Engineering

I am doing a project for my calculus class in which we give a presentation about a career that utilizes calculus. I chose Electrical Engineering. Can anyone provide some examples of how EE uses calculus? I know a lot of formulas are used, but I'm sure some of these must have been derived using calculus. Aren't Maxwell's Equations used in EE? A few examples or just general cases that I can research further would be helpful. Than you!

Can somebody tell me how a wind powered generator integrates with a regular power network ( or a household if used for domestic supplement )---- and with each other if many are used together .Would not both the power output and frquency vary widely with wind speed etc ?

Can someone answer a question which I have pondered over for some time. My wife covers the bathroom radiator with her towel. Does this increase or decrease the cost of heating the house? The hall thermostat is set to 20 deg C. My thoughts are that if one radiator is insulated in this way, the boiler has to work harder by heating the other radiators to maintain a house temperature of 20 degrees. On the other hand, because heat is not radiated away from the radiator in the bathroom because of the towel covering it, the hot water in the system stays hot longer than it would have done had the radiator not been insulated in this way, so the boiler doesn't have to work so …

Hi. Would it be possible to desalinate water using the weight ot the ocean as power? If there was a stucture deep in the ocean covered with a semi-permiable membrane, and a pipe and pump to take the fresh water to the surface, and reduce the presure inside the structure. The weight of the water providing the power. I think they use around 800 p.s.i pressure in some comercialy available desalination units. Thats about the pressure is at a depth of around 562 meters. Any ideas. cheers

I need to build / acquire (cheaply) a galvanometer or oscillioscope (preferrably oscillioscope) with a high sample rate with a USB connection. Any suggestions? More in depth description: I am doing an experiment that involves measuring the induced backspin in spherical projectiles. I have not (yet) calculated the velocity that the projectiles are travelling, but suffice to say the launcher packed enough punch in the low-power testing phase to put ~3" long dowel rods through half inch laminated high-density particle board. I plan to measure backspin by embedding spherical plastic projectiles with NIB magnets. These will be pre-aligned before firing so as to rot…

Ok, I've got yet another electronics question. At lab, we've just gotten these neat tiny pressure sensors that can be applied to anything (in our case, perches for the animals, to measure locomotion forces). Apparently, the company can build perches with *dozens* of these things, but use only a few input channels for the computer, because it samples from each sensor in an array sequentially over the same channel, and their software decoding this sequence so you can get each of the inputs individually (just at a reduced sampling rate). Since number of channels is a limitation in my work, I'm keen on seeing if this technology can be applied to my own work, which bring…

Why don’t car manufactures use Sterling heat engine to increase the efficiency of there cars. Most of the energy of a car engine is wasted though heat . They could use a Sterling engine to compliment the normal engine by using the heat from the exhaust to power the heat engine. Which then intern could power thinks like aircon which could increase the mpg by up to 5-25%. Just an idea.

Hey I'm wanting to make some solar panels for home use and I need to know what stuff I will need to do this mainly out of junk simple reason I have little to no funds but I am in the middle of the texas permian basin (The 'Armpit') so there is a lot of supplies just out in the field that I can salvage "har har" although I do know some will need to be bought, the reason I need this info is I'm bulding some work shops in my backyard and will need to power 75 volt motors and a kiln for ceramics. If there any blueprints that would really help, lol.

I was hearing about these new microscopic bubbles that when sandwiched between two metal plates and stimulated with IR they release their electrons producing an electric current. This maybe the power source for appliances in the future. They say that these will require only the sun as a power source and when sophisticated enough they will be able to beam an IR beam to another appliance in the shade. This sounds very suspect so I was wondering if this is possible. Where would these nano bubbles replenish thier electrons? I will look for a link to some credible actual information.

Is this real-time whiteboard animation real or fake ?:-

I have planned an electronic data logger for my car based around PIC16F84(A) (cheap & have found a circuit diagram for a PIC programmer i can build for it). Here it is; Just wondering if any of you had any idea; i) On programming the chip (using a C compiler) to make it to do what i want it to do (as described below). ii) How to wire up a pic chip once it has been programmed. The Flow chart is attatched; 4 Sensors (thermistors etc) give an analogue voltage to an individual input on the PIC. The PIC (i hope) has ADC capacities and converts this voltage into an 8 bit binary value. The 5th sensor is a (de bounced) reed switch, which gives a …

How well do helicopters with two sets of blades rotating in opposite directions work? I know they are supposed to be ideal, but don't the mechanics reduce the effeciency?

this has clear diagrams and sample images: http://www.dsp.ece.rice.edu/cscamera/ the camera uses a DMD (digital micromirror device) as explained here http://www.aip.org/pnu/2006/split/797-2.html?source=rsspnu here is wiki about DMD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_micromirror_device here is a rough paraphrase: conventional digital cameras do a fourier transform numerically to compress a million numbers down to 10,000 (image is then stored as 10,000) but first they have to store the million numbers. this new concept of camera does the fourier transform data compression FIRST before storing anything, in a kind of analog way using a DMD so it never…

Despite this idea being stolen from an on-looker, I decided if someone can do it faster than I can, then good riddens. Recently I've been pondering something on and off for the past few months: What if someone could make a magnetic drawing board like the ones for children? I notice these things work off magnetic concepts with iron fillings, but the hexagonal shapes that contain the iron fillings disable a person from making an extra fine and detailed picture. However, toys such as Pixter allow someone an electronic drawing area. Now these things are for kids, but I see uses for cranking out tons of homework problems, and a person wouldn't need paper to write out l…

bit of an interesting and probably feasible idea. Done a fair bit of design feasibility analysis on this over the last decade. Not much chance I could commercialise the technology in the forseeable future so happy to discuss in the public view and interest. IMO these could be safer, more reliable and possibly as fast as jet Airliners.

So I have a stubborn traffic light at the intersection that leads to my house, it's extremely annoying to deal with everyday. I've read that a Neodymium magnet can produce a high enough magnetic field to make even the most stubborn lights change. I've seen products for sell like Green Light Trigger, now I can buy a magnet off eBay, among other places, at much cheaper prices. So I'm wondering, what power Neo magnet would I need and about how large? I believe the powers range from N24 to N54. Also, these magnets do not hold up well under heat (anything over 175F/ 80C), so I've read. Do you think it would hold up if I stuck it on the inside of my engine bay (on the frame…

Hey, I've just been reading about some promising-looking technology for power generation. It basically consists of large underwater "windmills" that can be placed in areas of high tidal flow. They require no dams and, because they are harnessing moving water as opposed to moving air, they can get a lot more power than a similarly sized windmill. The downsides: the technology is expensive (though still in its infancy, so that will surely go down), they can only be placed in limited locations, and they only generate power when the tides are going in or out, and only peak in mid-flow. The first working plant will be an experimental version currently under construction in…

Simple question: When do you think the United States will completely switch to Ethanol based fuel in cars?

I am always interested in watching the shuttle launches and landings and now we have another foam problem. I understand why the foam is there, but what I don't understand is why they can't add some type of nylon netting over it to keep it from falling off if it breaks its bond. I understand the high forces, tremendous speeds, etc, but I also know that nylon netting (or other material)can be made pretty strong and light. What am I missing. Bee

I have a paddleboat that was thrown out by the previous owner because it has two four inch cuts in the bottom. The cuts are up to half an inch wide. What would be the cheapest, fastest fix?

Hello...I need some reference sites to "Smart antenna array technology"...I tried googling, but i just need a litlle bit more help in narrowing down my search... Thanks in advance.

Does anyone know how to hook up an air tight system to the soda cap so you can suck out the air to a vacuum and then fill it with gas at some where 80 PSI with a Hand Pump

In this case, I go through their specs. Peltier is very effiency, just only 38.44 cm^2 it can yield 882W of energy from heat. In the other hand, solar cells which only absorbs a small portion of the light spectrum, stretching about 1m^2 they can only harness 200 - 400W of energy. While, solar panels are more dear than peltier modules, very much higher in price. SO, i need advices and reasons from all of YOU. "TQ YOU" for our Advanced future

Ok, as some of you know already, I grow carnivorous plants. One particular group I'm very keen on are the tropical pitcher plants, and I've had some success recently with lowland species, who are used to constantly warm temperatures. However, many of the most spectacular (and gigantic, by which I mean "can eat rodents and possibly small monkeys") species are from tropical mountains, where the temperature drops into the 60's and even 50's at night, accompanied by 100% humidity. Of course, because I lack anything resembling a sense of when to stop, I want these, and thus I need a terrarium for them. I can't cool my apartment at night (partly because of my reptiles, p…

I have an appliance that uses 3 AAA batteries, and I have a charger that can only charge 2 or 4 AAA batteries at a time. I need a way of charging all 3 batteries at once using the charger, without overcharging or blowing something up. I could just buy another rechargeable battery and then charge all 4 of them, but i dont want to. I was thinking of maybe shoving something between the contacts of where the missing battery should go so it is a complete circuit, but that will probly blow something up, or overcharge the other batteries. Any ideas anyone?