temp=1*10^5 Kelvin Magnetic field=7nT Find flux through sphere and flux...

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 ...