Oct 22, 2011

Thermal Energy!

Thermal energy is generated and measured by heat of any kind is due to the increased activity or the speed of molecules in a substance, which in turn causes temperature causes rise accordingly. There are many natural sources of thermal energy on the earth, making it an important component of alternative energies.

To explain the laws of thermodynamics, that energy can be exchanged to another in the form of heat from a physical object. For example, putting fire under a pot with water, the water is heating up as a result of the increased molecular motion. In this way, the heat or thermal energy, the fire is partially transferred to the water.

Understanding the principles of thermodynamics has allowed people to use to create the natural sources of heat, thermal energy from a variety of sources. The sun, ocean and geothermal sources such as geysers and volcanoes, all sources of thermal energy. As an exhausted people, sustainable forms of alternative energy instead of fossil resources, such as try again, much attention has focused on improving the methods of harnessing the heat energy to the power of human activity.


Solar thermal power plants is one of the most common forms of thermal energy. Although Assembly solar energy is available only when the sun is visible in the sky, scientists have many different options for storage and use of developed included the performance of solar systems. On a small plane, a man his pool by low-temperature ducts to heat in or around the water. By absorbing sunlight and distribute it on the water, the temperature throughout the day and even after the sun has risen. Solar panels, evaporative pools and other advanced systems can perform this function on a much more widespread level, which saved enough energy to run a factory or city on solar thermal.

The Earth is around a molten core of the incredible heat that built up substantially reduced, as it reaches the surface, or crust level. But is generated by the use of some of the heat below the surface of the planet, humans can extract enormous amounts of energy. The easiest way is to do so by geothermal energy sources such as geysers, or at the boundaries of tectonic plates. Geothermal wells pump out energy in the form of hot water or steam can be converted into usable energy, or simply be used directly.

Thermal energy is an awesome force that is just beginning to be understood. to focus through the creation of new devices and methods of storing and transporting of course creates thermal energy, the human dependency on non-sustainable forms of energy. Thanks to the power of heat, hot baths, boiled water and thermally driven cities are possible.

source:wisegeek.com

How much power Google consumes !

The giant of the web Google revealed its energy use for the first time.

Google is the first web firm to reveal how much energy it consumes, this information will help researchers understand how the massive explosion of Internet consumption and cloud computing is contributing to global energy consumption.

Google consumes 260 million watts continuously across the world,the company reported on Wednesday. This is equivalent to the power used by all the houses in Richmond, Virginia, or Irvine, California (around 200,000 houses), and nearly a quarter of the output of a standard nuclear power plant.


Until now, the most of Google's energy use is tied up in its data storage centers, according to Jonathan Koomey who is a professor at Stanford University and a researcher who focuses on energy and IT. He says that nearly 220 million of these watts are used only by the company's data centers, based on figures Google showed him . Most of this energy is used in cooling data center systems. Google custom builds many data centers, for example a new one in Finland that uses a seawater cooling system, to cool the system.

This has made Google to be relatively energy efficient, says Koomey, who estimates that the company owns about 3 percent of servers worldwide and uses only 1 percent of electricity for data centers worldwide. "They're operating more efficiently than other data centers," he says.

In its report, Google compares the energy usage of companies' in-house computer systems to the energy used by its cloud servers. It estimates that running Gmail instead of an in-house e-mail system can be almost 80 times more efficient .Google says that 25 percent of its energy was generated by renewable fuels, from wind farm in 2011, and plan to increase that to 30 percent this year.

Sherif Akoush, a researcher at the University of Cambridge who studies IT energy consumption, indicates that Google could be even more energy efficient, and notes that the company's environmental works will continue to rise. "Google tackles this problem mainly by using power purchase agreements from green sources, which offset basically the emissions from its data centers," says Akoush. Instead, "it should just try to apply more radical solutions like green energy and be a zero-carbon company instead of pumping waste then trying to clean it up."

Bruce Nordman who is a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, notes that most IT-related energy usage occurs from homes and offices, and not major data centers.

Google says that an average search uses .3 watt-hours of electricity. But Nordman points out that cutting back on Google searches is not going to save a significant amount of energy. "Something like having your display go to sleep a little faster would probably save more energy," he says.
He adds, "since there's more consumption [in homes and offices], there's potentially more savings and yet that's not what gets the attention."

technologyreview.com

Building Rotates 360 Degrees!

A company in Brazil which name is Suite Vollard builded a building in which each floor can rotate 360 degrees. Each building has 11 apartments and each apartment can spin individually in any direction. One rotation takes a full hour, but apartment owner can set rotation speed through apartment control panel. Facades are made of three different types of glass which give wonderful effects when building spins during the sunset. Cost of each apartment is $US 300,000.000.






World's longest sea bridge opens in China

China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge - which stretches five miles further than the distance between Dover and Calais.

The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26.4 miles long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the offshore island Huangdao.

The road bridge, which is 110ft wide and is the longest of its kind, cost nearly £1billion to build.

A bridge over misty waters: The immense £1billion structure which is supported by more than 5,000 pillars stretches for 24 miles along China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the offshore island Huangdao






Chinese TV reports said the bridge passed construction appraisals on Monday and it, along with an undersea tunnel, would be opened for traffic today.


It took four years to build the bridge, which is supported by more than 5,000 pillars across the bay, and it is almost three miles longer than the previous record-holder - the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana.


That structure features two bridges running side by side and is 23.87 miles long.

The three-way Qingdao Haiwan bridge is 174 times longer than London's Tower Bridge, spanning the River Thames, but cuts only 19 miles off the drive from Qingdao to Huangdao.

Two separate groups of workers have been building it from different ends of the structure since 2006.


After linking the two ends of the bridge on December 22, one engineer said: 'The computer models and calculations are all very well but you can't relax until the two sides are bolted together.


'Even a few centimetres out would have been a disaster.'

The engineering feat will only hold the record as the longest sea bridge for a few years - it will be beaten by another Chinese bridge in the next decade.

Last December officials announced workers had begun constructing a bridge to link southern Guangdong province with Hong Kong and Macau.

Set to be completed in 2016, officials said the £6.5billion bridge will span nearly 30 miles.

It will be designed to cope with earthquakes up to magnitude 8.0, strong typhoons and the impact of a 300,000 tonne vessel.


But both structures will still be dwarfed by the longest bridge in the world, also in China.

The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge is an astonishing 102 miles in length.



Magdeburg Water Bridge

The Magdeburg Water Bridge (German: Wasserstraßenkreuz) is a navigable aqueduct in Germany, opened inOctober 2003. It connects the Elbe-Havel Canal to the Mittellandkanal, crossing over the Elbe River. It is notable for being the longest navigable aqueduct in the world, with a total length of 918 metres (3,012 ft).




The Elbe–Havel Canal and Mittelland Canal canals had previously met near Magdeburg but on opposite sides of the Elbe, which was at a significantly lower elevation than the two canals. Ships moving between the two had to make a 12-kilometre (7.5 mi) detour, descending from the Mittelland Canal through the Rothensee boat lift into the Elbe, then sailing downstream on the river, before ascending up to the Elbe-Havel Canal through Niegripp lock. Low water levels in the Elbe often prevented fully laden canal barges from making this crossing, requiring time-consuming off-loading of cargo.

History
Canal engineers had first conceived of joining the two waterways as far back as 1919, and by 1938 the Rothensee boat lift and bridge anchors were in place, but construction was postponed during World War II. After the Cold War split Germany, the project was put on hold indefinitely by the East German government.


The reunification of Germany and establishment of major water transport routes made the Water Bridge a priority again. Work started in 1997, with construction taking six years and costing €500 million. The water bridge now connects Berlin’s inland harbour network with the ports along the Rhine river. The aqueduct's trough structure incorporates 24,000 tonnes of steel and 68,000 cubic meters of concrete.

Locks

In addition to the bridge, a double lock was constructed to allow vessels to descend from the level of the bridge and Mittelland Canal to that of the Elbe-Havel Canal.

Additionally a single lock was constructed at Rothensee to allow vessels to descend from the bridge level to the Elbe and the Magdeburg harbour. This lock is parallel to, and replaces the Rothensee boat lift, and can accommodate larger vessels than the lift.


Underground Skyscraper in Mexico City


The Earthscraper, designed by BNKR Arquitectura, is the Skyscraper’s antagonist in the historic urban landscape of  City where the latter is condemned and the preservation of the built environment is the paramount ambition. It preserves the iconic presence of the city square and the existing hierarchy of the buildings that surround it. More images and architects’ description after the break.



The Historic Center of Mexico City is composed of different layers of cities superimposed on top of each other. When the Aztecs first came into the Valley of Mexico they built their pyramids on the lake they found there. When a new and bigger pyramid was conceived and the Aztec Empire grew in size and power, they did not search for a new site, they just built on it and around the existing one. In this manner, the pyramids are composed of different layers of historical periods.


When the Spanish arrived in America and ultimately conquered the Aztecs, they erected their Christian temples atop their pyramids. Eventually their whole colonial city was built on top of the Aztec one. In the 20th century, many colonial buildings were demolished and modern structures raised on the existing historic foundations. So in a way, Mexico City is like a massive layered cake: a modern metropolis built on the foundations of a colonial city that was erected on top of the ancient pyramids that were constructed on the lake.
The main square of Mexico City, known as the “Zocalo”, is 57,600 m2 (240m x 240m), making it one of the largest in the world. It is bordered by the Cathedral, the National Palace and the City Government buildings. A flagpole stands at its center with an enormous Mexican flag ceremoniously raised and lowered each day. This proved as the ideal site for the Earthscraper: an inverted skyscraper that digs down through the layers of cities to uncover our roots.


The design is an inverted pyramid with a central void to allow all habitable spaces to enjoy natural lighting and ventilation. To conserve the numerous activities that take place on the city square year round (concerts, political manifestations, open-air exhibitions, cultural gatherings, military parades.), the massive hole will be covered with a glass floor that allows the life of the Earthscraper to blend with everything happening on top.
Architect: BNKR Arquitectura
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Partners: Esteban Suárez (Founding Partner), Sebastián Suárez
Project Leader: Arief Budiman
Project Team: Arief Budiman, Diego Eumir, Guillermo Bastian, Adrian Aguilar
Collaborators: Jorge Arteaga, Zaida Montañana, Santiago Becerra
Area: 775,000 m2
Status: Competition
Photography: Sebastian Suárez




Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT) is a 23 mile long bridge and tunnel system that connects southeastern Virginia with Delmarva Peninsula in the United States. The bridge connects the following independent cities Virginia Beach, and Norfolk, Virginia to Cape Charles in Northampton County along the eastern shore of Virginia.




The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel uses a combo of tunnels and bridges over two separated shipping channels using four artificial islands built in the bay as portals.

The bridge-tunnel was opened on April 15th, 1964, in August 1987 it was officially named the Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge-Tunnel after one of the civic leaders who worked for its development. However, it still is best known as Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

The bridge part of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel as far as I can know is 15.6 Miles long which is why this bridge is placed at number at the worlds 9th longest bridge and 7th longest over water and 4th longest bridge in the USAand 8th longest that is used by autos.

The above water part of the bridge was upgraded in 1995-1999 from 2 lanes to a 4 lanes at a cost of $200 million.

After the bridge-tunnel opened in 1964, it was selected as One of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World by American Society of Civil Engineers, however it has been replaced on this list since with more recent engineering wonders.

The Biggest Cities in The World

This is the list of biggest cities in the World.I like big cities. I also like interesting facts, geography, and statistics. Occasionally, I wondered what the biggest cities in the world are. I found the following statistics online, from Thomas Brinkhoff, Principal Agglomerations and Cities of the World. Web: www.citypopulation.de.



Tokyo


Mexico City

İstanbul




Urban Area /
City Name
CountryEstimated
population
(in millions)
1. TokyoJapan34.2
2. Mexico CityMexico22.8
3. SeoulSouth Korea22.3
4. New YorkUSA21.9
5. Sao PauloBrazil20.2
6. BombayIndia19.9
7. DelhiIndia19.7
8. ShanghaiChina18.2
9. Los AngelesUSA18.0
10. OsakaJapan16.8
11. JakartaIndonesia16.5
12. CalcuttaIndia15.7
13. CairoEgypt15.6
14. ManilaPhilippines15.0
15. KarachiPakistan14.3
16. MoscowRussia13.8
17. Buenos AiresArgentina13.5
18. DhakaBangladesh13.3
19. Rio de JaneiroBrazil12.2
20. BeijingChina12.1
21. LondonEngland12.0
22. TehranIran11.9
23. IstanbulTurkey11.5
24. LagosNigeria11.1
25. ShenzhenChina10.7
26. ParisFrance10.0
27. ChicagoUSA9.8



Oct 21, 2011

Coiled Wire Spring vs. Machined Spring

Which Spring to Choose - Coiled wire vs. machined




Coiled wire vs. machined: These springs have the same length, outer diameter, and compression rate
If a compression spring application requires the absolutely best repeatability to support calibration or high precision uses, it is best that the coils never touch. Even better, the minimum slot width needs to be wide enough to not permit any interference between the coils from restricting or changing the compression motion. Machined springs are ideal for calibration and precision usages from this standpoint.

The sizes of wire wound springs range from very small delicate springs made from cold forming fine wire to very large, hot-rolled ones that originate as bar stock. This range is quite impressive.

Machined spring sizes are limited by machining practicality. The smallest are about 0.100 inch (2.54 mm) in diameter, and the largest are 6.0 inches (152 mm) across. Maximum length is about 24 inches (610 mm), but this applies to 1.0-inch (25.4mm) to 3.0-inch (76 mm) diameter springs. Smaller or larger diameter springs will need to be shorter.

Wire wound springs can be made very long, as in a garter spring. Length is limited only by the quantity of continuous wire available on the feed spool.

Machined springs, on the other hand, are limited to about 30 coils. Indeed, machined springs with more coils than that are rare.
Comparing Features: Wire Wound and Machined Springs
Which Spring to Choose - Comparing Features: Wire Wound and Machined Springs
In a coiled spring, the entire length of the wire contributes to elasticity because the forces and moments are distributed end to end.

Machined springs are different. The flexure, the section providing the desired elasticity, is captive between the end sections, which provide structure and attachment features but contribute no elasticity. The slots on machined springs do not taper to zero at the ends. As a result, to accomplish the same elastic performance, machined springs likely need to be longer than wire ones.

Precision is another question to consider. The reality is that precise dimensions are easier to accomplish with machined springs than with wire springs, and precise dimensions are an important part of the foundation for precision performance.

Precision: Wire Wound vs. Machined Springs

Which Spring to Choose - Precision: Wire Wound vs. Machined Springs

Oct 17, 2011

Akash Ubislate 7 Tablet Only @ Rs. 2,999/-


Akash Ubislate 7 Android Tablet is now available in India at Rs. 2,999/- only. Ubislate 7 offers 7” inch Touchscreen, Google Android v2.2 OS and touch screen tablet that has a HD video co-processor for a high-quality multimedia experience and core graphics accelerator for fasterapplication support. The Aakash tablet is the only Android device in the market to offer DataWind’s UbiSurfer browser, based on 18 international patents. The UbiSurfer browser accelerates web pages by factors of 10x to 30x, allowing for a web experience who’s speed is unrivalled. 

The device includes WiFi connectivity and support for optional 3G modems. Two full-sized USB ports are integrated into the unit allowing pen-drives, external keyboards, web-cams, dongles and other inexpensive peripherals to be attached. “Pen drives are a common medium for storing and sharing content in India. They are even used by people that are not computer savvy, for access to music and videos. A full sized USB ports allowing regular pen-drives to be plugged-in is also available as an added advantage over other Tablets.


A key accessory offered with the Aakash tablet by DataWind, is the Leather Keyboard Case. The leather case not only protects the device, but has an integrated keyboard case allowing fast typing and conversion of the device as a small notebook.






Data Offer on Ubislate Android Tablet: Pay only Rs.98 / 2GB data download/transfers.
Akash Ubislate 7 Tablet Features and Specifications:
Connexant Processor
256MB RAM
2GB Internal memory + Micro SD Card Slot
7” inch (480×800 pixels) Resistive Touchscreen
Wireless Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g + GPRS
Email/Facebook/Twitter
Office Document Viewer (DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, ODT, ODP and PDF)
Media Player Video (AVI, FLV and MP4/Mpeg)
Audio Player (AAC, AC3, MP3, WAV, WMA)
USB Port + 3.5mm Connector
Battery Life up to 3 Hours


Akash Ubislate 7 Price in India: MRP Rs. 2,999/- INR 


For more:- http://www.ubislate.com/index.html