Energy in the 21st Century and Beyond

Catalog description

Concepts of energy from a scientific perspective for understanding problems of energy conversion, storage, and transmission in modern society. Topics include fundamental concepts (kinetic and potential energy, heat, basic thermodynamics, mass-energy equivalence), established power generation methods and their environmental impacts, emerging and proposed technologies (solar, wind, tidal, advanced fusion concepts). Final team project. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors from non-science majors are particularly encouraged to attend; no previous knowledge of physics is assumed.