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Technology and Modernization Videos 22 videos
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How Power Plants Work 205 Views
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Description:
Ever wonder how all of your iPhones, Kindles, Xboxes, and laptops get their power? No? Well we are going to tell you anyway, sassy pants.
Transcript
- 00:04
How Power Plants Work, a la Shmoop.
- 00:07
We've all seen Homer Simpson shuffle off to work at the Springfield power plant...
- 00:12
...and, of course, he usually bumbles one thing or another, setting off an alarm and
- 00:17
endangering the lives of a number of Springtonians...
- 00:20
...but... are power plants really that dangerous? Or does Homer just make them look that way?
Full Transcript
- 00:25
Okay, well first off... Homer works at a nuclear power plant. Those are... a bit scary, yeah.
- 00:35
Although... even nuclear power plants are much safer than most people think, and rarely
- 00:39
result in the death, disfigurement or dismemberment of local citizens.
- 00:44
Unless this guy is at the helm. Or this guy. Chernobyl.
- 00:48
So... if most power plants aren't those giant cylindrical structures with the atomic symbols on them...
- 00:53
what do they look like?
- 00:55
Well... have you ever passed by one of those... fields of giant pinwheels?
- 01:02
They're not just there for decoration... or to curb the area's pigeon population.
- 01:08
They are wind turbines, and they are there to produce energy.
- 01:11
They didn't always look that way, however.
- 01:17
The AC-generating power plants
- 01:19
engineered by Nikola Tesla a hundred years ago...
- 01:29
They were the early versions of our modern plants...
- 01:31
and they looked like this.
- 01:33
Not the greatest for those who are trying to cut down on secondhand smoke.
- 01:45
First, a ton of heat is produced. Like... enough to make the devil perspire.
- 01:52
The heat is created by burning coal, natural gas or oil... or by splitting a few atoms.
- 02:00
The heat is then used to boil water to make steam...
- 02:02
so yeah, it's kind of a giant, underground tea kettle.
- 02:05
Earl Grey, anyone? Herbal?
- 02:08
The steam turns a turbine, which moves a huge
- 02:11
coil of wires around a magnetized center.
- 02:13
And boom... we've got electricity. Of course... that electricity doesn't do us
- 02:17
any good unless we can access it...
- 02:20
...so as the final step in the process, the electricity is sent through a giant transformer...
- 02:24
not the walking big rig kind...
- 02:27
...which bumps up the voltage before sending it out into the world.
- 02:34
Thousands of degrees of heat.
- 02:35
Turbines the size of tall buildings.
- 02:37
Hundreds of miles of electric lines.
- 02:40
All so you can play World of Warcraft for five hours straight.
- 02:46
You might want to send science a "thank you" card.
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