Applied Physics

Snap Circuits Science: Digital Modulation

In previous articles, we've used the 555 test circuit as a hot liquid level indicator for the vision impaired and a cable tester as examples of some of the things that can be used as inputs to the 555 test circuit. In this article, we’ll take a look a ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Sep 16 2013 - 9:26am

Snap Circuits Science: Magnetic Stirrer

In my previous article, we took a look at one of the signals generated by the 555 test circuit where the output pin (pin 3) is connected to ground (-) which is a simple series of very brief pulses. This series of pulses can be used to generate a tone that ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Mar 18 2015 - 6:42am

Snap Circuits Science: Pencil And Paper Potentiometer

An ordinary No. 2 pencil contains graphite (from the Greek γράφω,  graphō  which means "to write" or "to draw").  Graphite conducts electricity and you can use your pencil and a piece of paper to draw your own potentiometer then experim ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Sep 27 2013 - 8:37am

Crowdsourcing Earthquakes: Tiny Sensor Used In Smart Phones Could Create Urban Seismic Network

A tiny Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) accelerometer used in smart phones to adjust the orientation of the screen could serve to create a real-time urban seismic network and increase the amount of strong motion data collected during a large earthqu ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 30 2013 - 1:22pm

Snap Circuits Science: Create A Capacitor

You can think of a capacitor somewhat like a rechargeable battery. It is able to store energy temporarily except that a rechargeable battery will last much, much longer than a capacitor. The simplest capacitor is two conducting plates with a non-conducting ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Oct 4 2013 - 2:31pm

Jewelry Box Electronics Survival Kit, The Diode, And Wireworld

It seems nowadays that makers (1) like to carry spare electronic parts around in a mint tin. Maybe I’m just Macgyver-old-school and prefer the challenge of getting along with just duct tape and a Leatherman Juice (OK, it is indeed an upgrade from Angus ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Oct 15 2013 - 1:13pm

Less Turbulence: Plasma Actuators Could Mean Quieter Cars And Aircraft

Plasmas are a soup of charged particles in an electric field. While most commonly a part of lightning bolts and stars, the use of high voltage equipment has more practically meant very small plasmas can be used to manipulate fluid flows. Plasma actuators ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 19 2013 - 8:46pm

Chaos Researchers Say They Can Predict Market Bubbles

Some of the more recent dramatic disasters in world-wide markets have occurred, not because people panicked or an election did not go someone's way, but because financial institutions have taken to hiring physicists who wrote papers on predicting cha ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 20 2013 - 10:31am

Active Camouflage: Thermal Chameleon Coating Created

Active camouflage update. In a Harvard School of Engineering laboratory test, a team of applied physicists placed a device  with a new coating that intrinsically conceals its own temperature to thermal cameras on a hot plate and watched it through an infr ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 21 2013 - 5:14pm

Acoustic Diode Will Take Ultrasound Into The 21st Century

Many people know about ultrasound because of its popularity in prenatal imaging- grainy, grey outlines of babies made using reflected sound waves. A new 'acoustic diode' could dramatically improve future ultrasound images by changing the way tho ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 4 2013 - 5:36pm