Physics Today's Web Watch
January 98
http://www.aapt.org/psrc/
The Physical Sciences Resource
Center was launched in fall 1997
by the American Association of Physics Teachers.
Unlike many educational
sites, the PSRC covers all levels from kindergarten to advanced undergraduate. The
resources available include curriculum materials, demonstration manuals,
evaluation instruments (exams and tests of conceptual learning), physics
careers information and databases of educators available through various
AAPT programs.
http://www.edf.org/issues/Energy.html
The Electricity Label
Generator on the Environmental Defense
Fund's Web site estimates the quantity of carbon dioxide, nitrogen
oxides and sulfur dioxide released each year because of your electricity
usage. You input your monthly bill and home state (only the US is
covered), and the EDF's program uses regional price and generation
data to estimate your annual electricity usage and the fractions of
it that come from coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, large hydroelectric
and renewable sources. Disclaimer: We haven't checked EDF's calculations. (A
good undergraduate project, perhaps?)
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo97/home.html
International Energy
Outlook 1997 provides a more global look
at energy production. Produced by the Department of
Energy's Energy
Information Administration, the
report reviews trends in energy demand from 1970 to 1995 and makes
projections through 2015 of world energy consumption, oil production
and carbon emissions under assumptions of both high and low rates
of economic growth. The report is an extension of the EIA's Annual
Energy Outlook, which focuses on the US. The 1998 edition
of the Annual Energy
Outlook (with projections through to 2020)
was released in mid-December 1997.
http://www.aip.org/pacs/pacs.html
PACS, the Physics and
Astronomy Classification Scheme, has been
slightly revised for 1998, with a small number of text changes and
the addition of codes for electronic publications, quantum information
(subdivided into quantum cryptography, communication and computation),
x-ray microscopes and positron scattering. Both the 1998 and the
previous (1996) versions are available at this site in a number of
formats.
