Category: Education
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3.3 Periodic table of the elements
All substances are comprised of various elements in various combinations and proportions. Elements may thus be thought of as the building-blocks of matter. A Periodic Table of the Elements is a table listing the known elements in order of their atomic numbers. Multiple attributes appear for each element in the table. Two of these attributes…
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3.2 Atomic theory and chemical symbols
The three “elementary” particles of matter comprising all atoms are electrons, protons, and neutrons. Combinations of these three particle types in various whole-number quantities constitute every type of atom. These fundamental particles are absolutely miniscule in comparison to the macroscopic existence of human beings. Just to illustrate, the mass of a single proton is approximately 1.67 × 10−27 kilograms: written without…
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3.1 Terms and Definitions In Chemistry
Atom: the smallest unit of matter that may be isolated by chemical means. Particle: a part of an atom, separable from the other portions only by levels of energy far in excess of chemical reactions. Proton: a type of “elementary” particle, found in the nucleus of an atom, possessing a positive electrical charge. Neutron: a…
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Chapter 3 Chemistry
Everything there is to know about chemistry – excerpted from “Everything you need to know about school” in the September 16, 2008 edition of the Seattle periodical The Stranger: Stuff is made up of different arrangements of atoms; atoms are made up of nucleus surrounded by buzzing electrons. The outer shell always wants to be filled with…
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2.11 Fluid mechanics in Physics Explained
A fluid is any substance having the ability to flow: to freely change shape and move under the influence of a motivating force. Fluid motion may be analyzed on a microscopic level, treating each fluid molecule as an individual projectile body. This approach is extraordinarily tedious on a practical level, but still useful as a model of fluid…
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2.10 Elementary thermodynamics In Physics
Thermodynamics is the study of heat, temperature, and their related effects in physical systems. As a subject, thermodynamics is quite complex and expansive, usually taught as a course in itself at universities. The coverage in this book is limited to some of the more elementary and immediately practical facets of thermodynamics rather than a comprehensive…
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2.8 Classical mechanics-Newton Laws Of Motion
Classical mechanics (often called Newtonian mechanics in honor of Isaac Newton) deal with forces and motions of objects in common circumstances. The vast majority of instrumentation applications deals with this realm of physics. Two other areas of physics, relativistic and quantum, will not be covered in this chapter because their domains lie outside the typical experience of industrial instrumentation7 . 2.8.1 Newton’s…
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2.6 The International System of Units
The very purpose of physics is to quantitatively describe and explain the physical world in as few terms as possible. This principle extends to units of measurement as well, which is why we usually find different units used in science actually defined in terms of more fundamental units. The watt, for example, is one joule of…
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2.5 Dimensional analysis
An interesting parallel to the “unity fraction” unit conversion technique is something referred to in physics as dimensional analysis. Performing dimensional analysis on a physics formula means to set it up with units of measurement in place of variables, to see how units cancel and combine to form the appropriate unit(s) of measurement for the result.…
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2.4 Unit conversions and physical constants
Converting between disparate units of measurement is the bane of many science students. The problem is worse for students in the United States of America, who must work with British (“Customary”) units such as the pound, the foot, the gallon, etc. World-wide adoption of the metric system would go a long way toward alleviating this…
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2.1 Terms and Definitions In Physics
Mass (m) is the opposition an object has to acceleration (changes in velocity). Weight is the force (F) imposed on a mass by a gravitational field. Mass is an intrinsic property of an object, regardless of the environment. Weight, on the other hand, depends on the strength of the gravitational field in which the object resides. A 20…
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Chapter 2 Physics
Everything there is to know about physics – excerpted from “Everything you need to know about school” in the September 16, 2008 edition of the Seattle periodical The Stranger: If stuff is still, it doesn’t like to move; if stuff is moving, it doesn’t like to stop. The more stuff you are trying to move, the more…
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16.5 Microprocessor Programming
The “vocabulary” of instructions which any particular microprocessor chip possesses is specific to that model of chip. An Intel 80386, for example, uses a completely different set of binary codes than a Motorola 68020, for designating equivalent functions. Unfortunately, there are no standards in place for microprocessor instructions. This makes programming at the very lowest…
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16.4 Microprocessors
Early computer science pioneers such as Alan Turing and John Von Neumann postulated that for a computing device to be really useful, it not only had to be able to generate specific outputs as dictated by programmed instructions, but it also had to be able to write data to memory, and be able to act…
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16.3 Finite-state Machine
Feedback is a fascinating engineering principle. It can turn a rather simple device or process into something substantially more complex. We’ve seen the effects of feedback intentionally integrated into circuit designs with some rather astounding effects: Comparator + negative feedback—————-> controllable-gain amplifier Comparator + positive feedback—————-> comparator with hysteresis Combinational logic + positive feedback—> multivibrator…