Another valuable intellectual resource

Ryan Rudolph · Post by **Ryan Rudolph** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 5:42 am

Here is a great site for figuring out how various types of technology works, ie: Nuclear power plants, steam engines, gas engines, turbines, batteries, computers, some scientific theories as well such as how electricity works.

Overall, I think the siteâ€™s format works very well, as itâ€™s concise and easy to understand because the creators know the best ways to combine relevant information with visual diagrams.

Its only flaw is that it doesn't discriminate enough on what is worthy to go on the site and what isn't.

However, I also had an idea for a very similar web page, but it seems authentic internet creativity is difficult when increasing numbers of thinkers are able to bring novel ideas into existence much quicker now.

Lesson Learned: If you have an idea for something youâ€™d like to see on the internet, search very hard for a several weeks before starting the projectâ€¦

Here is the address: http://www.howstuffworks.com

Cory Duchesne · Post by **Cory Duchesne** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:58 am

I think their explanation of how batteries work could really use an animation. The verbal descriptions don't do it for me at all.

Here's the key point they try to make:

Probably the simplest battery you can create is called a zinc/carbon battery. By understanding the chemical reaction going on inside this battery, you can understand how batteries work in general.

Imagine that you have a jar of sulfuric acid (H2SO4). Stick a zinc rod in it, and the acid will immediately start to eat away at the zinc. You will see hydrogen gas bubbles forming on the zinc, and the rod and acid will start to heat up. Here's what is happening:

* The acid molecules break up into three ions: two H+ (hydrogen) ions and one SO4-- (sulfate) ion.
* The zinc atoms on the surface of the zinc rod lose two electrons (2e-) to become Zn++ ions.
* The Zn++ ions combine with the SO4-- ion to create ZnSO4 (zinc sulfate), which dissolves in the acid.
* The electrons from the zinc atoms combine with the hydrogen ions in the acid to create H2 molecules (hydrogen gas). We see the hydrogen gas as bubbles forming on the zinc rod.

If you now stick a carbon rod in the acid, the acid does nothing to it. But if you connect a wire between the zinc rod and the carbon rod, two things change:

* The electrons flow through the wire and combine with hydrogen on the carbon rod, so hydrogen gas begins bubbling off the carbon rod.
* There is less heat. You can power a light bulb or similar load using the electrons flowing through the wire, and you can measure a voltage and current in the wire. Some of the heat energy is turned into electron motion.

The electrons go to the trouble to move to the carbon rod because they find it easier to combine with hydrogen there. There is a characteristic voltage in the cell of 0.76 volts. Eventually, the zinc rod dissolves completely or the hydrogen ions in the acid get used up and the battery "dies."

^ that could really use an animation

Ryan Rudolph · Post by **Ryan Rudolph** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 8:34 am

Cory,

yes, you have a point. The site relies too heavily on text descriptions and still jpgs, although there are some filmed videos and links to animations, but it is still lacking in many areas. Moreover, I do believe that if science was presented with a strong visual element - (animation) as primary, combined with text and audio as more secondary presentation characteristics, young and old people alike would be able to better grasp the theories.

Sometimes science textbooks try to do this, but their diagrams are usually quite scattered and overly dominated by text descriptions. Sometimes the discovery channel and PBS have the odd success by adequately balancing visual presentations with descriptive text based explanations, and when this happens I always seem to grasp the theory much deeper.

The major obstacle to science students is they have difficulty imagining what is being described. Basically, they are overwhelmed by the sheer number of descriptive pointers relating because they cannot see where those pointers are in contrast to each other, what sets them apart from the others, and what relationship they have to the bigger whole.

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:20 pm

Ryan Rudolph wrote:Here is a great site for figuring out how various types of technology works, ie: Nuclear power plants, steam engines, gas engines, turbines, batteries, computers, some scientific theories as well such as how electricity works.

I mentioned this site to you in a previous post, and I listed some more good resources:

Start by reading wikipedia, howstuffworks etc to get a basic background on what you're interested in and move forward from there. Read online university material - there are entire courses online now. Just do google searches, it's amazing what information and knowledge you can find using the correctly tailored searches. The scirus search engine can be good too. You have access to free and instant searches of worldwide patent databases. Companies provide free and very detailed online spec, application, tds and msds sheets etc for the components and materials they sell. Online shopping allows you to find and order the most obscure things from any place on earth. There are forums filled with experts from all fields of endeavour who can help you out. It's all there for you.

www.scirus.com - Scirus
www.uspto.gov - US patent searches
gb.espacenet.com - international patent search with better content

Ryan Rudolph · Post by **Ryan Rudolph** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:29 pm

Jason,

I mentioned this site to you in a previous post, and I listed some more good resources:

yeah, I missed that reference.

I'm not sure that's a problem, I'd prefer them have as many subjects as possible and let me be the one to do the discriminating.

But the more Spam topics there are on a site, the more disorderly and chaotic it becomes over time. And therefore the longer it takes to navigate through the garbage. Great sites have a certain focus and specialization. For instance: Biologists prefer sites such as DnaTube.com compared to sites like YouTube.com for the obvious reasons.

Cory Duchesne · Post by **Cory Duchesne** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 9:28 am

The 'how a battery works' description I posted above is now pretty clear to me. I guess I just had to sleep on it.

The relationship between the Zinc rod (the male end) and the Carbon rod (the female end) is interesting. The Zinc rod produces energy, and when a wire bonds the Zinc rod and the Carbon rod together (marriage), the Carbon begins passively receiving energy from the male until the male (the zinc) is totally degraded.

Exciplex · Post by **Exciplex** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 1:45 am

Having sex usually depletes the male body's zinc stores unless they're replenished. What a coincidence.

GENIUS FORUMS

Another valuable intellectual resource

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