English: How Things Work
Presentation
- 10min
- Technical Process
- Structure!
- Free Speech!
- Many passive verbs / simple present
- Ideas
- What it takes to go to space / to mars
Prep
- Title: How to get to Mars
- Next step: How to colonize Mars
- SpaceX Presentation: http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/mars_presentation.pdf
- Structure
- How to get to Space
- Basic orbital mechanics
- From Earth to Mars
- Proposal from SpaceX: 100 people at a time
- Interplanetary Transport System
- Multiple refueling mission in LEO before taking off to Mars
- Landing on Mars
- Next Steps
- Colonize
- Why? - "Making humans a multiplanetary species"
- How? - Habitats, O2 generation, etc.
- 1 Million people needed, according to spaceX
- Colonize
- How to get to Space
3.2 Wiki Listening
- access
- ask
- examples
- blending
- selling
- information
- content
- quickly
- Concept
- confused
- project
- websites
- tools
- edited
- education
- business
- politics
- disadvantage
- environmental
- reply
- contributor
- reports
- key
- government
2.4
- research, banking
- ??
- batch processing
- remote connection
- share 1 pc with mult. users
- defense advanced defencse agency, cold war
- ??
- military network in US (RAND), commercial netowrk for national physical labaratory in eng, scientific network "cyclades" in france
- shielding of network
- ncp: network control protocol
- break up files into packets to avoid congestion
- standarddize, osi model
Conditional
| Nr | If-Clause | Main clause | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | When it rains, | the street get wet. | General statements |
| 1 | If you work hard, | you will succeed. | Always S.P. + Will |
| 2 | If I had 10 Mio $, | I would... | Wish, dream, advice |
| 3 | If she had known about the party, | she would have come | Imagining the past, you can't change the past, Pa. Perf. + would have |
Book Questions
People
- Joseph Henry
- William Surgeon
- Invented Electromagnet
- Samuel Morse
INtroduction
What would happen if all electrons stopped?
See Page 3/4
Chapter 1
How does a telegraph work?
An electromagnet is on one end, a battery on the other. When the battery is connected, current flows, it activates the magnet (coil) and produces a mechanical click. Samuel Morse invented the Morse alphabet to transmit letters
How did the telegraph change the world?
It connected cities and countries, making it possible to e.g. synchronize time, financial information and trains
Discuss Bodanis’ statement that the telegraph was “an early form of globalization”. (p. 26)
The telegraph made transportation of information instant (before it was very slow). Now not every city was its own world, but everything was synchronized throughout the world
Discuss the last sentences of the chapter: “The result was a dynamic immigrant- rich America. It was everything Joseph Henry loved. It was everything Samuel Morse hated.” (p.26) and describe the characters of Joseph Henry and Samuel Morse.
Samuel Morse was a conspiracy theorist, believing the world was controlled by catholics and jesuits. On the other hand, Henry was more open
Chapter 2
In 1875 Alec Bell took an apparatus he had built to the now aged Joseph Henry. Describe the apparatus in your own words or draw it. (p.30)
It was an electric wire strechting out from a battery and connected to a single tuning fork. By switching the battery on and off, he could make the tuning fork hum in various ways.
Describe the “artificial throat and lips” that Bell and his brother had created as teenagers. (p.35)
it was made from a larynx of a sheep and bellows as lungs
At the time, several researchers were trying to invent a “telephone”. In what way was Bell’s approach different? Describe his telephone experiments on p.36.
he put a parchment close to his mouth and attached a wire to it. When he spoke, the parchment touched the wire and caused the electric resistance to change
How does a telephone basically work? (p.36/37)
See above. The speaker is the exact reverse, moving a surface (plastic) with the unair "waves" in the wire
Chapter 3
What were “technological mercenaries”, who employed them and to what purpose? How does the scenario relate to Edison, Orton and Bell? (p. 40)
Rich financiers tried to find technological mercenaries who could produce the same device using a slightly different process. The original inventor would be destroyed. Orton was the head of Western Union and employed Thomas Edison to go against Bell's telephone company
What “flaw” did Bell’s telephone technology have and how did Edison improve it? (p.41)
Bell's signal was too weak for longer distances. Edison improved it by sending a base signal through the wire, the voice would modifiy it, making it a little bit weaker or stronger
Explain why “for decades researchers had dreamed of making a practical artificial light, but no one had come close to succeeding.” (p.42)
They could see thtat a heated piece of metal would glow, but the challenge was to make the glowing last long enough to be useful as a light source.
How did Edison attempt to solve the problems? (list several attempts) And how did he eventually succeed? (p. 43-46)
- using platinum because of the high melting point -> too expensive
- nickel wire -> too bright
- Create vaccuums inside class containers to prevent oxygen from getting to the wire -> still too hot
- Madake bamboo strands from Japan -> successful, over 1500 hours
Discuss the following quote: “Transferring information faster shrank the globe, just as the lightbulb shrank the night.” (p. 47)
The telegraph made it possible to exchange information instantly, "shrinking the globe", and the lightbulb "made the night brighter"
How does the electric motor basically work? (p.48/49) Make a drawing.
A electromagnet pulls the rotating thing, making it turn about a half revolution. Shortly before it reaches the magnetized point, the magnet switches directions and pulls to the other side. Momentum makes it rotate further and now pulls it for a full revolution. Rinse and repeat...
What impact did the invention of the electric motor have on urban development and society? (p. 49 / 50 )
It made elevators possible, important for skyscrapers, and powered streetcars. The spare capacity of the street cars were used to power amusement parks (Roller coasters))
Discuss the following two quotes: “ [Edison] was supposed to be the greatest electrician of his age, yet he didn’t even know what was happening inside an electric wire.” – “Edison was puzzled by the dots.” (p.52)
- Edison wasn't an academic and had no deep understanding of electricity.
- He noticed a black spot on the inside of lightbulbs. He never found out why
What did J.J. Thomson discover? (p.53)
He found out what the black spots were by "steering" them with a magnet. That's how he discovered the electron and that it was electrons that travelled inside a wire. The "bumping and crashing" of these electrons made the wire glow
Chapter 4
Faraday discovered the "force fields" of magnets, proving that there isn't just empty space between two objects. He was a deeply religious man and had therefore a different view on nature, not as strictly "deterministic" as Newton's view was.
He was not educated, lacking formal education in mathematics. His colleagues didn't take his theories seriously because of that.
What was the connection between Faraday’s experience in Switzerland and “what he believed of science?
In Switzerland he saw a rainbow. Science told him that the rainbow "was always waiting, but could only sometimes be seen".
Chapter 5
Cyrus Field was the first one to tackle a sea cable over the atlantic to connect europe and america. Cities were already connected through telegraphs, but continents weren't. Field was a rich business man and could afford to make his vision come true.
He travelled to London and worked with the Scottish scientist William Thomson (not JJ!).
The first attempt at sea cables failed. The misconception was that cables were like a hose, you "poor" in electricity at the one end and it comes out at the other. But the signals were "blurred" (noisy) when they arrived. Thomson understood why, as the cable was a force field "carrying" the electrons forward. The first sea cables had a thick iron casting around them, making the noise worse. Field didn't want to change his view, and turned to Edward Whitehouse, who had the same view as him.
Whitehouse and Field built the cable, but it was a huge embarrassement when the messages from the Queen took forever to get through the cable. In panic, Whitehouse hooked big batteries up to the cable, hoping that more electricity would help, but that just heated up the cable, melting the rubber insulation and eventually causing a short circuit with the outer iron casting. Eventually, no signal at all could go through anymore.
Thomson took over again, and they built a better cable in 1866, this time it was a success
Maxwell discovered that there are two parts to an electrical field - a magnetic part and an electric part.
Chapter 6
When Heinrich Hertz started to experiment with ‘wave machines’, whose theories did he want to examine? (p. 99)
Maxwells' wave theory
What was Heinrich Hertz’s next step in his investigations? (p. 103)
He sepparated the transmitter and receiver to opposite ends of the large auditorium.
What did he manage to show in his experiments with solid conducting walls? (p.105)
That electromagnetic waves reflect from solid conducting walls
Where did Heinrich Hertz take a professorship? (p. 105)
In Bonn (he had the choice between Bonn and Berlin)
What was the problem with the house he moved into? (p. 106)
The House had served as a medical clinic, they warned him about contamination
What happened to Heinrich Hertz in 1892? (p. 108)
He got a cold which got worse and worse
What did Heinrich Hertz die of? When did he die? What was his final age? (p. 110)
He died of blood poisoning (probably contamination of the house) on January 1, 1894. He was 36 years old.
Which scientist continued to investigate the ‘Hertzian waves’? (p. 110)
Guglielmo Marconi
Which example was given of early naval (ship) communication with radio waves? (p. 112)
1912, A ship telegraphed with radiowaves that the Titanic was sinking.
How did radio transform society in the field of (1) business, (2) culture and (3) politics? (p. 113/114)
- Radio Music Box
- Brands became popular, through the radio celebrities attracted fans
- Propaganda through the radio (Germany)
Chapter 7
How does the effect of radio waves hitting a human body or rock differ from the effect of radio waves hitting metal? (p. 120)
A radio wave will go right through a human body. In metal, the outermost electrons are free, it is conductive
What consequences did this have for airplanes and warfare? (p.121)
The metal reflected the electromagnetic waves, which makes radar possible
What alternative methods had been used to detect enemy planes? (p. 123)
In WW1, blind people were used to hear the aircrafts through big horns. In 1930, a giant horn was built. But both techniques didn't really work.
What did Watson Watt mean when he said “Britain has become an island once more.”? (p. 124)
That Britain was the first one with this technology and that this would provide a major advantage in warfare
What does radar stand for? (p. 123)
"Radio Detection and Ranging" - Remember!. Before, the term "radio direction finding" was used, not to give too much information to the enemy
Put the following quote into the context of World War II: “Inhospitably, the reception committee turned all these overseas visitors away.” (p. 129)
In August 1940, the German air fleet attacked England, but they had already detected them on radar and were waiting for them with the RAF.
Chapter 8
What was the difference between German and British radar systems in WWII? (p. 134 / 135)
Germany had developed a much smaller radar device that could fit on a van or a plane.
What military operation did the British plan to deal with the “Würzburg”? (p. 135 – 137)
They infiltrated the base where the radar system was located with paratroopers and stole some parts of the radar devices
What was the weak spot of the “Würzburg”? (p. 141)
Its settings were hard to change, because the radar had to be "fool-proof" to be operated by german radar operators
How did “chaff” work? (p. 142)
A large number of aluminium strips were dropped from an airplane to send back radar "noise"
What was the role of Jones, Cox and Harris in chapter 8?
- Jones was responsible for detecting the german radar system
- Cox was an amateur radio ham and in the army. He was put on the paratrooper team on short notice to infiltrate the german base and steal the radar equipment
- Harris was the head of the RAF Bomber Command. He had a hatred towards blue-collar-workers and wanted to bomb german cities, even killing civilians
What aspects of the planned attack on Hamburg horrified Watson Watt? (p. 145)
That they didn't bomb factories (tactical targets) but only civilian houses
What are “quantum jumps”? (p.151)
The notion that electrons can jump through space and pop in and out of existence
Chapter 9
In what ways was Alan Turing different as a child? (p. 158)
He loved the way he could think his way out of problems.
What tragic event marked his late teenage years? (p. 159)
His boyfriend with 17 died of tuberculosis
What was special about Turing’s solution to the mathematical problem of David Hilbert? (p. 161)
He didn't come up with an abstract mathematical proof, but imagined a machine that could solve the problem (Turing Machine)
Why couldn’t Turing build his electrical thinking machine at the time of the 1930s? (p.163)
The machine would have been to big (and too complicated) just with wires and switches
Where did Alan Turing work during WW2 and what was his job there? (p. 165)
Bletchley Park, as part of a codebreaking group
What was the name of the machine he designed there? (p. 168)
"bombe"
Which problems did Turing face when working in Manchester after WW2? (p. 171-2)
Sir Charles Darwin did not understand how a "universal" machine could be built, but thought a machine always had to be particular one. In Manchester, the other engineerins were not welcoming, as Turing had a south-england accent that wasn't met with a lot of respect there
Why did the authorities force Turing to take female hormones? (p. 174)
Homosexuality was a crime in Britain. The could avoid prison by undergoing a "cure", taking female hormones. But the treatment made it hard to concentrate and he was developing breasts
How did Alan Turing die? (p. 174)
He commited suicide with an apple filled with potassium cyanide
Chapter 10
Why can you see through glass but not through steel? (p. 177)
Steel up-close is a like a temple, neatly aligned pillars of iron and carbon atoms. Light particles can go in on one side, but the electrons in the steel start moving and block the light from exiting. Atoms in glass is much more tightly bound
Scientists believed until the 1940s that there are two types of materials, conductors and insulators. But there is also a third type. Which chemical element is it and where is it found? (p. 178)
Silicon, found in mountains
What is the technical name for the third type of material? (p. 179)
Semiconductor
Who were the two scientists who managed the break-through in the fabrication of the ‘atom-level on/off switch’ and what was the name of their laboratory? (p.181)
John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs
How does their work ‘tragically’ relate to Turing? (p. 176, 181)
The transistor was discovered after Turing's death, and he could turn his idead into realitiy with transistors
What was one of the first practical applications for the transistor? (p. 183)
Hearind aids
Who was William Shockley, and what kind of a character did he have? (p. 185)
He thought he was better than everyone else and wanted to take the credit for inventing the transistor alone
Who did William Shockley attract when he founded his business in Stanford, California, and what did the young scientists do when they got to know him better? (p. 186)
Young engineers and scientists, but as soon as they got to know him better, they fled. But the engineers bonded with each other and created their own companies. With that, *Silicon Valley" was born
What was the impact of the transistor on the invention of new technologies? Which devices are based on the transistor (Name at least 5!)? (p. 187-8) - Satellites - Phones - Internet - DVD's - LEDs - etc.
Chapter 11
Put the title of the chapter “Wet Electricity” into context.
The title refers to the electricity in our body
How is it possible that there is electricity in our bodies? (p.203f)
Electrical current is transported through ions, e.g. sodium ions in our body. They lack one electron compared to a normal atom. These are used to pass an electric signal through the nerves.
Describe Hodgkin’s and Huxley’s squid experiments. (p. 205f)
They stuck needles into (still living) nerves of squids and discovered that the nerves stock-piled sodium ions outside the membran.
Discuss the following quote: “Nerves have to work differently: They can’t pour their electricity straight down the middle of their axons, as Alexander Bell had imagined electric sparks rolling down a copper wire in his telephone.” (p. 208)
The reason that the signal are slow in the body: The resistance is high, nerves are very thin
With the high resistance from the nervous system, the ions are needed to push the signal along, or it would be too weak.
Explain the effects of cold temperatures, nerve poisons, alcohol and anaesthetics on our body. (p. 145)
When a signal traveled through a nerve, its full of sodium ions. It first needs to "bail" out the remaining ions before it can fire again, this uses a lot of energy. Thats also why our fingers don't work well in cold temperatures, as these "pumps" to recover the nerves don't work as well.
Tetrodotoxin is a strong nerve poison. It closed the nerves shut, and when all the nerves are closed, no signals can travel through to the lungs and the heart, leading to death.
Alcohol acts a bit like a nerve poison, but it's not a strong one. But it acts inside the brain.
One of the first "modern" anaesthetics was cocaine, experimented with by Sigmund Freud. After he discoveries of Hodgkin and Huxley, it was clear how anaesthetics might work and it improved tremendiously
Chapter 12
How can a signal cross the synapse between two nerves?
Otto Loewi discovered that there are big molecules that travel between two nerves, called neurotransmitters. These molecules come out at the end of a nerve tip, "carrying" along the message to the next nerve
Describe the experiments that Otto Loewi carried out in order to answer the question above. (p. 216)
He cut out to hearts of dead frogs, leaving one attached to the nerves. Then he siphoned the chemical that came out the nerves and poured it over the other hard. If the second hard behaved the same as the first, the answer must be in the chemical.
Describe the functions of different neurotransmitters and why they are necessary in our system. (p. 218)
If every nerve would transmit with these molecules, signals would get very slow. There are other transmitter liquids in our body, some speed up the cells they reach. One of them is adrenaline.
Other molecules act as "demolition crews", disassembling the neurotransmitter after they arrived (else the nerve would never stop firing).
Describe how coffee affects our system. (p.219)
A transmitter called adenosine slows down brain cells. Caffeine slips into these sockets, blocking the adenosine. This prevents our brain cells from slowing down, even when we are tired.
Explain the role of neurotransmitters in the treatment of mood disorders such a depression.(p.221)
In the 1970s, it was discovered that people with low amounts of the neurotransmitter serotonin were often feeling deperessed. They figured out a way to stop the "demoliton" of serotonin with Prozac, keeping the serotinin levels from falling