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  • Air-Conditioning

    Adjust the weather just the way you like

    Air-conditioning has affected society in three ways. It affected it environmentally, ethically, and morally. The environment has been affected by air-conditioning as no matter what the whether is like you can adjust it just the way you like. Therefore, if its summer and you are hot you can make your air-condition produce cold air making you colder, and vice versa. Air-conditioning changes whether of the environment, therefore, not making a difference between summer and winter. Air-condition affects morale as it boosts everyone’s morale, for example, if it is hot then people are very stuffy and sweaty and usually in a bad mood, unless they have air-condition which would help them be cool and allow them to be in the perfect weather, moreover, boosting their morale. Even when people sleep they cant sleep either in very cold weather or very hot, that’s why Air-conditioning is needed, cause it will produce the perfect weather allowing them to have a goodnight sleep. How it affects the society ethically is that it comforts us and gives us the exact breeze/weather we want, it controls are temperature. It also makes us not care whether its hot or cold because with air-conditioning we can adjust the weather.

    Refrences:

    “Samsung News :: Air Conditioners.” Mobile Phones | Televisions | Notebooks | Refrigeration – SAMSUNG AU. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2012. <http://samsung.com.au/news/category/home_appliance_news/air_conditioners>.

  • The Telephone

    The Telephone

    Invented in the mid 1870s by Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone revolutionized communication and has brought the world closer together.  Modern telephones have a microphone to speak into, an earphone or speaker that reproduces the voice of the other person, a ringer which makes a sound to alert you when a call is incoming, and a keypad to enter the telephone number of the telephone you are calling. The microphone and earphone are usually built into a handset which is held up to your face to talk. The keypad may be part of the handset or of a base unit to which the handset would be connected. Although originally designed for simple voice communications, most modern telephones have many additional capabilities. They may be able to send and receive text messages, take and display photographs, play music, and surf the Internet. These days’ Smartphone’s also integrate all computing needs.

    Environmental impact of cell phones

    There are 6.7 billion people on this planet and 61 percent have a cell phone subscription, that’s 4.1 billion. The average consumer will use their cell phone for less than a year, during that year it will use 4,221 mega joules of energy, the equivalent of 32 gallons of gas, and emit 112 kilograms of C02. Transferring 1 GB of data over a 3G network will use 939 mega joules of energy, the equivalent of 7.3 gallons of gas, and emit 17kg of C02. An unused but plugged in charger still draws about half a watt. If everyone left their charger plugged in ALLDAY, it would waste enough electricity to power 28,000 homes. 140,000,000 cell phones (4 per second) will end up in landfills this year. Leeching 80,000 lbs of lead into the earth, in that landfill is 4.7 tons of gold worth $56 million and 49 tons of silver worth $8.4 million. For every 515 cell phones recycled, it saves enough energy to power one home for a year. If all these thrown away cell phones were recycled, it would save enough energy to power 272,000 homes. To charge every cell phone in use on earth would require the equivalent of 584,000 gallons of gas and produce 35,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, imagine that every day, if we all charged our phones half as often it would be the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road. Although mobile phones only make up a small percentage of the e-waste mountain, manufacturers are aware of the need to address the issue. Leading makers, including Motorola, LG, Sony Ericsson and Philips, have all implemented eco-design aspects into their production lines, including reducing the amount of hazardous substances used in their products. Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, produces a handset every nine seconds. It has decided to implement requirements set out in the EU Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive in all 10 of its factories around the globe. The RoHS Directive bans six substances (lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBB and PDBE) from products that are either made or sold in the EU.

     

  • Arch Bridges

    Arch Bridges are one of the main types of bridges currently spread across the world. The other types being suspension and beam bridges. The structure of an arch bridge consists mainly of an arch. The pathway can be either on the arch,

    below the arch or ontop of the arch. The pathway is never exactly on the arch, because near the ends of the arch the steepness would be to severe. The picture to the left shows how arches are used to suspend the path of the bridge. This is one of the ways that arch bridges are oriented. This bridge is the Humber Bay arch bridge in Toronto.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Pictured to the right is the cold spring canyon arch bridge in Santa Barbara, California. In this bridge the pathway is ontop of the arch that supports it.

     

    Pictured below is Old bridge in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This arch bridge, originally built by the Ottoman’s in the 16th , was designed by architect Hayruddin. A student of the famous architect Sinan. On this bridge the pathway is still supported by the arch but it also forms around the arch and is not completely flat. This bridge is not only importaint because it can let pedestrians cross the Neretva river, but it is Bosnia and Herzegovinas most recognisable landmark.

     

    Arch Bridges have a strong structure and have the advantage that there doesn’t need to be anything in the middle and the path for ships under the bridge is easily passable. The arches can be very large and still structurally support a long road without having pilars in the middle of the structure. All of the tension is put onto the foundations on the sides of the bridge. This is why it is importaint that the foundations are good with arch bridges.

  • Suspension Bridges


    Generally built over wide waterways, suspension bridges can prove beneficial to modern societies economically as their enable trade to occur more efficiently between countries. Suspension bridges span a large gap without restricting water travel of large ships belong them.

    Suspension bridges are efficient forms of transporting large loads as their form enables an equilibrium balance of forces that enable them to support the large load.  They are meticulously engineered to ensure that this equilibrium is present as otherwise an instability could lead to their destruction. The added flexibility of suspension bridges allows them to flex under the power of winds and earthquakes. During construction, temporary central supports do not need to be built, and access to the construction is not required from beneath. This means busy roadways and waterways do not need to be disrupted.

    However, a suspension bridge often entails a large opportunity cost to the country as it costs them billions of dollars to build, usually acquired through taxation.

     

  • Suspension Bridges

    Bridges are the result of our need to transport goods and people easily from one side of an obstacle to another. As a consequence of human ingenuity, the suspension bridge was developed. These bridges consist of some basic parts, the two supports on either side, the cables, and the bridge. Suspension bridges offer a different way of building a bridge and with it comes some advantages and disadvantages. In contrast to normal bridges which hold most of the weight of the  bridge and its load on the pillars and columns under it,  suspension bridges bear most of the load on the wires and support structures on opposite sides of the bridge. The load on these bridges is transformed into a tension in the wires of the bridge, which hold up the main bridge section.

    An advantage of these structures is their ability to be much taller than most other bridges, which allows them to be build over bays and large rivers while still allowing boats to pass under them. However, since such areas also have strong winds, this could be detrimental to the bridge. Suspension bridges are infamous for their flexibility and fragility when subjected to high speed winds. An example of this would be the Tacoma Narrows bridge, which bent and and shook during a particularly windy day which eventually caused it to fall. Heavy loads can also cause it to buckle and bend which is obviously a limitation of the design. Suspension bridges also require an extra strong foundation to build, which can greatly increase the cost of building one.

    Ultimately,  suspension bridges provide an alternative way of bridging gaps and crossing obstacles and a good addition to the world of structures.

  • Beams

    A beam is a structural element that is capable of withstanding load primarily by resisting bending. The bending force induced into the material of the beam as a result of the external loads, own weight, span and external reactions to these loads is called a bending moment. There are several structures around the world that use beams in their buildings. My favorite use of beams where the rise of the skyscrapers in New York during the depression years, when buildings where being put up faster than ever. The building was put up so fast that it was completed in just 412 days. At one point they where able to complete a story a day and an average of a story every 4 days. Their great speed was done by using metal beams throughout the construction. The beams had the ability to manufactured of the building site thus all they had to do was be bolted in place.

    As the picture shows the work was not for the fainthearted as the workers had little or no protection and 5 workers did end up dying.

    File:Old timer structural worker2.jpg

  • PlayStation Vita

    Many people have heard of Sony’s very successful PlayStation Portable. The product is known to have been the best portable gaming device on the market at the time competing with the Nintendo DS. Although the DS attracted a different market, it’s graphics capabilities did not match that of the PSP at the time of its release. Furthermore, the PSP attracted multiple markets where as the DS did not.

    Since then the Sony PSP has developed into the PSP Go, which sadly was not as a great a success. Issues with how the device stored games and the fairly expensive price led people away from the product. However, Sony has tried to push back from their last market failure with the PS Vita. This new portable gaming console competes with the 3DS and is part of the eighth generation of gaming consoles.

    The PlayStation Vita comes with a number of new functions. For starters, the console has a new multi-touch screen that provides a new style of game play for the user. This 5″ OLED screen happens to be larger than either the PSP or PSP Go and displays approximately over 16 million different colors.

    Of course the idea of touch screen gaming is nothing new (courtesy of Apple), but the PS Vita’s usage of “touch” within game play goes further with the incorporation of a rear touch pad on the back of the console. This touch pad provides the same usage as the front touch screen, but instead of having the user block part of the screen withtheir hand while using the touch pad they may now use the touch pad on the back. This can be very important within intense boss fights and other tricky challenges while in game.

    The original PSP systems used UMD discs to store games, however these disks could only store 1.8 GB of memory. The PSP Go did not have any form of game storage other than digital files, which had to be downloaded from the PlayStation Network store. This bothered gamers a great deal since they could not play their old PSP games on their new PSP Go. Furthermore, the PSN store only sold so many games. However, with the PS Vita came the use of NVG cards to store games. This proprietary flash card format is similar to the Nintendo 3DS game cards. The cards hold initially 2-4 GB of data, which is substantially bigger than that of the prior UMD disks, with plans for bigger cards for bigger games in the future.

    The console also has front and rear view cameras, which are incorporated with player ranking and other gaming uses. Pictures and videos can also be taken with the two cameras. Furthermore, the PS Vita is the first portable gaming console to have Dual analog sticks. This provides the user with the same control capability as when playing a PS3 or PS2 as well as provides room for game developers to further enhance the game play of games for the user. Such improvements are quite noticeable in first person shooters.

    Cross platforming is also available on the PS Vita. This refers to the ability to play games interchangeably between consoles, such as the PS3 and PS Vita in this case. This allows the user to be play one game on their PS3, pause the game on the PS3, and then continue it on the PS Vita. This function also allows PS Vita users and PS3 users to play against each other online, thus increasing the number of users of gaming servers. This makes it easier for people to connect to matches due to the increased number of people online.

    Six axis motion sensors have also been added to the PS Vita. Six axis motion sensors are known for their use in PS3 controllers. They provide the user with the ability to tilt the console in order to control the game play. This feature is also common in products such as the iPod Touch, but is new to strict portable gaming consoles such as those made by Sony and Nintendo.

    The PS Vita’s starting price is at $249, but there is a second model for $300. This is the PS Vita 3G/Wi-Fi system and is powered by AT&T’s Mobile Broadband Network. On this console, users can receive and post scores and game ranking wherever they are as well as carry on in multiplayer game sessions, and cross game text messaging in parties. A GPS system is also available on the 3G/Wi-Fi models that allows the user to locate and play with friends.

    Sony’s new console has raised the bar for portable gaming and although it’s starting price may seem a little high for a portable console (costing about just the same as a PlayStation 3) it is not for bad reasons. The console brings forward the use of new technology and pushes it to its maximum capabilities. Gamers can only wait to see what fantastic games the console will produce.

    　

    　

    http://us.playstation.com/psvita/features/#psvita-rear-touch

    http://www.techradar.com/reviews/gaming/handheld-consoles/ps-vita-1061138/review

    PSP VS PlayStation Vita Comparison

  • World’s Lightest Basketball Shoe

    World’s Lightest Basketball Shoe

     

    THE PEOPLE INVOLVED

    “NBA Most Valuable Player candidate Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls was spending time with adidas’ footwear-development teams one weekend in 2009 when he saw the shoe that he’ll wear in the NBA playoffs tomorrow.

    Rose clamored for the shoe to be made available immediately, but adidas assuaged him by saying he’d love it when R&D was finished. And ready it now is, with adidas taking yet another step in providing its athletes and consumers with the sports industry’s lightest footwear.

    The ‘Adizero CrazyLight’ will be available for $130 retail June 3 in four color schemes: sharp blue/white, black/red/white, gray/white/neon green and red/white. The shoe weighs in at just 9.8 ounces, making it 15 percent lighter than the nearest mid-top basketball shoe and half-an-ounce lighter than the next low-top.

    The launch of the Crazy Light comes on the heels, so to speak, of two recent additions to the adiZero line: the 6.9-ounce 5-Star football cleat and the 5.8-ounce F50 soccer cleat, each of which is considered the lightest in its sport. Now, the Crazy Light takes claims that prize for basketball.

    “We’ve reached our destination,” said adidas VP Lawerence Norman during a Manhattan news conference Thursday to announce the shoe.

    As adidas designer Robbie Fuller told Wired.com, professional and collegiate athletes continuously cite light weight, cushioning and support as the three essential criteria for a shoe. “Every component [in the Crazy Light] had to check those three boxes,” Fuller said.
    Fuller and the design team started with a new Sprintweb “exoskeleton” to define the shoe’s upper, which adidas engineer Elysia Davis called the first of two fundamental technologies to ensure the Crazy Light would have the proper support and stability while maintaining such a light weight. ”

     

    HOW DOES THE TECHNOLOGY BENEFIT US?

    At less than 1 mm thick and with strong bonding properties that provide vertical and horizontal strength in the shoe, Sprintweb ensures that the shoe’s light weight won’t let it break down with heavy use. Davis emphasized that every part of the upper connects to something strong. “If you’re getting tension from the laces through the eye stays, that’s going to be a load-bearing element of the shoe,” Davis told Wired.com. And so each eye stay is connected to a lower part of the shoe that can absorb the stress of each movement.

    That was also critical to the second piece of tech Davis emphasized: determining where material would be placed in the shoe.

     

    THE INNOVATION BEHIND THE SHOE

    The innovation team studied video of basketball movements to look for areas where weight could be placed and other areas where it could be saved. The goal was to provide an upper with multidirectional support, because basketball players constantly make linear and lateral movements. “Some of the challenges you might not have to consider in a conventional upper, you have to take into consideration” with a lighter shoe, Davis said.

    In order to help the shoe live up to its name, the design team used translucent nylon in the upper to decrease weight. The effect is three-fold: The mesh-like material adheres to the shoe’s minimalist design, it improves breathability throughout the foot, and it adds aesthetic intrigue by letting the consumer look through one side of the shoe and out the other.

    One lightweight element added to the Crazy Light is adidas’ Sprintframe. Already used in other adiZero models, this technology for the shoe’s chassis makes has the external heel counter stitched to the sock liner — just two layers. Fuller said the conventional method is very different: “Shoes typically have an outer-upper layer, then glue, then a heel counter, then glue, then foam, then glue, then lining, then a sock liner.”

     

    The Crazy Light’s lightweight emphasis made its way from the shoe’s upper down to its underside. The outside part of the traction system has thicker rubber for added durability. Its midfoot area was slimmed down, although varying traction patterns are abundant. The pivot area toward the inside of the foot allows for quick, cutting movements. The S-curve that travels through the middle of the shoe from the inner heel to the outside toes is built with thin longitudinal grooves, incorporating optimal traction while reducing the top impediment to court grip.

     

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    http://www.adidas.com/us/shoes-adizero-basketball/_/N-svZ1z13ofrZ1z13y9k?sequenceparam=svZ1z13ofrZ1z13y9k&cm_mmc=AdieSEM_Google-_-Basketball-B-Exact-_-Shoes-Products_B-Adizero_Crazy_Light-General-_-adidas%20crazy%20light&cm_mmca1=US&cm_mmca2=Exact

    http://www.footlocker.com/_-_/keyword-adidas+crazy+light

    http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1163419-adidas-crazy-light-2-breaking-down-basketballs-lightest-shoe

    http://www.wired.com/playbook/2011/04/adidas-lightest-basketball-shoe

     

  • Fiberglass

    Fiberglass is an incredibly versatile material and it comes in several forms. Almost everyone has seen fiberglass insulation and anyone who has touched it will recall the itchy feeling often with a little rash which develops afterwards. This Is because the minute shards of glass cut into the skin and cause irritation.

    The fiberglass used in the automotive industry is different from insulation fiberglass. It usually comes in a mat, tissue or cloth, although a chopped strand mixed with resin is often used for large applications such as boat hulls.

    MATERIALS 

    Gelcoats are the shiny face of fiberglass, gelcoats are what you see on most fiberglass vehicles (which haven’t been painted) or boat hulls. Gelcoats consist of a thick gel-like resin mixed with a colored pigment, it is the first thing laid into a mold and therefore when the mold is removed it becomes the exterior.

    Below is simple diagram showing how many fiberglass bodies are constructed, there are other methods and this is just a common example.

     

    Tissue
    Fiberglass tissue as the name suggests is a very thin tissue like layer of fiberglass, it is very smooth and porous and the tissue sits underneath the gelcoat. Tissue helps to smooth out the inherent roughness of fiberglass matting, while also adding strength.

    Mat
    Fiberglass matting makes up the bulk of any fiberglass bodied car. Several layers are built up one on top of another until the desired thickness and strength is achieved. This is what you might see if you look at the inside of a fiberglass panel.

    Cloth
    Fiberglass cloth is strong and is often used where it may be visible and therefore aesthetics are important. One of the downsides of fiberglass cloth is that because the strands are neatly woven the layers do not intermesh like they do with the disorganised and loose strands on the fiberglass mat. Therefore the layers of cloth sit on top of one another, rather than meshing together like the fiberglass mat.

    Resin and Hardener
    Without resin the fiberglass itself would be useless for building anything requiring rigidity. Resin is mixed with a catalyst before application to the fiberglass. The drying process involves a chemical reaction which has several variables including, the amount of catalyst, temperature, humidity, and any water present in the fiberglass resin (water shouldn’t be there!).

    End result
    The results which can be achieved with fiberglass are quite impressive. Once fully hardened and sealed with resin or a gelcoat fiberglass is waterproof, relatively light weight and when done properly it is extremely strong. It is reasonably inexpensive when compared to the alternatives, in short it is an ideal material for the automotive field.

    http://www.fiberglasswarehouse.com/index.php

    http://www.inlinefiberglass.com/

    http://www.uscomposites.com/cloth.html

     

     

  • Planned Obsolescence: Cars

    Definition:

    “Planned obsolescence, or built-in obsolescence if you are in the UK, is the decision by a manufacturer to purposely design, manufacture and distribute a consumer product to become obsolete or non-functional specifically to force the customer to buy the next generation of the product.” (http://www.computerinfoweb.com/computer_electronics/Blu_Ray.php)

    Product: Cars

    A prevalent example of planned obsolescence in a product design is found in that of cars.

    Planned obsolecence in cars is a relatively new thing. In the sixties, cars that were manufactured before WWII were still driven, and during that time Volkswagen built a cheap and practical car “until it flooded the entire market”. However, companies realized that once sales stabilized, people would not buy new cars. For the manufacturers, this meant firing many workers and a drop in profits. Thus, for the next two or three decades they adopted the process of keeping manufacturers and workers busy and producing cars that would not last for a long period of time. Why? To keep customers buying new cars.

    The policy (regarding the production of cars):

    1. “routinely discontinue parts that could otherwise be made available for repairs.”

    2. ” confirm to a strict yearly cycle of model releases, often introducing purely cosmetic changes from one year to the next.”

    3. “retire popular models and bring out something new every few years, making it harder to fix older vehicles.” (instead of “sticking with hits and standardizing   them over time, which would better support a repair aftermarket”)

     

    Cars today, for many, are seen as a fashion accessory and statement. It has become common for people to buy the new model of a car, even if the one they own is in great shape, and still has years to live.

    Although planned obsolecence is beneficial for car companies, as it greatly increases their profits and product demand, one must consider the ethical implications of this policy. Is it ethically acceptable to produce cars that will not last very long in order to make a greater profit?

     

    Sources:

    http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/11010

    http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/planned-obsolescence-460210#ixzz1th7oPId5

     

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    http://pinterest.com/pin/268104984036388056/