Did you know

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Did you know?
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• It takes a beam of light just 8 minutes to travel
  from the sun to the earth, but it would take 170
  years to drive there at 100 km/h 24/7 for 365
  days of the year.

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• The power output of the sun is a staggering 400
  trillion trillion watts
• The power output of Tarong power station in
  Queensland is 1400 million watts
• Tarong would have to run continuously for 9
  billion years to produce the amount of energy the
  sun produces every second!

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• The power of the sunlight falling on the circle
  of the earth is over 100,000 trillion watts,
  equivalent to the power output of over 100
  million Tarong power stations

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• A solar farm just 30 km square could provide
  enough electrical energy for all of Australia

(based on an electricity generating capacity of
255 billion kW hr and assuming an average of 8
hours of sun per day and a solar cell efficiency
of 10)
Solar panels at Dubbo Zoo, NSW
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• It is hotter in summer than in winter because of
  the tilt of the rotation axis of the earth with
  respect to the sun. In the summer the rays of the
  sun fall more directly on the earth.

Northern Winter
Northern Summer
Southern Summer
Southern Winter
December
June
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The BBQ test

• You can feel the difference between summer and
  winter by placing you hand above a hot BBQ plate
  for a few seconds and then gradually turning your
  hand so that its side on
• You will notice the heat ease off on the palm of
  your hand
• This is because when your hand is tilted with
  respect to the BBQ plate the heat from the plate
  is spread out over more of your hand

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Summer
With the hand horizontal the heat is full-on
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Winter
With the hand tilted the heat is not full-on
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• The diameter of the earth is less than 1 the
  diameter of the sun
• The earth could easily fit inside the average
  sunspot
• Sunspots are not actually dark - a blob of
  sunspot on its own would be extremely bright to
  look at.
• A blob of sunspot just 2 mm square would be about
  as bright as a 100 W light bulb

Size of the earth compared to the sun
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• The following is a short movie showing our active
  sun as seen by the SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric
  Observatory) spacecraft

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(No Transcript)
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• Presentation produced by Dr. Stephen Hughes (QUT)
  with help from Daniel Hughes
• For more information relating to this
  presentation please contact
• Dr. Stephen Hughes
• Physical and Chemical Sciences
• Queensland University of Technology
• Gardens Point Campus
• Brisbane 4001
• sw.hughes_at_qut.edu.au