http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu A weekly look at the whimsical, unusual, or just little-known sides of engineering. Brought to you by Texas A&M Engineering at Texas A&M University. Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:15:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 en ©Texas A&M University engineeringprogram@tamu.edu (Texas A&M University) engineeringprogram@tamu.edu(Texas A&M University) 1440 A weekly look at the whimsical, unusual, or just little-known sides of engineering. Brought to you by Texas AM Engineering at Texas AM University. Texas A&M University Texas A&M University engineeringprogram@tamu.edu No clean http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/graphics/engworks144.jpg http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu 144 144 engineeringworkshttp://feedburner.google.com http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=648 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=648#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:15:29 +0000 Gene http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=648 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?feed=rss2&p=648 00:01:01 #160; Photo by: LostBob Photos/Flickr.com Wersquo;re going to listen to the music. Today, on Engineering Works! Guitars, especially electric guitars are an important part of modern popular music. ... #160; Photo by: LostBob Photos/Flickr.com Wersquo;re going to listen to the music. Today, on Engineering Works! Guitars, especially electric guitars are an important part of modern popular music. Imagine the Beatles without George Harrisonrsquo;s guitar. Or Jimi Hendrix without distortion. Electric guitars made it work. Guitar players started experimenting with electricity to amplify their instruments during the 1930s, when big band swing was big. The guitar was getting lost in all that brass. The first pickups for guitars were pretty simple ndash; a magnet the size and shape of a tube of lipstick wrapped lengthwise with wire. Simple, huh? But basically, thatrsquo;s it. Herersquo;s how it works. The magnet is surrounded by a magnetic field. Think elementary school science class: Iron filings; a magnet; and a sheet of glass. Put that wire-wrapped magnet under the steel strings of a guitar and yoursquo;re ready to go. As the strings vibrate, they disturb the magnetic field and create a small electric current in the wires wrapped around the magnet. Feed that tiny signal into an amplifier and yoursquo;ve got the sound that made electric guitars with names like Fender, Gibson and Rickenbacker famous. The sound those early pickups produced wasnrsquo;t that great. They tended to pick up noise from room wiring, too, but they worked. And engineers and musicians have made them lots better over the years, since. The pickups on todayrsquo;s guitars provide cleaner, stronger sound, but theyrsquo;re still basically magnets and wire. Itrsquo;s time to wrap up this gig. See you later. EngineeringWorks! is made possible by Texas AM Engineering and produced by KAMU-FM in College Station. Learn more about engineering. Visit us on the World Wide Web at engineeringworks.tamu.edu. Podcasts Texas AM University no No http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=638 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=638#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:53:59 +0000 Gene http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=638 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?feed=rss2&p=638 00:01:01 #160; Photo by: FogCityFog/fklickr.com Break out your flowery shirt and digital camera. Today, wersquo;re tourists, on Engineering Works! Seeing new places is one of the big reasons tourists ... #160; Photo by: FogCityFog/fklickr.com Break out your flowery shirt and digital camera. Today, wersquo;re tourists, on Engineering Works! Seeing new places is one of the big reasons tourists are tourists. They want to see and find out about things theyrsquo;ve never seen before. Letrsquo;s go to Rome and see the coliseum. Or ride the cable cars in San Francisco. Therersquo;s one problem, though. If yoursquo;ve never been in San Francisco, you might have trouble figuring out where all the neat stuff is. Engineers have come up with the perfect tour guide. This one knows the important things to see, knows all about them, and wonrsquo;t get lost trying to find them. This tour guide combines a special two-seater rental car, a GPS system and a computer. Pick the attraction you want to see, turn the system on and yoursquo;re off. The G-P-S keeps track of where you are and tells you where to turn to get to where you want to go. Along the way, the GPS keeps track of where you are and the computer describes what you see around you. When you get where yoursquo;re going, say, San Franciscorsquo;s Fishermanrsquo;s Wharf, it tells you whatrsquo;s there to see. Pretty neat! The only problem is that so far the GPS tour system only operates in three cities. But at least you donrsquo;t have to remember to tip the guide at the end of the day. Our tour is over for today, but wersquo;ll see you on down the highway. EngineeringWorks! is made possible by Texas AM Engineering and produced by KAMU-FM in College Station. Learn more about engineering. Visit us on the World Wide Web at engineeringworks.tamu.edu. Podcasts Texas AM University no No http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=627 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=627#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:30:56 +0000 Gene http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=627 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?feed=rss2&p=627 00:01:01 #160; Photo: rawkus/stock.xchng.com What would the Fourth of July be without fireworks? Today, wersquo;ll ooh! and ahh! over those spectacular aerial displays, on Engineering Works. From pom-pon bursts ... #160; Photo: rawkus/stock.xchng.com What would the Fourth of July be without fireworks? Today, wersquo;ll ooh! and ahh! over those spectacular aerial displays, on Engineering Works. From pom-pon bursts to sparkling flares, therersquo;s nothing like fireworks to captivate a crowd. For centuries, wersquo;ve celebrated royal weddings, baptisms and other special events with lavish productions that light up the night sky. Today fireworks shows set to music have become big entertainment spectacles for sports events, theme parks and holidays. Your basic firework is a shell, filled with explosive powder and stars ndash; pellets made of metallic salts and other chemicals. The pellets make the shape, and the chemicals in the pellets make the colors. When the powder ignites and bursts ndash; anywhere from 400 to 1,000 feet up ndash; the explosion pushes out the stars. Then the stars themselves explode into the shapes that draw oohs and ahhs ndash; a glittering ring, a weeping willow, a starburst. The pattern you get depends on how you arrange the stars in the shell. Thanks to advances by experts in pyrotechnics ndash; ldquo;fire artrdquo; ndash; fireworks get fancier every year. Instead of lighting them by hand, technicians switch on an electric current. They use computers to control the timing of music and fireworks to create displays that seem impossible. With such excitement, itrsquo;s enough to keep all eyes on the fireworks show at the Super Bowl unless therersquo;s another hellip; wardrobe malfunction. EngineeringWorks! is made possible by Texas AM Engineering and produced by KAMU FM in College Station. Wersquo;re on the World Wide Web, too. Visit us at engineeringworks.tamu.edu. Podcasts Texas AM University no No http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=609 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=609#comments Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:30:39 +0000 Gene http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=609 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?feed=rss2&p=609 00:01:01 #160; Photo: iko/flickr.com The engineers are at it again. Recharge your iPod from your swimsuit. Wersquo;ll look into it. Today. On Engineering Works! One of the biggest problems ... #160; Photo: iko/flickr.com The engineers are at it again. Recharge your iPod from your swimsuit. Wersquo;ll look into it. Today. On Engineering Works! One of the biggest problems with portable high-tech equipment like cell phones and iPods is that the batteries keep running down. Itrsquo;s hard to recharge a fading iPod at the beach. Some engineers in Germany may have an answer for you. A solar-powered swimsuit, complete with a miniature plug-in for your MP3 playerrsquo;s power cord. And you can even swim in it. Engineers at an energy company in Hamburg are working with a German fashion house to design and build a swimsuit with banks of photovoltaic cells to convert all that seaside or poolside sunlight into electricity. You have to let the cells dry off before you plug in after your swim, but itrsquo;s the idea that counts. In case yoursquo;ve forgotten, or didnrsquo;t know, photovoltaic cells are those little solar cells on the front of your calculator. Bigger versions produce electricity that powers traffic signals and streetlights in some places and satellites in orbit. Photovoltaic cells use sunlight to produce electricity directly from sunlight. The process works because flat layers of semiconductors in the cells absorb energy from sunlight. This energy knocks loose electrons in the semiconductors and they move around. When they move, we get electricity. Someday maybe enough to run our houses or cars. Our swimsuit seems to be running down and we better turn off the mike. See you next time. EngineeringWorks! is made possible by Texas AM Engineering and produced by KAMU-FM in College Station. Wersquo;re on the World Wide Web, too. Visit us at engineeringworks.tamu.edu. Podcasts Texas AM University no No http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=601 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=601#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:30:47 +0000 Gene http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=601 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?feed=rss2&p=601 00:01:01 #160; Photo: Mike Small/flickr.com Letrsquo;s talk about water, floods, and one way engineers deal with them. Today, on Engineering Works! Humans have been trying to figure out what ... #160; Photo: Mike Small/flickr.com Letrsquo;s talk about water, floods, and one way engineers deal with them. Today, on Engineering Works! Humans have been trying to figure out what to do about floods for a long time. Most of us are thinking more about floods now than we used to, ever since Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans in 2005. One of the oldest ways of dealing with floods is to build levees to keep the water out. Levees are earthen walls along rivers that usually keep flood water in the river and out of your house. Thatrsquo;s what was supposed to be protecting New Orleans. Ancient engineers built the first levees about 3,000 years ago along the Nile River. Today, you can find levees all over the world mdash; Germanyrsquo;s Rhine River, the Po River in Italy, and the Danube. The Mississippi River has about 3,500 miles of levees, all by itself. Levees are more complicated than they look. Theyrsquo;re more than just piles of dirt along the riverbank. Levees need to be able to resist floodwaters, and theyrsquo;ve got to be protected against erosion by the river. The first levees around New Orleans were built in 1718. By the time Katrina got there, there were 350 miles of levees along the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain. Now, engineers are busy figuring out what went wrong with the New Orleans levees and working on ways to keep them from failing again. The rain has stopped, so wersquo;re going to get out of here. See you next time. EngineeringWorks! is made possible by Texas AM Engineering and produced by KAMU FM in College Station. Wersquo;re on the World Wide Web, too. Visit us at engineeringworks.tamu.edu. Podcasts Texas AM University no No