By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
PLAINSBORO — The three girls sat down on the asphalt in a parking lot at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab and stared at the bits and pieces of wood and plastic in the small baggie.
The goal was to make a miniature solar-powered car — kind of a cross between a Cub Scout’s Pinewood Derby car and a Fisker automobile, which is partially powered by solar energy.
“I’m looking at the instructions while you use sandpaper to shave this piece,” Khushbu Dulani said to Alia Amer. Khushbu lives in Jersey City and Alia lives in Marlboro.
Alia used the sandpaper to smooth out the small wooden dowel, and then attached two small wheels to create one of the two axles for the car. She marveled at how perfectly it rolled.
“We got it,” said Ashley Choe, as she screwed two small strips of wood onto a larger piece to support the axle. She lives in Korea, but is visiting cousins in New Jersey this summer.
With a whoop and a cheer, the three girls put the solar-powered car on the ground and watched as it began to roll around on the asphalt. They gave each other high-fives to celebrate.
“Become a girl and you’ll know how to do it,” Khushbu said, crowing that they were the first team to complete the project.
Building a solar-powered car capped their Thursday morning visit to the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The girls were among two dozen children enrolled at the Liberty Science Center’s science camp, which took a field trip to PPPL.
The science camp’s theme of the week was the Zombie Apocalypse — what the world would be like if a disaster knocked out electricity and running water. They learned how to make tents for shelter and a little bit about crop rotation so they could grow food.
But what about restoring or producing electricity? A trip to the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab threw some light on it. They learned about alternative measures to generate electricity, ranging from solar panels to wind turbines and possibly in the future, fusion energy.
PPPL science educator Andrew Zwicker gave the campers a guided tour of the lab, and explained the various sources of energy — from fusion to solar to wind. He explained the concept behind fusion energy, which is the focus of PPPL scientists’ research.
Fusion energy occurs when gas from hydrogen is heated. The heat converts the hydrogen gas into plasma, which is the fourth state of matter. (The other three states of matter are solids, liquids and gases.) When the superheated atoms fuse, energy is released — or fusion. The sun and the stars are examples of fusion energy.
At PPPL, scientists and researchers are studying how plasmas behave and how to create plasma energy. Experiments are under way at the Plainsboro Township facility, and also at ITER in France, which is part of an international collaboration to develop a commercial fusion reactor.
It is imperative to find other ways to create electricity rather than simply continuing to rely on fossil fuels, Mr. Zwicker said. Fusion is one way, and solar energy is another. People can also take advantage of the wind and build wind turbines, he said.
“After a disaster, where would we get energy? In 2010 in Haiti, there was an earthquake (which knocked out electricity). At Princeton University, some students were inspired to help. They took a shipping container and put solar panels on it. There is a portable wind turbine (that could be set up) in the box,” Mr. Zwicker said as he showed the power-in-a-box to the children.
The big orange containers, which have batteries inside to store solar energy, can be picked up and delivered anywhere in the world, Mr. Zwicker said. The solar panels can be used to generate energy during the day, and the wind turbines can be used to generate energy at night.
But some days, there may not be sun. And there may not even be wind.
“With fusion, we can make electricity for ever more. We can change the world. As you go through high school and college, (remember that) you can do something that changes the world. We will never give up,” Mr. Zwicker told the children.
