Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Macroscale Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics explains the behavior of matter and its interaction with energy at the level of atoms and atom particles. In the TED video it shows a physicist Aaron O'Connel who researched quantum mechanics to get a deeper meaning of it. He constructed an experiment with a computer chip with a piece of metal sticking over a ledge.
 Aaron took the computer chip and removed it from the light, heat, and air. He did this by placing the computer chip in vacuum sealed area with no lights and with a temperature of almost absolute zero. When observed the metal, its atom's particles were vibrating and not vibrating at the same time. This would have to mean that the metal was at two places at once. This opens the door for chemistry. Now scientist from all over the world can go deeper into the world of mechanics, and go in dept of why can particles can be at two places at once and why can they go through walls, and if its possible to get even larger particles to act the same.

Airbags

How do airbags work? There are three main parts to airbags. First is the bag itself. It is made of nylon fabric stored into the steering wheel and the dashboard of the passenger's side. Second is the sensor, which lets the bag know when to inflate. The sensor detects a collision with force of hitting a brick wall at about 10-15 mph. Finally is the inflation system. This is when sodium azide (NaN3) and potassium nitrate (KNO3) react very rapidly and produce hot nitrogen gas. The gas inflates the bag and burst out of the steering wheel very quickly. Charles' Law is demonstrated here, because as the temperature of the gas is increased, the volume of the bag is quickly increased.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Explosions

Explosions all take part of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics deals with heat and it's relation to other types of energy. Thermodynamics also deals with endo- and exothermic reactions, and enthalpy. Endothermic reactions is when heat is absorbed by a system from its surroundings. Exothermic reactions is when heat is released by a system to its surroundings. Enthalpy is a measure of total energy of a system. Enthalpy includes energy to create a system, and the energy needed to be displaced into the surroundings in order to establish its volume and pressure. An explosion is a detonation rather than a burn. In a detonation, a chemical reaction occurs which releases gases that rapidly expand and give off energy, which would be determined as exothermic reaction. There are two types of explosions; low and high explosives. Low explosives create low pressure and burn a slow rates, and mostly used to force a bullet out of a gun or send rockets to space. High explosives create more pressure and burn quickly, and creates minimal ground vibrations. High explosives are mainly used by explosive engineers. Explosive engineers are responsible for breaking up rocks to make way for houses, buildings, roads, and bridges. Explosions are also used in many more careers such as; agriculture, diamond manufacturing, logging, medical field, many more.