Tag: air

How Breath Alcohol Analysis Works

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Alcohol shows up in the breath because it gets absorbed from the mouth, throat, stomach and intestines into the bloodstream. Alcohol­ is not digested upon absorption, nor chemically changed in the bloodstream. As blood circulates through the lungs, some of the alcohol moves across the membranes of the lung’s alveoli, into the air stored within the lungs. Because the alcohol concentration in the breath is related to the concentration in the blood, an approximate measurement can be identified when using a simple ratio formula of breath alcohol to blood alcohol which is 2100:1. This means that 2100 milliliters of alveolar air will contain the same amount of alcohol as 1 milliliter of blood

The First Person to Weigh the Atmosphere

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Italian Jesuit Evangelista Torricelli was able to definitively prove that the atmosphere has a specific weight by designing an experiment in which a tube is filled with mercury and then placed into a dish of mercury. Torricelli disovered that when performing this experiment, half of the mercury runs down into the dish and the other half stays within the tubing. Until this point, it was believed impossible to create a negative or empty space as the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle once stated, “nature abhors a vacuum” believing that nature would forever fight against the creation of true and pure nothingness. This is the same reason that an object (e.g. plastic straw or an oil drum barrel etc.) crumbles when all of the air within is extracted. Torricelli was able to overcome this phenomena by using the exteme weight of mercury within a ridged glass tube. The level of mercury left within the tube was a measurement of the weight of the atmosphere, a balancing act between the weight of the mercury and the weight of air pressing down upon this mercury, balancing each other out like scales. Torricelli famously stated, “noi viviamo sommersi nel fondo d’un pelago d’aria” which means “we live submerged at the bottom of an ocean of air” in Italian, and his findings made scientists realize that air was a substance for the first time. Torricelli became the first person to invent the barometer because of his understanding of atmospheric pressure. Despite Aristotle being believed to be correct for millennia, Torricelli definitively proved that air does have weight

The Features of Air Force One and the Wireless Telecommunication Produced Because of It

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The United States of America presidential aircraft referred to as “Air Force One” is capable of inflight refueling from secondary aircraft, infrared missile jamming, radio detection and ranging jamming, also referred to as “RADAR jamming”, and a top secret anti-nuclear weaponry defense system as the main engines are designed to throw chaff into the air to confuse and divert heat seeking as well as other smart missiles. The skin of the aircraft has an electromagnetic shielding designed to ward off impulses in the event of a nuclear attack. The codename for Air Force One used by the Secret Service and major intelligence agencies is “Angel”. Because Air Force One has no offensive measures, pilots of military fighter jets in the vicinity of where Air Force One is traveling are on alert to be ready at any time to be up in the air and escorting as well as defending the president’s aircraft. Fighter jets do not typically escort Air Force One because it is a safety hazard being that a path must be cleared for both Air Force One and the fighter pilots which can cause confusion and discord upon the ground with airports and other agencies which work with the U.S. government when the president is transported. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, then President George W. Bush demanded that live television and internet capability be implemented on board Air Force One, a fairly reasonable task during the modern day but a monumental hurtle to overcome in 2001. It was because of this request that modern day smartphones have easy access to telecommunication towers and satellites which can provide internet access. Had Bush not made this request, the technology to do so may have been pushed back by 5 – 10 years resulting in a very different modern day in respect to wireless communication

The Discovery of the Sunken Titanic

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The Titanic’s shipwreck site was found by the U.S. Navy whilst embarking upon a clandestine military submarine sea voyage operation in 1982. The intent of the mission was to surpass the Russians on every front, including land, sea, air, and space. Geologist and Navy Captain Robert Ballard was the person who developed the mission idea by suggesting that the U.S. Navy scour the seafloor to gather intelligence and search for evidence of Soviet placed hardware. The original intention of the mission was to locate and recover 2 U.S. Navy submarines which were classified as top secret nuclear attack vessels and lost during the 1960’s. The first submarine was the U.S.S. Scorpion, lost in 1968 with 99 onboard, and the second was the U.S.S. Thresher, lost in 1963 with 129 onboard. Recovery of these vessels during the 1960’s was limited to the Sound Navigation and Ranging technology of the era, commonly abbreviated as “SONAR”. Ballard only had 12 days to locate the S.S. Titanic during the mission without exposing his cover story, a feat which was unable to be completed by the French and the Americans, despite having much longer time spans and multiple expeditions to achieve this goal. Ballard narrowed down the search area to 80 square kilometers and focused towards the south as he believed that ocean currents would have carried sunken debris in that direction. Ballard continued searching for a trail of scattered debris from the S.S. Titanic and on the 9th day of the expedition, with time quickly running out, the operators of the remotely operated vehicle ARGO, found wreckage from a modern iron ship which appeared to be from the early 20th century. It was confirmed shortly after on September 1, 1985 at 12:48 AM that these remains were 1 of the 29 boilers belonging to the S.S. Titanic. It had been 73 years since the S.S. Titanic was last seen, resting nearly 4 kilometers below sea level, with it’s 1500 onboard passengers and crew

The Purpose and Setup of Sensory Deprivation Tanks

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Sensory deprivation involves a large tank which is filled up with water heated to 37 degrees Celsius, the same temperature as the body, and 1000 lbs., or some variation of this in smaller tanks, of Epsom salts are added, so that half of the body is underwater and half of it is above because of the density of the salt within the water. Human beings have low fat content on average and need this salt otherwise a participant would sink. An observer cannot distinguish between water and air because when within the tank as it feels the same, and after a short period of time, because there are no visual queues being that the tank is completely dark, in the absence of sensory input, an observer typically begins to think differently as the brain has more resources dedicated to thought as less surface area is compartmentalized for sensory stimuli. This process is extremely similar to meditation, however meditation takes both time and practice to achieve upon a consistent, reliable, and meaningful level, as opposed to a sensory deprivation tank in which reaching such a state is essentially automatic provided enough time passes within the tank for the observer. This experience ends instantaneously once the tanks door is opened however, unlike meditation or the use of pharmacological agents to achieve a psychedelic or intrinsic experience

The Danger of Air Pollution Gaining Access to the Brain

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The reason pollution has a metallic taste and scent and that it burns the eyes when exposed to it is because the particles of air pollution are tiny enough that they can travel through nerve cells, and gain direct entry to the brain, where the olfactory bulbar meets the frontal cortex, as there is no blood-brain barrier at this point. The body protects itself through the blood-brain barrier, which means that particles within the bloodstream, cannot get directly into the brain. This system has a slight flaw however as the nose acts as a direct conduit for incredibly tiny particles to bypass this security mechanism

The Reason Why Wind Changes in its Intensity

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Wind is essentially the movement of air from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure and the greater the difference in pressure, the greater the wind speed

Engineering Pipes For Liquid Flow

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The most efficient way to utilize gravity to carry water across long distances is to use a 4 degree slope. Doing so allows water to flow through the pipeline unimpeded whilst allowing a steady flow of air into the pipe so as not to create pressure upon the joints of any bends. Anything above 4 degrees will cause an area of turbulence referred to as a “hydraulic jolt”