Epiphany!! (did I spell it correctly?)

Well, as far as the data collecting goes - not very well. I find that I would need an exceedingly sunny day in order to get a UV reading that is significant enough to create useful comparisons between the reading taken in the sun and the reading taken behind the glass. Unfortunately these past couple of weeks have all been very cloudy and rainy, so my experiment was impossible to be conducted. I confess that I did not foreseen this development (Sydney seems to be always sunny when my apparatus was still in China, and I dare say that it will continue to be sunny once all the SRP reports have been handed in). So I was incredibly stressed for a couple of days (while secretly relieved that I have an legitimate reason of doing something else). BUT... I finally found a way around this problem!

You see, sometime last week I was wandering around, hoping that my UV metre might pick up some radiation from the lukewarm sunlight. I flipped on my lamp in order to record any possible findings. And guess what? The light coming out of the lamp had a UV measure of 1! (on a partially sunny day - like the day when I took my first set of data - it is about 3) That struck me immediately as an alternate source of ultraviolet radiation. Then I unscrewed the glass covering on the lamp (because from my experiment and researches I know that the glass would make a difference), and the UV read somewhere between 2 and 3. So then I was able to continue my experiment (not to mention that I had to sit in a uncomfortable position for many minutes, doing my experiment under the constant interferencing of my little sister and complaints from my parents). And I got 2 other sets of data. Yay! Now I'm finally done with the experiment (I could wait for a sunny day and record the readings just to make the data more accurate, but I won't count on that too much), I can proceed with researches etc.

The report is due like 2 weeks from now!! And I've only done like half the research for my introduction! And I have lots of other homeworks too and am really stressed. So I'll hope that I can just somehow magically finish this report and would be blessed to never see it again.

I'll post the data onto the next blog after I do all the tables (seriously, the word processing function on the blog is so shabbily poor).

First set of raw data

A close up of the UV-meter. It was indoors at the time, so the measurement reads zero.

The measurement with two layers of glass

The measurement with all five layers of glass

Table of Data

I got my UV-meter on the 12th! Much obliged to my mom’s friend (although I had some complaints about her not coming back earlier… I apologize for that here); I will write her down in my acknowledgments if she gives me permission to do so. It is quite small actually, and shuts down by itself after 2 minutes. But I am very happy as it actually works despite its, well, appearance. There is an oval patch underneath the screen that looks like those solar electric battery things. And I guess that is how it detects the UV radiation. Anyway, the photo of the UV-meter will on the blog so that what I am talking about will be clearer.

I just took some measurements of the UV at 10:25, when the weather was sunny with around 10%-20% cloud cover over the horizon. The UV radiation level from my balcony is 3 on the apparatus. And through 15mm of glass it is around 1-2; and if the glass thickness decreases, the UV would increase. I set up the glass on a boiling pan (is that the right name?) with the biggest piece on the bottom. So I just have to stick the UV-meter underneath the glass and add glass pieces on the top to achieve the different thicknesses. It is very convenient and fast: in the beginning I was holding the glasses on one hand and the trying to measure with the other, and if I am doing multiple pieces the glass keeps falling down (coming to think of it that was pretty dangerous as the glass pieces are scraps and the edges are fairly sharp). So, anyway, from the present data my hypothesis seems to be supported. The table of date and my set up pictures are appended above. The decimal readings such as 1.5 mean that the UV reading is changing between two numbers, like 1 and 2.

It is so good to be finally doing the experiment after so many weeks thinking about it. It is turning cloudy now, I can’t seem any direct sunshine from where I am. I need to take measurements on a cloudy day too (multiple samples always make the results more accurate, right?). So I might do it this afternoon or next week (the weather forecast said that it is going to be cloudy and raining most of the time then).

Second Blog Submission - the Plan of Experiment

Picture 1

Picture 2

Aim: To investigate the relationship between the transparency of glass to UV radiation and the thickness of glass.

Hypothesis: The thicker the glass, the less transparent it is to UV radiation.

Equipment:

- Clear 3mm thick soda-lime glass (x5)

- UV monitor (x1)

Risk assessment (table):
See Picture 1 above.

Method:

1. Hold one piece of the glass perpendicular to the sunlight

2. Put the UV monitor under the shade formed by the glass

3. Measure the UV radiation level and record

4. Repeat procedure 1-3 four times. Add a piece of glass on top of the original glass UV filter each time.

5. Repeat procedure 1-4 4 times in a similar weather condition. Test 5 weather conditions in total, thus a total of 25 repetitions of experiment.

Results (table design):
See Picture 2 above.

The Climograph

I checked with Ms. Zhang today, some parts of my draft were wrong. So now I've done it again and am posting it. It was not actually that hard to put the y-axis of the temperature on the right hand side - I just made two copies of the graph, then cropped one so that only the scale remained and then grouped the scale with the other graph (which, of course, has to be cropped so that the original scale is not showing). Although it sounds real easy, it took a lot of adjusting and other stuff. And the temperature graph is less clear than the rainfall one (only slightly), maybe because I screen shot it too many times (it's real useful to put together two images that you can't otherwise put together). But the exercise is really meant to test our uploading skills so I thought it's alright (plus it's only a little unclear).

And the image can be enlarged by clicking on it.

The climograph DRAFT

Okay, just making it very clear that this is just a bit of extras, not for marking or anything!! So if anything is wrong, don't blame me. ^_^ It's just that I read Ms. Zhang's blog and she talked about a climate graph that we need to do. Well, our class missed out on that lesson, I think. But I also think that it's best to catch up with everyone. And I again specify that this one is just my version of how to do it, not the official or accepted way. And Ms. Zhang if you happen to see this post, don't mark it please!!! Okay, here it goes.

I got the glass!

Back again after the long and lazy holiday! And although I emailed the glass cutters on like the Tuesday of the first week, none of them replied! Probably because my order was too small to be a welcomed customer... So my genius Mom (although I rarely admit it to her face) had the idea of collecting scrap glasses from factories.

Thus I surfed the yellowpages again and spent the whole of Friday morning going to the addresses I recorded. But none of them had any ready scraps to give away. Then again, it was my Mom who drove us to a glass cutting shop where she had once shopped for the car side mirror. There they recommended me to Hurlstone Park Glass & Glazing, where they gave me five pieces of clear, uncoated, 3mm thick standard glass for free! Thanks a million guys! They are now stored safely away in my wardrobe to avoid the accidental discovery by my baby sister.

So now I have to wait until May 12th for my Mom's friend to come back from China with my UV meter. And the experiment can finally commence after all this talk (there is going to be more, of course).

Experiment finally underway - just starting though

With the approval from Ms. Zhang, and after three lazy holiday days, I am finally starting my experiment!! I just sent emails to two of the local glass cutters, so that I can know if they can give a set of glass cut to different thicknesses. My Mom's friend leaves for China today, she comes back in about Week 2 of next term and will bring with her my UV meter. If I have that, the experiment would be done in no time!! But to be on the safe side, when I get the glass shields I'll start experimenting to paper testers first. Then later I can add it in as a repetition of experiment to make the result more accurate.

And I have to hand in the experiment plan in Week 4 next term; I don't even know how to do it yet! I suppose there is a lot still to learn...

And it's still nine forty in the morning!! Haha, I love it when we end daylight saving, it make me feel like I've cheated time. Time is so interesting, I would have done something with it for SRP if I'm smarter, more knowledgeable and have more fundings.