Category: Engineering

The Architecture Which is Most Resilient to Earthquakes

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During the Chilean earthquake of 2010, very short buildings (e.g. 3+ stories) and very tall buildings (e.g. 25+ stories) were virtually unaffected, with the bulk of damage pertaining to buildings which were 10 – 20 stories high. The reason why shorter and taller buildings are able to withstand earthquakes with greater chances of survival is because earthquakes have natural rhythms which are frequencies. Crustal earthquakes have a high frequency like choppy water, and thus shorter and taller buildings are not affected. Subduction earthquakes move much slower in their rhythm and frequency with approximately 1 swell/cycle per 1 second, which causes sizeable damage to mid sized buildings. 10 – 20 story buildings tend to vibrate at 1 swell/cycle per second which causes a dangerous synchronicity in the vibrato as the rocking becomes more intense in its amplification with each additional second or swell/cycle, until the earthquake stops or the building collapses. Taller buildings sway much slower which gives them a lot of built in protection against even the largest earthquakes found throughout history

The First Assassination With a Firearm

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The first assassination using a firearm was of James Stewart the Earl of Moray, in 1570, who was assassinated by James Hamilton. Hamilton stalked Stewart for weeks, following him from Perth, Scotland to Stirling, Scotland, and finally pouncing when in Linlithgow, Scotland. Hamilton was well prepared, hanging a black cloth textile behind him so that his shadow could not been seen upon the street and putting down bird feathers to muffle the sound of his movements. As Stewart rode by, Hamilton raised up his weapon, a short barreled hunting carbine, and fired, hitting Stewart in the stomach. This shot caused much confusion but by the time Stewart and his entourage had figured out what occurred, Hamilton was long gone, as his escape route was pre-planned. Stewart managed to stumble to the home he was staying but died later that same evening. Hamilton was never caught for this crime but the entire act is immortalized in stained glass at Saint Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland. This assassination caused chaos in Scotland and made the English court immensely nervous as bodyguards were no match for a distant assassin within the shadows who could pick off their target and vanish without a trace. Firearms were deemed during this era a threat to national security in Europe, especially after the advent of the wheel lock mechanism in 1515 which was a mechanized method of igniting gunpowder, allowing for the design of the pistol to work in practice for the very first time

The Lush Forests of Australia and Antarctica During the Mesozoic Period and the Reason Antarctica Became Cold

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Both Australia and Antarctica were once fused together as part of the supercontinent Gondwana, neither being an arid and hot landscape nor a cold desert but instead a vast and lush forest, larger than the Amazon Rainforest, spanning thousands of kilometers in size. The reason Antarctica is no longer temperate and forested is because in contrast to most shorelines which disrupt and disperse ocean currents upon contact with the coastline, the waters around Antarctica encircle it unobstructed, forming the Antarctic Circumpolar Current after the Drake Passage opened 34,000,000 (34 million) years ago. Because there is no land to stop this flow of water, it forces the current to become stronger and deeper over time. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current cut the continent of Antarctica off from the warm waters of the north, a thermal isolation further exacerbated by decreasing carbon dioxide levels over millions of years. In a mere 1,000,000 (1 million) years during a rapid cooling phase, although the full shift took tens of millions of years to complete, Antarctica transitioned from an appearance which resembled Australia during its wetter, forested period of the Cenozoic Era, to become a frozen tundra, virtually uninhabitable by humans until the mid 20th century, due to its subzero temperatures which consistently remain far below any other location upon Earth, as well as being locked in by vast ice sheets which formed 14,000,000 (14 million) years ago

The Reason Japanese Samurai Shave the Top of Their Head

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The practice of “chonmage” (pronounced “chon-mah-geh”) which means “tied knot on top” in Japanese is the reason Japanese samurai shaved the tops of their heads, in a pattern reminiscent of male pattern baldness. Japanese Samurai shaved the top of their heads in this particular style for both pragmatic and symbolic reasons. The shaved portion of the head helped secure their helmets referred to as “kabuto” which means “helmet” in Japanese, making them more comfortable but also prevented overheating during battle. Over time, the chonmage became a status symbol within Japanese society, symbolically representing a samurai’s loyalty and discipline. The chonmage aesthetic also reflected the samurai’s adherence to Bushido, the warrior code. Different variations of chonmage emerged within Japan over the centuries, with the style remaining a distinctive hallmark of the samurai class until the Meiji Restoration in 1868 when Japan modernized and abolished the traditional feudal samurai system

How Flames Were Artificially Produced for Opera Productions During the 18th Century

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During the 18th century within opera and theater productions, stage doors which would lead a character to Hell achieved simulating the flames of Hell with brandy which would be placed into a container and lit on fire due to the fact that during the period, brandy was the brightest glowing flame available because of it’s high alcohol content. Once the brandy was burning bright, a powder referred to as “lycopodium” was blown across the flames to create an intense illumination, creating a fireball of sorts. It was in truth a very dangerous special effect to achieve because of the wooden sets, the actors involved, and the enclosure of the theatre itself. Most of those who performed the pyrotechnics for operas and plays during this period were ex-military, often soldiers who understood how these chemicals worked in depth as rocket technology was at the cutting edge of warfare during the era

The Inability of the U.S. Government to Enforce Safety Regulations for Firearms and the Consequences of This

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In the U.S., firearms are one of the few products which are exempt from federal consumer product safety regulations. This exemption derives from the Consumer Product Safety Act of 1972 which explicitly prevents the Consumer Product Safety Commission from regulating firearms and ammunition. As a direct result, there remains no federal agency responsible for ensuring the safety of firearms prior to firearms being sold to consumers. This legislative policy can be disasterous, as with the case of the SIG Sauer P320 pistol, a firearm which is prone to firing without the trigger having been pulled. The SIG Sauer P320 firearm is effectively always engaged within a cocked position, with the weapon ready to fire even when not intended by the end user (e.g. holstered and on the hip of the end user etc.). The SIG Sauer P320 is a striker fired firearm and does not have a manual safety by default. Early versions of the design had issues in which the internal components (e.g. trigger, sear, striker etc.) could inadvertently engage, causing an unintentional discharge. This has resulted in law enforcement and civilians accidentally harming themselves and others with accidental misfires. As of 2016, 80 people have been harmed by this particular firearm. In 2017, the manufacturer SIG Sauer Inc. offered a voluntary upgrade program, not a recall but rather an offer to modify the design of this firearm to improve safety features, including adjustments to the trigger, sear, and striker mechanisms

The Advent of the Steam Engine Permanently Changing the World

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Scottish mechanical engineer James Watt taught himself engineering and at age 27 he invented the modern steam engine. Watt was inspired by a pot of tea which he observed boiling, as the lid of the kettle would move when excessive heat had built up. Watt realized from this encounter that steam power may have the ability to be harnessed to perform work. Building upon a design already in existence which used steam to drive a piston to pump water out of mining operations, Watt revolutionized this technology by adding gears and wheels. Early steam engines only pumped up and down, but after Watt discovered how to effectively implement wheels and other facets, he took the idea of steam power and made it transportable via rotary motion. This simple alternate design paved the way for countless machines which succeeded it, as gears and wheels allow an infinite number of combinations to be constructed allowing for adaptations to all forms of industry. The world became smaller and faster seemingly overnight as humans and animals were no longer required to perform all forms of work. Watts’ engine started the Industrial Revolution, one of the most important periods within human history as it nearly autonomously created the modern technological age

The Argument Against Private Corporation Umbilical Cord Blood Storage

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Canadian Blood and Tissue Bank Insception Life Blood claims that 80 life threatening diseases (e.g. various cancers, metabolic diseases, immune diseases etc.) can be treated with umbilical cord blood, and that these diseases have been treated with success for over 2 decades, with over 45,000 pediatric transfusions worldwide. The majority of these transfusions however were accomplished due to public cord blood banks. Physicians can tap into worldwide public registries with nearly 1,000,000 (1 million) donors to find a match for a patient and this service is free. In the setting of leukemia or a genetic defect, physicians would want to use cord blood which is not biologically related to the patient to avoid having the problem continue. The American Academy of Pediatrics states, “private storage of cord blood as biological insurance should be discouraged”. There is a caveat to this however, in the case of a child having a genetic defect, it is recommended that the family save the cord blood of the next child, if another child is born. It is believed that private cord blood corporations leverage fear, uncertainty, and timed pressure to cajole families into deciding to privately store cord blood. Insception Life Blood has stored cord blood from 70,000 infants yet only 14 were released for transplant, a value of 1 in 5000

Inventions and Discoveries Developed Simultaneously Throughout History

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In 1922, a pair of Columbia University sociologists named William Ogburn and Dorothy Thomas published a paper entitled “Are Inventions Inevitable?” which stated that Ogburn and Thomas discovered 148 examples of documented simultaneous invention. This phenomena occurred in 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray filed for a patent for the telephone on the same day with Bell’s unit having a separated listening and talking piece whilst Gray’s unit having a single listening and talking unit built into a conical structure. Other notable examples include Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace who came up with the Theory of Evolution simultaneously, Carl Scheele and Joseph Priestly who discovered oxygen at the same time, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz who discovered and developed calculus at the same time, Dmitri Mendeleev and Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois who discovered and developed the periodic table at the same time, and Orville and Wilbur Wright and Samuel Langley who invented the airplane during the same period of time. Knowing this, it would seem that the phenomena of simultaneous invention and discovery seems to be exceedingly common for human beings throughout history

The Educational and Social Benefit of Children Playing Videogames

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Children who play videogames for 3+ hours per day have better memory and better impulse control than those who do not play videogames