Engineering

Hello. At the explosion/expansion cycle of a plain internal combustion engine -no turbos/high performance/fancy fuels- what pressures ranges are typical ?

Hi. Seen several contraptions shown in youtube videos that seem to pump somehow and a container works in partial vacuum. There is maaaany videos doing the same in many styles. Can someone explain what is going on ? I dislike to send you to a particular link, just search terms "water pump" within youtube for your own choice. If you really want an example link, try ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Afu1ViH3E and dozens appear at the side column. They all use a container, and mostly asian construction. Perhaps there is one in english.

It has always been a mystery to me. HOW are watch parts made ? What equipment, machinery takes to make gears a few millimetres small with such degree of precision and replication ? Ladies watches having even tinier gears, jewels shaping, machining, dimensioning? ... are impressive. And it has been happening for a couple of centuries plus, since the machining techniques were less than in their infancy... And to make it harder, how are the machines that make timepieces parts made ? Please share whatever you know; I will hold my jaw from dropping. Thanks.

Greetings. Do you know of a hydraulic piston or piston-cylinder assembly that I can re-purpose instead of fabricate/re-invent the wheel ? Similar to brakes, much larger diameter, like 50 to 100 mm. To work in reciprocating motion, only about 50mm travel, ~<10 strokes per second, up to 5000 psi. (not with a seal for rotating shafts) It is to produce pulses of hydraulic pressure. Like a driven small engine using it as a hydraulics reciprocating compressor 🙄 -Images borrowed from the web-

What is the difference ? Marketing ?

Which size can have a smallest feasible surveillance wireless camera? The camera should include optics, sensor, control chip, atomic battery and housing. For how long will it be able to operate (capture video) on a single charge?

1) Can they stop the computer to fly the aircraft, ant they just fly the aircraft by a living person? 2) Can they turn off MCAS, that rubbish device forced the aircraft flies head to the ground? 3) Can they just stop try to pull back the control stick, they just stop to fight with the machine, the computer may fix its own mistake, anyway the chance should be very little.

Number One: what methods could be used to greatly reduce the risk that fire will will result from the batteries? Number Two: what technology could be used to protect people and dogs inside the car from death or serious injury in case a battery-related fire did break out (or was on the verge of breaking out) while people and dogs were still in the car, parked or moving? There is both a very hot and violent burning hazard and a highly toxic smoke hazard. A fuel-related fire inside the engine compartment of a gasoline automobile, at least, is going to burn rather tame and the engine compartment and firewall is going to keep the flames and heat away from people inside…

We humans wear clothing for various reasons (to avoid being naked, for temperature protection, protection from dirt and moisture, to express our individuality, etc.). Some of these reasons may not be important for robots, but others are even more critical. Protection from moisture, dirt, and dust is more important for robots than for humans. These factors can destroy robots, or at least it is very time-consuming to clean a robot constructed similarly to Optimus from dust and dirt. Even when performing simple kitchen tasks involving fats or oils for cooking, the grease will get everywhere. If he works with flour, cleaning Optimus afterwards will be more tedious than c…

Indoor skydiving apparrently works by means of a "vertical windtunnel" blasting air upwards at about 150mph, so novice skydivers can gain experience of floating. Could vertical windtunnels be installed on a much larger scale around very tall buildings to be uncovered and switched on in the event of a rapid evacuation? Would it be possible for people to have jumped from the top of the World Trade Centre at 1368 ft to be caught safely in a vertical windtunnel at the bottom? Cheerz GIAN🙂XXX

I have 6 spotlights in the ceiling of my kitchen and one of them has started flashing a short while after they are switched on. The flashing is at a rate of once every second or so, and after a while it stops and stays on continuously, though sometimes one of the others then flashes or even cuts off. I’ve tried changing the bulb but that makes no difference. Must be something to do with the transformer I think. Web search suggests it could be replacement of halogen bulbs by LED, causing too little current to be drawn for the transformer to work properly. Does this seem plausible, why should that happen, and what can I do about it?

This is probably nothing more than a cool science fair experiment/project but i had an idea: Motor | Pedals/Alternator -> Computer <-> Battery <-Regen brakes I searched it up and even the best alternators are only about 80% efficient. Any ideas on how i might improve on this design?

According to the WSJ and NBC News reports, investigators are looking into the possibility that contaminated fuel may have contributed to the collision that caused the collapse of the 1.6 mile span of the Francis Scott Key bridge across the Patapsco River Baltimore just after 1.24 a.m Tuesday. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rare-mayday-preceded-baltimore-bridge-collapse-couldnt-think-worse-sit-rcna145212 A 1000’ long cargo ship called the Dali broadcast a rare Mayday call shortly after leaving harbour to warn shore authorities that it had lost power and steering control, before slamming into a bridge support column 4m later. There was just enough time to cl…

Non-engineer doing research for a story... Recently, there has been discussion of colonizing Jupiter's large moons in the long term. One solution offered to the problem that the Jovian environment has lethal levels of radiation is to simply build colonies under the icy surfaces of these moons. This would also be done to provide access to the subsurface oceans of these moons. But this got me thinking about another potential problem...how stable is the ice? Especially if you are producing a town's worth of heat. Wouldn't you eventually cause so much melting that whatever foundation was holding your town in place would fall apart or collapse? Or have the …

Reading in the paper about the opening of the world's biggest carbon capture plant, I had to wonder if this expensive tech-heavy approach was the most efficent way to reduce atmospheric CO2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/05/09/climeworks-mammoth-carbon-capture/ Wouldn't using Iceland's "plentiful goethermal" to power homes and vehicles etc be a more efficient way to keep carbon out of the air? The most efficient carbon capture, it seems to me, is not putting carbon in the air in the first place, i.e. promote green energy and agriculture and industry. Rather than letting big carbon polluters "greenwash" their industries, i.e. validate…

Hello eveyone, I am inspired by the up-to-date subject of quantum computing and its potential to change how we process information. However, as a beginner in quantum mechanics and computing, I am struggling to understand the complexity. Could someone please explain the basics of quantum computing, its present uses, quantum algorithms, and limitations? If anyone can provide some resources and share their experience for my better understanding. I greatly appreciate your support. Thanks.

I am trying to build a small motor driven vehicle, this is toy size. I have a polycarbonate sheet and 4 motors, and 4 plastic wheels (but also have other wheel, so can interchange them. I have wired this up so far so that 2 of the wheels are wired up to a battery, the other 2 wheels are just attached to motors, my main issue regardless of how I do things, is that a motor plus wheel spins if held up, as soon as I put down on a flat surface, the motor + wheel stops turning. I am not an engineer, so not really sure what to do here. Thanks Paul

Good day all. Move to engineering, computer sciences, whatever deserves it. Saw in the news today that there is a void in systems for collision prevention. Discarded because of brutal costs to implement. Seen for decades the mess of recovering 'black boxes' in accidents. This top bulge front of the tail is the implementation of internet on airliners, already installed in most, waiting some decisions : 1- With GPS everywhere, why is not the collision prevention been implemented with just an application on cell phones ? Every aircraft in the vicinity can know position, speed and heading of others that way. Is it because that way there will be much le…

I’ve just had some new windows fitted which have argon between the two layers of glass. I can’t find a good explanation for this on line. I would expect the heat capacity to be lower than for air, as argon is monatomic, but this does not seem likely to be relevant. Would argon conduct heat less well and if so, why? Some “explanations” say the higher density of argon is an advantage but I can’t immediately see why. I can see that an inert gas would not react over time with components of the frame and seals, but this does not seem to be the chief reason for its use. Lower heat and sound conduction seem to be the reasons given, but why would this be? Does anyone kno…

A millionaire with a fortune of 900 million dollars wants to build the ultimate vigilante suit that could allow a skilled fighter to fight crime on dark alleys at night and escape the police. He is insane and is willing to spend all his wealth on creating this suit. His plan is to hire skilled engineers in a secret facility. All the required materials would be purchased to the degree they are available on the market. What are the maximum sci-fi features he could achieve to add to this suit for this budget? What amount of protection could be achieved against ballistic threats? What level of bulletproof protection could the suit provide for the head, fac…

Greetings. Living in USA, and used to the way dwellings are built; the thermal considerations take priority over other risks as fire, wind damage, rigidity... Insulating and poor thermal conductivity materials is a part well taken care of in construction practices. How is thermal losses taken care in Europe, what are the modern building techniques ?

I have developed a very innovative combustion motor with a fully hydraulic transmission system. I'm posting here the diagram with a brief description I made to present it. The aim is to discuss potential problems and/or advantages it could have that I haven't seen on it. Any comment is welcome. Here is given a schematic description of a combustion motor with a simple but innovative hydraulic transmission system (based on an adaptation of an electrical device known as rectifier to hydraulics) which converts an alternating hydraulic flux to a “continuous” flux with automatic valves. The continuous hydraulic fluid would be directly transferred to hyd…

the journal which I successfully conducted a review returned me an acknowledgement with additional kind invitation as to express that they would like to see me again in the future as also an author . But I do not mind really. why to do that ? First, I have already regular job (but this is not thoroughly an academic position really) and I believe I will have no earnings. So, why to bother myself,why ? that is ok that I accept I deal with science and I sometimes believe I have found some very sensitive and really effective things/results for community (by community I both mean folks (big data) and scientists. (because scientists are also member of folks) but …

Researchers in the Graduate school of Engineering at Chiba University Japan have discovered that adding caffeine to specific platinum electrodes can enhance the efficiency of hydrogen fuel cells. https://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=62709#:~:text=Despite%20their%20promise%2C%20fuel%20cells,platinum%20electrodes%20by%2011%20times. Their study which was published in Communications Chemistry on February 3rd, 2024 claims that Professor Nagahiro Hoshi, along with colleagues Masashi Nakamura, Ryuta Kubo, and Rui Suzuki conducted their experiments by submerging platinum electrodes of varying types in a caffeine-containing electrolyte. They discovered that caff…

Hello, I would like to know how the mechanism that rotates the "basket" for squeezing the mop works. This is part of a larger project of which I am a member and nowhere can I find a detailed description of all the gears, ball bearings, etc. (just something like: press the pedal and the "basket" will start to rotate) I would be very grateful if someone would explain it to me or send me a link to a website about this mechanism. thanks in advance for all your answers.