Sincerely,
Luis Gaitan
Luis Gaitan at age nine or ten on the Jersey Shore.
Luis Gaitan in his naval uniform, pictured with both parents, Carlos Gaitan and Esperanza Gonzalez, in 2017.
Luis Gaitan all dressed up at age twelve for his baptism, pictured with his mother, Esperanza Gonzalez.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The idea for a book about the power grid came from my always inspirational friend, Anthony LoCicero, to whom Zap! is dedicated. Anthony’s colleague, Robert B. Swayne, chief electrical engineer at Burns Engineering, is an authority on the grid who helped me get started by telling me about the Conowingo plant over lunch, then went on to review and correct the manuscript. I am also indebted to:
Computer analyst and programmer Suzanne White for help with the hacking and computing details;
Both Emma Paras, emergency preparedness planner at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Samantha Phillips, director of the National Center for Security and Preparedness at the State University of New York, Albany, for help with all things emergency management;
The well-educated (and fast!) Alejandra Margueytio who reviewed the Spanish;
Stephen Peluso, Ph.D., research associate in mechanical engineering, Penn State University, who—as usual—reviewed everything and made many helpful suggestions, besides noticing that the model number of the fictional Itron smart meter coincides with the pi sequence following 3.14159.
The real Luis—Luis Gaitan—who generously slows down enough to run with me sometimes.
Finally, thanks to my always astute editor Sylvie Frank for her enduring tough love, and to my publisher, Paula Wiseman, who continues to believe in the importance of bringing STEM concepts to life.
LUIS HAD QUESTIONS
HERE ARE SOME ANSWERS
Luis likes to know how things work, and in the course of the story he asks a lot of questions. Mrs. Brown and Maura answer some of them. Here are some additional answers.
How does a crank radio work?
To understand the crank radio, you have to understand generators. Some of this is explained earlier, but here is a bit more detail.
In 1831 an Englishman named Michael Faraday found that he could produce a steady electric current by spinning a coil of wire around a magnet. In other words, the magnetic force excited the electrons in the wire, and they began to move from one atom to another. This principle, called electromagnetic induction, changes mechanical energy—spinning—into electrical energy. (An electric motor does the opposite—changes electrical energy into mechanical energy.)
The spinning turbines that provide electricity today work on the principle Faraday figured out. Some are spun by falling water, some by wind, some by steam created from burning coal, oil, or a nuclear reaction, and some by the exhaust of burning natural gas.
A crank radio like the one Maura’s grandfather has tucked away for emergencies uses this principle too. Turning the crank using muscle power spins the wire, generating electric current. It’s not necessary to turn the crank at a perfectly constant rate because a regulator makes sure the voltage—the force pushing electrons through the wire—doesn’t vary enough to damage the radio. Some crank radios have batteries inside that are charged by the action of the crank.
You might be thinking that if cranking can make a radio work, human power—say pedaling a stationary bike—might be enough to power your house. Unfortunately—not yet. Current technology isn’t efficient enough to make this possible. The average American household uses about 1,250 watt-hours (1.25 kilowatt-hours) of energy every hour, while pedaling a bike hooked up to a generator produces only about 110 watt-hours (0.11 kilowatt-hours) every hour. You and eleven or twelve friends would have to do nothing but pedal full-time to keep the household going.
How do solar cells produce electricity?
Light contains energy. When sunlight hits your skin, the energy turns into heat. But not all materials behave like skin. Some are photovoltaic, which means they turn light energy into electricity instead of into heat. One photovoltaic material is a metalloid called silicon. When light hits a silicon crystal, the electrons in it become excited, break their chemical bonds, and jump from one place to another.
Sound familiar?
That’s an electric current!
This is a nifty, simple way to make electricity, and there is no shortage of sunlight. Two things make their use problematic. First, there is no good way to regulate the amount of energy a photovoltaic cell produces once it’s installed. Second—as Mrs. Brown explains in the book—even with the latest technology, it is difficult to store large amounts of electrical energy. Ironically, if a photovoltaic plant were producing a lot of energy on a sunny day, other power plants would have to be turned down to ensure that supply aligned with demand.
How does nuclear power work?
Luis thinks it would be cool if the electricity that comes from nuclear power were radioactive. Actually, it wouldn’t be cool. It would be dangerous! While controlled radioactivity is used by doctors to diagnose and treat health problems, uncontrolled radioactivity produces rays that harm living cells and cause disease, including cancer.
Nuclear power plants work the same way other power plants do. They use steam to power turbines. The difference is this: The heat that boils the water comes from nuclear fission.
What’s nuclear fission?
As you’ve already learned, atoms contain electrons and protons. Uranium atoms are large—they contain ninety-two of each, and the force holding them together is weaker than it is in smaller atoms. Nuclear fission is what happens when you zap a uranium atom with a neutron (an atomic particle with no electric charge), and the atom splits apart. The split generates heat, which is used to boil water in a nuclear power plant.
Atomic bombs also rely on nuclear fission.
Each time an atom splits, more neutrons shoot away, and those neutrons split more atoms, which shoot more neutrons, and so on. If it isn’t stopped, this chain reaction will soon generate an explosive amount of heat as well as harmful radioactive rays.
In a power plant, metal control rods absorb the neutrons and stop the chain reaction before an explosion happens.
What is AC power?
AC stands for alternating current. DC stands for direct current. AC current cycles—reverses direction—many times per second, a measurement known as hertz (Hz). North American electric grids typically use AC power that reverses direction sixty times per second, so it cycles at sixty hertz.
Traditionally, the main advantage of AC power over DC is that it can be transformed more easily to higher voltages for long-distance travel over powerlines, and to lower voltages for delivery to customers like houses and businesses.
In the 1880s, the immigrant inventor Nikola Tesla developed AC motors and transformers in the United States. Later, he sold his patents to the industrialist George Westinghouse, who helped establish the power grid that still exists.
These days, DC power has become increasingly prevalent for long-distance transmission, and most experts believe a grid using both systems is best.
What is the power grid?
The power grid is the network of power lines and transformers that distributes electricity from generating plants to users. Luis makes a good guess about the power grid when he compares it to a grid drawn on graph paper. Like that, it’s all interconnected. You might look at it as the largest machine ever built.
The grid is not perfect. In fact, it has two big problems. First, because so much of it is outdoors, it can be damaged both by wildlife and weather. Second, it loses energy in the process of generation and in the process of distribution, making it less than optimally efficient.
One way to improve efficiency and save energy is to make the grid smarter, that is, to automate sensors, computing, and communications to make generation and distribution of electricity respond more quickly to users’ needs.
The digital electric meters mentioned in the story are p
art of that smart grid. Today the U.S. Department of Energy, utility companies, industry groups, and manufacturers recognize the potential for cyberattack and do their best to ensure that smart meters and the system as a whole are protected. The science and engineering in Zap! is real, but in the real world, bad guys could not so easily cause a blackout.
In other words, readers, don’t try this at home.
Were there tall buildings before elevators?
Yes. The Grand Pyramid at Giza is almost five hundred feet tall (fifty stories), and it was built more than 4,500 years ago. Many European cathedrals, built hundreds of years ago, are four hundred to five hundred feet tall as well.
However, no one had to carry groceries up the stairs of either pyramids or churches. The development of the first tall buildings in which people lived and worked did coincide with the first skyscraper. This did not happen until Elisha Graves Otis’s most important invention, an elevator safe enough for passengers, debuted at the 1854 World’s Fair in New York City.
Otis’s first elevators, which had a brake to prevent a fall in the event a cable broke, were powered by steam. Later in the century, electric motors—much more practical—were added.
An early residential building to take advantage of the new technology was the ten-story Dakota on Central Park West in New York City, which still stands. Built for the well-to-do in 1882, the Dakota had its own electric generating plant to power lights and the elevator.
ASSEMBLING YOUR OWN EMERGENCY KIT
Mr. O’Hara had a closet full of supplies ready in case of an emergency like a power outage. The Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have suggestions online for what to include in your own, or you can buy one ready-made from a number of sources. Most provide a three-day supply.
Here are some things you will want to include:
• A gallon of water per day per person for drinking and cleaning. For three days, that’s three gallons per person.
• Nonperishable food—canned or prepackaged—and a can opener.
• Battery-powered radio (or a hand-crank radio like the one in the book) and spare batteries.
• Flashlights and lanterns, headlamp, extra batteries.
• Moist towelettes (baby wipes) for cleaning.
• First aid kit with Band-Aids, prescription medications, antibiotic spray or cream, analgesic such as aspirin or ibuprofen.
• Wrench to turn off utilities.
• Extra cell phone and/or computer batteries.
• Blankets.
• A cooler for frozen and refrigerated foods.
GLOSSARY OF SPANISH WORDS AND PHRASES
abierto: open
abuela: grandmother
apúrense: hurry
aquí: here
¡Ay, qué lástima!: Oh, what a shame!
bodega: convenience store
buena persona: good person
buena suerte con el desayuno: good luck with breakfast
buenas noches: good night
bueno: good
buenos días: good morning
cerrado: closed
el chupacabra: literally means “goat sucker”; a mythical monster from Central and South America
dígame: tell me (formal)
Dios mío: oh my God
¿Entiendes?: Do you understand?
espero que sea muy pronto: I hope that will be very soon
¿Estás aquí?: Are you here?
guácala: gross
hasta luego: see you later
hola: hello
hue: (pronounced “way”) slang meaning “man” or “dude”
imbécil: imbecile; stupid
¡Levántate!: Get up! (a command)
me tengo que ir: gotta go
muchísimas gracias: thank you very much
necesito ayuda: I need help
no comiences: a command meaning “don’t start,” as in “don’t start with me”
obviamente: obviously
pero lo más importante: but the most important thing
por favor: please
¿Por qué no?: Why not?
por supuesto: of course
puedes probarlo: you can give it a try
¿Qué quieres?: What do you want?
¿Quién sabe?: Who knows?
quizás: maybe; perhaps
Señor / Señora: Mister / Missus
sí: yes
sin papeles: literally “without papers”; refers to undocumented immigrants
tal vez: maybe
tíos / tías: uncles / aunts
todo el tiempo: all the time
tontos: fools
tú siempre molestas: you’re always bothering (me)
¿Tuviste suerte?: Did you have any luck?
un momentito: just a minute
vamos: let’s go
vivir la vida americana: living life the American way
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
martha freeman wrote her first story when she was four years old. The illustration shows a house, because a house was the one thing she knew how to draw, and two noseless girls. Over one girl is a speech bubble that says: “A home.” Over the other is another speech bubble: “Our home.” After that, Martha Freeman grew up; traveled around the world; worked as a reporter and a teacher; and wrote thirty books for young readers, including The Year My Parents Ruined My Life, Fourth-Grade Weirdo, The Secret Cookie Club books, Who Stole Halloween?, and Effie Starr Zook Has One More Question. Home remains a theme in many of Martha’s books, but none is as pithy as that early effort. “Home” for Martha is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Learn more at marthafreeman.com.
A Paula Wiseman Book
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Simon & Schuster • New York
visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Martha-Freeman
ALSO BY MARTHA FREEMAN
Effie Starr Zook Has One More Question
Astrotwins—Project Blastoff
by Mark Kelly with Martha Freeman
Astrotwins—Project Rescue
by Mark Kelly with Martha Freeman
The Secret Cookie Club series
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Koppel, Ted. Lights Out: A Cyberattack, a Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath. New York: Penguin Random House, 2015.
Schewe, Phillip. The Grid: A Journey through the Heart of Our Electrified World. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2007.
Survive the Blackout, a website for National Geographic Channel’s American Blackout, accessed September 28, 2017, http://www.survivetheblackout.com.
Zetter, Kim. Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon. New York: Broadway Books, 2014.
On hacking
Naone, Erica. “Hacking the Smart Grid.” MIT Technology Review, August 2, 2010, https://www.technologyreview.com/s/420061/hacking-the-smart-grid/.
Sink, Justin. “Russian Hacking Code Found in Vermont Power Utility Computer.” Bloomberg, December 31, 2016, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-31/russian-hacking-code-found-in-vermont-power-utility-computer.
Zetter, Kim. “The Sony Hackers Were Causing Mayhem Years Before They Hit the Company.” Wired, February 24, 2016, https://www.wired.com/2016/02/sony-hackers-causing-mayhem-years-hit-company/.
On electricity
Brain, Marshall; William Harris; and Robert Lamb. “How Electricity Works.” How Stuff Works. Accessed September 28, 2017, http://science.howstuffworks.com/electricity.htm.
Edison Tech Center. “Basics of Electricity.” Accessed September 28, 2017, http://www.edisontechcenter.org/basics.html.
HyperPhysics, a website hosted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Georgia State University. Accessed September 28, 2017, http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/magnetic/motorac.html#c2.
The Physics Classroom. “Lesson 1: Electric Potential.” Accessed September 28, 2017, http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/circuits/Lesson-1/E
lectric-Potential.
Woodford, Chris. “Power Plants.” Explain That Stuff. Accessed September 28, 2017, http://www.explainthatstuff.com/powerplants.html.
SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2018 by Martha Freeman
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Jacket design by Krista Vossen
Interior design by Hilary Zarycky
The text for this book was set in Life.
Names: Freeman, Martha, 1956– author.|
Title: Zap! / Martha Freeman.
Description: First edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2018] | “A Paula Wiseman Book.” | Summary: Eleven-year-olds Luis and Maura investigate the cause of a long-term, citywide power outage in Hampton, New Jersey. Includes facts about electric power and instructions for assembling an emergency kit. | Includes bibliographical references.
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