Engineering

I was servicing my commuter bike and noticed a little (about 2mmx3mm) blister on the once smooth surface of my front fork. I have photographed it and added it to the post here The fork was sold as carbon-alu which normally means a carbon blades attached to a aluminium crown and steerer tube (ie other end from photo). The dropouts (where the wheel goes) and the disc brake connection seem also to be metallic. The little blister broke as soon as I investigated and was full of white powder (some still remains around edges of photo) - it looks as if others may be forming higher up the photo. What is going on? Is this aluminium corrosion of some sort? Any idea…

If a digital inverter (like the 7404 chip) can turn a 0 into a 1, why can't that be used to make infinite energy? Why can't you just have it always outputting a digital high? Also, how is it possible for something to create energy like that?

I'm trying to invent something but I need to bond transparent plastic and aluminum together without adhesives or any types of screws or bolts. And I need to make it look like the plastic is smoothly transitioning into the aluminum. But I also need a strong bond between the two.Please help!!!

BTW, I'm no longer able to quote when I reply, or copy and paste. Does anyone have this problem? I was getting off topic on "Better Black Boxes", so here is the continuation. Statistically, airliners are a very safe mode of transportation. My question is: How many fatalities occurred during the CRUISING phase (not takeoff and landing) of all flights worldwide, during the past 10 years? My assumption is that during those events, lives COULD have been saved. They could also land in the freezing South Indian Ocean, and eaten by sharks, or on the side of a mountain, but they would have a CHANCE at survival. There were some, according to the stats that Sw…

I'm trying to research why larger tires would decrease a car's mpg even though larger tires can travel a greater distance with each rotation of the axle. Most of the reasons given on the internet claim the added weight of a larger tire will cause the lower mpg. This doesn't seem like a very good reason since the added weight of larger tires would be insignificant compared to the weight of the car. Also, tire/wheel weight can be manipulated by changing width and using more expensive and lighter materials. There has to be another reason. Could it be that the force a larger tire puts on the road is less than the force a smaller tire puts on the road (with an axle of …

I fancy making a touch operated electric bell for my bike - I use the bell all the time on my daily commute (on a canal path shared with runners and pedestrians for about 7-8 km a day). I ride with drop handlebars and I tend to have my hands on the body of the lever - a picture or two to demonstrate. Now the closest place I could mount the bell would mean moving a hand to the centre of the handle bars and back every time I wished to ring the bell; but the situations in which I want to ring the bell are those in which I want both hands steering and ready to change gear and more importantly brake. Electronics - especially practical electronics was nev…

A friend of mine once observed a puzzling phenomenon, which he has never been able to properly explain. This event took place long ago when he was doing an apprenticeship in electrical engineering at a naval dockyard and it concerned a 'runaway' effect that occurred when he was part of a team testing large industrial motors. The cause of this effect, as he recalled, was associated with 'back EMF' and it (or something akin to it) caused the motor to speed up uncontrollably. The runaway effect was so powerful that the instructors had to pull the plug on the motor and/or physically bring the armature to rest before the motor tore itself apart. My friend is a self-employed el…

I am working on a welding project, and would like to know how to introduce a sharp bend in a piece of relatively thin (1-2mm) sheet steel. Would heating be required? I would like the smallest bending radius possible, but don't have access to fancy equipment.

regarding exporting field data for further use in matlab, i would like to ask for your help. To compare accuracy of two same geometrical models, but different settings for the mesh and error%, i need to generate a data sheet of all the scalar quantities of my B field (probalby a lot of data) and their location in the coordinate system. Afterwards i like to calculate the differences of each value in the matrices in matlab to find my delta of the field values of my two models. Thanks for any help!

I'm designing a new game that involves numerous players kicking a ball at a three-dimensional target. An electronic automated scorekeeper is needed. This electronic automated scorekeeper needs the ability to understand when the ball (not a foot or other body part) contacts the target. When the ball contacts the target the scorekeeper should increases the score. The target will be stepped on and abused in the course of the game. The target must be low-profile or soft so that it does not injure a player when they step on it. Currently the target is made out of plastic and foam but other materials are considered. The ball may be leather, rubber, synthetic or c…

I have researched RFID, accelerometers, near field communication, magnetic paint, Bluetooth and arduino in an attempt to find a solution for this application. The application incorporates three componenets: ball, solid three-dimensional target and electronic scoreboard. These three items makeup a game. The game's object is to score a point. A point is scored when the ball is kicked and contacts the target. The point is then wirelessly communicated to the nearby scoreboard. The problem is designing the components so a point is not logged when the target is contacted by a persons foot and not the ball. It's making me crazy.

Can we store thunder energy? I think we can... To electrolise water may be the solution. Pls tell your thoughts.....

Hey guys, I have a problem related to fluid mechanics. My experimental setup is such that two jars contain water.I pump water out of the both jar using pump with separate tubing. The two tubing is combined by using three way splitter and made a single stream of water. The single tubing is connected to filter where it separates debris. The water coming from filter is again separated to two separate stream and pumped back to jar again. While pumping back it always pumps different amount of water to different jar, so the level of water is different in different jar. But I need to make same level of water in both. Is there any way to achieve this?

is it possible to multiply electric power by using motor-generator.i m not talking about usual perpetual motion.i 'm talking about multiplying electric power by using motor -Generator i think i will be more useful for developing countries they have electricity shortage and high price and it's affects production costs. example. A Tea factory using 500 kWh per day and they get it from national grid.if they fit a large motor(that use only 180 kWh per day)and give power to motor from national grid and connect that motor to a power generator. it will give sufficient power to run the Tea factory.(entire factory using electricity from power generator) so actually tha…

I have a Singer tv screen. It started producing cracking sounds every time i switched it on in the morning. Eventually after a minute it stops and give display. One morning it did the same but never displayed. Now when i switch it on it shows the power light with the usual clicking sound but does not diplay. Anybody here who can help me please? I don't wanna take it to a technician in the presence of science forum

If ~10 drops of gasoline are added to one litre of diesel fuel, to say a 1:1000 ratio; what different behavior can be expected in a diesel engine ? If ~10 drops of diesel fuel are added to one litre of gasoline, to say a 1:1000 ratio; what different behavior can be expected in a gasoline engine ? If no appreciable/measurable effects, would 5:1000; 10:1000 ratios show something; and what would it be ?

Hi. Can the drill bits used for masonry, -the ones with widia tips- be sharpened at a different angle or shape for use in drilling steel ? How does it work ? Is there optimal angles (chart) for different alloys as hardened steel, iron, stainless, bronze, aluminium... ; and has a chosen angle or shape also a preferred optimal cutting speed (chart) for each metal ? Once I saw a demonstration of the same drill bit used in porcelain, steel, cast iron, stainless, concrete, brass, pvc and performing equally well on any ¿?. It had a widia tip insert. Thanks.

I recommend the article about methods of measuring the iridocorneal angle in tomographic images of the anterior segment of the eye: http://www.biomedical-engineering-online.com/content/12/1/40

Hi everyone; I know you can try to dissolve CNTs in ethanol or some solvent then wait. After a while if you can't see sediment in the bottle then there is no problem, your CNTs are succesfully functionalized. So my first question is how long does it take to decide that it is functionalized. And second one what is the reliability of this method? (I know there are other methods which are used to support the result such as FTIR spectra. But can we trust just this method without using another one?) The last and important one is that Do I have to use specific solvent which is related to my functional groups on CNTs?

Hello, I would assume a lot of people have seen my previous posts about me trying to design an airport. I am currently doing well but starting to design the terminal. I know what basic concept and shape it needs to be, but I am having trouble with the dimensions- I know the building needs to be large enough to process a certain amount of passengers but also not too big. I do not know how to make the building with proper dimensions. The terminal which I am designing has one large building with piers that connect to the gates. The main problem is that I cannot predict peak demand or seasonal demand, as well as hourly demand or forecasts since I do not have compute…

In recent years the explosive growth of cities such as Mumbai and Chennai in India has lead to proposals for new airports to alleviate the stress and congestion at existing ones. Chennai airport, for example, currently handles somewhere near 14 million passengers and will be saturated within a few years; it already faces numerous physical restrictions such as well as government regulations that prevent it from expanding properly. A new airport is definitely needed and building it on land would mean it would be far from the city center, and past examples (e.g. Montreal Mirabel) show that airports that are far away and lacking connections to the city center can easily becom…

I recommend article about methods of measuring the iridocorneal angle in tomographic images of the anterior segment of the eye. http://www.biomedical-engineering-online.com/content/12/1/40 A hefty helping informations.

Fanstastic and interesting article. It's very helpful for me. http://www.biomedical-engineering-online.com/content/12/1/51 "The presented method of verifying the correctness of performing low-invasive esthetic medical (cosmetic) procedures has proved itself numerous times in practice. Advantages of the method include: automatic determination of coverage error values δo and δz, non-invasive, sterile and remote-controlled thermovisual mode of measurements, and possibility of assessing dynamics of patient’s skin temperature changes."

Inspiring material... Hair-like coating made on varied substrates by a simple mass-process: epoxy, a solvent, an AC field. The polymer is self-organized in abundent fibres, like 1µm diameter and 500µm length: http://www.anl.gov/articles/good-hair-day-new-technique-grows-tiny-hairy-materials-microscale-0 The paper by Argonne's National Laboratory's researchers cites catalysts, batteries, photovoltaic cells, sensors... I'm confident more uses will be found. I imagine an anechoid coating for wavelengths 2...1000µm, an ion generator, an avalanche particle detector, maybe an electron source in vacuum as 1µm diameter will improve, a photocathode aided by resonance …

So I was considering an idea that I may turn into a science project. So the push for sustainable urban development is not uncommon nowadays, and I was wondering about the feasibility of building a skyscraper completely off of the water and electricity grid. It would be self sustaining: greywater recycling, desalination, power generation by means of wind and solar energy, maybe nuclear. By having energy generation on site, the power loss is reduced since energy is not being transported a long distance. Having the building off the water grid may conserve water but also reduces stress on the water grid. I do not want to get too specific on here just quite yet, but I…