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VagueIncentive

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  1. VagueIncentive
    Ever since the earliest days of the car, suspension systems have been in use to keep the ride comfortable. Seeing as how commonplace it is for cars to have good suspension nowadays, we often take for granted just what these systems do to make our daily that much more comfortable. There are many different kinds of suspension, almost every kind involves a sort of spring. The earliest system to be used in cars was a simple spring on the frame connecting to steering frame, allowing for some amount of movement inside the car. Another type of suspension was the "leaf spring" suspension, which consisted of multiple layers of metal beams laid out flat, with the one above it being slightly larger than the one below. This acted as a normal spring physically, but it was able to hold a much larger load, and as such many large trucks and even tanks used this type of suspension. Even today, many different types of heavy vehicles use this type of suspension, which is considerably more complicated to produce than a spring style suspension. The systems used on most modern cars today is a combination of a spring and a "dampener". The spring is what allows for movement of the axle, and the dampener slows down the bouncing. If there is no dampener, then the car would bounce all over the place, since the springs would simply oscillate back and forth. The dampeners slow down the movement, essentially adding a frictional force to the oscillation. This allows for the oscillations to stop very quickly, coming to rest back at the center. The combination of the two components allows for the car to not only mostly keep the interior level across uneven terrain, but also allows for the car's wheels to maintain traction while driving. Another type of suspension is magnetic, which uses electromagnets in replacement of the spring, allowing for control over the height of the suspension. The reason this suspension isn't very common is that it is expensive to implement, and mostly trivial unless you want to raise and lower your car a few inches, for whatever reason. The magnets act the same way the spring does, pushing back as the axle rotates up and down. We often don't think about how well these systems maintain the comfortable ride on our way to work or school.
  2. VagueIncentive

    Altimeters

    By VagueIncentive,

    Altimeters are used by many people in a variety of different situations, such as skydiving, flying, and even hiking. The purpose of an altimeter is to give the user a readout of their current altitude. This can be achieved in many different ways, but the most obvious method is to measure the air pressure. By taking into account the current temperature, one can calculate their current altitude. In early aircraft, this was done with analogue meters, rather than digital calculations. They weren't the most accurate, but still worked very well considering what they were being used for. Now, there are many different kinds of altimeters, but for small scale applications, many analogue altimeters are still being used, but technology allows for much more accurate readings. For hiking, being used with a topographical map, a hiker can determine their location. In skydiving, it's very important to know your altitude, as knowing when to pull the parachute is absolutely paramount. For usage in planes, there have been many different kinds of altimeters, but their general purpose has always been to allow pilots to determine their altitude, which can also be useful for determining if weather patterns are affecting the aircraft. The different kinds of digital meters include sonic and radar altimeters, which show relative altitude, meaning the altitude to the ground rather than sea level altitude. While altimeters are useful, they can only really be used in one way: to determine altitude.
  3. VagueIncentive

    Duct Tape

    By VagueIncentive,

    Duct tape is famous for it's ability to hold things together, as it's adhesive is incredibly powerful. Duct tape is made with a woven fabric to make up the tape, which could be made of nylon or polyester. This is then coated with a layer of thin polyethylene, which makes up the tensile strength of the tape. This can hold upwards of 65 pounds before snapping, despite how thin the tape is. This makes up partially for duct tape's strength, but where it really shines is the adhesive. This adhesive is made up of rubber compounds, aimed at longer lasting bonding with the material. Normal tape uses polymers instead, which are far weaker at binding than rubber compounds. Duct tape is used by NASA, and during the moon landing was used to repair a broken fender on the rover. This trusty and faithful tool has been in use for decades, fixing whatever needs fixing. It's dependability has spawned the phrase "If you can't fix it with duct tape, you aren't using enough duct tape.".
  4. VagueIncentive
    Conventional light bulbs use a filament, something to run current through that will heat up and produce light. These are very inefficient however, as more energy is put towards producing heat than light. This is why the idea for CFL light bulbs came about, which use a current running through gas to produce it's light. This method is more efficient, but still isn't perfect. This is where LED's come in, as they are small, very efficient, and require little power to produce a good amount of light. The reason why all lights haven't been replaced with LED lights is because of their cost, which while it's ever decreasing is still more than that of regular filament bulbs. This cost discrepancy is made more dramatic by the fact that LED's don't produce as much light per dollar spent, so for bright bulbs such as flood lights, it gets very expensive. In order to make a bright bulb, a large amount of LEDs are required, and this effect increases the brighter the bulb gets. This is exaggerated by the fact that if companies wanted to replace all of their bulbs at once, it would be expensive to install all of them, since many large buildings use a large amount of lights. I have an LED bulb in my room, and it is noticeably not as bright as a conventional bulb, but it will last a lot longer than any filament based bulb. Also, due to the fact that LED bulbs use circuitry, it isn't complicated to implement other things into the bulb. My bulb has a bluetooth speaker in it, which works very well considering it's inside of a light bulb. I think that in the future when LED technology becomes cheaper and better at producing light, all light bulbs will eventually become LED, unless they are specifically another type for one reason or another.
  5. VagueIncentive
    In the last decade, the uprise of mobile devices with touchscreens has been prominent, and there are 2 main types of touchscreens. The first, and cheaper style, is known as resistive, which uses 2 separated films that when come in contact they allow current to flow. This is what is used to determine the location of the touch, as wherever the current is flowing is where the user is currently touching. The issue with this system is that it requires physical movement of the plates, meaning it can be triggered by anything pushing it together, also if it's layers are no longer even they can touch if nothing is pushing on them, causing unwanted actions. The solution to these issues is the more complicated design, known as capacitive touch. This uses a system of 4 capacitors on each corner, and when the touch occurs, based on how the capacitance changes, the computer system can determine the position of the touch. This is exceptionally useful for avoiding accidental touches, and for creating a much more durable touch surface. Also, it enables much more precision and ease of use to the user, as they don't have to physically move anything, and so there is less to go wrong. The disadvantage of this is that water and anything else conductive greatly reduces the accuracy and usability of such a touch screen, as it messes with the currents. Thanks to this kind of technology, it is much easier for us to use our mobile devices with ease and precision.

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