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ThePeculiarParticle

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Blog Entries posted by ThePeculiarParticle

  1. ThePeculiarParticle
    Well, before that snowy and cold winter break, one of the cloudiest cities in the nation was beginning to see the sun. It was while walking around I realized how beneficial my old transition lenses were. Then it hit me, how exactly do they work over and over again. As it turns out, the answer is a simple chemical reaction.
     Each transition lens has millions of silver chloride particles. These particles only react when exposed to UV light hence transition lenses do not work when driving. Natural light or light through many windows does not contain light with UV wavelengths. When exposed to UV, the atoms oxidize and separate. The separated chlorine and oxygen then cluster together blocking some of the incoming light. This appears as darkening of lens.
     This process then reverses, in the absence of UV light, but at a much slower rate than it occurred. Anyone who has walked from outside into a dark room wearing transitions only to find you can’t see anything with or without glasses knows what I mean. Well they turn back by a completely different process called thermal dependency which takes longer. The analogies I have seen compare the molecules to a pot of boiling water. Molecules which have more energy “open” at a faster rate clearing the lens. If the temperature is warmer the more molecules are left open than in colder weather. The result is that in the cold your lenses become darker and require more time to open and become clear once again. So to summarize, transition lenses rely on the physics of wavelengths of light and thermal dependence to make them an adjusting accessory.
    So when you walk out school for summer vacation remembers that physics doesn't stop when you leave the classroom, it happens right before your very eyes.
     
    As always thanks for reading! - ThePeculiarParticle
  2. ThePeculiarParticle
    Based on a variety of evidence, the last time the Earth's magnetic poles flipped was 750,000 years ago. Going off of this, many sources say we could face another flip at any point. Now, before you panic and begin blasting REM out of the nearest speakers, I just wanted to fill you in on what the process looks like.
    The process is much longer than most people think when first visualizing it. It is actually a process which is estimated to take 1000-10000 years. To explain why, the main factor behind the Earth's magnetic field is believed to be the liquid iron part of the Earth's core. The alignment of iron and it's flow creates a magnetic field surrounding the Earth. As the iron won't all realign in a matter of days in the transition period, Earth's field appears to grow weaker as orientations move, then multiple different poles may form, until eventually the poles are reoriented and effectively flipped. Will this cause confusion for many electrical systems, animals, and humans? Yes. One of the biggest dangers, however, is the lack of a strong magnetic field protecting Earth from harmful solar flares, which could wipe out modern electrical systems as a whole. This is a very real fear, with a severe storm occurring in 1859 known as the Carrington Event. This storm, even with a fully functioning magnetic field, managed to destroy large amounts of telegraph communications and caused auroras so strong they were seen in the Caribbean. While strong storms like this are rare, weak ones are fairly frequent. So, if the poles were to weaken, even the effects of a weak storm would be very destructive. Humanity would certainly not be the same after a direct hit.
    Anyways, don’t panic, much of this is out of anyone's control anyways, besides, even with this threat looming over our heads, we continue to make scientific progress without hesitation, and, like any other hardship, we keep our heads up and move forward. So, to sum it up, the poles won't just flip one morning and be switched the next, it is a process which takes numerous lifetimes.
     
    As always thanks for reading! - ThePeculiarParticle
  3. ThePeculiarParticle
    Anyone remotely into science fiction has heard the sound of a Theremin at least once, from its use in most 50’s movie to a variety of later Star Trek and Doctor Who sounds. It has been the sound of the future since its creator Leon Theremin unveiled it in 1928.
     
    Before I explain, what it is it is important you see what it looks like in use. For reference the Theremin playing begins at 1:00.
    So how does this machine work? Well, this connects back to our unit on capacitance. The human body has a natural capacitance, so when it moves into an electric field it can disturb it. In a Theremin an electromagnetic field is created by a radio frequency oscillating circuit. The two terminals are connected to two different circuits. The circuit connected to the vertical antenna is connected to a variable oscillator which can produce a range of frequencies, making the player’s movement in the vertical plane control the pitch of the instrument. The horizontal terminal has a fixed oscillator which generates waves at a constant frequency. A hand in the horizontal plane controls the volume of the output. When these two signals are “mixed” and amplified, the result is the haunting pitch you hear above.
     
    This instrument paved the way for the electronic era of instruments to come, so looking back, it is always important we acknowledge our roots.
    As always thanks for reading! - ThePeculiarParticle
  4. ThePeculiarParticle
    Sorry for the clickbait, I’m just trying to beat The Night King at his own game. The truth is I am just going to tell you what wireless charging is. Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t have a global conspiracy.
    I won't do it again.
    An emerging technology, which every company Samsung to Tesla are trying to jump on board with, is wireless charging, but believe it or not, this technology has been around since the 1960s.
    It’s called induction charging, and, as given by the name, is works through induction. So how does it work? Well, a magnet with a coil of wire wrapped around it is called an inductor. Just as a capacitor stores voltage in an electrical field, when current is run through the wires of an inductor voltage is stored in a magnetic field. Put a device which has another induction coil, within the magnetic field, and the energy will be transformed back into current charging the battery.

     
    So why is such a simple technology just coming into our houses now?
     
    Well, for one, powerful enough magnets and small enough electronics are now becoming cheaper and more readily available by the year. Before, what took a magnet the size of a loaf of bread, can now be put into a charger that sits nicely on top of your nightstand.  Its earliest usage within the home was actually in bulky electric toothbrushes, but now companies have a variety of wire free applications. One of the more talked about use of the technologies is how modifications can be made to Tesla Model S so that it can wirelessly charge by parking over designated spots.

    So what are the drawbacks?
     
    Well induction charging is usually 75%-80% as efficient as wired charging, so times to charge are usually slower. No to mention, charging rates drop off further the farther the coils are separated. The efficiency decreases usually by square inverse ratio. The usage of resonant inductive coupling can make this distance much greater, but the final problem is cost. The charging stations alone for inductive chargers are more expensive, not to mention, only the latest lines of devices seem to support wireless charging, and, if you are anything like me, you will not be paying top dollar just to get a bigger screen and a cool charging pad.
     
    In the future, however, I can see this becoming a new norm for phones, as not wearing down and needing to fix a charging port is always a nice additive bonus for consumer and supplier. So be sure to look for this technology in the future.
     
    As always thanks for reading! - ThePeculiarParticle
  5. ThePeculiarParticle
    No doubt the course has gotten much harder in the transition to electricity and magnetism. The result is that I've needed to adapt a new approach to the course. I have tried watching videos then filling in my notes with information from the book and vice versa. For me watching the videos first worked much better. So, if anyone finds this blog, I'll certainly recommend that. But one of the most important things I can do is look back at the course and experience as a whole, despite having induction left, and say I wouldn't have it any other way. It's like climbing a mountain and, while it seems like a heavy task at first, the top is now in sight, with a bit of work left. The most exciting part of this year, besides writing these blogs, had to be finally finding where all these formulas came from, such as how work and forces are so interconnected now that we understand integrals and derivatives.
    The good news is that it only builds on from here. Well, my group agreed we would do a blog post sharing our future endeavors, and I'm happy to say that I will be attending the University of Rochester to pursue Optical Engineering. It specifically interests me in the area of integrating electrical and digital circuits but, since optics is such a wide field, that can only be compared to dipping my toe in the deep end of an Olympic sized swimming pool. This course has probably prepared me the most, compared to any other course, for what to expect in college, and for that I'm immensely grateful. Thank you FizziksGuy. The road isn't over yet but this year has been a large stepping off point into the next and I can't thank you enough for the help.
    This is kinda sad, being one of the last assigned blog posts I do, but it is not the end. There will be one more after this, which I am really excited for, and I will post a couple in fourth quarter.
     I legitimately love writing these and need to thank all of my readers and those who gave support, and even criticism, as this was one of the most fun projects I have had this year.
     
    As always thanks for reading! - ThePeculiarParticle
  6. ThePeculiarParticle
    Physics is all around us, and sometimes it is so visually awesome that it can make for great album covers.

    Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon
     
    One of the highest selling albums of all time, and having one of the most identifiable covers of all time, Pink Floyd should rightfully start up this list.
    The phenomenon shown is called dispersion of light. This occurs when white light hits an optically permeable surface. In this case, white light is hitting a prism. As white light passes through the prism, all the different components of white light separate by wavelength. This occurs due to each wavelength having a different angle of deviation. Shorter wavelengths, such as violet, have greater angles of refraction than longer wavelength colors, such as red. The result is a splay of colors each aligned in a rainbow to their corresponding wavelengths.

     
     


    Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures
     
    Another cover which can be easily recognized, or at least will be noticed, is Joy Division’s debut album. What you are actually seeing is a visualization of radio waves from a pulsar, in fact the first pulsar ever discovered. A radio pulsar is a neutron star which is spinning at incredibly high speeds. So this star, with a density ten trillion times denser than lead, is also generating a strong magnetic field from moving electrons. Due to this spin, electrical charges, and magnetic field, a radio signal was received at 1.337 second intervals. The picture above depicts eighty successive periods stacked on top of one another, and was taken straight from The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy published in 1977. Despite being in earlier publications, the true creator of the design is not know, but if one thing is for sure, the image can still be found everywhere and this usage in 1979 was only the beginning of its use in pop culture.



    The Strokes: Is This It
     
    The cover to The Strokes Is This It was chosen for release of the 2001 album due to its beautiful psychedelic appearance. But what is it? Well, it is a picture taken from inside a bubble chamber. A bubble chamber is used to study electrically charged particles. How it works is that large bubble chambers are filled with incredibly hot liquid hydrogen. As the particles enter the chamber, a piston opens decreasing the pressure in the chamber. Charge particles created an ionized track which vaporizes the hydrogen creating visible bubble trails. Since the hydrogen is transparent, pictures can be taken in all three dimensions, mapping out the movements of the particles. So why is a different bubble chamber photo my profile picture?
    Well it has nothing to do with The Strokes. It's just a beautiful image, and that's what made most of these artists choose their own covers. Nature is beautiful in many ways, and being able to explain it with physics makes it just that much more enjoyable.
     
    As always thanks for reading! - ThePeculiarParticle

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