Science & Engineering

2010-11-28T08:13:00.005Z

Patio Heating at it's Worst

I thought that we had hit a low with gas fired patio heaters, then some bright spark decided to make something even more convenient - electric patio heaters.

The worst thing is that now all of the pubs and restaurants are using them to heat their outdoor seating areas. I walked past a pub last night, the temperature was below freezing, the electric patio heaters were on and there was nobody sitting outside.

2010-11-08T18:39:00.004Z

Engineering

I work in engineering, my hobby is model engineering and I enjoy reading about science and engineering. When written down it looks a tad sad, but engineering is what gets me up and ready to start the day and what I think about.

The thing is I like a mental challenge, a problem to solve or improve it's overall performance in some way.

My contribution to everyone is http://www.diracdelta.co.uk a collection of pages that is just growing and growing with calculations, equations, conversions etc...

2009-08-03T17:14:00.003Z

Over Engineered

Sometimes things are just over engineered. Not even sure that is the correct expression to use as it may be argued that they are under-engineered. The item I'm thinking about is the razor and what made me consider this was buying replacement blades for a Gillette Fusion - a 4 blade razor that vibrates.......

Great to market and create a real fuss about. The problem is the blades are so close together that they get clogged very easily - the vibration doesn't help here. Also, the price of replacement blades is double that of more normal units. So I bought a Wilkinson Protector 3 with 5 spare blades for the price of just 4 replacement blades for the Fusion. There is something completely wrong there somewhere........

The thing is - the Wilkinson Protector 3 gives a better finish - so there you have it a far better more balanced piece of engineering that just gets the job done. Not so sure that there is a marketing line in that though................

2009-07-30T08:06:00.003Z

Links

After saying that I had come across a corrupted link, I'd like to know if there are any great Science and Engineering resources that you think we should link to?

2009-07-30T07:57:00.004Z

Corrupted Link

Every now and again you should check the links that you add to your site. I know that you're not responsible for other site content, but nothing worse than clicking on a link and finding that it gives a problem. Well I just happened to click on a link to a site that we had included, luckily McAfee immediately warned me that the site was running software that was trying to gain access to my PC. The site was science.blogdig.net - now maybe there was no major problem, but I really don't want any issues....

2008-10-04T05:47:00.003Z

Site Statistics

I know this is a science and engineering blog and so I should keep it exactly on that course, but sometimes things happen that shake that all up a bit.

The reason I'm writing is that over the last week or so the number of visitors that are being sent to our encyclopedia have dropped dramatically and it all appears to be down to Google. The pagerank hasn't changed, as per some blogs that appear to have a significant change going from a PR4 to a PR3. No, we have remained at a PR6 - that should mean we have a reasonable rating should it not?

This has happened before. The numbers dropped for a week or slightly more and then returned to normal.......

Well it started to drop at the end of September 2008 and I will let you know any updates.

2008-09-25T17:58:00.003Z

Credit Crunch

With all of the talk of banks failing and credit problems spinning around the world it feels like there may be a shift to good old fashioned values and with that maybe people will start caring again for engineering. For so long the brokers have considered themselves all important with huge salaries and stating that they are the backbone of the UK.

Well, maybe it is time the engineering community showed the bankers of the UK who fundamentally underpins the countries wealth and prosperity. With all of the environmental pressure and people looking for lower energy solutions the UK is in a good position.

Looking at it another way, not having so much money floating around may make people properly assess what is good for the environment rather than just what is trendy or over hyped by venture capitalist money.

2008-05-12T20:01:00.004Z

Why an Engineer?

What makes us tick and want to be engineers, why not give it all in and be an accountant? Why not study law and make more money?

Luckily money does not make us all happy. I like to work out how things work. I like solving problems with the result being something tangible. I don't think that seeing some share prices increase or decrease would give me quite the same feeling of well being, achievement or just that warm glow when it all clicks into place.

Sometimes engineering is frustrating and very annoying, mostly this is when politics creeps into the main issue which is solving a problem or designing a component.

I like art and find that it often goes hand in hand with an engineering solution. There is something elegant and rather creative about a very good engineering design.

I'm hooked and think we should encourage others to join in the fun....

2007-12-21T11:28:00.000Z

Nanosolar

At last it looks like the cost (and hopefully this equates to the energy cost of manufacture) is coming down. Nanosolar are quoting $0.99/Watt. With the exchange rate that equates to about 50pence/Watt.

If we assume that electricity costs 7 pence/kWhr then this means we need to generate 7kWhr before we break even.

Lets assume we get 5 hours of sunshine a day and so that means 5 Whr/day and so 200 days to generate 1 kWhr.

That means 1400 days to breakeven. That's just under 4 years, not so bad.

2007-12-17T19:11:00.000Z

Fame at Last
When writing some of the pages for the encyclopedia it is nice to illustrate them with images where possible. One such image was for Flemings Right Hand Rule where I took a photograph of my hand against a white background I then took the image into Paint.net. From here I had some fun making it black and white and increasing the brightness and of course removing my arm. The result was rather effective.

Not sure just how special the image is, but I had a request to use it in a book and agreed in return for a link and now it is about to appear on lots of physics students T-shirts at Kalamazoo College in the format shown below, rather nice seeing it with some professional graphics work.

Fame at last, at least for my hand. Now need to think of a page and perhaps an image of me, you never know......

If you would like to use images from diracdelta.co.uk we are happy if they are used fairly (e.g. credit) and if you contact us first to ask.

2007-12-17T10:42:00.000Z

Science & Engineering
I got my Eeepc at Toys R Us where they had plenty of stock, it seems that traditional computer suppliers are running out very quickly. As mentioned here - http://eeepcworld.wordpress.com/2007/12/15/pc-world-now-selling-the-eee/trackback/ I wouldn't try PC World just yet until they have trained their staff on just what this little gadget is.

2007-12-14T19:26:00.000Z

Eee bah gum - Small is Beautiful

...or rather the new Asus Eee PC 4G laptop is small, light, portable and really everything you need for computing on the go. This is aimed at the kids, but really is the perfect companion for writing a quick email, surfing the net or even some more serious work with the Open Office pre-installed. Great if you need to give a presentation somewhere and do not want to lug 3kg of laptop with you.

The keyboard is small and you would not want to use it for writing reports, but for the odd note or blog it is just about perfect. If you need a portable computer then this is the device.

The solid state disk is only 4Gb and 2.5Gb of that is for the pre-installed linux, office and many other applications. However, an SD slot allows you to add another 8Gb and 3 spare usb ports allow you to plug in a hard drive. I remember not that many years ago ordering a serious desktop computer for home with just a 6.3Gb drive - how did we manage!

The best bit is the price £219 a fraction of the price of the very desirable small Sony laptops and the build quality of the Asus is far from shoddy, it is rather solid and should handle some fairly rough use with that solid state drive.

2007-12-05T19:56:00.000Z

Thanks Dinosaurs, now lets move on with elegance…

The average person weighs 75kg and yet requires a vehicle weighing 1500kg to haul them around. That really is quite obscene when you think carefully about it. Is it vanity, greed or just all of the manufacturers have become dinosaurs laboriously sticking to their old ways and not daring to do anything different.

There are some out there that have always promoted lightweight design e.g. Lotus. This has always been with performance in mind and not the pursuit of fuel economy. I can forgive them for that as there has to be a reason and being environmentally friendly has only just started to sell.

If we take a good look at the Toyota Prius we see a very hi-tech vehicle with a huge amount of components that gives a reasonable fuel economy. The vehicle weighs an incredible 1325kg. Is this an elegant solution? The following quote comes to mind:

"To define it rudely but not inaptly, engineering is the art of doing that well with one dollar which any bungler can do with two after a fashion.”, Arthur M. Wellington

There are a new breed of vehicle designs that are turning up with a very strong environmental theme e.g. Aptera – daring design, fantastic fuel economy claims and a vehicle that weighs around 386kg, this just feels more sensible. A simple fundamental concept where weight is kept to a minimum, aerodynamic drag is reduced and the power unit is simple and much smaller as a result of the diet.

2007-06-12T12:27:00.000Z

Zero Emissions?

Zero emission house - I would like to see the full analysis of the material and energy cost of building this so that it can be compared with a conventional house. Then we can fully understand the cradle to grave costs.

The big problem is the outside styling is not so great and do you really want to invite friends round?

2006-02-13T19:50:00.000Z

Carbon Capture

"UK 'should pursue' carbon capture"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4695478.stm

What? This is just another half baked idea that will reduce the efficiency of our power stations by up to 25% and one where we have to build the infrastructure to pipe the captured carbon dioxide to an old unused oil well where we can store it? Surely this is a vicious circle with us requiring access to old oil wells, the very oil wells that we have been trying to break our dependency on. In addition, what happens when we have filled them all up? This really is a case of looking after our own interests and leaving the problem for our descendents to sort out.

How about an alternative approach? Why not grow trees, cut them down and store them in mines, oil wells or landfill? We could cap the landfill and collect the methane as the trees rot and use this to power an internal combustion engine to generate electricity. We can understand and develop the ideas to make this a sustainable process. Then 20 years down the line if we decide this is not such a great idea we can use the methods and ideas we have developed and rather than bury the material we can turn it into ethanol or burn it directly. This way we do not leave a legacy, other than a lot of buried wood and that is nothing more than the natural process.

There are a number of other governments that are thinking long term:

"Sweden plans to be world's first oil-free economy"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1704955,00.html