How things work?

I love Physics.
While surfing through the net, I came across a link. It explains some interesting real life problems and how Physics help us to solve them. Thought is worth sharing.
http://howthingswork.virginia.edu/

The top of the atmosphere

Atmospheric gases scatter blue wavelength of visible light more than other wavelengths, giving the Earth's visible edge a blue halo. At higher points the atmosphere becomes so thin that it ceases to exist. The image shows the translucent moon emerging from behind the halo.

There is no dividing line as such between Earth's atmosphere and space, but it is useful for the scientist who study the balance of the incoming and outgoing energy of the Earth. They conceptually think of the altitude of 100 kilometers above the Earth as the "top of atmosphere". The top of the atmosphere is the place where solar energy enters the Earth's atmosphere and the thermal radiations from Earth release. So, the balance of incoming and the outgoing energy determines the Earth's temperature. The ability of the Greenhouse gases to change this balance by reducing the amount of thermal energy exiting is called as The Global Warming.

Greenhouse gases are not the only part of the Earth's system that affects the balance. The percent of the incoming sunlight that Earth reflects ( called as 'albedo' ) is also one of the influential factor. Clouds over Earth's surface, snow, ice are highly affected by the Earth's reflection.

Because snow and ice are so reflective, scientists have long expected that melting of snow and ice in the polar regions will accelerate climate warming by reducing the Earth’ albedo. Atmospheric scientist Seiji Kato of NASA’s Langley Research Center and several teammates have used a suite of NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) satellite observations to investigate whether this feedback is already underway. The team compared reflected sunlight, clouds, and sea ice and snow cover at polar latitudes from 2000-2004. What they found was a bit of a surprise: while snow and ice in the Arctic declined, the albedo didn’t change.

The above picture was acquired on July 20,2006 with Kodak 760C digital camera having 400 mm lens by the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The International Space Station Program supports the astronauts to take the picture of Earth that will be of great value for scientists and for public.

The sharpest man made object

Researchers from the University of Alberta in and the National Institute for Nanotechnology in Canada created the sharpest object ever made. The new nano object is tungsten needle tapering down to about the thickness of single atom. The breakthrough might help improve future scanning tunneling microscopes.


The needle, made by Moh'd Rezeq in the group lead by Professor Robert Wolkow at the University of Alberta and the National Institute for Nanotechnology, was initially much blunter. The needle was exposed to pure nitrogen atmosphere which made it thinner and thinner. Tungsten is chemically highly reactive and the nitrogen is used to roughen the tungsten surface. But at the tip, where the electric field created by applying a voltage to the tungsten is at its maximum, N2 molecules are driven away. This process reaches an equilibrium condition in which the point is very sharp.

Furthermore, what N2 is present near the tip helps to stabilize the tungsten against further chemical degradation. Indeed, the resultant needle is stable up to temperatures of 900 degrees Celsius even after 24 hours of exposure to air.

The probe tips used in scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs), even though they produce atomic-resolution pictures of atoms sitting on the top layer of a solid material, are not themselves atomically thin. Rather their radius of curvature at the bottom is typically 10 nm or more.

According to Wolkow says that although a narrower tip will be useful in the construction of STM arrays (you can pack more tips into a small area; and a wide array might even permit movies of atomic motions) the spatial resolution won't improve thereby. The real benefit of the sharp tungsten tips, he believes, will be as superb electron emitters. Being so slender, they would emit electrons in a bright, narrow, stable stream.

The picture shows a field ion microscope (FIM) image of a very sharp tungsten needle. The small round features on the image are individual atoms. The lighter colored elongated features are traces captured as atoms moved during the imaging process (approximately 1 second).

How technology delievers for UPS?

Ever thought of the technologies that UPS might be using to get the right things at right place at right time? Here is something that I found while browsing.

A truck driver of UPS in Atlanta checks out his hand held device to find out today's schedule and finds out that it's gonna be a busy day for him. 400 packages to deliver till the day ends. If he doesn't want to use some intelligence, he will have to bang the customer's door at nights also.
And in fact this was the condition until recently, but thanks to a custom-built software program that UPS began rolling out before two years. Now the driver makes up all of his deliveries before 6p.m. and comes back to his home well before the dinner.

Not so long ago, UPS drivers worked off maps, 3-x-5 note cards and their own memory map to find out the best path to deliver their packages. It was until 2005 when UPS began to implement a $600 million route-optimization system -think MapQuest on steroids. On each evening,this system maps out the next day's schedule for its 56,000 drivers. The system is said to be so sophisticated that it designs a route to minimize the number of left turns, thus minimizing the time and gas the drivers waste idling at stoplights.

This is an example of how technology helps companies to capture their institutional knowledge of the customers. Earlier when a truck driver walks out of the company's premises, leaving the job, his experience walks out with him. But now, as the information is stored in a centralized system, training someone becomes more easy.

But what about the efficiency of the system? No question at all. In November alone, the company's driver logged 3 million fewer miles than they did the year before.

The GPS ( Global Positioning System ) technology, warns a driver with a beep if they are on the wrong-way. Since the exact position of driver is known, UPS can send a the closest driver quickly after you call in for a pickup.

This is what is the real-application of technology, that makes the business grow and that too in a simpler manner.

The Michelin Tweel

Michelin invented the first radial tyre fifty years ago. The first tubeless tyre was invented before around 100 years and now they are back in the mood of doing something really innovative. Tweel is a prototype designed by Michelin. In a crude, simple language we can say that it is a tyre without air pressure.



Flexible spokes are fused with a flexible wheel which deforms to absorb shock. The Tweel also has a unique capability to have different vertical and lateral stiffness.
Vertical stiffness affects ride comfort, and lateral stiffness affects handling and cornering. The ability to tune these two parameters differently allows the best of both worlds, ride comfort and superb handling!



Though it looks new, but some complains that it's ugly. But we need to wait until Michelin comes up with a beautiful look for their Tweel.

When I showed how this new technology works to one of my friends, he said that they are not going to work on Indian roads as Indian roads have got there "special characteristics" :-)

How to make money by Blogging?

I wanted to try out some new internet browser so I installed Netscape7.2 The thing I like about this browser is its homepage. Some fantastic news and polls are posted there.

I heard about Google's Adsense and fortunately got an article which browsing through Netscape. Here is a link.

This is related with a guy called Kevin Vahey's website on Boston transit and how he generated a revenue out of it. It also mentions a website http://www.problogger.net
I am yet to go through it, but it seems useful. It teaches some basics of blogging and making money out of it.

So, I searched on Google and applied for their AdSense program.
Let's see if I can get a confirmation from their side or not?

Grad's HelpLine

My friend Vijay designed a web-site for GRE-GMAT-TOEFL preparation.

Here is the link
http://www.freewebs.com/vijaybahirji1985/

Hope that, he gets more free time for such on-bench activities...
:-)
Jai GRE!!!