Class name: Solar Math

Audience: Students who will be enrolling in one of the three classes offered in the Solar Curriculum: Solar 101 Introduction to Energy, Solar 050 Photovoltaic’s, and Solar 060 Solar Thermal, and want to polish there math skills before taking one of these courses.

Description: This short course is intended to provide students with a review of algebra, trigonometry and general problem solving encountered in designing solar systems. The participant will develop the skills to solve problems related to basic electrical circuits and solar power. We will use a basic four function plus trig calculator, the Casio fx260-solar.

Class format: Wed, 5:00pm - 10:00pm ~ 16 weeks – 80 Hours

Cost:

Topics:

• Powers of ten, exponential notation and prefixes (e.g. "mega" and "giga")
• Percentages and decimal fractions: How to convert back and forth between the two e.g. +10% and 1.1, and -10% and 0.9.
• Metric system as applies to physical, electrical and energy systems (kilogram, meter, second, watt, joule). Conversion from and to commonly encountered "English" or "Imperial" units e.g. feet-to-meters, gallons-to-liters, pounds-to-kilograms, BTUs-to-Calories-to-Joules-to-kilowatt-hours and degrees Fahrenheit-to-degrees Celsius.
• Trigonometry of right triangles. Using the basic trigonometric (and inverse trigonometric) expressions to solve for one unknown given two other known quantities.
• Graphing data and extracting data from graphs
• Time-rate-of-change: How to relate quantities that change with time to their rates e.g. distance and speed, energy and power.
• Calculation of area and volume from linear dimensions
• Understand the concept of flux e.g. "power per unit area" and to be able to convert back and forth between a quantity (e.g. power) and its flux using the area involved.
• Understand the concept of precision (significant figures) and apply it consistently through a series of calculations.

All of these skills will be taught using practical examples from solar, electrical and thermal applications. All students will be required to purchase the Casio fx-260 Solar ($9.00 in stores everywhere).