The Horse 2020/21

In George Orwell's bestselling novel of a futuristic society, 1984, a speakwirte was an instrument which could transfer spoken language directly into text. A speakwrite from 1984 can be compared to modern day speech recognition software. In 1997, 49 years after the novel was published, the first commercial speech recognition programs appeared on the market. Sadly, they were not as efficient and easy to use as would like. Now almost 25 years after the first programs for dictating texts came onto the market and flopped, are those programs now delivering enough quality and convenience to be using them in everyday life. But what about in 63 years? In the year 2084, which is 63 years from now, it would mark a 100-year difference to the novel’s version of 1984. Would our dictation machines finally work so flawlessly as the did in George Orwell’s version of 1984? Or would they even excel our expectations. As George Orwell would call it, would a “thinkwrite” machine be possible? A machine that would just transfer your thoughts into text…no need for voice recognition software.

Read on to find out! 😊

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We have created a crossword to test the knowledge from the Chemistry workshop.

Test your knowledge right here

created by Alexa and David 

What is water erosion ?

Water erosion is the removal of the top layer of land by water from irrigation, rainfall, snowmelt, runoff, and poor irrigation management. Ultimately, rainwater is most frequently to blame when it comes to this issue. The flowing water moves the soil organic and inorganic particles alongside the land surface, depositing them in the lower landscape. The result of this would be flooding in the long run. The eroded soil material can either form a new soil or move to water reservoirs nearby.

Different types of water erosion

splash erosion

This is the first stage in the erosion process that is caused by rain. Raindrops basically “bombard” the exposed and bare land, moving its particles and destroying the structure of the top layer.

sheet erosion 

This type of soil degradation by water occurs when the rainfall intensity is greater than the soil infiltration ability and results in the loss of the finest soil particles that contain nutrients and organic matter.

rill erosion 

Rill erosion follows after, when the water concentrates deeper in the soil and starts forming faster-flowing channels. These channels can be up to 30cm deep and cause detachment and transportation of soil particles.

gully erosion 

This is an advanced stage of land damage by water when the surface channels are eroded to the extent when even tillage operations wouldn’t be of any help. 

tunnel erosion

This is the so-called “hidden” type of land degradation by water that can cause severe disruption even before any signs are evident to the eye. It begins when large water mass starts moving through the structurally unstable soil.

What Are The Negative Effects Of Water Erosion?

Flooding 
Severe land degradation by water can negatively impact the ecosystems  by causing flooding. The washed away topsoil loses its water absorption ability, greatly increasing the possibility of flooding in areas that are predisposed to it. It could be low-lying landscapes and soils with limited drainage ability. Ultimately, heavy flooding can be extremely disruptive to the extent of ruining roads and buildings. That is why it’s critical to spot negative changes in farmland health to prevent the situation from getting to that point.

Impact of water quality
Apart from affecting animals, plants, and farmland, water erosion also significantly decreases the quality of water itself. The particles of the eroded soil eventually reach the water sources nearby, changing the water chemical content and reducing its oxygen levels. Besides, the water from eroded farmlands contains harmful chemicals (due to previous pesticides application), washing them off to lakes, streams, and rivers.


How to stop water erosion and its management 

Water erosion control is vital in battling the issue of land degradation caused by water. And the
water erosion solutions differ depending on the , topography, climate, crop rotation, and land use. However, there are water erosion prevention measures for its every type.

QUIZ 

Which of these different types of water erosion does not exist?

a) splash erosion 
b) sheet erosion 
c) rill erosion 
d) gully erosion 
e) tunnel erosion 
f)drill erosion 

Source

eos.com

written by Leandro and David 

The wastewater from Wetzikon is treated in the Flos wastewater treatment plant, which was built in 1961. However, not only the water from Wetzikon, but also from Aathal/Seegräben, Auslikon (Pfäffikon) including the baths, Ober-Balm (Hittnau) and Grüt (Gossau).
It is located at the Flos collection point on Usterstrasse, just by the Aabach.
At that time it was designed for 22,000 population equivalents. Due to population growth, the Flos wastewater treatment plant was expanded at a cost of 43 million Swiss francs. The idea was not only to cope with the growing population but also to keep the plant at the latest technical level, which was achieved with the help of new filter systems. After the conversion, the plant treats 37,000 population equivalents.

The municipal wastewater treatment plant is working at an average capacity of 120 %. For this reason, preparatory work for an expansion of the plant has been underway for some time.

Link

ARA Flos [www.wetzikon.ch]

Here is an article I found. It is about how humans are on the best way to destroy the place where we live. 

Click here for the article [www.geolino.ch]

An electric vehicle/car travels at an average speed of 54 km/h, consuming 240 Watt per 100 km on average.  
The total distance is 237 km. How much energy is consumed during the whole distance in kWh? 

In addition, the driver eats a pack of gummy bears containing 250g. The gummy bears have a nutritional value of 340 kcal per 100g. 

How much kcal are consumed by the driver and the vehicle during this distance? 

Written by Alexa and David

In this post it will explain how a wind turbine works and the context of its use in Switzerland. 

What is Wind and how we can use this to generate electricity?

Wind is the result of the sun's uneven heating of the atmosphere. Warm air expands and rises, and cool air contracts and sinks. This movement of the air is called wind. [1]

How does a wind turbine work?

The wind turbine consists of a mast, a rotor and a generator . The mast is up to 164m high, but can reach over 200m. The rotor has a diameter of up to 10 metres. This has an output of up to 2-3 MW. Behind the rotor is a generator which generates electricity through the rotation of the rotor. [2]

The picture shows a classic wind turbine on a wind farm on the water. [3]

Wind turbines use the kinetic energy of the incoming air to rotate the blades. The More...

We heat our house with wood heating. The water is stored in a 5000 litre boiler. We also generate electricity with our own solar system. At its peak, it generates 5 kWh. We consume about 7GWh in a year.

My project is coming to an end. Now it was time to use all the information gained during the development of the project. Working with the Wordpress platform took a while at the beginning until I found my way around. However, it helped because it is structured in the same way as "The Horse". This means that after a short period of getting used to the system, you were able to find your way around. It is simple and clearly structured.

In the beginning I had many different ideas about what kind of project I wanted to do. However, I decided on the topic of City traffic because I think I can get the most information on this topic and because I am personally very interested in the topic.

Unfortunately, I could not work with another team. It would have been very interesting to see how other countries deal with this problem.

But I think that even without another country comparison, the project is certainly very interesting.

At the beginning, I had a bit of trouble finding my way around the different programmes and systems, but after a short period of getting used to them, it went very well.

I found it a very good opportunity to do such a project. It was a good way to concentrate on a topic and work on it the way you want to. I learned a lot of new things about project organisation, web presence and working with experts.

In the end, I am very satisfied with the final result.