Applied Physics

Boring Science Produces Awesome results The simple scientific observation that you can't use the same energy twice is absolutely awesome! This is a further article in my occasional series about coal, engines and energy, heat and thermodynamics. What is 'hot'; what is 'heat'? We humans are blessed with simple means by which we can discover facts about ourselves and our environment.  We have our senses and we have a brain which can record our sensory experiences.  Through the marvelous gift of language we can communicate our experiences to others.  Words have a power to conjure…

How Can Ice Work Like A Horse? In this short series of articles about coal, engines and energy I am trying to show something of  the history behind our current knowledge of heat, energy and thermodynamics.  As discoveries were made about the nature of heat, improvements were made in the efficiency of engines.  Investigations into the theoretical maximum efficiency of any heat engine led ultimately to the discovery of the laws of thermodynamics.  The laws of thermodynamics are of wide applicability to the understanding of how, through our profligate use of energy, we…

Dirty Coal And Boring Science There was a time when, through the proliferation of steam power, coal extraction in vast quantities became economically viable.  Throughout the U.K. coal was burned to make steam for locomotives, factories and ships.  It was the domestic fuel of choice.  The price of cheap coal was pollution: the skies over many cities were black with soot when coal was king. ... nothing surely was ever more dirty, inelegant, and disgusting than a common coal fire. Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, was born in Woburn Massachusetts in 1753.  He is famous…

King Coal And The Heat Values Of Fuels A Potted History Of The Human Use Of Coal The term 'coal' covers many different materials with a common property: they are materials high in carbon which were formed from plant residues under pressure and over geologically long periods. BCE 13,000 - black amber, or jet, is known to have been used1 for ornamental purposes in Britain.BCE 2 - 3,000 - natural outcrop coal used for fuel in Britain.CE 200 - 400 - exploitation of surface coal fields on, by modern standards, a small scale.CE 1200 - 1300 - trade has developed in coal; mining is in development.CE…

After posting the thought on facebook, I have decided to begin a blog on this topic. The blog will track my day-to-day research on the subject. Once finally compiled and completed, further action will proceed. I recommend anyone that reads this to ask questions of curiosity. The curiosity will only add flavor to this study. Thanx in advance to those that participate.  

After Top Gun, the number of fighter pilot recruits exploded. After CSI took over the country, more people went into forensic science. The lesson? Media definitely makes a difference in the level of interest of a topic - An Inconvenient Truth, anyone? - so perhaps getting authentic, real-life science out in front of viewers could inspire a whole new flock of scientists and engineers to fill the growing deficit in our workforce. Enter the Department of Defense. The DoD backed a program called the Catalyst Workshop, which aims to "provide a means for scientists and engineers to become more…

Nanotechnology is a big buzzword this decade but there are questions about how safe nano-based products are and we are unsure how to even measure,  much less regulate, them. Anti-odor socks, makeup, makeup remover, sunscreen, anti-graffiti paint, home pregnancy tests, plastic beer bottles, anti-bacterial doorknobs, plastic bags for storing vegetables, and more than 800 other products are already in use so time is critical. A group of researchers at Washington University has devised a sensor on a chip that can not only detect but also measure single particles and they expect the sensor…

You have to know your CO2! When I wrote Your CO2 Is Bad For You In Your Space Suit I was not talking about the EPA. Here I will not talk about the life's CO2 exchange cycle either unless I have to. My focus is on some new thoughts related to carbon dioxide. Have you observed the birth of a CO2 molecule for instance?   Panel (A): an isolated carbon monoxide molecule adsorbed on silver surface. Panel (B): a pair of oxygen atoms on the surface. Panel (C): CO and two O atoms before reacting. Panel (E): an intermediate O-CO-O complex formed…

Why is the Fourier Transform so useful both in theoretical and applied science and engineering?  In short, often it is more convenient to solve a problem in Fourier space than the space of the problem's original formulation.  In this case, one prescription to attack the problem is to convert the representation of the problem to Fourier space, solve the problem in Fourier space (where presumably it is simpler to solve) and then convert back to the original basis. The Fourier Transform may be expressed as: But, what really is this operation of performing a  Fourier…

We are aware of the large and small. We can, for example, taste and smell the earthy but invisible Streptomyces coelicolor. This soil-dwelling bacterium might have been in the first rock on Earth. Some estimates mention a time that was almost 3.8 billion years ago.    Here is the Streptomyces coelicolor chromosome as it was mapped by S. D. Bentley et al. in 2002.  The outer scale is numbered anticlockwise (to correspond with the previously published map) in megabases and indicates the core (dark blue) and arm (light blue)…