Applied Physics
In a previous article I wanted to know if I could use the recording medium from old floppy disk as an infrared (IR) filter to shoot infrared photography on an iPod. I built a simple IR detector using Snap Circuits to test how well the floppy disk would absorb visible light yet let infrared wavelengths pass through. In that circuit I used the photodiode Snap Circuits block (Infrared Receiver U24) as the infrared detector. Even though a photodiode was useful for building a simple IR detector, another electronic component that is often used to detect infrared light is the phototransistor. We’ll…
SensaBubble is a chrono-sensory mid-air display system that generates scented bubbles to deliver information to people using different senses. The bubble-based technology creates bubbles with a specified size and frequency, fills them with an opaque fog that is optionally scented, controls their route, tracks their location and projects an image onto them.
SensaBubble
will be unveiled at ACM CHI 2014 next week and could be used in areas such as gaming or education and encourage a new way of thinking about multi-sensory technologies.
SensaBubble uses the concept of chrono-sensory…
While creating new springs to support a cephalopod-inspired imaging project, a group of Harvard researchers stumbled upon a surprising discovery: the hemihelix, a shape rarely seen in nature.
Helices are three-dimensional structures, like a corkscrew or a Slinky toy, and hemihelices form when the direction in which the spiral turns—known as the chirality—changes periodically along the length. The reversal in chirality is called a perversion.
Finding a hemihelix made the researchers wonder: Were the three-dimensional structures they observed randomly occurring, or are there specific factors…
In Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" and in 1940s engineering, there was a demon in the air at 750 miles per hour, a line some said could not be crossed. It was called the Sound Barrier for that reason.
If that demon could cause a plane to break apart in air, imagine what it would do to a car on the ground.
We'll find out in 2015. The BLOODHOUND SSC will make a test run at almost 800 MPH in 2015, which will beat the current official land speed record of 763 MPH, and will attempt 1,000 MPH in 2016. To keep her between the ditches, engineers will have to model how the car will…
The Science Play and Research Kit (SPARK) competition winners were announced today. The SPARK competition was a challenge to “reimagine the chemistry set for the 21st Century,” according to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Society for Science&the Public press release. Many people in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) careers today often recall being inspired by the chemistry sets of old that stimulated their curiosity, wonder, and interest in science. Sadly, many chemicals included in these old sets are now illegal and the newer sets, well, just don’t have…
Underwater Acoustics - Searching For The MH370 Flight Recorder
Australian and Chinese vessels have both picked up acoustic "pings" that
could be from the black box of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370,
search officials have announced.Guardian Sunday 6 April 2014 15.44 BST
A video posted on Sky News shows Chinese searchers in a RIB using a Benthos DPL-275 Locator.
The disadvantage of using a portable locator is that it will not be as directionally sensitive or accurate as a ship-board sensor. However, a great advantage of using that sensor from a RIB is that the RIB…
Could A Fire Have Caused The Loss Of MH370?
Ever since Malaysia Airlines MH370 disappeared there has been much speculation in the media and across the web about what may have happened. Unfortunately, the somewhat spasmodic release of official information, together with too many reports citing anonymous sources, has blurred the true picture.
Malaysian sources were saying early on that MH370 had likely crashed at the point where ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast) had last broadcast the plane's position. Based on the available information, I assumed that a…
In a previous article I demonstrated an unbreakable code for secure communication through the United States Postal Service using One Time Pads created with Scrabble tiles (or Boggle cubes). It seems some clever folks at the University of Bristol have developed a method of quantum cryptography for cell phones.
Press release from University of Bristol 3 April 2014:
An ultra-high security scheme that could one day get quantum cryptography using Quantum Key Distribution into mobile devices has been developed and demonstrated by researchers from the University of Bristol’s Centre for Quantum…
Occasionally I’ll come across a web page that shows you how to make an infrared (IR) filter for your iPhone (in my case the iPod Touch) out of an old floppy disk. I had an old floppy disk so I decided to see if it would actually work. The process is actually fairly simple: take apart a floppy disk, cut out enough of the disk (the Mylar and iron oxide recording medium) to cover camera lens, tape the piece of floppy disk over the lens, point your camera, and shoot your picture.
I actually did have an old floppy disk that I could use for this experiment:
Taking the floppy disk apart is…
Hank |
The obvious way to avoid getting a speeding ticket is to always obey speed limits. But there's no science or thought in that, there is just conformity.
Instead, figuring out how to fool a speed camera is the very essence of liberty.
And you can do it, concluded University of Leicester physics students in their final year paper for the Journal of Physics Special Topics, a peer-reviewed student journal run by the University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. Theoretically. You just have to drive really fast and then you are basically invisible to the camera. Unfortunately, the science…